fems-pov

[fems-pov]

95% of women in prostitution want to leave, but can't because they don't have things such as financial means, healthcare, housing, treatment for addiction, or job training.

this is not a 'choice', and it is not 'empowering'.

there is no consent when a woman is fearing for her life.

[fems-pov]

Iceland, the feminist paradise.

In case you weren't aware, a large incel community is hosted on a .is domain name. I won't link it but it is literally just incels .is

Incels aren't the first to use .is domain names for questionable Internet practices - Kiwi Farms had a .is domain name for a while. So did the Islamic State. And neo Nazis.

Only difference is, ISNIC - the private organisation behind .is domain names - suspended these other sites.

The incels get to keep theirs though.

So yes, please, tell me again about how Iceland is a feminist paradise when the top level domain provider will not allow religious extremism but extremist views against women are absolutely fine.

I spent 5 minutes on the site because that's all I could stand but imagine what else is on there if this is just scratching the surface.

[fems-pov]

some radfems on tumblr will post the most well worded piece of literature i’ve ever come across in my life, with such a critical observation of our society/patriarchy that should be considered a modern classic literature, and then be like “im high rn sorry if this sounds shit”

[fems-pov]

I wish all of these men a slow, violently tortuous death.

[fems-pov]

stop spreading the idea that hypersexualising yourself for the sake of "bodily anatomy" is liberating. it isn't. you're just playing into the fantasies of men once more

[fems-pov]

They have Zero critical thinking skills

[fems-pov]

There's a reason why radical feminism resonates more with women from 3rd world countries—

White feminists from the west say that being a woman is a feeling, a costume that anyone can wear (including males)

women in less developed countries do not have that luxury; by the nature of our oppression, we know too well that being a woman isn't a feeling, it's a biological fact.

For us, our oppression is tied to our biological reality-such as reproductive rights, unsafe abortions, and female genital mutilation.

Denying our biological reality would be denying our oppression.

230 million girls go through female genital mutilation,

Yet we are the ones who “reduce women to our genitals?”

[fems-pov]

me 5 years from now hacking into the sex robot software and programming them to decapitate the men who purchased them

[fems-pov]

I can’t stop thinking about how college students protested Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian feminist author) giving a talk because she said the words, “Trans women are trans women.” And somehow that makes her a TERF… but radfems are racist? Okay.

[fems-pov]

“gender is so fun to play around with and be silly with!” okay cool personally i’m not having fun with a construct that has oppressed women & girls for all of its existence

[fems-pov]

men be like "if women are really that intelligent, why are all major discoveries made by men? 🤓" as if they didn’t quite literally burn women alive if they were smart back in the day

[fems-pov]

If you stay quiet when your friends make misogynistic jokes, you best keep the same energy when a woman says she hates men

[fems-pov]

"porn is a healthy expression of sexuality" you are like a terrorist to me

[fems-pov]

The idea that being young, sexy, and heterosexual isn't actually the most miserable way to be a woman is a male-created idea. Marilyn Monroe, the most iconic sex symbol of all time, clearly committed suicide via pill overdose, evidenced by the news articles published the morning after her death:

"The actress had also been under the care of a psychoanalyst for a year, and had called him to her home last night." (NY Times, 1962)

"The coroner's office listed the death on its records as possible suicide" (LA Times, 1962)

Andrea Dworkin wrote that men couldn't cope with the idea of her committing suicide, because that would mean their most iconic sex symbol didn't actually enjoy her sexualization. They rebranded her death as an 'accidental overdose'. The only reason why young women want to achieve sex symbol status is because men cover up the deaths of despair of iconic, sexy women because they can't cope with the fact that maybe she didn't like her sexualization. Like literally give me one example of a female pornstar or sex symbol whose death was actually accurately reported as a suicide. To the best of my knowledge, there are none, even though so many sexualized women commit suicide in astonishing numbers

[fems-pov]

Radical Feminism Beliefs: the basics

“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.

[fems-pov]

Seeing men ignore and decenter their girlfriends for their male friends and de-prioritize their romantic relationships for male friendships while seeing women ignore their female friends for these same exact men and prioritize their romantic relationships with these exact men over female friendships is honestly so heartbreaking

[fems-pov]

“Pornography tells lies about women. But pornography tells the truth about men.”

— John Stoltenberg