#militant feminist

[catatonicreality]

Anti woman society

The creator I'm currently completely obsessed with is Medusone, who made long detailed, well elaborated videos on the Depp v Heard case. Today (20th Sept 2023) she posted on her YT channel a new, "shorter" but no less pointed video about the newly unsealed court documents. I call the unsealing of the court documents by the Johnny Depp stans an ongoing public harassment of Heard aided by the silence of content creators that jumped on the band wagon last year and failed to follow up. After the verdict was read many just moved on, despite new developments in the case, case in point post verdict settlement prompted by Amber's appeal.

Now we have a new band wagon, the accusations against Russell Brand. The knee jerk reaction on so many sides is "trial by media" and "why come out to the media and not report it to the police?".

Amber tried to go about this quietly. As Medusone points out in her video, they literally forced her to re-live her SA on the stand while her testimony was broadcast. Amber was against cameras in the court room. Amber didn't want any of her suffering to be publicized and broadcast, Johnny Depp did. His lawyers wanted the cameras in the courtroom,...to humiliate her. Amber never sought out publicity about her divorce, she followed the NDA after the divorce. She obtained a restraining order against him. She went to the police, she did what she knew how to do, best to her abilities and mental state and taking in account that he's an insanely well known person and she's virtually a nobody in comparison. So all I can say about the public's reaction to the Brand accusations is: fuck all y'all who expect victims to act a certain way after being abused and letting abusers off the hook because the victim wasn't perfect. Do you know how insane that is?!

The four women approached the media because they instinctively knew all this, yet here we fuckung are. No matter how much evidence is produced nothing will be enough for most of society short of a gruesome video of the assault and even then many would find a way to put this on the, in these cases female victims.

This society hates women, plain and simple.

[mezmer]

Unnmnpopular opinion for whatever reason. In feminist circles women will comment on men's appearances or wish and hope that they would die. I am off put by this. Sure, kill violent men who are beyond repair and pedophiles okay I'm on board. A reddit screenshot about a guy being a douchebag? He does no chores and cheated on his wife? "I hope he dies" "probably an ugly neck beard" ok. You are being no better than a misogynist. I just don't agree with it.

You can keep your mouth shut when anger consumes you without coming across as a doormat. It's actually very progressive. I feel it's often an individual who is yearning to shed the womanly doormat stereotype and show her anger in all the wrong ways. You can come for a man's hygiene and pathetic behaviors without wishing death on them. It doesn't make you less of a feminist or even a misandrist to be above those behaviors. It creates a more rotten world to perpetrate anger and unleash it needlessly. Shouldn't be normalized except in cases of democratic justice.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Domestically, ribu was born through the contradictions of the radical political formations of the '68 era, including the anti-Vietnam War, New Left, and student movements. Many ribu activists had experienced the radicalism of the student movements and sectarian struggles of the New Left. As defectors from existing leftist movements, ribu activists were conversant and in critical dialogue with the ongoing struggles such as those of the Sanrizuka, Shibokusa, Zainichi, and Buraku liberation activists, the politics of occupied Okinawa, and other movements including immigration, labor rights, and pollution. Following other radical movements of Japan's '68, horizontal relationality was privileged in reaction to the rigid hierarchies of the established left and many New Left sects. The movement involved a decentralized network of autonomous ribu groups that organized across the nation, from Hokkaido to Ayashi; with no formal leader, its leading activists were Japanese women in their twenties and early thirties.

Ribu's birth was traumatic and exhilarating. Having experienced a spectrum of sexist treatment and sexualized violence while organizing with leftist men, from verbal abuse to sexual assault and rape, ribu activists revolted against the myriad ways that sexism and misogyny were endemic across leftist culture. Women typically supported male leadership through domestic labor, by cleaning, cooking, and other housekeeping duties. There were instances when young women activists were referred to as public toilets [benjos] and assaulted and raped by leftist male activists. In some cases, the rape of the women of rival leftist sects became part of the New Left's tactics of uchi geba [internal violence or conflict]. In 1968, Oguma Eiji describes such incidents of sexual violence. Ribu activists spoke, wrote, and testified about their experiences of sexism, assault, and rape at the hands of leftist male activists. Given such forms of sexual violence that were hidden, too often, in the shadows of Japan's 1968, how did ribu women respond?

