like-a-ruby

[like-a-ruby]

The past cannot be recreated, but any future for lesbians depends on whether we can rebuild a mass radical feminist movement for women as a sex—one that defends past rights while challenging the myriad contemporary faces of patriarchy, capitalism, and backlash. It also requires that lesbians declare our independence from the "LGBTQIA++," which not only no longer speaks for us but that is actively challenging the very idea of a lesbian life.

The fight to preserve and extend women-only spaces and programs and our right to self-organization is key. We must create intergenerational networks of feminists where we can share this history so younger women do not have to reinvent the wheel. And we must break out of the underground nature of the resistance to transgender ideology by speaking out collectively and in solidarity with each other, i.e., having each other's back. They cannot silence all of us.

Already this is happening, with radical feminist groups forming in various countries around the globe, including groups collaborating in connection with the Women's Human Rights Campaign/ Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights. We must also separate the "L" or the "LGB" from the "T," as the activists both in the UK and Brazil have already done with the founding of LGB Alliances.

It is not enough to recognize the dangers of transgender ideology. We also have to keep our eye on all of our enemies, especially the powerful religious Right, which has been taking advantage of the absurdities of transgenderism and the betrayal of so much of the Left to woo some feminists into thinking the Right can be allies. However, their primary purpose is to pursue a misogynist agenda of rolling back the LGB, reproductive rights, and women's rights generally. And when the Right turns the tables on us, we can be sure that lesbians will feel the brunt of their attacks.

We must go beyond purely defensive battles to regain the radical edge of radical feminism and begin to envision once again what it will take to make women truly free. Because lesbians are women after all, and lesbian liberation and female liberation are deeply intertwined. Until women are free to love other women without penalty—without suffering stigma, violence, or economic privation—we cannot be free as a sex.

It's time to organize and fight back, sisters. For thousands of years men have had unimpeded access to and control over the bodies and lives, reproductive and productive work of women. Our bodies have been seen as a resource to use and abuse as they saw fit. Men defined who we are and who we could be. And lesbians were demonized and the lesbian possibility rendered invisible or impossible.

But we amazons are still here. Many of us are old Dykes, but we are not dead yet and are crucial voices in the new struggles now unfolding. We are determined to pass the torch to our younger sisters, just like we built our movement on the shoulders of the women who came before us. We were among the leaders and co-creators of the Second Wave of feminism. We are here as mid-wives to the Third (real this time). We women-loving-women did it before and we can do it again.

-Ann E. Menasche, “We Were Once Amazons: Mourning and Rebuilding Our Lost Lesbian-Feminist Communities” in Spinning And Weaving: Radical Feminism for the 21st Century

[like-a-ruby]

Tim Walz was a great example of positive masculinity and being encouraging to young men, and young men chose the serial rapist anyway. Men aren’t without support, they just like oppressing women.

[like-a-ruby]

[like-a-ruby]

While race-hate has been expressed through forced segregation, woman-hate is expressed through forced closeness, which makes punishment swift, easy, and sure. In private, women often empathize with one another, across race and class, because their experiences with men are so much the same. But in public, including on juries, women rarely dare. For this reason, no matter how many women are battered—no matter how many football stadiums battered women could fill on any given day—each one is alone.

- Andrea Dworkin, In Memory of Nicole Brown Simpson

[like-a-ruby]

do you think men that loved us would tolerate a world like this? could bear keeping silent? wouldn't weep and scream at the suffering of his sisters, daughter, mother, lover? we have always lived among cowards and whispered apologies will not balm our mutilated hearts. they see us coming in from battle and don't know how to clean or bind the gaping wound--they won't even offer us a place to sit, just say "that looked like it hurt" if they say anything at all. i have no use for men less intimidating than scarecrows and twice as still. i have no use for a love without teeth nor will i commit my life to digging for it in a man whose heart is mundane--untouched by higher virtues or real human pathos. the point of a family unit is to help the animal survive. i have little family among men because men fight for nothing but themselves and stand for nothing but their dicks.

[like-a-ruby]

What a powerful statement

[like-a-ruby]

#tumblr leftists can bitch all they want how its not all men#but his kind of sick deranged behavior is so -consistent- in the male population#show me a case where a woman managed to find 51!!!! other women to rape her drugged husband. You cant.#and of course#of course there are evil deranged women as well. women do terrible things too. but its not at this scale and not like this#this level of hatred cannot be combated by being nicer#and men are simply not doing enough to combat misogyny in themselves or in their communities

A young vineyard worker accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over four years when she had been drugged by her husband also proposed drugging and raping his own mother, a court has heard.

