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Guest Post by Sheila Jeffreys
I was pleased to be invited to speak at the ‘Feminist’ Futures Conference that took place in Melbourne 28/29 May, because in the last couple of years I have been disinvited from or vetoed as a speaker at a number of feminist events such as conferences or Reclaim the Night marches.
self-identified feminist man and fun-fem darling hugo schwyzer reports on his blog that he is “proud to be a part” of the steering committee organizing the los angeles SlutWalk, scheduled to take place june 4, 2011.
Lotta news and op/ed this week about a self-described “gender diversity training” program funded by a grant from the California Teachers Association and administered to elementary school students in Oakland. The teachers and administrators thought they were funding/supporting a program that teaches kids to be “Free To Be You and Me”, the idea that sex roles are culturally created fiction and that kids should be free to act and dress however they want without being teased or having sex-based stereotypes forced upon them. “All state schools are required to have a specific plan to address safety and other issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Who's the real rat?
“Why do so many American women have difficulties in bed?” asks Ogi Ogas, co-author of A Billion Wicked Thoughts, and author of the article Why Feminism Is the Anti-Viagra: The neural circuitry of dominance and submission.
Ummm…the answer is obvious: Women have difficulty enjoying “sex” because it is solely defined from a male pleasure and male orgasm point of view.
Guest Post by Julie Bindel (UK)
I am not a man hater but this is the very last time I will say it in public or in private.
Over the years I have lost count of the number of times I have worked with men to advance the appeal of feminism and to encourage more of them to support our war efforts. Despite this I have lost count of the number of times I have been accused of hating men. “She is a lesbian and a man hater,” wrote one lovely chap on a Blog earlier this year in response to an article I had written on the abuse within prostitution “which is very apparent to anyone who has seen her on television.”
i cannot overstate the impact the fistula foundation has had on my radical feminist awakening: it was the catalyst for it.
I’m Australian, but a good portion of the feminist blogosphere is American. Hence I get exposed to a lot of US news of feminist interest. One thing that always astounds me is how controversial abortion is in the US. Not a week goes by without more news of abortion being restricted, or potentially restricted.
And I read all this stuff, the constant assault on the most basic human right for bodily autonomy, and I am kind of horrified that this is what American women have to put up with.
Radical feminist analysis can seem complicated and obtuse, the subject matter and the language opaque, and the point nearly impossible to grasp. Many women have had the experience of wading into writings by Andrea Dworkin or Catharine MacKinnon or Mary Daly for the first time and feeling like they’re reading a different language. It can be frustrating and maddening without someone to guide us through the concepts, language, and references.
Mary Daly
Feminism, Radical. 1 : the cause of causes, which alone of all revolutionary causes exposes the basic model and source of all forms of oppression— patriarchy— and thus can open up consciousness to active participation in movement, transcendence, and happiness.
— Mary Daly (WORD-WEB ONE) The Wickedary.
Radfem Hub 