Never before in the records of Japanese history had ink sprayed such rage-filled declarations of revolt against Japanese heteropatriarchy and sexist men. The slogans of the movement, like the "liberation of sex and the "liberation from the toilet" [benjo kara no kaiho], unleashed an unprecedented flurry of militant feminist denunciations. With minikomi (alternative media] titles such as Onna no hangyaku [Woman's Mutiny] and art evoking images of vaginas with spikes, ribu activists raised a political banner that had never been so explicit and bold in its declaration of sexual oppression and sexual discrimination.

Ribu activists reacted to the counterculture movement of the 1960s and the sexual revolution. Some of its earliest activists, such as Yonezu Tomoko, criticized the "free love" espoused by male activists even while they emphasized the importance of politicizing sex. Along with her student comrade Mori Setsuko, Yonezu named their cell "Thought Group SEX," and painted "SEX" on their helmets the first time they disrupted a campus event at Tama Arts University in Tokyo. Sex and sexuality emerged as key concepts in ribu's manifestos for human liberation. The politicization of sex was a revolt against the sexism in mainstream society and the Japanese left. Heralding the importance of liberating sex also distinguished ribu from former Japanese women's liberation movements, Tanaka Mitsu, a leading activist and theorist of the movement, harshly criticized previous women's movements, saying that the "hysterical unattractiveness" of those "scrawny women" was due to their having to become like men. The brazen and contemptuous tone of their manifestos was a stark departure from past political speech about women's liberation.

This emphasis on sexual liberation evinced ribu's affinity with US radical feminist movements that also exploded in 1970." Ribu activists recognized their shared conditions when they heard news of women's liberation movements emerging in the United States. Information about these movements flowed into Japan via news and alternative media, as documented by Masami Saitō. Japan's largest newspapers, the Yomiuri and Asahi Shimbun, printed photos of thousands of women protesters in the streets of New York City for the August 26, 1970, Women's Strike. Anti-war posters with defaced US flags decorated the walls of ribu communes and organizing centers." Activists from the United States and Europe visited ribu centers." This cross-border exchange among activists also characterized the internationalist spirit of '68 and a common desire for liberation.

Like so many others around the world, ribu activists were also inspired by the Black Power movement and attempted to follow its lead. This passage from a ribu pamphlet evinces how ribu activists were emboldened by Black Power struggles - as were radical feminists in the United States - and drew new lines of departure and separation from the leftist men with whom they had been organizing.

By calling white cops "pigs," Blacks struggling in America began to constitute their own identity by confirming their distance from white- centered society in their daily lives. This being the beginning of the process to constitute their subjectivity, whom then should women be calling the pigs?... First, we have to strike these so-called male revolutionaries whose consciousness is desensitized to their own form of existence. We have to realize that if we don't strike our most familiar and direct oppressors, we can never "overthrow Japanese imperialism"... Those men who possess such facile thoughts as, "Since we are fighting side by side, we are of the same-mind," are the pigs among us."

For leftist women to be calling leftist male revolutionaries pigs constituted a kind of declaration of war against sexism in their midst and their newfound enemy-sexist leftist men. When women of the left began to identify this intimate enemy, this moment of dis-identification with Japanese leftist men constituted a decisive epistemic break. Their conflict with sexist male comrades forced these women to recognize that they had to redefine their relationship to the revolution from the specificity of their own subject position."

- Setsu Shigematsu, "'68 and the Japanese Women's Liberation Movement," in Gavin Walker, ed., The Red Years: Theory, Politics and Aesthetics in the Japanese ‘68. London and New York: Verso, 2020. p. 79-82

[tardigradefem]

Made a very quick n messy mini zine!

[bandydear]

saw the barbie movie, anyway, stream closer to fine and two little girls

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

Had really nice wavy hair today, after not letting it fully dry before spending all day with it in a bun. Went to google to try and see if there was a way I could deliberately create that effect, was immediately reminded that the beauty industry is full of leeches preying on womens insecurities, and the only solution is to public execute a couple hundred influencers and CEOs

[thenewdemocratus]

Carl Higbie: 'Profiles In Freedom'

Source:C-SPAN covering author Carl Higbie’s book event in New York City. Source:The New Democrat “THE TRUTH WILL ENDURE. IT MUST. But our history is in danger of being rewritten by the progressive left and the “woke” mob. In PROFILES IN FREEDOM: HEROES WHO SHAPED AMERICA , Carl Higbie shines a light on the real heros of American history. Ronald Reagan warned in his 1989 farewell address: “If we…

[lilithsaintcrow]

"The period-tracking, panty-sniffing ghouls of the GOP have, with the guidance and power of fifty years of metastasizing Christian theocracy, made great headway in their goal to control every American uterus."

