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ftmtftm · 5 months

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I was born Black, and a woman. I am trying to become the strongest person I can become to live the life I have been given and to help effect change toward a liveable future for this earth and for my children. As a Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, poet, mother of two including one boy and a member of an interracial couple, I usually find myself part of some group in which the majority defines me as deviant, difficult, inferior or just plain "wrong."

From my membership in all of these groups I have learned that oppression and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sexes and colors and sexualities; and that among those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchies of oppression. I have learned that sexism and heterosexism both arise from the same source as racism.

"Oh," says a voice from the Black community, "but being Black is NORMAL!" Well, I and many Black people of my age can remember grimly the days when it didn't used to be!

I simply do not believe that one aspect of myself can possibly profit from the oppression of any other part of my identity. I know that my people cannot possibly profit from the oppression of any other group which seeks the right to peaceful existence. Rather, we diminish ourselves by denying to others what we have shed blood to obtain for our children. And those children need to learn that they do not have to become like each other in order to work together for a future they will all share.

Within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian. Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression.

I cannot afford the luxury of fighting one form of oppression only. I cannot afford to believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the fronts upon which I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you.

Audre Lorde, There Is No Hierarchy of Oppressions [ audio / pdf ] - bold and italics mine

#audre lorde #intersectional feminism #feminism #feminist theory

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butch-reidentified · 5 months

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it's so cute how everyone acknowledges grooming as a real thing but as soon as we say (such as in conversations about female body hair removal) girls/women are groomed our entire lives to appeal to men, we're "misogynistic" for "calling women stupid"

Edit Jan 7, 2024:

My wife thinks I should have included an analogy in the original post (like the CEO example in my recent reblog), but in my conversation with her she pointed out that under the broad definition of grooming, all raising of children could be considered "grooming them for adult life." She makes a good point!!

The actual definition isn't inherently about sexual predation despite what the internet may have led some of you to assume. This is a good opportunity for me to remind *everyone* to fact check *everything* you learn online before repeating it to anyone and possibly spreading misinformation - including definitions of words you learn online! We ALL do this sometimes!

Screenshot below of #2 and #3 under the definition of "grooming" (#1 is obviously about animal fur lol):

I do find it interesting that the broader definition (#2) inherently includes what is detailed in #3, yet #3 was explicitly added (I assume at a later date than #2, given the context and numerical order). It's redundant, and I do have some criticisms of the way it's worded/the specifics of it. I wonder how other dictionaries define it.

#mine #grooming #feminism #femsoc #female socialization #feminist theory #feminist discourse

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lilithism1848 · 15 days

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fatgirlsaresmarttoo · 1 year

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I’m sick and tired of the men who blame women for the lack of support/ resources for men’s mental health. They act like they haven’t exploited the emotional labour of dozens of women in their lives through traumatizing them with their emotional and psychological problems. They act like every woman has an army of people they can turn to when we’re feeling sad, that we don’t get misdiagnosed and abused by the medical system, that we’re not constantly being gaslit by therapists, counsellors, nurses and doctors. I want every man to feel empowered to better their mental health and be able to express their emotions but please stop oppressing us in the process.

(Edit: Since this is getting a bit of attention, I just want to clarify that I am NOT a radfem! I am in full solidarity with my beautiful trans brothers and sisters!)

To clarify: I was using this definition of emotional labour.

#feminist theory #feminist #marxist feminism #marxist feminist #communist #communism #socialist feminist #socialism

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misespinas · 1 year

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“The most oppressed man finds a being to oppress, his wife: she is the proletarian of the proletarian.”

Flora Tristan, “The Emancipation of Woman, or the Testament of the Pariah” (1843)

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rabiaticism · 2 months

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"Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. The housewife wears herself out marking time: she makes nothing, simply perpetuates the present (...) Eating, sleeping, cleaning – the years no longer rise up towards heaven, they lie spread out ahead, gray and identical. The battle against dust and dirt is never won."

— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

#radblr #radical feminism #radfem #feminism #radfem community #radfem safe #radical feminist #radfems #radfems do interact #radfems do touch #tradwife #traditionalism #simone de beauvoir #feminist theory

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hairtusk · 1 year

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Andrea Dworkin, 'The Promise of the Ultra Right', in Right-Wing Women (1983)

#i genuinely think this is one of the most valuable feminist texts we have #if you want to understand trad fems / pro-life women / quiverfullers / antifeminist women #or any woman who seems to act against her own interests #THIS is the text you need to read #and i think if we all had we'd have a much easier time uniting as a class across political divides #andrea dworkin #promises of the ultra right #right-wing women #feminism #feminist theory #feminist text

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sophiainspace · 6 months

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“Feminism requires supporting women in a struggle to exist in this world. What do I mean by women here? I am referring to all those who travel under the sign women. No feminism worthy of its name would use the sexist idea ‘women born women’ to create the edges of feminist community, to render trans women into ‘not women,’ or ‘not born women,’ or into men. No one is born a woman; it is an assignment (not just a sign, but also a task or an imperative) that can shape us; make us; and break us… There can be violence at stake in being recognizable as women; there can be violence at stake in not being recognizable as women.”

