I'm looking for a good overview of the history of radical feminism (and feminism in general). I looked through the book list but realized I'm feeling a bit behind on vocabulary and history, and I feel like I need a primer so I can get my bearings. In particular, I want to get a better idea of the waves (2nd wave feminism, etc) and branches of feminism, including from the 1970s up until now. Any suggestions?

Hi all, I wanted to add a question to ask your favourite TIM when you're in debate. It's not my idea but I have no idea where I saw it.

If Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump came out as trans women, would it finally make women equal in the workplace?

Yeah. No it wouldn't. Because you're not women and we have different struggles.

Hmmm have been kind of thinking about making a post about kpop because I have a LOT of thoughts. I’ve seen it mentioned a couple of times before but idk.

For years I thought that other feminists also must inherently accept that gender essentialism is bullshit as like the very basis of feminism. And then I couldn’t understand why they didn’t see gender transition ideology as antithetical to that. I thought that if they just saw that it reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, they would understand. It also sort of seemed like a bizarre encounter with bad luck that every time I posted something in feminist subs that talked about gender roles being the basis of toxic masculinity and of women’s oppression and the need to abolish them, I got downvoted to hell.

Today, I finally learned that they don’t want to abolish gender roles. That they are gender essentialists.

There was a post in ask feminists inquiring as to why some of us don’t include transwomen and while most of the comments were the typical straw man, one person said that its because we want to abolish gender roles and how obviously we were wrong and that some aspects of gender are inherent to biological sex. The upvotes and replies seemed to indicate this was a popular stance. What. The. Fuck.

This isn’t even feminism anymore. My grandmother would weep.

I just wanted to ask, so I started a telegram group for LGB drop T and gender critical topics and wanted to know if posting it on the telegram groups subbreddit would be a good idea?

I really hope it’s ok that this isn’t trans related. I know not everything has to be about that on here but still. I really really need to talk about this.

On my other Reddit account I saw a post on a subreddit I won’t name exposing a racist woman and someone under the post called her the c word. I replied saying we shouldn’t fight racism with misogyny and I got downvoted to hell. People said it wasn’t sexist, or that I should get over it, or that I am a “b*tch” or “also a c*nt”. Long story short it didn’t end well at all and I’m even getting harassed.

I thought the subreddit was supposed to be left leaning and yet I got so much abuse just because I found something to be sexist. I’m literally in tears over it. As a woman I don’t feel safe anywhere except for here.

Well like I mentioned earlier, my ex-boyfriend has started saying he’s a transwoman and like, the few people who know are on his side and telling me I need to start calling him my “ex-girlfriend” out of respect and it’s like... out of respect? How about no. We’re talking about somebody who used to agree with me about gender stereotypes having pretty much everything to do with this gender fad, who I explicitly told I don’t want males in female spaces and he agreed and never had an issue with his body or identity until the one voice telling him the fact that he’s not a living male stereotype does not make him not a man went away and his dipshit little trendy trans friends took over, like... no! That was a man I was with. The fact that he calls himself Jessica and wears a tissue-stuffed bra doesn’t change that. It’s amazing how he can just make a snap decision to change in his late twenties and I suddenly have to revise years of our history and my experiences to accommodate his identity crisis. Yknow I told him how I felt and he wiped his ass with it and now I have to respect that? Fuck that.

Feeling a sense of hopelessness these days. When me and my bf started dating, it took me months to feel comfortable enough to talk to him about my views on feminism and trans ideology. He agreed with me (or maybe he’s too uneducated to refute me). I felt encouraged by him saying that he wanted to learn! That did not happen. He’s not really one to read or have a strong opinion about... anything.

Fast forward 6 or months... last week, he dropped a “well, since now that JKR is transphobic”. I immediately got defensive and said “I support her. Did you even read her tweets?” No, he did not read her tweets.

A couple days later i sent him a video explaining the issue and told him it was for later, he said “mmmm probably not”. Which lead to a fight where I called him a bandwagoner who is unwilling to educate himself about issues but totally willing to speak on them.

He randomly threw in a....

and you know what my bad for asking you about a tweet that I STILL think was insensitive and hurtful to the trans community. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

Following that whole Gwen Benaway situation. Wish I found it shocking.