[mithliya]

i didnt argue about whether het-partnered women could take radical action. i wasnt even discussing whether they could be radical feminists on this post until you derailed it. the point of my post is that its not misogyny to think separatism is integral to radical feminism and its definitely not misogyny to insult men.

i dont call myself a radfem bc i respect that its a term for actual activists who take radical action. unfortunately, many people dont hold themselves to the same standards, and now people who dont hold such standards are trying to belittle my statements using that. i go to protests (including radfem protests), i speak up on my beliefs, i follow the ideology quite heavily, i educate myself on the theory, i donate to womens charities and causes, im working towards a career focused on helping traumatised women psychologically, etc.. but i think a radical feminist does more. i think radical feminists live the ideology and put more into furthering the cause bc theyre an activist group, not a fun identity to take up online after you realised gender ideology is sexist and hold some feminist beliefs. meanwhile you are desperate to make it more lenient of a term. and youre so desperate to argue that that you came onto my post and derailed it to make it about your desire to be deemed a radical feminist. i dont know how many times i should say i dont care and this is not the topic of my post for you to stop derailing it. you could address the actual point of my post if you take issue with it, but so far all of you have simply twisted my words and started talking around the subject. the way youre foaming at the mouth to try to frame women you disagree with as misogynists is tired and you even tried that up there despite me not saying anything misogynistic to you.

i keep seeing these posts like “i am TIRED of the misogyny against straight women from radfems” and as i brace myself to see something horrible and shocking, they end up elaborating with:

“this lesbian said i shouldn’t use the radical feminism tag for my post about details of heterosexual sex ive had”

“this woman said dating a man is not radical feminist of me.”

“this lesbian said separatism is good. meaning she wants to PUNISH me for being a woman”

“this woman is so misogynistic for saying men influence the women in their lives into having less feminist ideals”

“calling my boyfriend jakey or nigel is misogynistic”

how has radblr devolved into arguing that even insulting men is now misogynistic? this is embarrassing ladies!

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Ribu's anti-imperialist feminist discourse would later manifest in its solidarity protests against kisaeng tourism. This sex tourism involved Japanese businessmen traveling to South Korea to partake in the sexual services of young South Korean women who worked at clubs called kisaengs. Ribu's protests against kisaeng tourism represented how the liberation of sex combined with ribu's anti-imperialism and enabled new kinds of transnational feminist solidarity based on a concept of women's sexual exploitation and sexual oppression. From ribu's perspective, this form of tourism represented the reformation of Japanese economic imperialism in Asia. They were not against sex work by Japanese women, but opposed to the continued sexual exploitation of Korean women as a resurgence of the gendered violence of imperialism: Ribu activists hence connected imperialism and sexual oppression of colonized women to the continuing sexual exploitation of Korean women in the 1970s. In this way, they were able to expand the leftist critique of imperialism and, at the same time, point to the fault lines and inadequacies of the left.

In her critique of the left, Tanaka points to its failure to have a theory of the sexes.

Even in movements that are aiming towards human liberation, by not having a theory of struggle that includes the relation between the sexes. the struggle becomes thoroughly masculinist and male-centered (dansei-chushin shugi].

According to ribu activists, this male-centered condition infected not only the theory of the revolution and delimited its horizon, but it created a gendered concept of revolution that privileged masculinist hierarchies within the culture of the left. Ribu activists decried the hypocrisy of the left and what it deemed to be the all-too-frequent egotistical posturing of the "radical men" who "eloquently talked about solidarity, the inter national proletariat and unified will," but did not really consider women part of human liberation. Ribu activists rebelled against Marxist dogma and rejected these gendered hierarchies that valued knowledge of the proper revolutionary theory over lived experience and relationships. Moreover, ribu activists criticized what they experienced as masculinist forms of militancy that privileged participation in street battles with the riot police as the ultimate sign of an authentic revolutionary. While being trained to use weapons, activists like Mori Setsuko questioned whether engaging in such bodily violence was the way to make revolution. Ribu's rejection and criticism of a hierarchy that privileged violent confrontation forewarned of the impending self-destruction within the New Left.

...

