What do radical feminist believe?
Feminist movements and ideologies
Radical feminism considers the male-controlled capitalist hierarchy, which it describes as sexist, as the defining feature of women's oppression. Radical feminists believe that women can free themselves only when they have done away with what they consider an inherently oppressive and dominating patriarchal system. Radical feminists feel that there is a male-based authority and power structure and that it is responsible for oppression and inequality, and that, as long as the system and its values are in place, society will not be able to be reformed in any significant way. Some radical feminists see no alternatives other than the total uprooting and reconstruction of society in order to achieve their goals.
Deep Green Resistance
The organization's official website states that "DGR strives to be a radical organization in every respect, including our approach to feminist struggles." DGR's radical feminism views gender, by definition, as a social system created by patriarchy to coercively and violently control behavior of both males and females; however, within this system, men and masculinity are privileged, while women are trained into subordinated behavior and routinely targeted for institutionalized and socially sanctioned violence due to their sex and/or gender role.
Radical Women
Radical Women encourages its members to become union militants, and some have been sparkplugs for many years on county labor councils in San Francisco and Seattle. RW views women's mass entry into the workforce as an issue of deep significance, seeing women workers as strategically placed in the rapidly growing and powerful service sector. RW's position is that, together with people of color and lesbians and gays, women are the overwhelming majority of workers and have the potential to revolutionize society.
Radical feminism
Rejecting norms of gender, sex and sexuality is central to radical lesbian feminism. Lesbianism as a political act represents an ability to create identity from all aspects of the human condition, both masculine and feminine, while rejecting societal identities that are imposed onto bodies by a culture. Radical lesbians believed that "lesbian identity was a 'woman-identified' identity'", meaning it should be defined by and with reference to women, rather than in relation to men.
Lipstick feminism
Unlike early feminist campaigns that focused on the basic fundamental rights of women, starting with the Women's Suffrage Movement, lipstick feminism seeks to ascertain that women could still be feminist without ignoring or negating their femininity, particularly in terms of sexuality. During the second wave of feminism, feminists had focused solely on legal and social equality of women and refused to 'embrace' their sexuality; some even abhorred the idea of men and would often take on physical characteristics and persona that was far from what the average woman looked like, thus creating stereotypes of what feminism and feminists looked like. Lipstick feminism, on the other hand, embraces the concepts of womanhood and the female sexuality emitted from a woman's body and the need to embrace sex. Lipstick feminism also seeks to reclaim certain derogatory words and turn them into powerful tools for their cause such as the word 'slut' as seen in the SlutWalk movement. It developed in part as a response to the ideological backlash against radical varieties of second-wave feminism, with the negative stereotypes it generated of the “ugly feminist” or the “anti-sex feminist”; in part the result of the belief that the successes of second-wave feminism had made it possible to reclaim aspects of femininity that had earlier been seen as disempowering, like make-up or stilettos.
Liberal feminism
The basis of liberalism gave liberal feminism a familiar enough platform that it came the closest out of other waves to convincing the general public and the government that their feminist philosophies "could and should be incorporated into existing law." As Ryan Musgrave states, "Liberal feminists argued for women's rightful inclusion in the liberal category of the autonomous individual as the basic social unit, and that women likewise be accorded the individual rights connected to the category."
Critical criminology
Critical feminists – radical feminists, Marxists, and socialists – are keen to stress the need to dispense with masculine systems and structures. Radical feminists see the roots of female oppression in patriarchy, perceiving its perpetrators as primarily aggressive in both private and public spheres, violently dominating women by control of their sexuality through pornography, rape (Brownmiller 1975), and other forms of sexual violence, thus imposing upon them masculine definitions of womanhood and women's roles, particularly in the family. Marxist feminists, (Rafter & Natalizia 1981, MacKinnon 1982 & 1983) however, hold that such patriarchal structures are emergent from the class producing inequalities inherent in capitalist means of production. The production of surplus value requires that the man who works in the capitalist's factory, pit, or office, requires a secondary, unpaid worker – the woman – to keep him fit for his labours, by providing the benefits of a home – food, keeping house, raising his children, and other comforts of family. Thus, merely in order to be fit to sell his labour, the proletarian man needs to 'keep' a support worker with the already meagre proceeds of his labour. Hence women are left with virtually no economic resources and are thus seen to exist within an economic trap that is an inevitable outcome of capitalist production. Socialist feminists attempt to steer a path between the radical and the Marxist views, identifying capitalist patriarchy as the source of women's oppression (Danner 1991). Such theorists (Eisenstein 1979, Hartmann 1979 & 1981, Messerschmidt 1986, Currie 1989) accept that a patriarchal society constrains women's roles and their view of themselves but that this patriarchy is the result not of male aggression but of the mode of capitalist production. Thus neither capitalist production nor patriarchy is privileged in the production of women's oppression, powerlessness, and economic marginalization. Socialist feminists believe that gender based oppression can only be overcome by creating a non-patriarchal, non-capitalist society, and that attempting merely to modify the status quo from within perpetuates the very system that generates inequalities.
Feminism and equality
According to Diane Davis, radical feminisms "tend to be interested in female privilege rather than equality." Spiritual feminism and ecofeminism, according to Prof. Davis, are interested less in equity than in finding ways to flip the ["masculine/feminine"] binary privilege" to place "the 'feminine' ... on top (so to speak)." Some authors of utopian fiction wrote about "ideal worlds in which women's positions are better than men's".
Antifeminism
Some antifeminists have argued that feminism has resulted in changes to society's previous norms relating to sexuality, which they see as detrimental to traditional values or conservative religious beliefs. For example, the ubiquity of casual sex and the decline of marriage are mentioned as negative consequences of feminism. Some of these traditionalists oppose women's entry into the workforce, political office, and the voting process, as well as the lessening of male authority in families. Some antifeminists argue that a change of women's roles is a destructive force that endangers the family, or is contrary to religious morals. For example, Paul Gottfried maintains that the change of women's roles "has been a social disaster that continues to take its toll on the family" and contributed to a "descent by increasingly disconnected individuals into social chaos".
History of women in the United States
Notable radical feminist groups included Redstockings, founded in 1969. The group focused on power dynamics in gender and promoted consciousness-raising and distributed movement literature for free. Cell 16, founded in 1968, was a much more militant group arguing that women were conditioned by their sex-roles. The Feminists, founded by Ti-Grace Atkinson in 1968, claimed women were complicit in their oppression and needed to shed conventional gender roles. New York Radical Feminists, founded in 1969, also found maleness to be the greater issue than power roles. They were interested in building a larger movement through mass numbers in New York City.
Radical feminism
According to Ellen Willis' 1984 essay "Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism", within the New Left, radical feminists were accused of being "bourgeois", "antileft", or even "apolitical", whereas they saw themselves as "radicalizing the left by expanding the definition of radical". Early radical feminists were mostly white and middle-class, resulting in "a very fragile kind of solidarity". This limited the validity of generalizations based on radical feminists' experiences of gender relations, and prevented white and middle-class women from recognizing that they benefited from race and class privilege. Many early radical feminists broke ties with "male-dominated left groups", or would work with them only in "ad hoc" coalitions. Willis, although very much a part of early radical feminism and continuing to hold that it played a necessary role in placing feminism on the political agenda, criticized its inability "to integrate a feminist perspective with an overall radical politics", while viewing this limitation as inevitable in the context of the time.