Charly A, 30, is one of 51 men on trial over the rape of Gisèle Pelicot, whose then husband, Dominique Pelicot, crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and invited dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan in Provence. Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges, telling the court: “I am a rapist.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, a former logistics manager, has become a feminist hero after insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and the other men be held in public to raise awareness of the use of drugs and sedation to rape women, having said: “It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”

Charly A, a vineyard worker who later packed lorries for a cement company, is accused of driving to the Pelicots’ home on six occasions between 2016 and 2020 to rape Gisèle Pelicot in her bedroom alongside Dominique Pelicot, who had drugged her into a comatose state.

On the first occasion, Charly A was aged 22 and Gisèle Pelicot was aged 64. Charly A and Dominique Pelicot are also accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot in her bed on the night of her 66th birthday.

Charly A denied rape, saying: “I never had the intention to rape.” He said Dominique Pelicot, whom he had met online, had invited him to the couple’s home and told him that Gisèle Pelicot would be “pretending to be asleep”. He said: “I was told it was a scenario in which she was asleep. In that scenario, she was consenting. For me, I didn’t intend to rape. I didn’t want to rape her, I didn’t want to do something bad to that family.”

Charly A had spent part of his childhood in Mazan and lived a 30-minute drive away.

Video evidence showed a whispered conversation in Gisèle Pelicot’s bedroom between the two men, in which they discuss a plan to drug and rape Charly A’s mother in the same way. In the footage, Charly A says he will give an address and date for this to take place. Both men told the court this conversation took place, but said they did not rape Charly A’s mother.

Charly A’s mother, a personal care assistant and mother of three, had lived in Mazan and in different parts of the Vaucluse area of southern France.

Charly A was asked in court why he had suggested he and Dominique Pelicot rape his mother. He said he was afraid of Dominique Pelicot, who had asked him if there was another woman in his family or entourage who he would like to rape or see raped.

Charly A said he suggested his own mother “because it was the only woman who came to mind”. He said Dominique Pelicot was “insistent”, so he gave him a photo of his mother. Charly A told the court he had never intended to go through with it and kept making excuses. He said: “I gave the excuse that my little brother was home and my mother had to look after him, so he couldn’t come. Because I wasn’t OK with it.”

Dominique Pelicot gave Charly A three sedative tablets wrapped in silver foil in order for him to sedate his mother, explaining that he should crush them into her food. Charly A told the court that he threw the pills out of his car window that night and never used them. Dominique Pelicot contradicted this, saying that Charly A had instead returned the drugs to him.

Asked in court if he was angry with his mother or hated her, Charly A said he was not. He told the court: “I love my mum as any son loves their mum, nothing special.”

Police testing on a hair sample from Charly A’s mother showed a very low presence of sedatives consistent with a sporadic or single use of sedatives. She told police she had never used that type of medication. “I don’t know how it could be in my body. I don’t understand,” she said.

A court psychiatrist who interviewed Charly A said his “very intense use of pornography” from his early teenage years – including what the psychiatrist called pornographic cliches about mothers and older women – had played a role in his objectification of women.

The psychiatrist said the fact that Charly A regularly went to the Pelicots’ home in December, around Christmas time and in January, could have been related to his depression at having a dysfunctional family, affected by divorce and separation, around the holiday period.

Other accused men have said they were lonely at Christmas. One 63-year-old who is accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot but denied it, said he was “lonely” as “Christmas was approaching and I was going to be on my own again”. Another man, 37, who is accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot one New Year’s Eve and also denies it, said he “had nothing else to do” because his brothers hadn’t invited him to their New Year’s party.

The trial in Avignon continues until 20 December.

(archive)

[like-a-ruby]

The male sex was a mistake.

Men love rape. It's their nature.

[like-a-ruby]

[like-a-ruby]

interesting how many people I see handwringing over 4b being “terfy” and transphobic but unable to articulate why. admit it’s because it denies sex to transwomen as part of the group of people who could get women pregnant. admit it’s just because tims aren’t getting their dicks wet. admit you’re caping for a male sexual access movement. admit you’ve conditioned yourself to knee-jerk hate anything by and for women.

