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w1ckedwoman · 2 years ago

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Why write so much when you could have just said "Ugh radfems=hairy menhaters with a victim complex and they don't even let brave and stunning trans women into female only spaces" 😠

I reject feminism not because of some misguided belief that women belong in the kitchen, or because I think women should be subordinate to men. American feminism, as a long and complex ideology spanning centuries, is often divided into “waves”. Each is a movement within a movement, all dedicated to making life better for women, but with slightly different goals. The suffragettes who fought for our right to vote are known as the first wave. Radical feminism, on the other hand, is a splinter group dating back to the second wave of feminism in the 1960s that feels fourth wave feminists of the modern era have lost touch with their roots (Grady). This is the group that spawned the misandrist, or men-hating, feminists.

“Oh woe is me!” cries the radical feminist, also known as the radfem, as she types on her Macbook Pro. She furiously posts about how she was “mansplained” to that day at work when she couldn’t get the new coffee machine to work, and how her creepy coworker complimented her new blazer. “How dare he!” she mutters. The radical feminist clutches her privilege like barnacles to the bottom of a pier, seeing anyone who dares disagree with her as the underpaid workman hired to pry her off.

Is this a stereotype? Certainly. Radical feminists are real people, after all, with stories and personal histories like everyone else, who are just as deserving of the right to speak their mind. But the fact remains that they use their right to speak to erase trans people, push their narrative of victimhood, and violently campaign against sex workers. When a group brimming with hatred and anger for those even more marginalized then they are is loud enough to be conflated with people fighting for equality, rather than further discrimination, there is a problem (Preen). And the problem is radical feminism, which has to go—and if this means getting rid of feminism altogether, then so be it.

“TERF” is an acronym that stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”; however, those who identify with this particular sect of radfem denounce the label as a slur and prefer the name “gender critical”. Discerning readers will note that this is an unapologetic euphemism.

Gender critical, in this case, doesn't mean that they are critical of the institution or concept of gender as a whole. Rather, it means they don’t believe in the existence of trans people and actively seek to erase them. These are people who only believe in biological sex, both primary and secondary sex characteristics, who refuse to use preferred pronouns, and who would seek to push through legislation that would cause numerous problems for transgender individuals. Now, one could argue that these are small subsets of productive, non-extremist communities, lurking online like internet trolls. But these communities are larger than you’d think, considering a subreddit called r/GenderCritical on Reddit has over 54 thousand members. These people have massive platforms to spread hate and enormous echo chambers of radfems who think just like them.

A high-profile radfem group called The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF for short) has been particularly active lately in the justice system. They wrote a “Declaration of No Confidence in LGB Movement Leadership” (Women’s Liberation Front).

The “LGB movement”.

The entire petition is dedicated to somehow getting the “LGB Movement” to denounce transgender people and pay “restitution” to those they have wronged by campaigning for trans rights. The post sounded academic, perhaps even sounded reasonable if one didn’t read too closely. But it calls the surgeries and hormonal treatments that trans people use to alleviate their dysphoria, which is a mental condition, mutilation. They call it “irresponsible” for trained medical practitioners to allow, or even recommend such treatments.

Typical TERF dogma is to say that trans women are really just men who have a fetish for seeing themselves as women, which they call “autogynephilia” (Blanchard). All of these are just excuses for these women to discriminate against trans people while hiding under the feminism label, twisting the movement that historically fought for equality to their own ends.

This isn’t limited to niche Reddit communities or the odd militant organization. J.K. Rowling herself, a woman beloved by many people for writing the Harry Potter book series, was recently criticized online for tweeting her support for a woman named Maya Forster, who had posted transphobic sentiments on her twitter. Radical feminism may be a small group, but they are incredibly loud, and their dogma is pervasive. It’s seductive in that it makes you feel superior by playing upon your existing preconceptions of evil, dangerous men. The narrative of a faceless oppressor you can blame all of your problems upon is painfully easy to buy into. For example, you’ve probably been ignored or talked over by a man at least once. Chalking it up to how “all men are terrible people” is easy. And the whole idea that it’s time for women to be on top, for women to be in power when we have been historically oppressed, has a nice symmetry to it—some bitter irony for the other gender, right? It’s easy, and it’s symmetrical, but responding to oppression with oppression is the opposite of progress.

Tied into their anti-trans dogma, radfems are also strongly against sex work in all its forms. To them, there is no safe version of sex work—it’s all exploitation and “for the men”. This goes hand in hand with the victimization of women, because to these people, no woman in sex work could be in control of her own life (“Subcultures and Sociology”). This, of course, ignores that sex work is dangerous enough without privileged women, who likely have never needed to work in that particular field, trying to pass legislation to make it even more dangerous.

The blatant victimization of women that pervades radfem dogma exists right there in the name of WoLF. The need for a “liberation front” itself implies that women are slaves, and a radical feminist would make the argument that we are, oppressed and enslaved by the patriarchy as we seem to be. But a deeper look into their website reveals more.

