What is Radical Feminism?

What is Radical Feminism?
Discussed by Dorothea Annison, Jo Brew, Kara Dansky, Sheila Jeffreys, Lierre Keith, Laila Namdarkhan and Marian Rutigliano

[annharding]

I am 74 and have come late to radical feminism . I am going to learn more

[carmenspeer]

The Marxist feminist historian Silvia Federici has elaborated on and supported Andrea Dworkin’s observation, for example in her book *Caliban and the Witch* noting that liberalism versus conservatism has always been about movements for equal rights of *men* versus movements for hierarchies of *men*, and that the only squabble amongst these men regarding women was how best women should be allocated as a resource (as public or private property). She notes how during early capitalism, the Church would legalize prostitution during economic downturns in order to quell the anger of landless young men too poor to take a wife, and thereby prevent revolution, whereas it would be outlawed during times of economic boom, as young men were expected to take a wife and produce offspring to be laborers; during one dire economic period in France that saw huge numbers of indigent young men, rape of proletarian women was actually legalized for a time, and roving gangs of men would drag out and gang rape any woman who wasn’t married, living with her father or otherwise under a man’s protection (this really stood out to me while reading her book). It’s worth mentioning that on more than one occasion during periods of legalized prostitution, some of the prostitutes grew too powerful (as women with their own money), began to emulate the elites in dress and manner, as well as to amass great fortunes by fleecing rich men, and the Church shut them down in a heartbeat to prevent women gaining power, making prostitution illegal again in order to bankrupt women getting above their station. Prostitution is only legalized when the majority of the women in it remain disempowered, and no woman can become too powerful as a prostitute. I think we can see, from the way women in “sex work” are used and discarded as rapidly degrading market commodities on a flooded market (when legalized) how true this remains today.

And while patriarchy was formally instituted under capitalism, something which needed doing in order to create a slave class for the slave class (in order to ease the burden of men forced into wage labor), especially as peasant women had gained some informal equality with peasant men under feudalism (they could own land and, as the managers of the commons, held a lot of political sway in community affairs), really this sort of Madonna/whore division strategy goes back to the time of the temple prostitutes of ancient Sumeria, after the patriarchs conquered the preexisting matriarchal religion; the priestesses were made into prostitutes and forced into sexual servitude for all men, and were forbidden from veiling, while wives were forced to veil and could not be temple prostitutes except for one time each, when each woman was forced to be a temple prostitute to a random man on one occasion in order to remind her of her place, I suppose. This formal division of public/private ownership of women by men goes back a long way, to the creation of the first patriarchies, and we still see it play out today on the left. Gender identity’s destruction of women’s safe spaces, pornography and prostitution would all not be possible without this entrenched attitude among progressive men: the belief that women should be public utilities. This is why libertine attitudes—so seemingly opposed to traditional leftist, materialist analysis—have always persisted on the left; because women have always been counted as a resource for the real people (men), and the allocation of this resource has always been seen as something which rich and powerful men want to hoard (private ownership), thus inventing religious and economic values to justify it, while men fighting for their full rights of ownership to all women/to freedom of sexual expression (to use and/or harm women and children) are “oppressed” by their opponents’ religious values.

That’s where the whole squabble about “religious repression of sexual freedom” and “Puritan values” and “conservative sexual mores” comes from; conservative men are seen alternately as buzzkills, cockblocks and elites hoarding resources, and the libertines just want all men to be free to use women (and children) any way they see fit. Neither side cares a whit about women. What women want, for themselves or for their children, has never come into it. Much as we don’t know what society and social institutions would look like if women had actually had a hand in creating them, we have no idea what women’s sexuality would be, in the absence of patriarchal desires warping it to patriarchal ends.

This is why liberal men have sought to subsume and conquer feminism, out of a need to pretend to be progressive while acting out age-old ideals of caging women. This is all disguised as “natural” and what women want, as the dominance/submission training in both sexes starts early. Conservative men practice dominance and submission also, of course, through the realm of the domestic sphere and the nuclear family; and in antiquity, elite men did indeed hoard female resources by practicing polygamy.

I do think it’s important to call out the misogyny on the left, though, and to point out that it is equal and opposite to that on the right. I don’t think we’ll ever begin to achieve anything approaching liberation until we grapple with the problem of progressive misogyny, and that starts with telling the truth about it. I’m so glad that radical feminism does.

[Anti-PC-OG-Feminist]

Please deal with all the male trolls that come to this channel. They must learn that they cannot invade our online spaces either without consequences.

[sherylwhite]

Totally agree with Sheila on equality, and the male-created world of work that women are supposed to aspire to.

[WomensDeclaration]

Hi everyone. Please do put comments in. We aim to collect all the ideas and come up with a document that outlines what Radical Feminism is. Your ideas will be appreciated.

[greengardener]

This was so great. Thank you. We desperately need to get real 'Women's Studies' back in the universities.

[anaoicar]

One solution for the work environment is to have companies created by women, with women-only employees who work less hours than 40/week (thinking 30?) and are paid full-time (like men) while still keeping the company its profits to further develop and expand. This gives direct power to women in my opinion.

[Takiki]

49:53 Lierre is talking about a UK reality TV show called "Boys and Girls Alone", you can watch the 2 episodes on Youtube

[sheilasutton]

The statement re class and caste is an excellent way to seperate and define womens collective oppression! Thankyou!

[Angie-lkzx]

Thanks for doing this one - A video I can easily share with people in my life who I want to share a quick summary of my political perspective with

[sherylwhite]

I love this I am so a radical feminist but have no friends personally that I can own it and talk about it with. In the 80s I participated in and facilitated consciousness raising groups, which absolutely awoke me! That all petered out eventually, we all lost touch. One of the difficult things for a straight woman is having relationships with men who are "good men" but not awakened. Also having sons, who are good men, semi-awakened but not making feminism a focus in their lives.

[luxurymoon]

Excellent discussion. It felt a very comprehensive clarification!I do feel that it is very different being a lesbian radical feminist rather than a bi or hetero radical feminist

[marjoriekaye]

Very slight quibble with the concept of right wing men seeing women as private property, and left wing men seeing women as public property. Right wing men also need a population of public women to sponge up excess male violence.

[trisholiver]

Thank you! Processing, , thought provoking and clarifying

[thermidorianreaction]

Lierre: "why are men in charge of anything? How is it not obvious who should be in charge of the world?"

[LRh]

This is amazing! Keep these videos coming so we can share them!

[emmarobertson]

Yes kiss chase was a common thing when I was at primary school in the 70s, it's part of traditional "right wing" ideas about relations between the sexes

[mariehume]

Hi, I was interested in Kara's comments on intersectionality, and wondered if an analysis of relationship between radical feminism, race and class would be useful. This could also lead into relationship between patriarchal and capitalism. I would also like to see analysis of eco feminism and how it fits in with radical feminism. It was a great webinar, and thanks for all your hard work. Cheers Marie.

[kyliemaree]

Is the document ready yet?
I would like something that clearly defines what a ‘feminist analysis’ is. The beginning of the video somewhat covered this about it not being a set of conclusions but how we reach them.

[jpsciyp]

Thank you for this, very informative to help me organize my thoughts. I do have a specific question about your survey I received recently. Is there someone I can speak with about my question?