Radical Feminists Please Touch - Blog Posts

Women do not need to be in fear of harm or harassment to want a space to themselves.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot with the whole women’s only gym nightmare argument the past couple weeks. So much of it is focused on a back and forth of whether or not women are actually in much danger, and I’m going to go even more woke and say I think the danger is actually irrelevant to this question.

We shouldn’t have to prove that we’re terrified of being assaulted, shouldn’t have to cry and break down into an anxiety attack on camera as we relive our trauma to prove we deserve a space for ourselves. If we put our time and effort into building spaces for ourselves in this stupid fucking patriarchal world, we’re allowed to keep it solely for the reasoning of wanting to keep it. That’s enough.

The sense of entitlement towards women’s work genuinely needs to be studied.

i love it when terfs call themselves radical cause like, nothing more rad than falling for right wing pro establishment propaganda

Firstly, here. Second, seems pretty radical to be a radfem when even our most basic level speech on women's rights ignites the anger of EVERYONE

“feminists should be nicer to men or else more of them will join the alt right” that’s strange because it’s never occurred to me to fuck off and join the kkk when a person of color is mean to me. I think if your threshold for being radicalized into a hate movement is as low as “I felt left out and it was mean” you weren’t going to make a very good feminist to begin with

Gyns do you have any suggestions for stuff to help work through anger? I recently had a close female friend that I thought supported me suddenly turn around and spew a ton of alt right propaganda. Apparently she’s gone down a tradwife pipeline and now believes that women having rights is apparently the root of all problems in the world, and she told me (a lesbian who she also knows has experienced multiple counts of sexual assault) that she believes that all women must find a man to submit to sexually.

And while I’m grateful for the fact I can now feel anger instead of shame, I’ve gone a long way in healing, I’d also like to be able to step away from it because I’m legitimately losing sleep over it and it’s dredged up a lot of flashbacks. I’m not trying to fish for sympathy, I just want to know if y’all have any suggestions for me.

1) This is disturbing and I feel so sorry for this poor couple

2) Stealing lingerie, underwear, or even sexual toys is a huge pattern among TIMs. I remember a male ex I had (before I realized I was a Lesbian) telling me this story of a friend of a friend. This man was “experimenting with his sexuality/gender” and would continually steal his mother’s dildos to fuck himself in the ass with, not even using condoms as a barrier, and then putting it back, and eventually she found out and just let him have it. (I have no issue with anal if that’s what you want to do so don’t get me wrong, but it does have a higher risk of bacterial contamination so extra cleaning and/or protection needs to be involved)

And I had a surprised and disgusted reaction to this, obviously, and he accused me of being transphobic and got pretty upset about that. At the time I wasn’t even a radfem but the idea of people stealing intimate items that touch genitals, and especially returning them so they can be re-used unknowingly by the original owner, is just really gross and inappropriate? I don’t really care what it is or what your purpose of doing so is, unless you’re a 10 year old girl who was jokingly putting on her mom’s bra while doing the laundry, it’s incredibly disgusting. And I see stories of that happening over and over again, and I just feel really bad for their poor mothers and sisters because that has to feel like an incredible violation of privacy.

Male secretly abuses his lesbian sister's clothing for god fucking knows how long...... This is so disgusting I don't even know what to say here. (link)

This whole idea from Conservatives/the right in general that men are “leaders” is completely a farce even in their own groups, and I can speak to this firsthand because I grew up in it. Super Catholic, church services were all in Latin, women weren’t allowed to wear pants or cut their hair shorter than their shoulders, and they were sporting all of America’s current insane political views a decade before they became more popular. And men still did jack all.

I was running the church choir in all but name by the age of 14, despite the choir director being a man in his 20s. Women handled all the childcare and child rearing, women were the ones who organized everything. Who put up the decorations for each season. Who provided the food. Who kept the church clean and in repair. Who taught the children during Sunday School. They were the ones who made decisions for their families, the ones who kept tabs on everything, the ones who organized playdates and homeschool meetups and church potlucks. Women built everything and men only placed their stamp of approval on it to claim the work.

And I wish more people would WAKE UP to this realization. Being a leader means nothing if you aren’t actually working. Simply sitting on your ass and giving the occasional instruction is not true leadership, nor is it even the servant leadership Christ himself advocated for. Those men were completely useless in the grand scheme of things and we would have continued on without them with relative ease. They hold onto relevancy by forcing women to depend on them financially but that’s all they have to stand on. And it just pisses me off idk this is just a rant

“You just hate sex workers” but I’m advocating to stop the abuse and violence they go through daily

“You just hate sex workers” but I’m advocating for them not to be subjected to sexual illness or infections on the daily

“You just hate sex workers” but I’m advocating to stop them being trafficked and forced into the industry

“You just hate sex workers” but I’m advocating for them to be given higher wages to help them out of the industry

“You just hate sex workers” but I’m advocating to just have them treated as human beings

I’ve seen several posts (and a lot of reposts of those posts) talking about the misogyny in rap music produced by men, and while I think that having a conversation about misogyny in entertainment is incredibly important, I also think it’s important to think about why we’re focused so heavily on demonizing rap music in particular.