REAL Women of Canada
REAL is directly opposed to issues that organizations such as the National Action Committee advocate and push to enact. One is abortion, which REAL opposes, claiming it is murder. In addition, the group opposes the idea of the universal childcare model, as they believe that governmental childcare represents a loss of parental control and increases the influence of the state on the family. They argue that the funding would be better spent on things such as courses on parenting skills. REAL also oppose laws guaranteeing equal pay for women, believing that this would reduce the income disparity between genders, draw women into the paid labour force, and incentivize the economic position of female-led households. They believe this represents a major threat to family values, demeans women and breaks down the traditional family. They also believe that women taking men's jobs will destroy the free market economy. Other viewpoints they oppose include programs to reduce family violence, which they claim encourage hatred toward men; no-fault divorce; and human rights protections for gays and lesbians. The overarching goal of REAL Women is to support the way of life traditionally associated with the 1950s nuclear family and arch-conservative values. Their belief is that their activism contributes to women's equality and will improve their lives. Their monthly newsletter, "Real"ity, mirrors the American conservative movement. It regularly attacks feminists such as Flora MacDonald as well as feminist campaigns.
Radical feminism
Early in the radical feminism movement, some radical feminists theorized that "other kinds of hierarchy grew out of and were modeled on male supremacy-were in effect specialized forms of male supremacy". Therefore, the fight against male domination took priority because "the liberation of women would mean the liberation of all". This view is contested, particularly by intersectional feminism and black feminism. Critics argue that this ideology accepts the notion that identities are singular and disparate, rather than multiple and intersecting. For example, understanding women's oppression as disparate assumes that "men, in creating and maintaining these systems, are acting purely as men, in accordance with peculiarly male characteristics or specifically male supremacist objectives".
Radical feminism
Some radical feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, John Stoltenberg and Monique Wittig, have supported trans-inclusivity, while others, such as Mary Daly, Janice Raymond, Robin Morgan, Germaine Greer, Sheila Jeffreys, Julie Bindel, and Robert Jensen, have argued that the transgender movement perpetuates patriarchal gender norms and is incompatible with radical-feminist ideology.
Jennifer Baumgardner
Baumgardner and Richards ask the fundamental but often overlooked questions, "who are the feminists?" and "what is feminism?" They cut to the foundational questions framing contemporary and past feminist movements in order to expose the stereotypes, inaccuracies, or misconceptions that derail and devalue the movement. This goal not only contributes to an established canon of third-wave feminist literature, but also makes the movement more appealing to young women who are misled by negative or stereotypical media and popular culture representations of feminism. They start with foundational definitions of what feminism means to them, invoking politically and socially conscious women and men. They clarify that there is no "one" formal alliance composed of "the feminists," but instead, feminism is a fluid alliance among individual citizens. This definition displays the differences between how a movement may appear on the surface—cohesive and homogeneous—and how it actually is internally. This disparity may be positive, and lend weight to feminist struggles, but it may also be negative, when the movement as a whole is judged based on the actions of one or a few individual(s). The authors argue that the latter disparity demonstrates the oppressed status of women and feminist activists, as a whole group is easily reduced to one or a few individuals, particularly in media, which disseminates this incomplete illusion.
Radical feminism
Radical lesbians believe lesbianism actively threatens patriarchal systems of power. They defined lesbians not only by their sexual preference, but by their liberation and independence from men. Lesbian activists Sydney Abbot and Barbara Love argued that "the lesbian "has" freed herself from male domination" through disconnecting from them not only sexually, but also "financially and emotionally". They argue that lesbianism fosters the utmost independence from gendered systems of power, and from the "psychological oppression" of heteronormativity.
Radical feminism
In their manifesto "The Woman-Identified Woman", the lesbian radical feminist group Radicalesbians underline the necessity of creating a "new consciousness" that rejects normative definitions of womanhood and femininity, which center on the powerlessness. This redefinition of womanhood and femininity means freeing lesbian identities from harmful and divisive stereotypes. As Abbot and Love argued in "Is Women's Liberation a Lesbian Plot?" (1971):
Feminism
Some people have opposed feminism on the grounds that they believe it is contrary to traditional values or religious beliefs. These anti-feminists argue, for example, that social acceptance of divorce and non-married women is wrong and harmful, and that men and women are fundamentally different and thus their different traditional roles in society should be maintained. Other anti-feminists oppose women's entry into the workforce, political office, and the voting process, as well as the lessening of male authority in families.
Socialist feminism
Radical Women, a major Marxist-feminist organization, bases its theory on Marx' and Engels' analysis that the enslavement of women was the first building block of an economic system based on private property. They contend that elimination of the capitalist profit-driven economy will remove the motivation for sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression.
Essentialism
In feminist theory and gender studies, gender essentialism is the attribution of a fixed essence to women. Women's essence is assumed to be universal and is generally identified with those characteristics viewed as being specifically feminine. These ideas of femininity are usually biologized and are often preoccupied with psychological characteristics, such as nurturance, empathy, support, and non-competitiveness, etc. Feminist theorist Elizabeth Grosz states in her 1995 publication "Space, time and perversion: essays on the politics of bodies" that essentialism "entails the belief that those characteristics defined as women's essence are shared in common by all women at all times. It implies a limit of the variations and possibilities of change—it is not possible for a subject to act in a manner contrary to her essence. Her essence underlies all the apparent variations differentiating women from each other. Essentialism thus refers to the existence of fixed characteristic, given attributes, and ahistorical functions that limit the possibilities of change and thus of social reorganization."
Annette Kolodny
Gardiner, on the other hand, disagrees with Kolodny about the use of pluralism. While there can be no single ideology to which all feminist theories belong, Gardiner writes, there are some strong ideological concepts that define areas of feminism. Examples of this would include liberal feminism, socialist feminism, and ecofeminism. In Gardiner’s view, the strong ideological beliefs shared by these groups would "limit their susceptibility to pluralism." (Gardiner 634)
Radical Women
Radical Women calls for a multi-racial, multi-issue, working class and anticapitalist approach to women's liberation. The group looks to the leadership of the women of color and lesbians in movements for social change, and calls for solidarity and mutual aid of all the oppressed.
Radical Women
"The Radical Women Manifesto: Socialist Feminist Theory, Program and Organizational Structure" defines Radical Women's purpose and ideology as follows:
Social feminism
The concept of social feminism is useful in defining a range of activities, but the idea that it is incompatible with radical feminism may be misleading.
In "The Ideas of the Woman's Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920" (1965) Aileen S. Kraditor contrasted belief in the natural justice of women having the right to vote, common among suffragists up to the end of the 19th century, with belief in the "expediency" of women having the vote so they could address social issues, more common in the early 20th century.
However, Kraditor saw a gradual shift in emphasis from "justice" to "expediency" in the rationales for women's suffrage rather than a conflict between the two positions.
Organizations such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union were primarily social feminist, while the National American Woman Suffrage Association was primarily "hard-core" in O'Neill's sense, but there was considerable overlap in their membership.
Activists such as Mary Ritter Beard, Florence Kelley and Maud Younger fall into both categories.
Radical feminism
Early radical feminism, arising within second-wave feminism in the 1960s, typically viewed patriarchy as a "transhistorical phenomenon" prior to or deeper than other sources of oppression, "not only the oldest and most universal form of domination but the primary form" and the model for all others. Later politics derived from radical feminism ranged from cultural feminism to more syncretic politics that placed issues of class, economics, etc. on a par with patriarchy as sources of oppression.
Liberalism
Liberal feminism, the dominant tradition in feminist history, is an individualistic form of feminist theory which focuses on women's ability to maintain their equality through their own actions and choices. Liberal feminists hope to eradicate all barriers to gender equality, claiming that the continued existence of such barriers eviscerates the individual rights and freedoms ostensibly guaranteed by a liberal social order. They argue that society holds the false belief that women are by nature less intellectually and physically capable than men; thus it tends to discriminate against women in the academy, the forum and the marketplace. Liberal feminists believe that "female subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints that blocks women's entrance to and success in the so-called public world". They strive for sexual equality via political and legal reform.