[like-a-ruby]

actually the fact that it took no time at all for people to start calling the 4b movement transphobic and not inclusive enough just proves yet again how trans rights are being used (very effectively) as a means to smash women’s liberation by vilifying feminists and derailing the conversation. like just come out as men right’s activists already it’s so obvious

[like-a-ruby]

One of the ways in which modern liberalism goes wrong in ethics is its singular focus on consent. Don’t get me wrong, consent is always necessary is any type of relation or exchange between individuals, but it isn’t sufficient.

This is why modern liberals will see nothing wrong with bdsm, pornography, surrogacy, or cosmetic surgery. “If both parties consent, then what’s the problem?” they’ll say.

There needs to be ethical standards for how we treat other people, regardless of if individuals think they are worthy of being treated by those standards. This concept is already recognized in most legal systems. If I sign a form saying that you can kill me whenever you feel like it, you would still be culpable for murder if you followed through.

Women are the ones who lose out when this concept is not applied. We have been conditioned to believe that we are not worthy of being treated right, so we allow others to take advantage of us. Consent being by the only moral consideration people care about takes advantage of this fact.

[like-a-ruby]

when feminists talk about separatism, we're not saying it so women "deny men sex because that's all they want us for." it's because romantic relationships with men are uniquely exploitative and VITAL to the functioning of patriarchal society (even without giving birth to their children). romantic relationships with men also mean:

-extra domestic and emotional labour (constant servicing of men)

-sacrifice of independence (financial and physical)

-increased risk of sexual and physical violence (for you or women and children around you)

-prioritization of men and less engagement with female peers (he WILL take priority over everyone else)

-giving energy and resources that men then use to energize themselves without giving back in any (or any equal) way

men get their energy from using and abusing women, especially when it comes to a shared domestic sphere. the home is the wild west for women. always has been. it is why it is frequently the focal point for feminist theory and practice.

"but he's not like that. i know him."

do you think every victim went into the relationship knowing the truth? it's nice to think that you're above things like death, sexual violence or betrayal, but it's not true. you can't just vibe or hope these things away.

you can risk it, but this isn't just some whimsical choice. this is years of your life for this man. even your entire life. your relationship with him WILL affect your health and lifespan and resources. even if you don't practice separatism, it's nonsensical to discuss it as extreme. it's perfectly reasonable given history and the current culture of men. it's a perfectly reasonable and effective strategy to advance women's liberation.

[like-a-ruby]

[like-a-ruby]

For any women looking at the radical feminist 4B or 6B4T movements and wondering how to commit, here are the tenants:

4B stands for:

1. no sex with biological men (비섹스; bisekseu)

2. no giving birth (비출산; bichulsan)

3. no dating men (비연애; biyeonae)

4. no marriage with men (비혼; bihon)

To add the tenants of 6B4T, you must also commit to:

5. no purchase of sexist products (비소비; bisobi)

6. fully supporting other single women who are practicing and committed to the movement (비돕비; bidopbi)

And fully reject:

1. strict beauty standards (탈코르셋; talkoreuset)

2. hyper-sexual depictions of women (탈오타쿠; tarotaku)

3. religion (탈종교; taljonggyo)

4. idol culture (탈아이돌; taraidol)

My wish and my hope is that many more American libfems will genuinely join us radfems in committing to the 6B4T or 4B movements.

However, please don’t just toss these terms out indiscriminately. These movements stand for very specific protest behaviors and commitments.

(And perhaps this movement is not for you, that’s okay! It’s a big commitment and perhaps you’re not ready. Radicalization is a process and not everyone is at the same place. So, no judgement!)

But please, please my libfem sisters, don’t pretend to be 4B or 6B4T without a true intention and desire to commit. It won’t help the movement, and you’ll just harm genuine efforts both locally and globally.

[like-a-ruby]

[like-a-ruby]

"Two-thirds of young women now identify as feminists; to say so when I was a teen would have been unthinkable. I can, however, think of plenty of feminist things I could have said as a teen or as a young woman, which a young woman might not find it safe to say now, for fear of being called phobic or bigoted. The space has been cleared for young women to identify as feminists because the women who identify with what ‘feminist’ used to mean now get called far worse names."

Hags by Victoria Smith