im a 22 year old white reconciled butch lesbian living in the usa who used to ID as trans and go by he/him, and now im a radfem.
im in the process of updating my "about" and "why ive decided radfem is for me" pages down below as to why ive previously carried myself this way. i wrote them around 2 years ago. i sometimes rb nsfw and/or nudity so blacklist either or both of those things (#nsfw and #nudity) ifyou wanna follow without seeing that. i also have links down below for my #receipts and #tim (trans identified male) tags as well as my #things to read & #things to watch. tags, which contain...things to read and things to watch (wow!) that are relevant to either radical feminist ideas and/or lesbians. thanks for hatereading :^)
“Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. Radical feminists view society as fundamentally a patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women.”
Prostitution
Purchased consent is not consent, it’s coercion. Sex work is dehumanizing and traumatizing for women, and fueled by sex trafficking. The commodification of female sexuality is a mix of misogyny and capitalism.
Pornography
Prostitution on camera. See above for key points. Additionally, female sexuality should not be monetized and sold for male entertainment. The industry is rife with rape, abuse, coercion, trafficked women, drugged women, and CP. It harms not only the women involved in the videos (physically and mentally), but it also harms the viewers in the long run.
Surrogacy
Similar to prostitution and pornography in the sense that women’s bodies become acquirable products for sale or rent. A woman’s organs should not be for rent, as it creates a perverse incentive. Most surrogacy is outsourced to disadvantaged women in developing nations, where they are made to sign contracts they can’t read and undergo poor treatment.
Bodily Autonomy
Understanding that a woman should have complete and utter control of her reproductive system; including abortion, birth, and sterilization. Understanding a woman should have access to informed and accurate medical care. Understanding a woman should have complete control over when and if she engages in sex with a partner. Understanding that PIV is often an unequal act.
Nuclear Family
This allows for the isolation of women, both emotionally and financially. The family unit, ideally, includes a large safety net of family and friends who assist in child rearing. Women should not be financially dependent on men, as this open the potential for abuse and difficulty leaving via power imbalance.
Capitalism
The system that allows the commodification of women and their bodies. Women shouldn’t have to sell or rent out their bodies in order to survive.
BDSM/Kink
Wherein the majority of subs are women and the majority of doms are men. Fetishization of slavery, power imbalances, rape, incest, pedophilia, and abuse. Hurting your partner does not suddenly become healthy if you can orgasm to it. Power imbalances that lead to physical and emotional abuse and trauma.
Patriarchal Religions
All holy books were written by men and serve to maintain and legitimize patriarchal power structures. Patriarchal religions falsely attribute the gift of creation to men when in reality every man on earth was molded from the flesh of women.
Postmodernism/Queer Theory
Radical feminism is based on materialism. Women are oppressed because of their biological reality, which is not subjective, subjectable to changes or personal interpretations. Postmodernism and queer theory are.
The Beauty Industry
Fills up the pockets of men who make money by ever-changing standards of female beauty. Keeps women insecure, low self-esteem, their value and self-worth forever dependent on their physical appeal (to men). Demands women change how they appear (makeup, shaving, dieting, cosmetic surgeries) to appear prepubescent (lithe, hair free, firm not soft) which is a part of what we identify as ‘pedophilia culture’.
Marriage
Marriage would be described by some as the wheels on which patriarchy is carried onwards. Historically, marriage has been nothing but a transaction: a daughter, who belonged to her father, now belongs to her husband. Her reproductive labor, domestic labor, emotional labor, and physical labor all at his disposal. This is how marriage continues to work and act culturally in a majority of societies
Individualism
As opposed to class analysis. Arguably the most overlooked and hardest ‘’issue’’ to overcome. It’s understandable that most women gravitate towards liberal feminism because they don’t have to analyze the reasons behind their actions, they don’t have to come to difficult and unappealing conclusions, they don’t have to feel the need to take action and stop engaging in whatever they are doing that’s harming women as a class. Known as 'choice feminism’, which affirms any choice as a personal one, despite what influenced that choice or how it may affect the female class at large (see: plastic surgery, “makeup makes me feel confident!”, “I like being hurt during sex!”)
Gender Critical/Gender Abolitionist
Gender is a social class applied to biology. Each individuals sex is innate, and gender is the series of roles, expectations, socialization, cultural practices, and personality traits applied to that sex. Sex is “this baby has a vulva” and gender is “so give that baby a pink blanket and a dolly”. Therefore, radical feminists understand that gender is a means of oppressing women. They wish to abolish gender. This creates clashes with pieces of trans rights activism, which upholds ones gender as innate. Read more here on this topic.
The main clashing beliefs are as follows:
-Being dysphoric doesn’t automatically means trans, since transitioning is only a way of treating dysphoria, and there are many reasons someone might be dysphoric.
-Instead of “identifying as a man/woman/nonbinary”, we should abolish gender altogether.
- Males remain male and females remain female, even if they’re dysphoric/gnc. Biology is innate. Therefore, for example, a transwoman that rapes someone, is an male abuser. It is male violence.
- Males have male privilege, regardless of how they identify, because society is built upon upholding and amplifying males.
- Females will be opressed, regardless of how they identify, because society is built upon the females-as-a-resource model that holds us as sexual and reproductive resources for male pleasure and male heirs.
Radical Feminist Goals
Women’s liberation via the dismantling of male power structures, and the rejection of a woman’s “role” within society as a lesser class.
Ways to Achieve This
Separatism/Male Exclusion - simply deciding to center one’s life and actions around females in all possible aspects. The keeping and protecting of female only spaces. Ultimately, this might look like a female-only society that any girl or woman could enter or leave at will.