Feminist epistemology
Post-modern thought marks a feminist group shift away from dominant, positivistic ideals of objectivity and universal understanding. Instead, it acknowledges a diversity of unique human perspectives, none of which can claim absolute knowledge authority. Post-Modern feminism has thus been critiqued for having a relativist-stance, where ongoing power relations between key identities have been often neglected attention. It is possible to see this political stance in direct opposition to the “emancipatory aspirations” of women. However, Saba Mahmood would argue this critique is in some ways oppositional to global understandings of female desire, where the idea of ‘freedom’ is an essential, conditionally oppressive component to western feminism which may wrongly assume that women of eastern countries dominated by male power are victims needing to be liberated.
Transfeminism
Transfeminist critics of mainstream feminism say that as an institutionalized movement, feminism has lost sight of the basic idea that biology is not destiny. In fact, they argue, many feminists seem perfectly comfortable equating sex and gender and insisting on a given destiny for trans persons based on nothing more than biology. Transfeminism resists and challenges the fixedness of gender that traditional approaches to women's studies depend upon.
Networked feminism
The rejection of the feminist ideologies sometimes is due to the often misinterpreted ideologies of feminisms. Views from more radical feminists and stereotyped views of feminism, most antifeminists view those who hold feminist ideologies are those who are against men and may group all men into the category of rapists, monsters, and enemies. This view has become so prolific that many women and men now refuse to identify as such due to the negative stigma attached to the word, even if they are feminists or believe in equality across all groups of minorities. Nowadays, 21st century antifeminists can be seen focusing on the rejection of all feminist ideologies, with some subscribing to the ideology of humanism rather than feminism. According to the 2002 Amsterdam Declaration of the World Humanist Congress, humanism, "affirms the worth, dignity, and autonomy of the individual" against religious and political dogmas. However, humanism's foundations were first created in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, A cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasized human potential to attain excellence and promoted direct study of the literature, art, and civilization of classical Greece and Rome. Judith Butler explains that humanism "supposes that there is one single idea of what it is to be human". Therefore, humanism turns away from difference and diversity and does not create opportunities for all social groups to be considered equal.
Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentros
The Fourth "Encuentro" was held in Taxco, in Mexico's Guerrero state in 1987 and was attended by over 1,500 women, many of whom came from adjoining Central America and were new to the concepts of feminism. Debate over who was a feminist intensified with those who had a long history in the movement frustrated at the lack of understanding of the grassroots activists who had recently joined in the dialogue. Those on the opposite side of the debate drew up a document outlining the "myths of the feminist movement", which became an important tool in the ongoing discussions of inclusion. The ten myths included: 1. feminists are uninterested in power, 2. feminists practice politics in other ways, 3. all feminists are the same, 4. women are naturally united because of their gender, 5. feminism is only a policy of women towards women, 6. the movement is only small groups of women, 7. having specified spaces for women guarantees processes will be positive, 8. feminists apologize for being woman, 9. personal feminism is automatically political, and 10. consensus is democracy. By reiterating their differences and discussing them, there was recognition that the myths were the source of frustration and that their diversity did not necessarily divide their purpose. By acknowledging that it was not necessary for them to select a hegemonic path nor a homogeneous one, they were able to resolve the differences between them and recognize that feminism wasn't a concept that could be possessed or owned by any one group and that greater inclusion expanded their reach.
Feminist views on sexuality
Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and political perspective, most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s (primarily in North America and Western Europe), that encourages women to direct their energies toward other women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Some key thinkers and activists are Charlotte Bunch, Rita Mae Brown, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Marilyn Frye, Mary Daly, Sheila Jeffreys and Monique Wittig (although the latter is more commonly associated with the emergence of queer theory). Lesbian feminism came together in the early 1970s out of dissatisfaction with second-wave feminism and the gay liberation movement.
Women's Front
The Women's Front is traditionally regarded as Norway's main radical feminist organization. Feminist studies scholars and queer feminists Janne Bromseth, Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen, Lin Prøitz, Katrina Roen and Stine H. Bang Svendsen have noted that "trans-exclusionary radical feminism" (TERF) rhetoric appears to be a strong current in the radical feminism of the Women's Front and similar groups in Norway.
Socialist feminism
Orthodox Marxists argue that most Marxist forerunners claimed by feminists or Marxist feminists including Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai were against capitalist forms of feminism. They agreed with the main Marxist movement that feminism was a bourgeois ideology counterposed to Marxism and against the working class. Instead of feminism, the Marxists supported the more radical political program of liberating women through socialist revolution, with a special emphasis on work among women and in materially changing their conditions after the revolution. Orthodox Marxists view the later attempt to combine Marxism and feminism as a liberal creation of academics and reformist leftists who want to make alliances with bourgeois feminists. For instance, Alexandra Kollontai wrote in 1909: For what reason, then, should the woman worker seek a union with the bourgeois feminists? Who, in actual fact, would stand to gain in the event of such an alliance? Certainly not the woman worker.
Radical feminism
Radical feminists locate the root cause of women's oppression in patriarchal gender relations, as opposed to legal systems (as in liberal feminism) or class conflict (as in anarchist feminism, socialist feminism, and Marxist feminism).
Radical feminism
Radical feminists assert that society is a patriarchy in which the class of men are the oppressors of the class of women. They propose that the oppression of women is the most fundamental form of oppression, one that has existed since the inception of humanity. As radical feminist Ti-Grace Atkinson wrote in her foundational piece "Radical Feminism" (1969):
Feminist views on sexuality
Feminist views on sexuality widely vary. Many feminists, particularly radical feminists, are highly critical of what they see as sexual objectification and sexual exploitation in the media and society. Radical feminists are often opposed to the sex industry, including opposition to prostitution and pornography. Other feminists define themselves as sex-positive feminists and believe that a wide variety of expressions of female sexuality can be empowering to women when they are freely chosen. Some feminists support efforts to reform the sex industry to become less sexist, such as the feminist pornography movement.
Feminist political theory
Marxist feminism and socialist feminism considered classism as the primary source of women's oppression. "... Marxist theory does not allow women any more than other classes of oppressed people to constitute themselves as historical subjects, because Marxism does not take into account the fact that a class also consists of individuals one by one. Class consciousness is not enough. We must try to understand philosophically (politically) these concepts of 'subject' and 'class consciousness' and how they work in relation to our history." Early radical feminism was grounded in the rejection of the nuclear family and femininity as constructed within heterosexuality. and Radical feminism abdicated any previous forms of political theory to develop entirely new theories rooted primarily on the direct experiences of women. Radical Feminismhas experienced many transitions over time, including facing an anti feminist backlash(humanism) but the theoretical history and survivalremains important to understand.
Feminist views on BDSM
Feminist views on BDSM vary widely from rejection to acceptance. BDSM refers to bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and Sado-Masochism. In order to evaluate its perception, two polarizing frameworks are compared. Some feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Susan Griffin, have stated that they regard BDSM as a form of woman-hating violence, while other feminists, such as Gayle Rubin and Patrick Califia, perceive BDSM as a valid form of expression of female sexuality. Some lesbian feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity.