Their membership page says that “Please note that we are a women-only organization, intended to serve and include biologically female persons who survived girlhood” (Women’s Liberation Front). Putting aside the blatant transphobia that is par for the course by now, the issue is with the phrase “survived girlhood”. This phrase implies that growing up female is some sort of Hunger Games-esque battle for survival. I don’t know about you, but my girlhood consisted of watching Disney Channel and eating cookies. I didn’t need to fight for the right to grow older, not in the ever-progressive Bay Area.

And while this may be a different case in other countries, perhaps one with more restrictive laws than the US, it is important to note that WoLF is an American organization dedicated to making changes in America. Rather than fighting actual battles for women’s rights where women are actively oppressed by repressive laws and policies, and rather than aiding women suffering in abusive households, this “Women’s Liberation Front” is writing strongly worded letters to nobody in particular and pushing a narrative of victimization.

An article written by the Independent in the UK expounds upon this idea that “Misogyny should be recognised as a hate crime for the same reason that misandry should not be: women and girls are systematically oppressed and exploited by men and boys” (Smith). This was about the issue of making misogyny a hate crime—should misandry, the hatred of men, fall under the same umbrella? This author argues that no, it should not be, because apparently our “systematic oppression” negates any reason for similar protections to be given to men. There are several issues with this idea of systematic oppression, the most glaring of which is how it makes women the victims. It makes us seem helpless, exploited by a system we cannot control. This demonstrates the inherent hypocrisy of radical feminism. These are the same women who virulently campaign against being seen as children, for whom their own autonomy is a right they must protect against the ruthlessly exploitative patriarchy. And yet they cast themselves as victims, adopting the infantilization they claim to oppose.

Radical feminists don’t have it entirely wrong, however. Some of their goals seem downright reasonable rather than rabid, one of which is their goal to have women’s only spaces. These are spaces they describe as being for women only, such as gender-segregated showers and changing rooms, correctional facilities, and rape trauma centers (Women’s Liberation Front). Radfems do not believe that there should only be showers, changing rooms, prisons, and trauma centers for women; rather, they should be separated by gender. Which, of course, is not an utterly unreasonable expectation. Having gender-neutral showers, especially once past the age of puberty, would be uncomfortable and invasive.

The problem with radfem’s “women’s only spaces” is two-fold. For one, they would seek to exclude trans women from such spaces on account of their “not being real women”. The sheer transphobia of such a sentiment cannot be ignored, despite the field of landmines that the issue of trans women in female prisons can be. But on top of that, there’s a growing sentiment among radical feminists that men are an utterly different species from women. Not in the strict denotation sense, of course, but that because of their different biology and supposed different experiences growing up, no man could ever sympathize with female issues and female struggles. No man should ever be allowed to weigh in on supposedly “female-only” issues.

There is this growing divide between men and women during a time when the entirety of humanity needs to stand together on global issues. Climate change comes to mind, as do political conflicts and the return of measles due to anti-vax ideology. By emphasizing this divide, radical feminists push people apart. Movements, especially ones calling for great change, only succeed when the people behind them are united. When they are not—when there are splinter groups, competing ideologies, and those who refuse to hear one another—they fail, every single time.

This is perhaps said best by the Washington Post, in an article saying that radfem fixation on the apparent bad behavior of men distracts from real problems (Young). But more importantly, it colors the movement as a whole. I am not a feminist, and I never will be—at least, not until there is a distinct ideological separation between actual gender equality and, as the article puts it, raking men over the coals for perceived slights and the crimes of their ancestors (Young).

But above all, I reject this idea that womanhood is pain and the narrative of oppression that privileged women on the internet want me to believe. I refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the feminist movement until they themselves refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of radical feminism, and neither should you. It is only when there is a near-unanimous rejection of the monster this movement made that there will be any ideological change; indeed, any societal change.

Blanchard, Ray. “Early History of the Concept of Autogynephilia.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 34, Aug. 2005.

Goldberg, Michelle. “What Is a Woman?” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 9 July 2019, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/woman-2.

Grady, Constance. “The Waves of Feminism, and Why People Keep Fighting over Them, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 20 July 2018, www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth.

Kearns, Madeleine. “TERF Wars.” National Review, vol. 70, no. 22, Dec. 2018, p. 25. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=132993584&site=pov-live.x

Preen, Katy. “Radical Feminism - a Good Idea in Theory.” Medium, Medium, 19 Apr. 2018, medium.com/@KatyPreen/radical-feminism-a-good-idea-in-theory-e3ba0e56ecc3.

Smith, Victoria. “'The Fact That We're Considering Making Misandry a Hate Crime Should Concern Everyone'.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 16 Oct. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/voices/misandry-men-hate-crime-women-sexism-racism-feminism-a8586591.html.

“Subcultures and Sociology.” Grinnell College, Grinnell College, haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/radfems/.

Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF). “Become A Member.” Women's Liberation Front, Women’s Liberation Front, 2014, womensliberationfront.org/become-a-member/.

i read the first few paragraphs and then gave up bc youre an obvious MRA + boring + stupid + misinformed.

#the sources at the end like it was a thesis jfjddkfk #the cringe of it all lmao

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