It’s simply anti-feminist

and it never has been!

A running debate among radical feminists has been the importance of intersectionality in our work. Some feminists have argued that as feminism is the one movement created for  and by women, it should focus only on concerns related to misogyny. Yet, for some, perhaps many females, misogyny is not be experienced as the primary oppressive force in their lives. For example, Andrea Dworkin has discussed how for women who were targets under the Nazi Regime, their primary emergency was not being female, but rather being Jewish (or gypsy, or some other targeted group identification).

Are radfems like the Christian Right?

Radfems attempt to focus on the choices of the people with more power: that would be men.

There has been something bugging me in a major way. We radfems claim to value every woman and not place judgement on the choices women make, yet many women in the sex industry, at least in the First World, do feel judged. Time and time again, I have heard them say we are no different than the Christian right. Some of these women outright say they are in the life at least partially because of trauma issues; in Lori Adorable’s case, she has tried avoiding BDSM, only to end up in relationships that more or less contained such dynamics. In the interview linked to above, she describes ways she has acted out her trauma. This interview, and the site it is on, may be highly triggering for folks to read.

Taking apart the college circuit populars: Shira Tarrant

Shira Tarrant

As a current college student, one of the things that bothers me most are the pro-porn speakers, paid to travel around the country and tell a vulnerable student population how empowering anything we do in bed is, as long as women “consent.”

It is my understanding that attending uni is supposed to be about challenging one’s preconceived notions, rather than merely inviting speakers who already agree with mainstream patriarchal and white supremacist ideas,  whether or not they carefully veil these notions under the guise of “individual freedoms.”

One speaker popular on the circuit today is Shira Tarrant. Tarrant travels around the country presenting herself as being interested in making porn more egalitarian. This notion appeals even to women who are generally against the porn industry, because Tarrant presents herself as saying there is something wrong with the porn industry as it stands. However, when one takes a closer look at Tarrant’s writing, we find that is not the case at all.

Because we know you like to watch…

I have attended Reel Affirmations, for a couple of years.  It has always been a big highlight of my year, because it’s so easy to make friends at the wimmin’s movies. Even if I go alone, which I have done a couple of times, I find welcoming women to sit with. And some of the movies are actually pretty decent. There was even a fictional movie about May Sarton shown, as well as a documentary about feminism.

However, the festival is not as welcoming to women as it could be. For one thing, their special passes can cost more than 1,000 dollars! Back when the LGBT bookstore was in operation, I would see gay men come in quite frequently to buy such special passes, but I never saw a single woman do so.

My real problem with the festival though is that of a few years ago, their slogan became “We know you like to watch.”

Question for the queer crowd:

Why is if considered “feminist” to sell women out under the guise of “feminism”?

Seriously. I would like to know.

Take this article, for example.

It is about homeless men who are having the shit beaten out of them (by women) so that they can make a leaving. It gets published on a website with “feminist” or at least egalitarian ideas, along with this quote at the end:

“While “beatdowns” would seem to raise a host of legal issues even in the best of circumstances, ‘corporal punishment and domination’ can be enjoyable for some people when it’s consensual. But paying a domme to grind her boot into your balls is a lot different than being paid to get whipped and kicked when you have no other source of income. ”

This raises so many issues from a feminist perspective I don’t even know where to start. As long as someone enjoys pain, or says they enjoy it, it’s A-OK to inflict it on them? Is this the type of world we are fighting for? I know it’s not one I’m working towards. Furthermore, it’s it worth even exploring WHY some people, including women, might have fantasies of getting beaten or otherwise abused? Do we really think this fantasies arise out of the air we are breathing (well, I suppose if it is anti-feminist air…) or our genetics?

And finally…if we found men that agreed to do this fully consensually, would that be OK?

Some would argue BDSM is a perfectly valid way for folks to work through childhood traumas. But other women (and some men) find so much more freedom through connecting with a radical feminist perspective. Indeed, over and over again, women say, re: radfeminism, “It saved my life.”

Does BDSM save anyone’s life? If we can’t even have egalitarian relationships with one another, what makes us think this is part of working towards an egalitarian society?
And THEN there is the question of porn.

(I am not putting it second for any reason other than that I had to respond to that quote from up above).

Why are Jezebel readers so okay with getting upset about the issue of homeless men being beaten up, when you never hear a peep from this same crowd about the vast majority of folks who make up the porn industry–WOMEN!!!–one can’t help feel, well, sold out.

As if we needed more evidence that the “queer”/third wave crowd cares more about ANYBODY BUT WOMEN than actual female bodied persons, just think about the number of times you hear about how “trans people” are forced into sex work. This shows that this crowd DOES get that there is harm associated with “sex work” but will put the rights of people who do not identify as women before they will ever put the rights of women.

Am I wrong in thinking feminism is the one movement that is supposed to value, you know, WOMEN???