Lesbian BDSM, part 3: BDSM and the Prevention of Revolution

Guest post by Maggie H.

This post is the final part of a series of posts based on some of the RadFem Reboot 2012 presentation talk that I gave in Oregon recently on the patriarchal takeover of women’s sexuality. Part I is here, Part II is here. 

Definition: As this is the final part here, I would like to make it clear by what I mean by BDSM for the purpose of this series. BDSM is ‘Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism (formerly known as ‘sadomasochism’); a form of patriarchal sexuality involving the eroticisation of the symbols of slavery, misogyny, captivity, rape and torture. It is a sexuality that involves the most egregious dynamics of domination and subordination (a.k.a. ‘dom/sub’) and the sexualisation of pain and/or danger.’

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So what happened to the woman-identified woman nowadays? Let me first go back to the origins and causes of the mainstreaming of BDSM within contemporary lesbian culture and communities. I will then elaborate more on how BDSM prevents revolution.

Lesbian BDSM, part 2: Contemporary Lesbian Culture

Guest post by Maggie H.

This post is the second part of a series of posts based on some of the RadFem Reboot 2012 presentation talk that I gave in Oregon recently on the patriarchal takeover of women’s sexuality. Part I is here. 

Warning: This post contains some graphic depictions of pornified lesbian culture. I believe it is important to know what some lesbians are watching, making, writing & reading ‘for fun’ these days. The examples taken from lesbian media are not ‘isolated cases.’ Many lesbians I spoke to actually say that they ‘love’ websites like Autostraddle or magazines such as Diva UK. These things are part of mainstream lesbian culture today.

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As pointed out at the end of the first part (on lesbian BDSM fanfiction, a cultural phenomenon within lesbian culture), the fandoms of Xena, Buffy, Stargate SG-1, Rizzoli & Isles (or whatever show lesbians want to read BDSM fan fiction from) are not the only lesbian cultures that have been affected by patriarchy. No, unfortunately, there are many more aspects of contemporary lesbian culture that have been poisoned by patriarchal ideology and male-centred sexuality too.

Lesbian BDSM, part 1: Lesbian BDSM in Fan Fiction

Guest post by Maggie H.

This post is the first part of a series of posts based on some of the RadFem Reboot 2012 presentation talk that I gave in Oregon recently on the patriarchal takeover of women’s sexuality.

Warning: This post contains some descriptions of what happens in written pornography. Skip those parts if you feel queasy; read them if you really want to know what some lesbians are writing & reading ‘for fun’ these days.

Disclaimers: By writing this post I would like to make very clear that I am not criticising individual women for having particular sorts of fantasy. I am a former BDSMer myself. I am actually being critical of the pornographic works being published online, and of the patriarchal context within which such stories get written and read in the first place. I believe it is important to challenge the everyday political poisoning of our lesbian communities by BDSM culture. If you read or write those kinds of stories, I am not ‘attacking’ you personally; I am just trying to make a point concerning what you read or write.

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I feel the need to talk about fan fiction, as it has become an important part of lesbian culture nowadays in some circles. This includes stories based on the characters of Willow & Tara (from Buffy: Vampire Slayer) and Xena & Gabrielle (from Xena: Warrior Princess) –and there are also lesbian fan fiction stories based on the characters of Stargate SG-1, Rizzoli & Isles or other shows lesbians happen to be fans of.

Radfem 101: A radical feminist primer (Part Three)

Radical feminism, by definition, seeks to dis-cover and examine the root of women’s global oppression by men, and the sources of male power.  In our work, we have discovered that there are several key themes that appear over and over, and which transcend time and place — this is evidence that women’s oppression by men is class-based, that is, that women as a sexual class, around the world, share the experience of being oppressed by men because we are women.

In this series, republished in part from Radfem-ological Images, we present 17 themes for discussion and analysis.  Like all radical feminists previously and presently, we do this because it is the truth, and radical feminists accept the truth no matter what it is, especially the truths about women’s lives and what men do to us.

In Part Three, we present just one theme, the “PIV-centric narrative” and its 6 subthemes: Goal is to “land a man”; Normalize exaggerated/simulated female pleasure; Normalize reproductive stress and pain; Pathologize menstruation; Pathlogize older women and menopause/fetishize female youth; Rape and rape culture.  Part One is here.  Part Two is here.

