what is feminism?

You hate people who think that women and men should have equal access to all aspects of society?

Feminism is the organized movement which promotes equality for men and women in political, economic and social spheres. Feminists believe that women are oppressed simple due to their sex based on the dominant ideology of patriarchy. Ridding society of patriarchy will result in liberation for women, men, minorities, and gays.Patriarchy is the system which oppresses women through it's social, economic and political institutions. Throughout history men have had greater power in both the public and private spheres. To maintain this power, men have created boundaries and obstacles for women, thus making it harder for women to hold power. There is an unequal access to power. Patriarchy also includes the oppression of minorities and homosexuals.

Radical Feminism
Advocates of Radical Feminism:
Mary DalyRadical feminism promotes the basis for many of the ideas of feminism. They usually clash with the ideals of the liberal feminist, because radical feminists believe that society must be changed at its core in order to dissolve patriarchy, not just through acts of legislation. Unfortunately, this type of feminism also attracts a lot of negative media attention creating a backlash of feminism. Radical feminists believe that the domination of women is the oldest and worst kind of oppression in the world. They believe this because it spans across the world oppressing women of different races, ethnicities, classes and cultures. Radical feminists want to free both men and women from the rigid gender roles that society has imposed upon them. It is this sex-gender system that has created oppression and radical feminist's mission is to overthrow this system by any possible means. Sometimes radical feminists believe that they must rage a war against men, patriarchy, and the gender system which confines them to rigid social roles. They completely reject these roles, all aspects of patriarchy, and in some cases, they reject men as well.
Radical feminists emphasize their difference from men. They form groups that exclude males completely. This type of feminist highlights the importance of individual feelings, experiences and relationships. Radical feminists have divided into two groups with very different views.Radical-Libertarian Feminism Radical-Libertarian feminists believe that femininity and reproduction limit women's capacity to contribute to society. Women should essentially be androgynous. Radical-Libertarian feminists like to violate sexual norms and believe that women should control every aspect of their sexuality. They also advocate artificial means of reproduction so that less time is devoted to pregnancy and more time is devoted to worthwhile things. They are strong promoters of abortion, contraceptives and other forms of birth control.Radical-Cultural Feminism Radical-Cultural feminist views are dramatically different from Radical-Libertarian feminists views. The Radical-Cultural feminists believe that women should encompass their femininity because it is better than masculinity. Mary Daly advocates finding the “wild female within”. This type of radical feminist sees sex and penetration as male dominated. They see a link between sex, female subordination, porn, rape and abuse. These must be eliminated, according to Cultural-Radical feminists. Yet another opposing view is that reproduction is the source of power for women. They believe that men are jealous of women, and that they try to control reproduction through means of technology.Liberal Feminism
Advocates of Liberal Feminism:
Betty Friedan
National Organization for WomenLiberal feminism was most popular in the 1950's and 1960's when many civil rights movements were taking place. The main view of liberal feminists are that all people are created equal by God and deserve equal rights. These types of feminists believe that oppression exists because of the way in which men and women are socialized, which supports patriarchy and keeps men in power positions. Liberal feminists believe that women have the same mental capacity as their male counterparts and should be given the same opportunities in political, economic and social spheres. Women should have the right to choose, not have their life chosen for them because of their sex. Essentially, women must be like men.Liberal feminists create and support acts of legislation that remove the barriers for women. These acts of legislation demand equal opportunities and rights for women, including equal access to jobs and equal pay. Liberal feminists believe that removing these barriers directly challenges the ideologies of patriarchy, as well as liberates women.Liberal feminists are responsible for many important acts of legislation that have greatly increased the status of women, including reforms in welfare, education and health. Unfortunately. Liberal feminism has been known to only concentrate on the legislation aspect in the fight against patriarchy. It has been criticized for not breaking down the deeper ideologies of society and patriarchy. Also, it has been criticized for ignoring race and class issues.Socialist Feminism
Advocate for Socialist Feminism:
Alison JaggarSocialist feminists believe that there is a direct link between class structure and the oppression of women. Western society rewards working men because they produce tangible, tradable goods. On the other hand, women's work in the domestic sphere is not valued by western society because women do not produce a tangible, tradable good. This gives men power and control over women. Socialist feminists reject the idea that biology predetermines ones gender. Social roles are not inherent and women's status must change in both the public and private spheres.Socialist feminists like to challenge the ideologies of capitalism and patriarchy. Much like the views of radical feminists, socialist feminists believe that although women are divided by class, race, ethnicity and religion, they all experience the same oppression simply for being a woman. Socialist feminist believe that the way to end this oppression is to put an end to class and gender. Women must work side by side men in the political sphere. In order to get anything accomplished, women must work with men, as opposed to ostracizing them. There must be a coalition between the two and they must see each other as equals in all spheres of life. In contrast to ideals of liberal feminism, which tend to focus on the individual woman, the socialist feminist theory focuses on the broader context of social relations in the community and includes aspects of race, ethnicity and other differences.Cultural Feminism
Advocate of Cultural Feminism:
Carol GilliganCultural feminists believe that there are fundamental, biological differences between men and women, and that women should celebrate these differences. Women are inherently more kind and gentle. Cultural feminists believe that because of these differences, if women ruled the world there would be no more war and it would be a better place. Essentially, a women's way is the right and better way for everyone. Western society values male thought and the ideas of independence, hierarchy, competition and domination. Females values ideas such as interdependence, cooperation, relationships, community, sharing, joy, trust and peace. Unfortunately, says the cultural feminist, these ideas are not valued in contemporary western societies.Cultural feminists are usually non-political, instead focusing on individual change and influencing or transforming society through this individual change. They usually advocate separate female counter-cultures as a way to change society but not completely disconnect.Ecofeminism
Advocate of Ecofeminism:
Vandana ShivaEcofeminists believe that patriarchy and male domination is harmful to women, as well as the environment. There is a link between a male's desire to dominate unruly women and wilderness. Men feel as though they must tame and conquer both in order to have complete power. Ecofeminists say that it is this desire that destroys both women and the Earth.Ecofeminists believe that women have a central role in preserving nature because woman understand and are one with nature. There is a deep connection that men cannot understand between the Earth and women, hence the terms Mother Nature or Mother Earth. Women need to use their superior insight to reveal how humans can live in harmony with each other and with nature.

