#pop feminism has killed your brain cells

[fascination4949]

LOL feminism (at least not lib or choice feminism) isn’t *just* about “women can do anything men do” how fucking reductive. Like that’s the thought I formed when I was 13 and had just learned the meaning of the word “feminism”. Yeah it’s true that “biologically” we can do anything, but that’s like so fucking obvious it’s actual laughable that you’re bringing it up like some sort of revelation to shit on radfems. Radical feminism (and any feminism that rejects “choice or liberal” bs which is what you’re peddling here) isn’t trying to prove that men and women are “equal”. We are trying to address the consequences of literally thousands of years of patriarchy during which “female biological features” were used to oppress us. You might not want to hear this but misogyny has historically been about body politics. Look around you. We live in a world that’s been literally built around the notion that (cis) women are inherently weaker because of our biology, so we need more than just saying “we can do anything”. And this shit affects people who fall outside the cisgender binary. Why do you think trans-misogyny is a thing? 🤔 Patriarchy has literally changed the way women behave. There are so many studies about this. You can’t reverse that with just saying women can do men’s jobs or whatever. No radical feminists will disagree with your statement. But saying you’re the same as men isn’t gonna fix the oppression that we still face today. That’s why radfems advocate for many “RADICAL” ideas like separatism for example. No radfem is gonna be like “women are weak and love pink and men are strong and love blue” like 💀💀. Your girlboss millennial cringe fest idea about feminism is literally useless on its own without addressing patriarchy as an ongoing system of oppression that affects every aspect of our lives. You guys love to shit on radfems but it just makes you look like a joke.

like what happened to "women are capable of doing everything men can do". If this statement is true the reverse is also true. It doesn't mean they necessarily do but they could. Thats like THE feminist statement in my mind its the most important one and radfems are actively rejecting it. There is nothing but superficial differences between us!!! "Men" and "women" are fictions used to organize society and power in a specific way they're not essential truths. We can go from one to the other freely and easily because we are essentially the same. The massive gulf between us in modern society is political, its not in anyway concrete, essential or biological.

[theramblingonesie]

But Do We Really Want To Destroy The Partriarchy: A series of tough questions that we don’t actually wanna get real about.

 I was on the phone a couple weeks back having a business focusing session with a counselor, and I got into some blarbble about the emotional obstacles I face with my project. Alongside my awareness of my shortcomings as an entrepreneur and leader, the thought occurred to me—

Is the theme of my work and how I present it somehow more threatening, or uninteresting, because I don’t offer an appealing enough reward?

In my feminist work, I am not offering any promise of being a queen or goddess, nor am I glorifying saintly or martyr behavior.  I’m arguing for the right to have a human experience as a stepping stone for living a fulfilling, honest life.  There’s no master plan for domination. It’s not sparkly.

Our patriarchally conditioned brains don’t like that.  We need promises of power and status.  We need to feed the parts of our brains that have turned the pursuit of pleasure into addiction to pleasure.  Especially those of us who belong to oppressed parties (aka anyone who is not a rich, white, able-bodied man between 18 and 75 years old), we need some kind of promise of “better than” and “other”.  We need proof that we will not be picked on, held down, enslaved to, degraded, blocked, questioned, etc. We need a system or cheat code that will make us #boss, #diva, #hbic, #alpha, #queen, or #goddess.  Why?

Because that’s how the patriarchy has taught us to survive. Whether we fought or found ourselves at the top or associated with the top, we profit off the very system that is breaking us. We are benefitting from the same system we claim to want to destroy.

I had to take a good, long, humbling look at my own place in this dilemma. I, realistically, do not believe that I could extract myself from the power system of the patriarchy without having a complete identity crisis. I don’t know a single other human who could, either. We’re so buried in this; 20 feet past all of our collective eyeballs in social and political muck.

We have empowerment movements that we want to believe are anti-patriarchy. Ugh, guess what—

Most of them are not.