- Sara Ahmed, ‘Living a Feminist Life’’

#I am in love with this book #sara ahmed #living a feminist life #feminist theory #intersectional feminism #trans-inclusive feminism

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out-of-the-forest-i-come · 2 months

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Feminist Non-Fiction Recs

Because feminism isn't only about your own voice and your own rights, but about the liberation of all women, it's important to uplift the voices of women who are rarely heard. To honour this international day of Women's Rights, here are some recommendations for non-fiction feminist theory books centered on women of colour.

Please note that this is a non-exhaustive list, and that some very important works might not figure on it. Take it as inspiration, not as a binding list of works to have read, and remember that this is only the surface of women of colour's writings on feminism.

all of bell hooks' books, but I would recommend "Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism" to start with intersectional feminism

There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression; by Audre Lorde

Sister Outsider; by Audre Lorde (all of Audre Lorde, actually)

Hood Feminism; by Mikki Kendall

White Tears, Brown Scars; by Ruby Hamad

Mediocre; Ijeoma Oluo

We Should All Be Feminists; by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This Bridge Called My Back; an anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Bad Feminist; by Roxane Gay

I Am Malala; by Malala Yousafzai

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment; by Patricia Hill Collins

Arab & Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, & Belonging; an anthology edited by Rabab Abduhaldi, Evelyn Alsultany and Nadine Naber

Making Space for Indigenous Feminism; an anthology edited by Joyce Green

Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women; by Amal Awad

The Trouble with White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism; by Kyla Schuller

A Decolonial Feminism; Françoise Vergès

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower; by Brittney Cooper

Women, Race, & Class; by Angela Y. Davis

These books really only scrape the surface of an intersectional approach of feminism focused on race, and if you want to discover more works, I would recommend looking at intersectional feminism and decolonial feminism. Also, if you're not a native English speaker or if you speak fluently multiple languages, I recommend looking for feminist books originally written in other languages that may not have been translated to English, as they offer a perspective that is not so American-centered, which I feel is the case in too much of today's feminism.

#international women's day #feminist books #feminist theory #intersectional feminism #decolonial feminism #women of color #non fiction books #book recs #book recommendations

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ftmtftm · 3 months

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a friend of mine once said "whenever male privilege is brought up about trans men it's always about two points: being paid more and having our ideas listened to, bc those are the easiest things they can create an elaborate what-if scenario around and they can't make an argument for anything else". failproof, glad to see it holds strong

Your friend was so incredibly right and it's really funny because those are also the two most surface level social aspects of Male Privilege as a concept and it makes sense why those specific two come up.

This isn't a fully formed thought, so bear with me for a moment but, it makes sense total sense that trans people who - as a class - are usually economically disadvantaged and left unlistened to, see a demographic (trans men) transition towards a social role that they have been taught from birth is economically safe and provides a platform and they just assume that the economic security and platform must be granted by virtue of identifying with that role.

That isn't the case though because oppressive systems don't give a shit about your personal identity, they care about the labels they place onto you and those labels often misalign with your actual character and identity.

It's people explicitly buying into and believing that the patriarchal ideal of manhood is actually attainable for marginalized men when it's not. It's a cotton ceiling. It's literally radfem "gender and sex is universal and economic status, race, sexuality, and any other marginalizations don't matter because we're talking about gender" type politics that completely fall apart even farther because we are explicitly talking about a marginalized gender minority when we talk about trans men.

Like - there's a lot of reasons why those arguments don't hold up but even just on a base level it misunderands Male Privilege as like... A boon, rather than the horrific workings of centuries of Colonialist, White Supremacist gender hierarchies in practice.

If Male Privilege is treated as though it was a trait inherently afforded to men inherently by virtue of their personal identity, without acknowledging the fact that Patriarchy is a gendered tool of subjugation empowered by White Supremacy - people don't have to confront the racialized, colonialist nature of the gender binary. They don't have to confront the reality that Black Feminists have been arguing in favor of for decades that the liberation of women, especially marginalized women, cannot come without the liberation of the men in their communities because gendered liberation is racial liberation is disability liberation is economic liberation etc. etc. etc.

If it can be asserted that trans men have systemic male privilege then uncomfortable realities about the nature of the system itself don't actually have to be confronted and that's convenient for a lot of people who aren't actually genuinely interested in liberation and are only working in their own self interest.

#asks #anon #i know i said i would probably be done with this but i'm having so many thoughts and need an outlet for them 💀#i've said it before and i'll say it again but i should just write a book at this point #male privilege #transandrophobia #ftm #intersectional feminism #intersectional theory #feminist theory

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nx18 · 1 year

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Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.