Introspection - analyzing one’s actions and maybe asking oneself: why do I want these things? What’s drives this action? Is this the healthiest option for me, physically and mentally? Am I hurting a woman or girl if I partake in this option?
Raising Awareness - of all the issues mentioned above. Talking to women and girls about radical feminism. This is not a solution but a step towards finding or creating more solutions as a community.
Being Politically Active - political agency and action is essential for female liberation; especially concerning topics such as reproductive rights, legislation of prostitution, electing representatives ETC.
Male Reform - investing time and effort into making men aware of the issues, in the hopes that they’ll do their part for the liberation of women and do the same with their fellow men.
Childrearing - Focus on advocacy and action around raising girls and boys the same way, to begin to treat the class divide at the root. This is very difficult without full societal support.
Conclusion
Radical feminism is for female people, by female people. It’s ideology goes beyond these tenets, but the ideas presented above should allow you to derive answers as to what that might be. Radical feminism is also referred to as second wave feminism, and is compatible with Marxist feminism and the original principles of intersectional feminism. Thank you for reading.
Agnes Herczeg ; artist research ; inspiration for the weaving project.
Agnes was born in Kecskemét in Hungary. In 1997 she graduated from the Hungarian university of Fine Arts, majoring in textile conservation. She has extensively studied embroidery and lace making, using materials of only natural, vegetable origin, for eg. yarns, threads, tree branches, roots, fruits and seeds.
A bird explaining to a hedgehog crossing so it doesn’t die.
!!! ok but that’s legitimately what it’s doing!! That’s a corvid right there (looks like a hooded crow, to be precise), which means it’s intelligent enough to recognize, a) cars are dangerous and streets should be treated with a certain degree of caution, b) this car’s slowing down for them–cars do that sometimes–which means they’re not in imminent danger, so it doesn’t have to fly away just yet, c) that hedgehog’s still gonna get killed if it doesn’t MOVE, FAST (cars can change speed very quickly and the hedgehog’s still in the way), and almost certainly also d) if the bird does nothing it gets a free lunch.
Y’all, Y’ALL. This bird is consciously deciding to put itself in danger in order to save the life of a very stupid creature. A creature which, if the bird did nothing, could be free food.
i can’t - look if you follow me you know I have a thing for corvids, but this is - like!!! People are always saying “ah yes they have sub-human intelligence and don’t consider anything that isn’t immediately necessary for their own survival/pleasure,” but! Whether or not it can do philosophy, this crow is clearly demonstratingcompassion. Even if it’s just the kind of compassion a toddler shows to a snail, a social creature that instinctively recognizes the potential for emotion in other beings, that’s still huge and cool and important and corvids!!! are! neat!!!
Unliking and liking a post to signal to the mutual who reblogged it that I read their tags while laying on my stomach and kicking my legs and twirling my hair
I just really am so sick of people pretending women aren’t treated like second class citizens and aren’t utterly hated and mistreated in this country bro..it’s enough. I’m so tired of like misogyny I know this is feminism 101 but I’m tired. Of. It. It’s crushing…just the constant reminders from every corner of mainstream culture that if you’re a woman you are worth punishing. Over it!!!!!!!!!!! Going to space!!!!!
also if you’re a terf I hate you and you’re part of the problem please fuck off. now more than ever
Ah yes. Radfems, who recognize sex-based oppression and champion women’s sex-based rights, are the problem.
It couldn’t possibly be the ‘woman is a feeling’, and the 'let’s include men in feminism cause they will definitely not continue oppressing us if we are nice enough to them’ crowd.
“I’m so tired of misogyny unless a man tells me to shut up then what I’m really tired of is women who don’t know their place 😤”
hate hate hate how people act like a woman who doesnt wear revealing clothes must not be comfortable with her body. hence the push to treat wearing a bikini as a fat woman (or even as just a regular non-fitness-model woman) as a victory. no one is telling men that they need to wear speedoes to show they love themselves.
Teenage girl realizes she isn’t trans after tiktok and social pressure convinced her she was a transman. Now she’s being ostracized by TRAs and doesn’t know how to go forward and feels super alone.
She didn’t medically transition because she was under 18.. but how many people over 18 are brainwashed into gender ideology and then actually get the surgery before they realize their mistake? Heartbreaking.
Something that I think is important to keep in mind irt detransitioners is that they are not “irreparably damaged” or “broken.” They’ve been groomed by a system that capitalised off of their self esteem issues and sex dysphoria. That does not mean that they are damaged now.
Telling detrans women that their bodies are no longer female or need to be fixed, is so harmful. It reinforces the idea that there is something wrong with them that can be fixed by surgery. I don’t think detrans women are somehow lesser women because they’ve had a mastectomy, just as I don’t think women with breast cancer are lesser women. The same applies for women who’ve had surgically constructed “penises.”
I do think that women who’ve had phalloplasties were victims of medical malpractice but that doesn’t mean I think they should risk their health to have their issue “fixed.” There is nothing to fix other than their sense of identity and potentially any solvable issues caused by hrt.
Detrans women, you are not broken. There is nothing wrong with you. Surgery has never been the answer for your issues, self acceptance is. You’re not less of a woman for not having breasts or a functional vagina, uterus, or ovaries. You’re an adult human female and that’s all that is necessary to “validate” your womanhood. You’ve undergone medical procedures, many of which you shouldn’t have undergone. But that is not an issue that can be solved by getting a breast augmentation or attempting to “fix” your neophallus.
You’re perfect the way you are. There is nothing wrong with you. You are a woman and that is amazing. You will always be a woman, regardless of any surgeries and hormones.
ALT