I like reclaiming certain words. It deactivates the vitriol in them.  Words like “bitch”, “slut”, “nasty” and so on. It’s important to redefine that shit in order to take hatred’s toys away. But other words—why are we giving them *more* power?

Boss

Queen

Alpha

Diva

Goddess

This is not a reclaiming. We are taking words that indicate the reliance of inferiority of the other, hierarchy, power and control, and either shifting them over to women or using their feminine counterparts.

I know. I use them, too.

And I get it.

We need to identify that we’re in a hole before climbing out of it. And once we claw our ways to the surface, up and out, we want to turn around and scream that nobody will ever push us in that damn hole again.  So then, why don’t we go somewhere else after that? Into a house? Drive away far from the scene of the crime?  Why do we just shift a few feet over to dig a nearly identical-looking hole to push other people into?

Just because the original jerkoff didn’t dig that hole does not mean it’s not a hole. Just because you used to be in a hole and understand holes does not mean that what you just dug is not a hole.  Call it an Earth Bucket or Vertical Hollow Long Cave if you’d like. Say the Divine visited you in a dream and gave you a premonition about it.  It’s still a hole.

 I’m using women as an example because I live and breathe feminism (and as life goes, all things are subject to mistake and growth), and was set off by these Goddess empowerment circles that are popping up and spreading spiritual bypassing around like ants on pie at a picnic.  However, when we zoom out, this is actually an intersectional crisis that impacts….well….the human race at large.

 Ew, I hate the patriarchy. I bet most of you do, too.  Yeah. YEAH! Let’s get rid of him!!!

 Oppression? Get it out of here!

Degradation? Booooo, byyeee

Power battles? Smell ya later!

Control freaks? Who needs em?!

Genocide? NOPE

War? NOOO

Pedophile Culture (which, yes, impacts how grown women are pressured to present): FUCK OFF

Destruction of the planet: STOP

Hate Crimes: WHY??!

Tyrannical Leaders: OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!

Capitalism: MURDERERS.

Rape: *overwhelming sadness*

Animal Cruelty

Racism

Sexism

Homophobia

Transphobia

Classism

Ableism

Ageism

Any word or ism that judges a person based solely on their ability to be productive

 That was easy, right? Drown it all, light it on fire.

How do you feel about abolishing these other biproducts of the patriarchy:

Celebrities

Prisons

Money

Fashion

Cell Phones

Internet

Industry

Coffee

Status

Being the boss or leader of anything

Awards

Marketing

Schedules

Heteronormativity

Family units

 The argument could be made that many of these are neutral, and whether they harm, help or neither is dependent upon the hands they fall in.  That all being said, each of these items on this generously short list of possible examples is a crucial and defining piece of our modern society, and can be (and has been) used as a patriarchal weapon. This power has infiltrated them in such a way that maybe, if you try hard enough, you can turn your head and not notice so long as it benefits you.

When you say that you want to destroy the patriarchy, do you mean only the big obvious things? Or are you willing to take a very detailed look at all the little ways you still benefit from the system?  Where are you willing to make sacrifices, and where do you still need to hold on?  How many of us are actually ready for that shift? Does it make you feel angry and icky that you, despite your protests, still uphold this system in your own ways? Is saying that we want to “destroy the patriarchy” just an unrealistic, macro-minded ideal?  I’m not advocating for this system.  It’s hurting mankind and killing the planet.  But to make real change, we need to get real with ourselves.

Upon deep reflection and introspection, I’m not as prepared as I thought I was.  I still benefit more than I’d ever want to admit.  You do, too.  Even fighting against the patriarchy becomes an identity. If it disappears, who am I?  If I really want this war, which is a patriarchal concept in the context I’m using it, then I have much more internal work and restructuring to do.  If we get rid of this system without a realistic replacement, we will be plunged into absolute chaos of the not-fun variety.  Yes, even you, yoga bro.  I’m still holding out for a solution that isn’t simply the current situation in a prettier mask.  

Let’s see what develops. I have hope.