News of URA [United Red Army] lynchings, released in 1972, devastated the reputation of the New Left in Japan, and many across the left condemned these actions. This case of internalized violence within the left marked its demise. Although ribu activists were likewise horrified by such violence expressed against comrades, many ribu activists responded in a profoundly radical manner that I have theorized elsewhere as "critical solidarity." Ribu activists had already refused to lionize the tactics of violence; hence, they in no way supported the violent internal actions of the URA. However, rather than simply condemning the URA leaders and comrades as monsters and nonhumans [hi-ningen), they sought to comprehend the root of the problem. They recognized that every person possesses a capacity for violence, but that society prohibits women from expressing their violent potential. In response to the state's gendered criminalization of Nagata as an insurgent and violent woman, ribu activists practiced what I describe as feminist critical solidarity specifically for the women of the URA. Ribu activists went in support to the court hearings and wrote about their experience and critical observations of how URA members were being treated. By visiting the URA women at the detention centers, consequently, ribu activists came under police surveillance. Ribu activists enacted solidarity in ways that were tot politically pragmatic but instead philosophically motivated. Their response involved a capacity for radical self-recognition in the loathsome actions of the other. Activists wrote extensively about Nagata - for example, Tanaka described Nagata in her book Inochi no onna-tachi e [To Women with Spirit] as a kind of "ordinary" woman whom she could have admired, except for the tragedy of the lynching incidents. In 1973, Tanaka wrote a pamphlet titled "Your Short Cut Suits You, Nagata!" in response to the state's gendered criminalization of the URA's female leader, the deliberate publication of such humanizing discourse evinces ribu's efforts to express solidarity with the women who were arguably the most vilified females of their time. Hence, ribu engaged in actions that supported these criminalized others even when the URA'S misguided pursuit of revolution resulted in the unnecessary deaths of their own comrades. Through ribu's critical solidarity with the URA, they modeled the imperative of imperfect radical alliances, opening up a philosophically motivated relationality with abject subjects and a new horizon of counter-hegemonic alliances against the dominant logic of heteropatriarchal capitalist imperialism.

While the harsh criticism of the left was warranted and urgently needed given the deep sedimentation of pervasive forms of sexist practice, it should be noted that, at the outset of the movement, there were various ways in which ribu's intimate relationship with other leftist formations characterized its emergence. At ribu's first public protest, which was part of the October 21 anti-war day, some women carried bamboo poles and wooden staves as they marched in the street, jostling with the police." Ribu did not advocate pacifism; its newspapers regularly printed articles on topics such as "How to Punch a Man." During ribu protests from 1970-2, some ribu activists-as noted, with Yonezu and Mori - still wore helmets that were markers of one's political sect and a common student movement practice."

- Setsu Shigematsu, “'68 and the Japanese Women’s Liberation Movement,” in Gavin Walker, ed., The Red Years: Theory, Politics and Aesthetics in the Japanese ‘68. London and New York: Verso, 2020. p. 89-90, 91-92

[radfemsiren]

idk if you ever heard about rojava but they literally have a female-only city which is called jinwar and a whole ass feminist ideology called jineology and tbh they‘re based af. absolutely against libfems and for a matriarchy. kurdish women taking over the world.

My heart always has a soft spot for the Kurdish female fighters. They are such a brave and inspiring group of women.❤️ I knew they had a more progressive way of organizing and operating their lives in and out of battle, but I didn’t realize just how much land and resources they had taken over. It’s really beautiful.

“For an ISIS militant, one of the worst things is being killed on the battlefield, that too by a woman. They believed that they would directly go to hell if killed by a woman. For me, I was the happiest woman, as I could send a few men to hell,” - a 19-year-old Kurdish fighter Sterek Judhi.

If you ever hear me say I support the troops, I’m talking about literally only The Kurdish YPJ (Women's Protection Units) and other brave women like them.

[sexisdisgusting]

if you blame the "state of modern feminism" on radical feminists methinks youre an idiot who has no real understanding what feminism truly is

more militant (radical) suffragettes (feminists) were also blamed for the way the mainstream thought of feminism over 100. fucking. years. ago.

and guess what? those same women are the ones who helped women gain rights through their *clutches pearls and gasps* RADICAL!!! efforts

if you blame the current state of feminism on "evil terfs" and radfems, youre no better than a meninist circa 2015

radfems arent a new concept, and we won't be your scapegoats anymore

[eastgaysian]

I really enjoyed reading your writing on the 4b movement because Ive had... feelings about that I havent been able to elaborate. theres been this general framing by some folks that transmisogyny and radfems/terfs/gendercriticals (whatever theyre calling themselves nowadays) dont exist in feminist movements outside of the states. when 'radical' acts like this are done that its actually in cable of being transphobic and transmisogynistic because somehow that can only exist in the us of a. dunno. thanks for speaking on it and spreading the info.

