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It is time that textbooks & revision websites updated their #feminism sections. This is wrong. Radical Feminism is anti essentialist, it doesn't say that 'men are the enemy' but that patriarchy is the enemy of us all & that we can all change for the better simplysociology.com/radical-femini…
"Radical feminists believe that men are the enemy and that marriage and family are the key institutions that allow patriarchy to exist." No. Marriage & the isolated, hetersexist, nuclear family are indeed sites of patriarchal operation & socialisation but not the only ones.
"For radical feminists in order for equality to be achieved patriarchy needs to be overturned. They argue that the family needs to be abolished and a system of gender separatism needs to be instituted for this to happen." Ha, ha, ha!
Yes, patriarchy as a system of social governance needs to be ended. 'The Family' is not a homogeneous monolith & can take many forms. There is nothing wrong with families. What's problematic are negative gender roles, hierarchies, isolation, pressure of gendered scripts.
'gender separatism' wth is this? Separatism can be strategic, such as women-only leadership or events. I would call that self-organisation. Separatism can be full-time, eg women's land, has a proud history in women's liberation movement but is isolated & not mainstream.
Several Radical Feminists did not see it as a strategic method, saw it as dropping out of society rather than staying within it to change it. Women-only spaces are temporary & strategic within society, self-organisation has a proud history in feminism, & Trade Unions for example.
"separatism is unobtainable due to heterosexual attraction" ha, ha, ha! Don't worry, as the Leeds Revolutionary Feminists said, celibacy is always an option!
Seriously though, this is just more political misogyny (as famous American Radical Feminist Andrea Dworkin argued) because it simplifies, reduces & ridicules Radical Feminism, a complex, political theory & activism with a long & proud history.
Radical Feminism is dismissed so it doesn't have to be taken seriously. The message of Radical Feminism is revolutionary. It is a revolutionary social movement for change, for all; not just a changing of the guard.
Radical Feminism is not about turning the tables & putting a few women in place of men in charge of a corrupt & unequal world; it's about toppling the table over & building something new for everyone.
Fundamentally, Radical Feminism is about changing power. It's about understanding & changing power from something one uses over others, to something that is shared amongst for the benefit of all (praise to the late Cynthia Cockburn, feminist antimilitarist & political theorist).
I think there are 4 defining features of RF, that can distinguish it from other schools of feminism, though it shares an end to sex-discrimination in all its forms: all schools of feminism are working for. But, RF sees this as a stop along the way to liberation, not an end point.
RF has similar broad aims to all feminism – equal rights for women vis a vis men in all social, cultural, political, economic institutions etc.
But can be distinguished by 4 main points
1.Recognises existence of patriarchy
2.Promotes women-only organisation and leadership
But can be distinguished by 4 main points
1.Recognises existence of patriarchy
2.Promotes women-only organisation and leadership
3.Defines male violence against women as a keystone of women’s oppression
4.Extends definition of male violence to analyse the industries of pornography and prostitution
4.Extends definition of male violence to analyse the industries of pornography and prostitution
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