Radical lesbianism
The principles of radical lesbianism are similar to those of lesbian separatism, however, there are some important differences. In her preface to Monique Wittig's "The Straight Mind and Other Essays", Quebec radical lesbian Louise Turcotte explains her views that "Radical lesbians have reached a basic consensus that views heterosexuality as a political regime which must be overthrown." Turcotte notes that Lesbian Separatists "create a new category" (i.e., complete separation not only from men but also from heterosexual women)" and that the radical lesbian movement aims for the "destruction of the existing framework of heterosexuality as a political regime". Turcotte goes on to discuss Adrienne Rich's landmark essay, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence", noting that Rich describes heterosexuality as a violent political institution that has to be "imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force". Rich sees lesbian existence as an act of resistance to this institution, but also as an individual choice, whereas the principles of radical lesbianism see lesbianism as necessary, and consider its existence as necessarily outside of the heterosexual political sphere of influence.
Feminist movements and ideologies
Individualist feminism is typically defined as a feminism in opposition to what writers such as Wendy McElroy and Christina Hoff Sommers term "political" or "gender feminism". However, there are some differences within the discussion of individualist feminism. While some individualist feminists like McElroy oppose government interference into the choices women make with their bodies because such interference creates a coercive hierarchy (such as patriarchy), other feminists such as Christina Hoff Sommers hold that feminism's political role is simply to ensure that everyone's, including women's, right against coercive interference is respected. Sommers is described as a "socially conservative equity feminist" by the "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Critics have called her an anti-feminist.
Anti-abortion feminism
Anti-abortion feminism or pro-life feminism is the opposition to abortion by some feminists who believe that the principles which inform their support of women's rights also call them to support the right to life of prenatal humans. Anti-abortion feminists believe abortion hurts women more than it benefits them.
Feminism and equality
A minority of feminists have called for the existence of one or possibly more societies in which women would govern women and men. Some scholars have reported that some such societies existed, although not without dispute as to their existence. According to Cynthia Eller, feminist spirituality stated a belief in "female equality or superiority" in the past and the future while not in the present and some adherents debated "female supremacy versus equality of power relations between the sexes" in prehistory. In the early 20th century, however, few of the first feminists created any organization to develop a concept or plan for such a society.
Political lesbianism
Separatist feminism is a form of radical feminism that holds that opposition to patriarchy is best done through focusing exclusively on women and girls. Some separatist feminists do not believe that men can make positive contributions to the feminist movement and that even well-intentioned men replicate the dynamics of patriarchy.
Feminist views on sexuality
While many radical feminists are opposed to BDSM, other feminists view S/M as an ideal feminist expression of sexual freedom while other feminists say that BDSM, and more particularly SM, reinforce patriarchy and that these practices are contradictory to feminism. Additionally, some feminists are open about practicing BDSM. Many sex-positive feminists see BDSM as a valid form of expression of female sexuality. Some lesbian feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity. Jessica Wakeman wrote of her own experience with SM activities in a follow-up interview after her article First Time For Everything: Getting Spanked was published in 2009. At the time of the interview in October, 2010, Wakeman had been writing about feminist issues, including feminism and media criticism, feminism and politics, and feminism and sex for about eight years and considered herself to be a rather active feminist. Wakeman discussed how she is able to enjoy spanking play and being dominated and still be a feminist. Like other feminist BDSM practitioners, Wakeman rejects the argument that women are taught what they enjoy and led to be submissive by a dominant sexist power structure.
Radical feminism
Radical feminists say that consumption of pornography is a cause of rape and other forms of violence against women. Robin Morgan summarizes this idea with her oft-quoted statement, "Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice." They charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment. In her book "Only Words" (1993), MacKinnon argues that pornography "deprives women of the right to express verbal refusal of an intercourse".
History of women in the United States
While radical feminists agreed that a separate movement for them was needed, how that movement looked and its ultimate goals caused much divide. They questioned whether they should include men within their movement, whether they should focus on issues of war, race and class, and who or what it was they were exactly rallying against. There were also issues concerning African American women within the movement; while the radical feminists felt gender to be the greatest issue, African American women were also very much concerned with racism and many found that to be where oppression was most domineering. Despite being inspired by the black power movement, radical feminists had difficulty figuring out a place for race within their gender-centric movement. They were also divided over the place of lesbianism in the movement.
Radical feminism
Redstockings and The Feminists were both radical feminist organizations, but held rather distinct views. Most members of Redstockings held to a materialist and anti-psychologistic view. They viewed men's oppression of women as ongoing and deliberate, holding individual men responsible for this oppression, viewing institutions and systems (including the family) as mere vehicles of conscious male intent, and rejecting psychologistic explanations of female submissiveness as blaming women for collaboration in their own oppression. They held to a view—which Willis would later describe as "neo-Maoist"—that it would be possible to unite all or virtually all women, as a class, to confront this oppression by personally confronting men.
The Feminists held a more idealistic, psychologistic, and utopian philosophy, with a greater emphasis on "sex roles", seeing sexism as rooted in "complementary patterns of male and female behavior". They placed more emphasis on institutions, seeing marriage, family, prostitution, and heterosexuality as all existing to perpetuate the "sex-role system". They saw all of these as institutions to be destroyed. Within the group, there were further disagreements, such as Koedt's viewing the institution of "normal" sexual intercourse as being focused mainly on male sexual or erotic pleasure, while Atkinson viewed it mainly in terms of reproduction. In contrast to the Redstockings, The Feminists generally considered genitally focused sexuality to be inherently male. Ellen Willis, the Redstockings co-founder, would later write that insofar as the Redstockings considered abandoning heterosexual activity, they saw it as a "bitter price" they "might have to pay for [their] militance", whereas The Feminists embraced separatist feminism as a strategy.
Postcolonial feminism
Postcolonial feminists do not agree that women are a universal group and reject the idea of a global sisterhood. Thus, the examination of what truly binds women together is necessary in order to understand the goals of the feminist movements and the similarities and differences in the struggles of women worldwide. The aim of the postcolonial feminist critique to traditional Western feminism is to strive to understand the simultaneous engagement in more than one distinct but intertwined emancipatory battle.
Radical feminism
Radical feminists point to the testimony of well known participants in pornography, such as Traci Lords and Linda Boreman, and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else, or by an unfortunate set of circumstances. The feminist anti-pornography movement was galvanized by the publication of "Ordeal", in which Linda Boreman (who under the name of "Linda Lovelace" had starred in "Deep Throat") stated that she had been beaten, raped, and pimped by her husband Chuck Traynor, and that Traynor had forced her at gunpoint to make scenes in "Deep Throat", as well as forcing her, by use of both physical violence against Boreman as well as emotional abuse and outright threats of violence, to make other pornographic films. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Women Against Pornography issued public statements of support for Boreman, and worked with her in public appearances and speeches.
Feminist interventions in the philosophy of law
Dominant, or "radical", feminists maintain that there are differences between men and women, but these differences do not derive from innate differences between men and women; rather, such differences come as a result of women being subjugated by men in larger society. As such, it is not merely enough to embrace the differences between men and women: sexual equality under the rule of law must be established upon a female paradigm that cannot simply be an addition to the current paradigm of masculinity. In terms of philosophical interventions, dominant feminists contend that a systemic reevaluation must take place within any legal system that operates to subjugate women. Moreover, the law must be constructed in such a way that it does not work to a disparate effect of either sex.
Feminist views on prostitution
Whereas radical feminists consider sex workers to be victims of circumstances and false consciousness, the liberal feminists and women who chose to participate in sex work do not consider themselves to be victims of any sort. Instead, they consider their actions to be liberating and providing them with a sense of control.
Feminazi
Limbaugh has stated that the term "feminazi" refers to "radical feminists" whose goal is "to see that there are as many abortions as possible" and a small group of "militants" whom he distinguishes from "well-intentioned but misguided people who call themselves 'feminists'". However, the term came to be used more widely for the feminist movement as a whole; Limbaugh has used it in reference to the Feminist Majority Foundation, among other groups and individuals. The sociologist Michael Kimmel writes in "Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era" that the term attacks feminism by "phantasmagorically linking campaigns for wage equality, or safety from battery and rape, to the organized, methodical genocide in the Third Reich".