Soo I stumbled across this thread after reading an op Ed in the wall street journal by Ms. Shrier. I'm a straight fairly traditional guy and I've never thought of myself as feminist although I've always supported women's rights. For the past several years I've begun to feel really uncomfortable about our soceties obsession with gender and identity and I can't help but feel we are going the wrong way. With that being said I know next to nothing about "radical feminism" and was Curious as to what you guys are about, (besides the trans thing). Just trying to decide if it's worth sticking my neck out to support this philosophy in public.

Thanks!

So I was just called a predator (you can look up my history) because I don't want to see a penis in locker rooms! Wtf! I didn't know that's what predators do, avoid male genitalia, but I guess that's violence now.

I am so beyond grateful that my little sister (just turned 19) is gender critical. I am so proud that she dives deep into the issues with me and is a vocal supporter. She’s not a bandwagoner like a lot of her gen z peers.

On the other hand, my step sister is an asexual “they” who is in the midst of divorcing a soon to be FTM... she been estranged from the family for years (for other reasons), but man I would love to destroy her ideology with my adult wisdom now. I would pounce on her.

Thoughts on this? I'm too stupid to properly analyse data analysis papers.

https://i.imgur.com/eBr14iG.png

https://i.imgur.com/PhHuDOw.png

https://rpubs.com/PropertyOfMyCat/bathroom_bills

I came here after JK Rowling 2 weeks ago and have been peaking a little every day. While doing so I'm introducing my partner to the tidbits and information I'm reading.

Of course he went to a family gathering last night and revealed all to his two younger extreme libfem family members, because he wanted to inform them of the truth. But he couldn't even remember the right details of anything, so he basically 'outed' me as their idea of a 'transphobe' while backing it up with nothing.

Great. Cool. Love it. I'm not ready for this.

Remember y'all: don't even tell your thoughts to your own partner sometimes :-)

Just today was called a "uterus haver" for the first time!!!!! This is the week after my favorite science based/health info podcast (a separate community from the uterus statement) declared to use more gender neutral terms.... the podcast almost exclusively talks about health, nutrition and hormones within the FEMALE context. How does that even work?

I joined this subreddit about a month ago after an incident in the same community pushed me to inquire more about the trans movement. I was open minded, very sympathetic to the trans movement, but also scarily uninformed.

Here I am today. Call me peaked!

Thinking about writing an essay about parallels between TRAs and the Catholic Church's rapist problem. Men in all eras are men, and they use whatever tools the historical period or society provides (clerical dress, heels, self-ID) to get close to their victims and then gaslighting, ostracising, and isolating anyone who challenges them. Read some grand jury testimony about individuals (usually women) who tried to get law enforcement or even church higher-ups to do something: job loss, tires slashed, bullied kids, accusers being harrassed by handmaidens; accusers families getting investigated. Same shit. Same. Old. Shit.

I put this post up on a related site but want to share it here. A lot of people have compared the Rachel Dolezal case to the trans movement--for good and bad. I wanted to provide a little about the history of this case because I think it can allow us to think about coalitional politics and "intersectionally" (a term used in troubling ways these days) about the social construction vs. essentialist debate. I am posting this in part because I am bothered by the essentialist claims of both sides of the debate; i.e., do we have to also be essentialist to counter the messed up essentialism (female brain? seriously?) of the TRAs.

Okay, so a lot of people in the academy have talked about the parallels between Dolezal and transgender. There is an infamous philosophy article that argued just this in Hypatia and everyone in my circles (feminist theory and philosophy) would not shut up about it. It was a witch hunt. A friend of mine was on the editorial board and it tore them apart. It also made the news https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/05/transracialism-article-controversy.html

from the NYT to the Washington Post. It was a shameful debacle but yet another way to call women stupid (phds, btw) and the academic dudes lined up to mansplain to us how stupid we feminists were--on both sides (looking at you, M Berube in the PMLA). It was one of the many reasons that I left the academy. It is the hotbed for a new McCarthyism against women that is like nothing I have ever seen.

The irony is that many people drew this comparison--positively--before the young philosopher who was hung out to dry for it--from brilliant African american scholar, Adolph Reed, Jr. whom I strongly encourage you to read: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/06/15/jenner-dolezal-one-trans-good-other-not-so-much

Even transwoman and leading academic in trans studies (and feminism), Susan Stryker, commented positively at first. But Reed's argument is powerful for its indictment of essentialism: "Dolezal no doubt has her issues and idiosyncrasies, but, especially if the judgment of the NAACP counts for anything in the matter, I’m pretty sure I’d take her in a trade for Clarence Thomas, Cory Booker, Condi Rice, and five TFA pimps to be named later. Or would Dolezal’s "not even close to being black" mean that she was raised outside of "authentic" black idiom or cultural experience? But whose black idiom or cultural experience would that be? Is there really an irreducible, definitive one? If so, on which Racial Voice blog or Ivy League campus might we find it?