Bonnie Burstow

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lilithism1848 · 19 days

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werewiire · 6 months

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It was adult, white, wealthy males in this country who first read and fell in love with the Harry Potter books. Though written by a British female … J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are clever modern reworkings of the English schoolboy novel. Harry as our modern-day hero is the supersmart, gifted, blessed, white boy genius (a mini patriarch) who "rules" over the equally smart kids, including an occasional girl and an occasional male of color. But these books also glorify war, depicted as killing on behalf of the "good."

The Harry Potter movies glorify the use of violence to maintain control over others. In Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets violence when used by the acceptable groups is deemed positive. Sexism and racist thinking in the Harry Potter books are rarely critiqued. Had the author been a ruling-class white male, feminist thinkers might have been more active in challenging the imperialism, racism, and sexism of Rowling's books.

— bell hooks, The Will to Change

#bell hooks #harry potter critical #feminism #feminist theory #the will to change

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misespinas · 1 year

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I feel like the thing Mulan (1998) accomplished better than any other Disney ‘princess’ film was how her society valued women based off 1. their attractiveness and 2. their ability to be submissive.

Other Disney movies (ex. Beauty and the Beast) make references to the misogyny women face for being unable to fulfill traditional female roles, but the disgusting standards aren't explored nearly as much as they are in Mulan. The entire song “You'll Bring Honor to Us All” focuses on all these horrible beauty standards she is expected to uphold:

“With good breeding/ And a tiny waist”

“Like a lotus blossom/ Soft and pale”

“a perfect porcelain doll”

But the song also reflects the social status of women and their roles in society:

“Boys will gladly go to war for you”

“A girl can bring her family/ Great honor in one way/ By striking a good match”

“Men want girls with good taste/ Calm/ Obedient/ Who work fast-paced”

“A man by bearing arms/ A girl by bearing sons”

Mulan’s reflection of this caricature she is meant to become is so much more powerful and sticks out even compared to other more recent Disney movies (Frozen, The Princess and the Frog, etc.)

I personally feel like Mulan is the only ‘princess’ who does not fall into the society's expectations of feminity in come category. She does not seek to become an object, and she defies the roles her society wants her to uphold. Mulan is the only Disney film that shows the impossible standards women are given. The only film that comes close to this would be Brave.

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sasomienspegel · 1 year

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Angela Wright, ‘Disturbing the Female Gothic: An Excavation of the Northanger Novels’, in The Female Gothic: New Directions

Agnes ‘The Bleeding Nun’ from The Monk (1796)

#the bleeding nun #the monk #gothic motifs #literary criticism #feminist theory

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intersectionalpraxis · 2 months

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Before I took my first Feminist and Gender Studies course, I was already mindfully deconstructing and challenging mainstream mass media's representations of women's bodies and identities. As young as I can remember I was already cutting out advertisements in magazines and making art at 15, and making scrap books and art pieces at school on my own to protest the messages being consciously and subconsciously transmitted to young girls and women.

I wondered why I HAD to get married, why I HAD to have children, why I had to worry about what men thought of me constantly when I didn't need nor want male validation. Thinking I just 'wasn't ready" or 'hadn't met the right person yet' in high school, while deeply understanding I never really wanted either.

I didn't have a concept of feminist thought -only that feminist movements existed to 'give us the right to vote' (very superficially told that 'women have rights now because of how much women fought in the past' and this discourse both lacked reflexivity (feminism will always be relevant) and intersectionality and more).

I never learned about how institutionalized patriarchy hurts us all in many ways, nor did I know about internalized misogyny and the normalization of women being told to be complicit in their own dehumanization... no, I looked at the world around me and thought that there was a lot to be angered by -a lot to resist and question.

And sometimes we are unable to fully unpack so much without being introduced to 'theoretical tools,' but more often than not our learning/unlearning comes in waves and flows to every single one of us. And I find it wildly amusing that men -especially anonymous one's online reinforcing rape culture and misogyny, don't see themselves as part of the problem.

There would always be a desire for liberation. Feminist and women's movements gave us a language -gave us shape and named our oppression. I'm grateful for feminism. I'm glad I was able to make peace with so much in my life about gendered expectations and heteronormativity -but I am especially glad that I'm not like the people who see feminism as a poison -all those people are the real threats to so many of our lives -our safety, equality, equity, and liberation. There is a place to be critical of white feminism, of transphobia in feminist circles -of any form of hatred, but this... saying 'feminism is to blame' without introspecting is just beyond jarring and painfully ironic.

#feminist #feminism #social justice #internalized misogyny #intersectionality #intersectional feminism #intersectional social justice #feminist theory #feminism is important #feminism is for everyone #fuck the patriarchy #current events #fuck heteronormativity #heteronormativity #rape culture #gender studies #unlearning #tw sa

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