Feminist movements and ideologies
Marx felt that when class oppression was overcome gender oppression would vanish as well; this is Marxist feminism. Some socialist feminists, many of Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party, point to the classic Marxist writings of Frederick Engels and August Bebel as a powerful explanation of the link between gender oppression and class exploitation. To some other socialist feminists, this view of gender oppression is naive and much of the work of socialist feminists has gone towards separating gender phenomena from class phenomena. Some contributors to socialist feminism have criticized these traditional Marxist ideas for being largely silent on gender oppression except to subsume it underneath broader class oppression.
Feminism and equality
Feminist author bell hooks wrote, "Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men... The feminism they hear about the most is portrayed by women who are primarily committed to gender equality — equal pay for equal work, and sometimes women and men sharing household chores and parenting." "[F]eminism is a movement to end sexist oppression."
Feminism
Writers such as Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff Sommers, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Lisa Lucile Owens and Daphne Patai oppose some forms of feminism, though they identify as feminists. They argue, for example, that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women. Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge argue that the term "anti-feminist" is used to silence academic debate about feminism. Lisa Lucile Owens argues that certain rights extended exclusively to women are patriarchal because they relieve women from exercising a crucial aspect of their moral agency.
Radical Women
RW believes in mobilizing community protest against rightwing assaults on reproductive freedom. It calls for free abortion on demand, an end to forced sterilization of women of color, and for affordable, quality, 24-hour childcare.
Li Xiaojiang
Li Xiaojiang took up an independent feminist viewpoint based on her Marxist background that did not align with the State’s position on women’s liberation. Like many Chinese feminists, Li usually does not call herself a feminist, both because of the state, and to distance her point of view from Western feminism. She speaks out against Western feminism, which is not always relevant to Chinese women’s situations. In her opinion, the problems facing Western women and Chinese women were quite different and the solutions found by Western feminism would not work for Chinese feminism. The important goal of Western feminism was financial freedom for women. Li’s feminist theory believes that an important part of Chinese Feminism is home and family. She wants to be able to remain feminine while still being equal to men. Her vision of Feminism largely involves personal fulfilment which cannot be given to you from the outside.
Postfeminism
Some contemporary feminists, such as Katha Pollitt or Nadine Strossen, consider feminism to hold simply that "women are people." Views that separate the sexes rather than unite them are considered by these writers to be "sexist" rather than "feminist".
Gender feminism
Wendy McElroy also defines gender or political feminism in opposition to individualist feminism, and synonymous with radical feminism.
McElroy describes gender feminism as rooted in social constructionism. She describes gender feminists as asserting that women lack agency and are solely defined by the social institutions they inhabit, unable to make free choices. Accordingly, McElroy describes the gender feminist agenda as the destruction or transformation of social institutions. McElroy rejects these views as a means of disregarding the free choices of women to support existing institutions and oppose gender feminism.
Christina Hoff Sommers
Sommers said in 2014 that she is a registered Democrat "with libertarian leanings". She describes equity feminism as the struggle based upon Enlightenment principles of individual justice for equal legal and civil rights and many of the original goals of the early feminists, as in the first wave of the women's movement. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy categorizes equity feminism as libertarian or classically liberal. She characterizes gender feminism as having transcended the liberalism of early feminists so that instead of focusing on rights for all, gender feminists view society through the sex/gender prism and focus on recruiting women to join the struggle against patriarchy. "Reason" reviewed "Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women" and characterized gender feminism as the action of accenting the differences of genders in order to create what Sommers believes is privilege for women in academia, government, industry, or the advancement of personal agendas.
Sex-positive feminism
McElroy argues that many feminists have been afraid of being associated with homosexuality. Betty Friedan, one of the founders of second-wave feminism, warned against lesbianism and called it "the lavender menace" (a view she later renounced). Sex-positive feminists believe that accepting the validity of all sexual orientations is necessary in order to allow women full sexual freedom. Rather than distancing themselves from homosexuality and bisexuality because they fear it will hurt mainstream acceptance of feminism, sex-positive feminists believe that women's liberation cannot be achieved without also promoting acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality.
Feminist views on BDSM
Current feminist viewpoints on BDSM practices continue to be controversial and at odds with one another. Some feminists view SM as an ideal feminist expression of sexual freedom while other feminists say that BDSM, and more particularly SM, reinforce patriarchy and that these practices are contradictory to feminism. Feminists who view BDSM as contradictory to feminism also often believe that women who engage in BDSM practices, and specifically those who play a submissive role in them, have been led by sexist power structures to believe that they enjoy these acts. This feminist viewpoint argues that the individuals who enjoy playing a submissive role in the bedroom only enjoy it because they have been led to believe that it is what is expected of them and that they should enjoy it. This viewpoint argues that if these individuals, particularly women, were able to explore their sexual desires without the influence of a sexist power structure that they would come to very different conclusions about what they enjoy.
Feminist movements and ideologies
Third-world feminism has been described as a group of feminist theories developed by feminists who acquired their views and took part in feminist politics in so-called third-world countries. Although women from the third world have been engaged in the feminist movement, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Sarojini Sahoo criticize Western feminism on the grounds that it is ethnocentric and does not take into account the unique experiences of women from third-world countries or the existence of feminisms indigenous to third-world countries. According to Mohanty, women in the third world feel that Western feminism bases its understanding of women on "internal racism, classism and homophobia". This discourse is strongly related to African feminism and postcolonial feminism. Its development is also associated with black feminism, womanism, "Africana womanism", "motherism", "Stiwanism", "negofeminism", chicana feminism, and "femalism".
Maternal feminism
Maternal feminism is the belief of many early feminists that women as mothers and caregivers had an important but distinctive role to play in society and in politics. 
It incorporates reform ideas from social feminism, and combines the concepts of maternalism and feminism. It was a widespread philosophy among well-to-do women in the British Empire, particularly Canada, from the late 19th century until after World War I (1914–18). The concept was attacked by later feminists as accepting the paternalist view of society and providing an excuse for inequality.
Radical lesbianism
Radical lesbianism is separate from other feminist movements because it exists in opposition to the exclusion of queer women from mainstream feminism. For example, The Lavender Menaces formed in response to Betty Friedan's declaration that lesbians should not be involved in the feminist movement.
Women's liberation movement in North America
By the late 1970s, the Marxist and liberationists' alliance fractured in part because of media characterization of radicals in the grass-roots movement as "crazy", but in part because the radical grass-roots groups had difficulty mobilizing women under abstract theories. Bonnie Kreps, who wrote "Radical Feminism 1" which was published in 1973 in the anthology "Radical Feminism: The Book" portrayed Canadian feminists as falling into three categories: socialist feminists, who were opposed to capitalism; liberal feminists, who were concerned with equal rights and equal pay; and radical feminists who focused on "the oppression of women as women" or sexism. Activists who had been involved in the WLM turned their efforts toward violence against women, when the liberal feminists gained the dominant position and public perception that legal change to the existing systems were the legitimate concerns of the women's movement. In 2007, Marjolaine Péloquin, published a history of the movement in Quebec, "En prison pour la cause des femmes: la conquête du banc des jurés" (In prison for the cause of women: the conquest of the jury box), critically analyzing the short-lived but significant impact of the FLF.