He reminds us that she didn't intrude on Black spaces; the NAACP welcomed her tireless efforts even while many new she was 'passing'. Rather than Jenner who funded Trump and other rapists in the Republican party (and slaughtered a woman drunk driving and got away with it), Dolezal dedicated her life to the anti-racist struggle and identified as Black in part to dis-identify (see Jose Munoz's work on this) with her abusive racist parents. She was only found out bc they outed her when she took the side of her sexually abused little sister--it was their effed up payback.

Dolezal dedicated her life to the anti-racist struggle (doing all in her power not to be, to use another misogynist term, a 'Karen'--oh yeah, what is the name for racist lib men? right, there isn't one, bc their abuse of power goes w/o comment or language. think about it). She did not colonize Black spaces--these communities invited her, supported her, employed her (and they still do). I respect the intelligence of her Black co-workers and friends and family who knew her and accepted her, and refuse to act like I know her better or can stand in judgment of her when they know her and embraced her.

White men have appropriated Black diasporic culture forever, and none have been attacked like her (ahem, misogyny), even though they never gave back or lived in the community but rather (e.g., Elvis, Eminem, Gene Kelly, the Rolling Stones) profited from it, sustaining the ongoing imperialist capitalism we benefit from (and I mean all of us; if you have a phone or a laptop, look up coltan http://socialjusticestories.leadr.msu.edu/2016/04/13/blood-coltan-the-coltan-conflict-and-the-perpetuation-of-human-rights-violations-in-the-eastern-congo/#:~:text=Blood%20Coltan%3A%20The%20Coltan%20Conflict%20and%20the%20Perpetuation%20of%20Human,Violations%20in%20the%20Eastern%20Congo&text=The%20film%20Blood%20Coltan%20shows,in%20mines%20attached%20to%20limestone. )

Dolezal on the other hand, literally fed and sheltered and loved her Black brother, husband, children while earning a living (until we all destroyed her) helping the community to which then (if not she, and that is highly debatable) belonged, trying to quite literally make her children's and her siblings' lives better. Can we say that of TRAs?

The TRAs (which I might point out are actually only rarely actual trans people, interesting, no?) have inculcated young women to dis-identify from women and feminism, and to identify with and love the position of power--its Stockholm Syndrome. While trans women (not all, to be sure) claim they are women (saying they experience what it is to be a woman, but I am always identified as a man, but I don't get to say I have had the experiences of a transwoman--you can't be both universal and particular--see Sedgwick).

A book I found incredibly useful is Robert Miles deep dive, Racism, and the foundational work, Racecraft https://www.versobooks.com/books/1645-racecraft

which argues, brilliantly: the practice of racism produces the illusion of race, through what they call “racecraft.” And this phenomenon is intimately entwined with other forms of inequality in American life. So pervasive are the devices of racecraft in American history, economic doctrine, politics, and everyday thinking that the presence of racecraft itself goes unnoticed.

Is there a sub similar to the spirit of this sub (radical feminist) that does not discuss trans issues?

I just added something GC-related to my insta-stories and targeted it only to political friends who have parroted "TWAW" at some point.

It was about the guy in NY taking up a woman's spot in the democratic council. We'll see if anybody sends me a comment about it (or unfriends me)...

I'm dipping my toes in strategically, hoping to get gc talking points under their skin slowly without them even realizing it.

I recently have seen mentioned something about a Magic the Gathering artist (which I don't play or particularly know about) Terese Nielsen, being cancelled for being a TERF. However, when I was trying to look it up, what I actually saw was her having a history of supporting white supremacists, and no actual GC opinions - she's actually publicly stated she supports trans rights.

(Source: https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2020/06/wizards-ends-their-relationship-with-terese-nielsen/ - multiple examples of her being white supremacist, alleged terfery has no examples to back it up. None came up through light googling.)

I read Why Does He Do That by Lundy Bancroft per the advice of someone in the thread. A couple of things I learned:

-Misogyny is like an abusive relationship that all women are stuck in.

-I may have dodged a bullet since the one guy I dated showed signs he might have escalated to abuse.

