Fashion is persecution

Radfem perspectives on marriage

I am a married lesbian. Let’s just start there. I blame health insurance, ok? A woman needs it and marriage is considered a “qualifying life event” in the insurance world. Our one year wedding anniversary is coming up in a few weeks, and my home state of New York just legalized same-sex marriage on Friday night. Oh joy!! So let’s talk about MARRIAGE, huh? And yes, please be forewarned that this will be a US-centric post because that’s my  context.

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” Author Witnessed Real-Life Gang Rape, Never Reported It

the international best-selling “the millennium trilogy” and its author, swedish journalist stieg larsson, are making headlines again, after his life partner of 30 years revealed that larsson left behind an unfinished fourth novel when he died unexpectedly in 2004…without a will, and leaving her nothing except an ongoing bitter battle with his father and brother over his now-considerable estate.  gee, thanks dood! 

better known as “the girl with the dragon tattoo” series, the first book (in swedish) was originally called men who hate women…

Casey Anthony: Judged Guilty by Cultural Prejudice?

Medea by Delacroix

Real crime TV shows are rapt with the Casey Anthony case and have been since the first 911 call was made. Crime show hosts and commentators, normally neutral, are actively prosecuting Anthony, ridiculing her every move in court. Did she wipe away tears? Fake. Fraud. Was she stoic? Heartless psychopath. Did she laugh along with everyone else? Monstrous.

Filicide — the murder of a child by the parent — is a horrid crime, but does this case merit relentless coverage? If so, why?

Hef’s Fiance Runs Away; Bristol Palin Lost Virginity While Drunk

i was tempted to call this piece “this week in rape culture” but unfortunately, these two stories, as noteworthy as they may (or may not) be, dont even begin the scratch the surface of rape culture, or what has happened this week “in rape culture” that we do and do not know about.

first, playboy mogul and liberal-dickwad patriarch hugh hefner’s fiance crystal harris calls off their wedding at the last minute…

Re-Membering

“Continual complicity in the crime of Goddess-killing is mandatory in the Man’s world. Our refusal to collaborate in this killing and Dis-Membering of our own Selves is the Beginning of Re-Membering the Goddess –”
Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, Mary Daly, (1978)

“There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that… You say you have lost all recollection, remember . . . you say it does not exist. But remember.
Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent. “
Les Guérillères, Monique Wittig, (1971)

Defining WOMAN.

There is lots of talk about what “woman” means. It’s practically a cliche feminist topic! But the debate takes on new meaning in light of transsexuality’s destructive “gender” conservatism. Post-modern anti-essentialism seeks to dismiss the experience of womanhood by claiming that anyone can choose to be a woman and, in any case, we are too diverse to be generalized about. This is not true. Women are all subject to the tyranny of compulsory heterosexuality that dictates the sexual-ized behavior of humans according to the mutually exclusive classifications of “man” and “woman.” Women have shared life experiences as “girls” and as “women.” Radical feminist theory seeks to expose the ways in which trans theory, like patriarchal reality, denies female self-determination and imposes upon women their own false (read: male-serving) definition OF “woman.”

Creating women’s culture

Inspired by two posts, On Feminist Writing, and I’m tired of Being the Token Woman, I’ve been thinking about what it would take for women to reject malestream culture en masse and create their own.

Women have traditionally had two choices when it came to the arts: to express truth, or be acknowledged.

Queering Women Invisible

Guest Post by AMAZON MANCRUSHER

This post is for all of my sisters, but in particular my sisters who are involved in queer activism. Like most of my recent radical feminist writing, it won’t be popular with queer identifying people, but I believe it important for me to write about my perceptions of queer culture, because I do not believe queer will liberate women, anymore than any other patriarchal culture. For me, queer culture almost eliminated me as a woman.

Making Revolution: Our Radical Feminist Future

Sheila Jeffreys recently guest posted an excerpt of a speech which she delivered at the alternative conference which my partner, Amazon ManCrusher, and myself organised in response to the bullying, harassing and intimidation that radical feminists were facing from pro-sex industry activists and queer/trans activists. In brief, the Melbourne Feminist Collective formed to organise Feminist Futures which was “a conference that aims to provide a safe, supportive and active space for discussing different strategies to create a feminist future. It is an open environment for anyone interested in imagining and creating feminist futures in our community.” The conference organisers were well-intentioned but politically naive, obviously having no idea of the hot water they would be jumping into, trying to organise a conference in which “participants will have the opportunity to critically engage with issues across a broad range of feminist perspectives and agendas.”