What About the Men? Now and Then.

Guest post by Luckynickl

A little over a year ago in May, 2011, Ms. Julie Bindel wrote a fabulous piece here at the Hub titled, “What About The Men?”  The piece was radical and amazing.  Late last night, I ran across this post over at Gender Trender.  It’s an interview of Juile Bindel by male “transgender” Paris Lees conducted earlier this year.  Apparently, in the year since she first wrote for the Hub, Ms. Bindel has done an about-face on the issue of “What about the men?”.

I can only wonder, what happened between now and then?  Are aliens abducting radical feminists and replacing them with pod people?!

Back then, Julie Bindel was defending women-only space and saying how not enough has changed to invite men to the party.  Some excerpts from Julie Bindel’s post at the Hub:

Carrying a Sheila Jeffreys sign at Dyke March is inappropriate? What?

As is often the case with misogynists and anti-feminists, the trans horde that took advantage of the “inclusivity” (read: a transwoman helped organize the march, and woe be unto anyone who crosses men who demand access to woman-only space in general) of NYC Dyke March — and others who weren’t even there — don’t seem to have read a word of anything Sheila Jeffreys has actually written.  If they had read her, how could it have rationally been said that Jeffreys — a pro-female, pro-lesbian writer — and her work had no place at a lesbian-centered event?

Or, perhaps they read a couple of words, saw something they didn’t like, and threw away the rest?  “The rest” being Sheila Jeffreys’s entire life’s work of pro-female, pro-lesbian, PIV-critical radical feminist analysis which spans decades and examines women’s lives from pre-WWI — a body of work from which modern women can draw many parallels, recognize obvious patterns in how women are oppressed by men over time, and call age-old bullshit when we see it, because we are never, ever allowed to see it.  Women’s history is routinely erased, and this is a deliberate political strategy to keep women as ignorant of patriarchal context and as oppressed — and as complicit in our own oppression — as possible.

An Open Letter to the National Center for Transgende​r Equality on the Cotton Ceiling Debacle

mkeisling@transequality.org

afaucette@transequality.org

hjtobin@transequality.org

vvillano@transequality.org

dking@transequality.org

eames@transequality.org

Dear Mara,

Hope you are well. I am writing to ask the National Center for Transgender Equality to weigh in on a controversy that has pitted Lesbians, many of whom have been “good” allies to the Transgender community, and Transgender women. I am sure you have heard of it – the “Cotton Ceiling,” a term porn actress Drew DeVeaux and other Transgender women use to “challenge lesbians’ tendency to support Transgender causes generally but draw the line at sleeping with Transgender women or including Transgender lesbians in their sexual communities.”

Slave and the Free (Holdfast Part 2)

Part 1 covered Book 1 (Walk to the End of the World) and Book 2 (Motherlines)

Book 3 – The Furies (1994)

For some, this is the least popular book, for others, the most powerful of the series. Charnas has said in interviews, this was the most difficult book of the series to write, and took the longest (over 15 years):

“One reason THE FURIES took so long to write was that I wanted to skip over the harshest part — an actual war, or more properly a slave-revolt, of the “fems” against their male masters — and go right to a better life for all;….. just as so many women with feminist ideals wish desperately to be able to “skip” the harshest part in reality, the part where we seem to have the most to lose, and the most to suffer, the part where we demand full recognition of our humanity, and do whatever it takes to get it.”

The “Born This Way” Political Tactic: What’s Next?

Around the time of the discovery of the AIDS virus in the very early 1980s, the Gay (and Lesbian) community adopted the ideology of homosexuality as innate; Gay (and Lesbian) people were born this way ergo they could not be “fixed”, it wasn’t their “fault” and AIDS could not be a punishment from God if the theist belief of being “made in His image“ were to hold.

It was politically expedient at the time, and quite intuitive really, to claim a biological basis for homosexuality when the AIDS pandemic itself was, and continues to be, a biological disaster. An innate homosexuality also allowed people close to Gays (and Lesbians), especially mothers, to absolve themselves of any *wrong doing* and instead build a platform from which they could advocate for their children, fathers (and mothers), brothers (and sisters), husbands (and wives) as full human beings with full human/medical rights.

Radfem-ological Images (Chef Boyardee)