A lot of mainstream music produced by men, regardless of it’s genre, has the same messaging of misogyny, rape culture, sexism, etc. If you read a lot of the lyrics of popular club/dance music especially, it’s hiding in plain sight. However, in a world in which white is the norm, we’re used to hearing that type of messaging disguised underneath the soothing, fun loving, catchy melodies sung by familiar voices so we sing along without thinking about the words leaving our mouths. Rap, while it’s still a very popular genre, goes against that familiar, comfortable habit of hiding lyrics and is very straightforward, and therefore our condemnation increases because it forces you to interact with the lyrics instead of shutting off your brain.

I don’t advocate for a lack of critical thinking or criticism for the genre, in fact I’m asking for the opposite. Is Rap truly the worst genre for misogyny? Because I could, and am, arguing that abusive lyrics hidden in songs that play over the speakers at every establishment (and especially around children) with no issue, is just as bad if not worse. Genres such as Country, which is just as full of misogyny, are treated with a kind of “roll your eyes and get over it” attitude. We treat it as a joke, if we acknowledge it at all. Those silly, backwards folk living in a cornfield town don’t know any better, really.

Socially, we also forgive and forget about male violence much quicker when the man is white. I’ve watched people blow up angrily about a white man’s crime and after 6 months it’s forgotten to the point nobody remembers it when I bring it up. However a black man in that same situation will have his disgrace last years longer. This is not me advocating in any way for everyone to get the white man treatment, but for everyone to have an accurate social reaction to the crime itself without the person’s race tainting how we view him (and by extension, those in his racial group).

Rap, while it has some serious bad apples now, has an incredibly important cultural history of pushing for social change that other popular genres in the world today do not, and it’s ironic to me that it is now seen as the most morally corrupt and oppressive genre. Associating the entire genre solely with low intelligence (both in the artist and the audience), general moral failing and filth, and a backwards view on society when there are so many rappers who have pushed for social changes harder than any other musicians, when you do not similarly condemn other musical genres, is unfortunately a case of internalized racism.

I will reiterate once again that I am not in any way saying that anyone or anything should get off scot-free or without deep criticism. Pointing out an unfair balance in how we condemn groups of people is simply that, pointing it out. I think we need more criticism but I think that criticism needs to be nuanced, complete, and informed. I would also urge you to look into smaller or more underground rappers/rap movements because there is a lot to enjoy and many good people to support when you’re able to get past the big names that do well for a reason. The majority of our culture today is misogynistic so misogynistic lyrics appeal to the general masses, and people who refuse to fall under that group don’t end up as famous as those who do.

[Edited to hopefully make my point easier to understand bc I was getting several reposts that seemed to be taking away a message I didn’t mean to put across]

And yet if you assume pronouns it’s also hurtful towards other people within the trans community?? This was one of my biggest issues when I used to think I was trans because it’s extremely “every man for himself” type ideology.

“I don’t like it when people check with me about how I’d like to be be treated so I’ll complain or even lash out at them.”

“Well I don’t like when people DONT check with me so I’ll complain or lash out at them.”

There’s no compassion for those of us trying to simply be respectful and accommodate you, and definitely no compassion for those within the community who have a different experience than you.

Also what type of work environment is allowing miniskirts? I have never found a job in my life that allows that so far, and never known a woman who wished to wear one to work.

This is in fact what everyone is thinking, yes. And policing language more won’t make it stop.

I hate when people (men or male-centric women) try to claim, “And they’re both the same bc it’s impossible standards 😔💔” NO TF IT IS NOT.

Wanting a literal underage-looking (or actual underage) sex slave and personal maid is not the same thing as wanting a competent and compassionate partner. Just look at lesbians. Lesbians literally act like how most male characters in those types of escapist romances act, (NOT the weirdo alpha bro shit but the normal stuff). We take care of each other on our periods. We prioritize each other’s sexual pleasure and health. We’re kind and soft and actually like to spend time with each other outside of sex. We take interest in each other’s interests. Don’t let men fool you into believing that’s some impossible standard of kindness. It’s the men that won’t grow tf up that’s the problem, not your desire to be treated like a fucking human being. Chocolate is $3 at the grocery store and a massage takes 10 minutes. Do better.