again, i have to say that i'm not especially knowledgeable or well-read about korean politics or feminist movements - but even with cursory knowledge, or just like, reading comprehension and basic concern about transmisogyny, it should be apparent that the 4B movement is trans exclusionary political lesbianism. we don't need to import that to the us. there have already been people advocating for political lesbianism, historically, in the us. it's fundamentally transmisogynistic and it's not effective feminist praxis.

and yeah it's difficult to articulate but there's an attitude towards the politics of non-western countries that is often, like, patronizing/condescending and refuses to understand them as anything but one-dimensional. the reactionary misogyny in south korea is pronounced and vile (true!) so the militant radical feminists opposing them must be good and aspirational (...swing and a miss!). (and presupposing that there aren't any other schools of feminist thought in south korea, much less queer/transfeminists.) and like, as if the deeply conservative us puppet state neocolony doesn't have heavy western influence in its reactionary politics. sometimes it is best to shut up and stop talking 👍

[femalethink]

Socialism will not inevitably bring about the liberation of women. Nevertheless, only in a society that one calls, for want of a better name, socialist would it be possible to invent and institutionalize forms of life that would liberate women. Therefore, though the struggle to build socialism and the cause of women's liberation are hardly identical, militant feminists do have a vested interest in the fortunes of a revolutionary socialist movement and good reason to be, if only tacitly, allies—as they have reason to be the enemies of all right-revolutionary (or fascist) movements, which always preach the reinforcement of male privilege and the subservience of women.

—Susan Sontag, “On Women.”

[velvetvexations]

im curious why you would say “radical feminism is bad no matter who it includes”? i just found your blog so sorry if you’ve elaborated on that before, you can point me towards those arguments.

also (not the same anon but just wanted to add) that recognizing the patriarchy as the oppressive system and cisgender men as the oppressors SHOULD be “just feminism” but in my experience the difference between radical feminists and more liberal feminists is that radical feminists recognize feminism as a class struggle (with cisgender men as the oppressor class) and many liberal feminists tend to see it through an individualist lens. in liberal circles there is so much “but what about men? the patriarchy hurts men too!” because they are seeing everything through individualism. just my opinion i would be curious to hear your thoughts if you feel like it

Sometimes the patriarchy hurts men and it's fine to acknowledge that. Radfems are defined by militant hostility to men and when they label themselves trans inclusive that means either they're literally TERFs who say "AMAB" and "AFAB" instead, or they actually see us as our identified genders but are vile to trans men.

[foursaints]

oh please don’t leave us hanging with this barty and alecto college roommates tag…

bartyalecto college roommates彡

-> imagine, if you will, the nastiest most man-hating misandrist dyke to ever walk the earth. alecto carrow wears a burgundy red lip & knockoff louboutins to class, has been buried in the closet since age 12, carries feminist theory in her leather purse, and loudly professes that all men are pigs. -> now imagine this woman being forced (through the uni housing process) to share a two-bedroom apartment with Campus Bicycle barty crouch jr. he steals her nice uniqlo black tanktops to wear to the gym and returns them all stretched out and sweaty. on their first week he leaves his mounting collection of random hookup's forgotten thongs in her laundry hamper. -> in many ways they are natural enemies. it's a militant radfem being forced to cohabit with a guy who thinks that getting to first base in the back of an uber counts as adequate foreplay... they're the campus scumbag x the SCUM manifesto -> but barty is so incapable of viewing alecto sexually (he enjoys pretty things that are soft and pliable... she is decidedly neither) that this is one of the few non-predatory relationships she has ever had with a man in her life. alecto maintains this Classy Feminine Image in pursuit of male approval (though she loathes herself for it), which is a mask that barty mocks and refuses to take seriously. he admires her the most whenever she's undone, vicious, clumsy, messy, unpalatable. -> he's like her annoying disney channel older brother who is always standing shirtless in front of their open fridge & ruffling her hair. barty shocks her with the revelation of his hidden seriousness. alecto shocks him with the secret of her steel backbone. they are the worst enablers of each other's elaborate revenge schemes and decade-long vengeful grudges. -> you have to imagine alecto furiously scrubbing off her makeup in her ratty comfort hoodie, splayed on the couch next to barty and ranting about how much she hates guys exactly like him. he hums contemplatively and passes her the joint. they're going to watch real housewives for the next 4 hours and gossip.

as always this concept is straight from my dms with ivy @jewishregulus