-My aunt has probably been in an abusive relationship for decades (I assumed it started when her husband became an alcoholic) and it probably isn't really just about her lack of a retirement fund that she can't leave. I'm not sure what I can do to help. I'm halfway across the country.

Ok so I’m kinda worried about a trend I’m seeing with gay girls ( teenagers, but also some women in their 20s) who are active on twitter, I’ve been on twitter for many years and I’m interested in pop culture, cinema, etc and I’m always looking for new people to follow, I didn’t even know what ‘non binary’ ‘ace’ ‘genderfluid’ meant a couple years ago, but now it’s very usual for me to click on a profile on twitter and there it is that ‘they/them pronouns’ or something like that. I just roll my eyes and move on. This past few days left me even more intrigued because with the release of The Last of Us pt II (for those who don’t know it’s a game with a lesbian protagonist) I was looking for female gamers to follow and read their comments on the game and I kid you not, more than half of them had ( I must have seen about 30 or 40 profiles) ‘non-binary lesbian’ or ‘they/them lesbian ‘he/him lesbian’ on their twitter bio. I’ve never met a nonbinary person in real life, so what is going on? Specially with young lesbians! I wonder if most of those self proclaimed nb lesbians just do this because they think they HAVE TO, just because they don’t fit in some gender stereotypes. It’s homophobia and sexism all over again, and in many cases just a need to feel special or fit in. I have no doubt most of this young women will grow out of it sometime soon. And I know that just because I saw 20 or so girls like that on twitter doesn’t mean it’s the rule with most young lesbians but I think is something to consider when thinking about how the self-ID politics have been affecting gay people, especially women

I'm enjoying (or not) the irony seeing the same people saying we should stop using the term BAMER (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic & Refugee, a term we often use in the UK) because it conflates different identities happily describing three gay men - James Furlong, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails - who were killed in an attack as LGBTQ+.

Is anyone else re-reading Harry Potter in light of all the recent nonsense? I’m on book 2 and even though I read the series probably 50 times as a kid (it’s all I would read lol) I am discovering little details I had missed or forgotten.

So I posted a tweet on my instastories about the NY democratic Council not having any female representation because of Decaudin's efforts to get rid of the gender parity. There was no mention of trans issues or anything. I simply captioned it as "the slow unraveling of the women's rights movement." I made it viewable only to the people on my feed who say "twaw".

And guess what? My most libfem friend (one who has a gender studies degree) messaged me and agreed with how terrible getting rid of the gender parity is. I don't think she realized it was an nb/tw who took over, but that doesn't matter.

It's a small win. I'm slowly putting my foot in the door to get conversations happening with my most libfem friends.

I peaked recently and my husband has been vaguely supportive but it turns out he thinks that I am making too big of a deal of this stuff. He doesn’t want to hear about it anymore (I admit, without having another outlet in person, I have been talking about it kind of a lot as I learn. I think he finds the issue kind of gross to talk about).

He seems to think this is just a tumblr problem and does not think it is showing up in real life. He said he doesn’t understand what this future of “inclusion” is that I am so worried about and why it is so scary to me. A lot of anecdotes I have shared sound so outrageous he thinks they may be made up. Does anyone have go-to examples from third parties or news sources they share with people who find it hard to believe this is having real world consequences for women? He is just one person but this is going to be an issue if he doesn’t get it at all because it may totally change how I see our relationship dynamic. I see there are others on here going through similar issues and I hope they see this and know they aren’t alone. I see you, sister.

Just wrote 21 pages of my experiences to trans peak. It’s a fun ride.

Any ideas best place to publish? (Happy to edit or break it up but it really does all go together)

This is a list of random thoughts I might make a post to later because I have so much in my mind

• demografics of TRAs? They must come from somewhere. And I mean especially those who started that shit. It has to come from somewhere.
• yaoi, mpreg and their influence on young women/girls. As a writer I experience both of that often enough in fandoms and it makes me want to vomit my heart out.
• manhating in radfem? I see so much fear in so many posts here, so much anger and hate on men and I completly get it. If I didnt have my wonderful partner I would ban men everywhere...but I also see that there is a small group of good men who support us.
• i have to post my essay about science vs trans feels here soon
• raising nb/genderless/trans kids? How should that happen if baby boys and baby girls are different from the beginning and thus need different things to learn? I'm not talking about the blue-pink thing, I mean things like "girls have to wipe front to back, boys need to check their foreskin" plain biological things. Or is that the time when "having a female pp" applies to? Probably will ask this in the debate subreddit
• the history or misogyny or how did this world end up exactly the same everywhere
• write that essay on what could have led to this madness (internet, 'anything is possible' mentality, loss of social rules, ...)
• possible futures true equality or matriachy what is more likely to happen? Because no way we will let that going on the way it is!
• feminist sex and sex work?
• female gaze vs male gaze as seen on gonewild subreddits -> a smol self done study