Marxist feminism
Critics like Kollontai believed liberal feminism would undermine the efforts of Marxism to improve conditions for the working class. Marxists supported the more radical political program of liberating women through socialist revolution, with a special emphasis on work among women and in materially changing their conditions after the revolution. Additional liberation methods supported by Marxist feminists include radical demands coined as "Utopian Demands" by Maria Mies. This indication of the scope of revolution required to promote change states that demanding anything less than complete reform will produce inadequate solutions to long-term issues.
Women Against Feminism
Supporters say modern feminism has gone astray in some ways and cite examples such as radical feminists not supporting trans women and saying things such as, "anyone born a man retains male privilege in society, even if he chooses to live as a woman", and related complaints that some feminists exaggerate women's problems while ignoring men's problems. Also cited was the abortion debate and the argument that women have suffered as a result of a feminist culture that promotes casual sex as empowering. In an op-ed for , Margaret Wente supports Women Against Feminism saying she believes modern feminism has become a belief system that presents a distorted view of reality based on misandry and victim-culture and she questions the existence of rape culture.
Radical feminism
In the 1960s, radical feminism emerged simultaneously within liberal feminist and working-class feminist discussions, first in the United States, then in the United Kingdom and Australia. Those involved had gradually come to believe that it was not only the middle-class nuclear family that oppressed women, but that it was also social movements and organizations that claimed to stand for human liberation, notably the counterculture, the New Left, and Marxist political parties, all of which were male-dominated and male-oriented. In the United States, radical feminism developed as a response to some of the perceived failings of both New Left organizations such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and feminist organizations such as NOW. Initially concentrated in big cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, and on the West Coast, radical feminist groups spread across the country rapidly from 1968 to 1972.
Radical feminism
By contrast, trans-inclusive radical feminists claim that a biology-based or sex-essentialist ideology itself upholds patriarchal constructions of womanhood. Andrea Dworkin argued as early as 1974 that transgender people and gender identity research have the potential to radically undermine patriarchal sex essentialism: "Work with transsexuals, and studies of formation of gender identity in children provide basic information which challenges the notion that there are two distinct biological sexes. That information threatens to transform the traditional biology of sex difference into the radical biology of sex similarity". More recently, in 2015, radical feminist Catherine MacKinnon said that "male dominant society has defined women as a discrete biological group forever. If this was going to produce liberation, we'd be free... To me, women is a political group. I never had much occasion to say that, or work with it, until the last few years when there has been a lot of discussion about whether trans women are women" - and further, "I always thought I don't care how someone becomes a woman or a man; it does not matter to me. It is just part of their specificity, their uniqueness, like everyone else's. Anybody who identifies as a woman, wants to be a woman, is going around being a woman, as far as I'm concerned, is a woman."
Elana Maryles Sztokman
Sztokman frequently writes about feminism as an expression of compassionate spirituality, based on the teaching that all people—women and men—are created in the divine image. She wrote at the Wexner Foundation, for example:
The women – and men – who have dedicated their lives and spirits to protecting women’s places in religious life are the spiritual warriors of our generation. We continue to put forth an alternative vision for Orthodoxy, one that does not see 'stricter' or more 'radical' as more 'authentic' but actually views compassion and gender equity as foundational elements of Torah. We are not looking to proponents of radical Orthodoxy for approval...The fight for women’s rights in Orthodoxy is not just about women, and it’s not just about rights. It’s about constructing a vision for a Jewish society that values both adherence to Torah and the perpetuation of a spirit of humanity and compassion...The feminists are literally on the frontlines of the battle to create a community that can actually consider itself a light to the nations, a community that is not afraid of cooties but is afraid of what will happen to us when we stop appreciating that all humans were created in the Divine image.
Sztokman's positions on issues such as women's inclusion in partnership women, women rabbis, women wearing tefillin, and solutions for the problem of agunot, are all premised on this "spiritual feminism" that seeks to build a compassionate Jewish community.
Sex workers' rights
Sex-positive feminists believe that no form of sexual expression should be vilified, except that which is not consensual. One of the main advocates of this feminist perspective is Carol Queen. She argues that radical feminists probably generalize too widely as far as women are concerned, and do not take into consideration more complicated circumstances such as sadomasochism and prostitution. Elisa Glick also states that configurations of power within relationships do not prevent women from exercising it and that they can be used to enable women to exercise it.
Transphobia
Radical feminists who hold negative views on transgender politics are commonly called "TERFs", short for "trans-exclusionary radical feminists". Those whom the term is targeted against, in turn, have perceived their labeling as "TERF" to be a slur. Feminist journalist Sarah Ditum, who writes for "The Guardian" and the "New Statesman", said that the term is used to silence feminists through guilt by association. Meghan Murphy, founder of Canadian feminist website Feminist Current, opined that "TERF" should be considered hate speech after a woman was physically assaulted and several people defended or celebrated the assault on the grounds that the woman was a "TERF" and as such deserving of violence.
Women in Christianity
Christian Feminists take an actively feminist position from a Christian perspective. Recent generations have experienced the rise of what has been labeled by some as "Christian feminism" —a movement that has had a profound impact on all of life, challenging some traditional basic Christian interpretations of Scripture with respect to roles for women. However, Christian feminism represents the views of the more theologically liberal end of the spectrum within Christianity. In contrast to the more socially conservative Christian egalitarians, Christian feminists tend to support LGBT rights and a pro-choice stance on abortion. The Evangelical and Ecumenical Women’s Caucus, a major international Christian feminist organization, values "inclusive images and language for God".
Radical feminism
These women helped secure the bridge that translated radical protest for racial equality over to the struggle for women's rights; by witnessing the discrimination and oppression to which the black population was subjected, they were able to gain strength and motivation to do the same for their fellow women. They took up the cause and advocated for a variety of women's issues, including abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, access to credit, and equal pay. Most women of color (who were predominantly working-class) did not participate in the formation of the radical feminist movement because it did not address many issues that were relevant to those from a working-class background. But for those who felt compelled to stand up for the cause, radical action was needed, so they took to the streets and formed consciousness raising groups to rally support for the cause and recruit people willing to fight for it. Later, second-wave radical feminism saw greater numbers of black feminists and other women of color participating.
Independent Women's Forum
The IWF opposes many mainstream feminist positions, describing them as "radical feminism". IWF-affiliated writers have argued that the gender gap in income exists because of women's greater demand for flexibility, fewer hours, and less travel in their careers, rather than because of sexism. In an article for the "Dallas Morning News", IWF Vice-President Carrie Lukas attributed gender disparities in income to "women's own choices", writing that women "tend to place a higher priority on flexibility and personal fulfillment than do men, who focus more on pay. Women tend to avoid jobs that require travel or relocation, and they take more time off and spend fewer hours in the office than men do. Men disproportionately take on the most dirty, dangerous and depressing jobs."
Radical feminism
The argument against trans inclusion states that since trans women are born male, they are accorded corresponding privileges in society. Even if they choose to live as women, the fact that they have a choice in this sets them apart from people born female. Their insistence on 'being women' is seen as another form of entitlement stemming from their privileged position. Further, these radical feminists reject the feminine essence concept of transsexuality (the idea that there is a "female brain" or innate feminine feeling). They believe that the difference in behavior between men and women is the result of socialization; Lierre Keith describes femininity as "a set of behaviors that are, in essence, ritualized submission". In this view, gender is not an identity but a caste position, and gender identity politics are an obstacle to gender abolition. They hold the same position with respect to race and class. Julie Bindel argued in 2008 that Iran carries out the highest number of sex-change operations in the world because "surgery is an attempt to keep gender stereotypes intact", and that "[i]t is precisely this idea that certain distinct behaviours are appropriate for males and females that underlies feminist criticism of the phenomenon of 'transgenderism'." (According to the BBC in 2014, there are no reliable figures regarding gender-reassignment operations in Iran.)
The Feminists
The Feminists held that women were oppressed by their internalization of patriarchal sex roles, and hence suffered from a kind of false consciousness. To liberate themselves from such oppressive roles, The Feminists held that the feminist movement must be entirely autonomous from men and eventually came to hold that women should be free of men in their personal lives as well. The group was strongly opposed to the sexual revolution, holding that it was simply a way for men to get easier access to women's bodies. Ti-Grace Atkinson was one of the first radical feminists to be specifically critical of pornography.
Anarchist schools of thought
Anarcha-feminism (occasionally called anarcho-feminism) is a form of anarchism that synthesizes radical feminism and anarchism that views patriarchy (male domination over women) as a fundamental manifestation of involuntary hierarchy which anarchists often oppose. Anarcha-feminism was inspired in the late 19th century by the writings of early feminist anarchists such as Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre. Anarcha-feminists, like other radical feminists, criticize and advocate the abolition of traditional conceptions of family, education and gender roles. Anarcha-feminists are especially critical of marriage. For instance, the feminist anarchist Emma Goldman has argued that marriage is a purely economic arrangement and that "[woman] pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life".
Radical feminism
Radical feminist thinking has analyzed prostitution as a cornerstone of patriarchal domination and sexual subjugation of women that impacts negatively not only on the women and girls in prostitution but on all women as a group, because prostitution continually affirms and reinforces patriarchal definitions of women as having a primary function to serve men sexually. They say it is crucial that society does not replace one patriarchal view on female sexuality—e.g., that women should not have sex outside marriage/a relationship and that casual sex is shameful for a woman, etc.—with another similarly oppressive and patriarchal view—acceptance of prostitution, a sexual practice based on a highly patriarchal construct of sexuality: that the sexual pleasure of a woman is irrelevant, that her only role during sex is to submit to the man's sexual demands and to do what he tells her, that sex should be controlled by the man, and that the woman's response and satisfaction are irrelevant. Radical feminists argue that sexual liberation for women cannot be achieved so long as we normalize unequal sexual practices where a man dominates a woman. "Feminist consciousness raising remains the foundation for collective struggle and the eventual liberation of women".
Radical feminism
Radical feminists strongly object to the patriarchal ideology that has been one of the justifications for the existence of prostitution, namely that prostitution is a "necessary evil", because men cannot control themselves; therefore it is "necessary" that a small number of women be "sacrificed" to be used and abused by men, to protect "chaste" women from rape and harassment. These feminists see prostitution as a form of slavery, and say that, far from decreasing rape rates, prostitution leads to a sharp "increase" in sexual violence against women, by sending the message that it is acceptable for a man to treat a woman as a sexual instrument over which he has total control. Melissa Farley argues that Nevada's high rape rate is connected to legal prostitution. Nevada is the only US state that allows legal brothels, and it is ranked 4th out of the 50 U.S. states for sexual assault crimes.
Radical feminism
At the beginning of this period, "heterosexuality was more or less an unchallenged assumption". Among radical feminists, the view became widely held that, thus far, the sexual freedoms gained in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, in particular, the decreasing emphasis on monogamy, had been largely gained by men at women's expense. This assumption of heterosexuality would soon be challenged by the rise of political lesbianism, closely associated with Atkinson and The Feminists.
Radical feminism
MacKinnon argues that "In prostitution, women have sex with men they would never otherwise have sex with. The money thus acts as a form of force, not as a measure of consent. It acts like physical force does in rape." They believe that no person can be said to truly consent to their own oppression and no-one should have the right to consent to the oppression of others. In the words of Kathleen Barry, consent is not a "good divining rod as to the existence of oppression, and consent to violation is a fact of oppression". Andrea Dworkin wrote in 1992:
Janet Halley
Much of her critical writing is directed towards legal projects of dominance feminism and cultural feminism, branches of feminism which she says hold on to a self-perception of political powerlessness, despite gaining many achievements and influence in governance since the 1980s, especially in the legal realm. According to her, this self-perception prevents American feminism from examining social issues through other theories of sexual life and politics, such as queer theory and the knowledge-power theory of Michel Foucault, as well as making it difficult for feminists to acknowledge other just causes and harm to men. By focusing on legal projects and sanctions on issues such as rape, pornography and commercial sex, Halley claims radical feminism has adopted a sentimental and moralizing view of legal action, and created alliances with conservative and paternalistic male elites. She argues that seeking State-centered and legal solutions is a narrow point of view and many times an obstacle to finding pragmatic solutions to wide social problems such as sexual inequality, and that this approach often fosters weakness in the group it is trying to protect, enforcing traditional social norms of female fragility. In her book "Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism" she calls to reexamine politics of sexuality by putting aside the feminist perspective, and to appreciate and learn from the splits and contradictions among different theories of sexuality.
Feminism
For feminists, a woman's right to control her own sexuality is a key issue. Feminists such as Catharine MacKinnon argue that women have very little control over their own bodies, with female sexuality being largely controlled and defined by men in patriarchal societies. Feminists argue that sexual violence committed by men is often rooted in ideologies of male sexual entitlement, and that these systems grant women very few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances. In many cultures, men do not believe that a woman has the right to reject a man's sexual advances or to make an autonomous decision about participating in sex. Feminists argue that all cultures are, in one way or another, dominated by ideologies that largely deny women the right to decide how to express their sexuality, because men under patriarchy feel entitled to define sex on their own terms. This entitlement can take different forms, depending on the culture. In many parts of the world, especially in conservative and religious cultures, marriage is regarded as an institution which requires a wife to be sexually available at all times, virtually without limit; thus, forcing or coercing sex on a wife is not considered a crime or even an abusive behaviour. In more liberal cultures, this entitlement takes the form of a general sexualization of the whole culture. This is played out in the sexual objectification of women, with pornography and other forms of sexual entertainment creating the fantasy that all women exist solely for men's sexual pleasure, and that women are readily available and desiring to engage in sex at any time, with any man, on a man's terms.
Deep Green Resistance
The organization has denied these claims, explaining that "DGR does not condone dehumanization or violence against anyone, including people who describe themselves as trans." The website asserts that DGR holds "a difference of opinion about the definition of gender" with genderists, and states that "genderists think gender is an identity, an internal set of feelings people might have. Radical feminists think gender is a caste system." DGR's view of gender as a caste system implies that gender is "a brutal and corrupt arrangement of power" that requires complete "dismantling" instead of being made "more inclusive" so that egalitarian, spontaneous, and free behavior can emerge. DGR, as self-described radical feminists, are "critical of gender itself. We are not gender reformists—we are gender abolitionists."
Second-wave feminism
Women who favoured radical feminism collectively spoke of being forced to remain silent and obedient to male leaders in New Left organizations. They spoke out about how they were not only told to do clerical work such as stuffing envelopes and typing speeches, but there was also an expectation for them to sleep with the male activists that they worked with. While these acts of sexual harassment took place, the young women were neglected their right to have their own needs and desires recognized by their male cohorts. Many radical feminists had learned from these organizations how to think radically about their self-worth and importance, and applied these lessons in the relationships they had with each other.
Gender essentialism
In feminist theory and gender studies, gender essentialism is the attribution of a fixed essence to women. Women's essence is assumed to be universal and is generally identified with those characteristics viewed as being specifically feminine. These ideas of femininity are usually related to biology and often concern psychological characteristics such as nurturance, empathy, support, non-competitiveness, etc. Feminist theorist Elizabeth Grosz states in her 1995 publication, "Space, Time and Perversion: Essays on the Politics of Bodies", that essentialism "entails the belief that those characteristics defined as women's essence are shared in common by all women at all times. It implies a limit of the variations and possibilities of change—it is not possible for a subject to act in a manner contrary to her essence. Her essence underlies all the apparent variations differentiating women from each other. Essentialism thus refers to the existence of fixed characteristic, given attributes, and ahistorical functions that limit the possibilities of change and thus of social reorganization."