I had a bruising convo with someone about, broadly speaking, feminism today. Let's just say it did not go well. Can some British RadFems sponsor me to attend some kind of camp/summit/ confab/ conference/ hootenany/ extravagana/mind meld over there to train me and other American radfems & sympathizers on how to deal with this bullshit? You all seem to have more of a handle on this, at least legislatively speaking. Oh yeah prob due to our raging Covid epidemic I won't be allowed to enter your or any country for the forseeable future. For fuck's sake, America.

Just venting, because I have literally no GC people to talk to in RL about this, this will likely go unseen.

Recently, the topic of LGBT rights came up on my home subreddit. Since LGBT rights aren't even a thing in my country to begin with, and we're a more homophobic conservative asian country, I just casually mentioned I was voting for pro-LGB rights despite knowing nothing would likely change in my lifetime.

Someone asked why I left out the TQ+, so I just... went for it. Vented my GC views in what I feel was a respectful manner, and went back to sleep.

I only got a couple responses back since 1) the sub itself is small 2) the post itself was fairly old 3) LGBT rights are non-existent here to begin with, but still. All pro-TRA. All transwomen. Downvoted (as many as three can downvote anyway lol) It's already started. I thought my stupid tiny island would still be sane, but it's just the same things I've seen on western twitter and pro-TRA forums. It's exhausting, seeing the majority of the world against this.

I've also slowly been losing followers on twitter simply from changing my name to #IStandWithJKR lmao, but whatever, I don't need people like that I guess.

I'm going to actually do what I said and stay offline for now. Honestly, I don't think the tide is turning. For every GC-positive tweet or article I see there are just three, five times more the opposite. If what JKR said is true (most misogyny she's seen in her lifetime), I'll just start preparing for an age of women being oppressed. Too bad I can't just identify as a straight guy and get out of it altogether, huh

I just got banned from the black lives matter subreddit for agreeing with someone who said they don't like the Karen meme because it's mysoginistic. I was informed I was banned because they don't tolerate white fragility.

Lol what is even going on anymore...

Does anyone know of any prominent gender critical transgender people? I know about Blaire White, Rose of Dawn, Fionne Orlander and Debbie Hayton. Basically there’s a load of TRAs who are speaking on behalf of all trans people and it looks as though it will be necessary to refer to them. It would really help in some future debates.

Anyone know if there are any music video channels to stream in the US so I can cast to my TV? We don't have cable or anything anymore. I used to watch The Box and Magic in the UK and I miss that. Watching the cheesy music videos from the 70s/80s lmao. I know there are Youtube Playlists but it's not quite the same for some reason.

Is there a post or something that links to the sources that back up things in JK’s post?

Has anyone else heard that reddit is going to have a massive ban of subreddits tomorrow? While I’m sure many of them will be justified for racism, misogyny and homophobia, knowing the sort of people that run Reddit I am concerned that this community will be banned as well.

Is there a subreddit where I can debate people who hold very similar beliefs as r/GenderCritical?

I am overwhelmed by the support in this community.

I have for a long time labeled myself as a feminist, and what that means to me has really started to evolve as I’ve become more well read and learned to critically think. I’ve started speaking out in small ways and hope to make my voice louder in time.

anytime I post or comment on here, I feel so supported and it just, it makes me so happy. I’ve found people who think and feel similarly to me. and it makes all the bad stuff feel a little less bad knowing there’s women out there who will not tolerate it any longer.

it makes me feel brave seeing all of you be brave.

I just wanted to say I’m glad to be a part of this subreddit. It’s hard to find a relatively safe space for women on Reddit. I used to feel like I was in the twilight zone before,especially after being on Tumblr for as long as I was. You all have given me the words that I did not have before to speak my mind. I have learned so much. I’m glad to share a space with so many kind,funny, brave and intelligent women.

Sorry for being so sentimental haha. I was just talking to someone about JK Rowling and I guess the feelings spilled over haha.