Liberal feminism
Critics of liberal feminism argue that its individualist assumptions make it difficult to see the ways in which underlying social structures and values disadvantage women. They argue that even if women are not dependent upon individual men, they are still dependent upon a patriarchal state. These critics believe that institutional changes like the introduction of women's suffrage are insufficient to emancipate women.
Political positions of Hillary Clinton
In 2015, Clinton said that she "absolutely" considers herself a feminist. In 2014, Clinton defined being a "feminist" as favoring equal rights for women, saying, "I don't see anything controversial about that at all." She also told those who think of feminism as outdated, "I don't think you've lived long enough." "[W]omen and girls ... [are] central to our foreign policy," adding that nations that support women are more stable and "less likely to breed extremism."
New feminism
Protection of Life. Because of the new human life within their wombs, women have a special vocation to care for their own children and a special sensitivity to the needs of all those who cannot care for themselves - the weak, the poor, the outcast - all those whose life is not valued. New Feminists believe it to be a particular injustice when women support abortion, infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, or in-vitro fertilization. The open questions here concern the best ways to meet the needs of women and offer the support necessary to end these injustices and build a more humane society. Personalist feminists argue that the collaboration of men is so necessary for these tasks that they too need to be feminists.
Critical criminology
Cutting across these two distinctions, feminists can be placed largely into four main groupings: liberal, radical, Marxist, and socialist (Jaggar 1983). Liberal feminists are concerned with discrimination on the grounds of gender and its prevalence in society and seek to end such discrimination. Such ends are sought through engagement with existing structures such as governments and legal frameworks, rather than by challenging modes of gender construction or hegemonic patriarchy (Hoffman Bustamante 1973, Adler 1975, Simon 1975, Edwards 1990). Thus liberal feminists are more or less content to work within the system to change it from within using its existing structures.
Liberal feminism
One of the more prevalent critiques of liberal feminism is that it, as a study, allows too much of its focus to fall on a "metamorphosis" of women into men, and in doing so, disregards the significance of the traditional role of women. Liberal feminism focuses on the individual, and it is sometimes argued that in doing so, it overlooks the importance of community. A historical critique of liberal feminism focuses on its racist, classist and heterosexist past. One of the leading scholars who have critiqued liberal feminism is radical feminist Catherine A. MacKinnon, an American lawyer, writer and social activist. Specializing in issues regarding sex equality, she has been intimately involved in the case regarding the definition of sexual harassment and sex discrimination. She, among other leading scholars, view liberalism and feminism as incompatible because liberalism offers women a, "piece of the pie as currently and poisonously baked".
Feminist movements and ideologies
Liberal feminism asserts the equality of men and women through political and legal reform. Traditionally, during the 19th and early 20th century, liberal feminism had the same meaning as "bourgeois feminism" or "mainstream feminism," and its broadest sense the term liberal feminism overlaps strongly with mainstream feminism. Liberal feminists sought to abolish political, legal and other forms of discrimination of women to allow them the same opportunities as men. Liberal feminists sought to alter the structure of society to ensure the equal treatment of women.
Sex-positive feminism
Sex-radical feminists in particular, come to a sex-positive stance from a deep distrust in the patriarchy's ability to secure women's best interest in sexually limiting laws. Other feminists identify women's sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women's movement. Naomi Wolf writes, "Orgasm is the body's natural call to feminist politics." Sharon Presley, the National Coordinator of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, writes that in the area of sexuality, government blatantly discriminates against women.
Jennifer Baumgardner
The authors use matter of fact language to address their next question: what exactly is feminism? Feminism is not only a movement for social, political, and economic equality among men and women, but also requires the freedom to access information and education. Race and ethnicity are key to the modern feminist movement. This natural partnership also invokes the fight for gay rights. Feminism involves men and women of diverse ethnicities and sexual orientations united with the goal to liberate all individuals. It is a movement with the very clear goals of social and political change. This change is epitomized by engagement with government and the law, in addition to broader societal norms and practices. Beyond this foundational definition of feminism, there exists ample elasticity for women to define feminism according to their personal experiences. Because the lived experiences of women are so diverse, feminism itself must accommodate for these differences.
Jennifer Baumgardner
Who are feminists and what is feminism?
Material feminism
Marxist feminism is focused on investigating and explaining the ways in which women are oppressed through systems of capitalism and private property. As stated previously, materialist feminism was developed as an improvement upon Marxism, as it was felt that Marxist feminism failed to address division of labor, especially in the household. The current concept has its roots in socialist and Marxist feminism; Rosemary Hennessy and Chrys Ingraham, editors of "Materialist Feminism: A Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives", describe material feminism as the "conjuncture of several discourses—historical materialism, Marxist and radical feminism, as well as postmodernist and psychoanalytic theories of meaning and subjectivity".
Radical feminism
Radical feminists argue that most women who become prostitutes are forced into it by a pimp, human trafficking, poverty, drug addiction, or trauma such as child sexual abuse. Women from the lowest socioeconomic classes—impoverished women, women with a low level of education, women from the most disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities—are over-represented in prostitution all over the world. Catharine MacKinnon asked: "If prostitution is a free choice, why are the women with the fewest choices the ones most often found doing it?" A large percentage of prostitutes polled in one study of 475 people involved in prostitution reported that they were in a difficult period of their lives, and most wanted to leave the occupation.
Radical feminism
In "" (1979), the lesbian radical feminist Janice Raymond argued that "transsexuals ... reduce the female form to artefact, appropriating this body for themselves". In "The Whole Woman" (1999), Germaine Greer wrote that largely male governments "recognise as women men who believe that they are women ... because [those governments] see women not as another sex but as a non-sex"; she continued that if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were a mandatory part of sex-change operations, the latter "would disappear overnight". Sheila Jeffreys argued in 1997 that "the vast majority of transsexuals still subscribe to the traditional stereotype of women" and that by transitioning they are "constructing a conservative fantasy of what women should be ... an essence of womanhood which is deeply insulting and restrictive." In "Gender Hurts" (2014), she referred to sex reassignment surgery as "self-mutilation", and used pronouns that refer to biological sex; she argued that feminists need to know "the biological sex of those who claim to be women and promote prejudicial versions of what constitutes womanhood", and that "use by men of feminine pronouns conceals the masculine privilege bestowed upon them by virtue of having been placed in and brought up in the male sex caste".
Feminist views on transgender topics
The term "TERF" was coined by Viv Smythe, also known as tigtog on the blog Hoyden About Town, in August 2008. Smythe said in the interview with Cristan Williams that she believes that she and Lauredhel coined it some time prior as a chat shorthand. It is an acronym for "trans exclusionary radical feminist". It is used to describe feminists who oppose the inclusion of trans women in women's spaces and organizations, or dispute that trans women are women. Feminist Viv Smythe, who coined the term, said "it was meant to be a deliberately technically neutral description of an activist grouping. We wanted a way to distinguish TERFs from other RadFems with whom we engaged who were trans*-positive/neutral, because we had several years of history of engaging productively/substantively with non-TERF RadFems." Cristan Williams from "The Transadvocate" argues that the term references "a brand of ‘radical feminism’ that is so rooted in sex essentialism and its resulting biologism, it actively campaigns against the existence, equality, and/or inclusion of trans people." Critics of the term, such as journalist and commentator Sarah Ditum, say it is a mischaracterization of their positions and a slur.