jon's "hypocrites" claim may be related to the common claim that while women want to be paid and respected like men, they still want allowances to be made for their femininity

by placing women in power over men, we will see only a switch in who is agressor, who is rapist, who is oppressor.

in countries where corruption in leaders is the norm, women premiers have done the same, taking the government by coup and instituting the same strictures on society.

claimin that feminism is sufficiently defined in the search for an Equal Rights Amendment is just as bad as claiming that math and science are evil and inaccurate because they were created by men.

do i think there is a chance of having a world without hierarchy? not bloody fucking likely. but it is important to be honest about where the problems lie qand what will and will not solve the problem. if women ruled the world, we wouldn't have causeless wars for a week of every month, but we would have wars and genocides and everything else just as often.

You mean the way men have allowances made for their masculinity?

What's your evidence for this, exactly? In our society, something like 95% of rapes are committed by men. It's hard to imagine that being inverted if and when Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House.Oh, wait, that already happened. I know Bill-O has been complaining about roving lesbian rape gangs, but I'm surprised to see you taking him seriously on that.

Just because a woman is on top doesn't mean that patriarchy has been overthrown. It's entirely possible for a woman to be working within or even leading patriarchy.

Except that the first would be legislative policy that would have meaningful, positive repercussions for women in America, and the second is the kind of vapid dialogue that typefies "academic feminism."

I don't have a problem seeing the difference. I don't understand why you do.

So we shouldn't even try to close the wage gap, or secure reproductive freedom, or correct the astoundingly broken American health care system, or any of the other very real issues facing women (and men) in our society?

Do you see why so-called "academic feminism" gets trashed so often? It's because you've essentially said that the problem is intractible and the movement is useless before you've even begun. If you're so adamant that the plight of women can never be improved, in what sense, exactly, are you any kind of feminist?

If this is the contribution of "academic feminism", Christ, who the hell needs you?

For someone who "neither wants to discuss, nor defend jon's position on feminism", you do exactly that in your second to last paragraph.

The point is, NOW represents many of the views of many, possibly most, American feminists. Furthermore, NOW's goals and positions are shared by lots of Americans who don't call themselves feminists.

Academia and feminist philosophy is all well and good, but it doesn't represent reality.

Mainstream, populist, political-movement feminism of the NOW variety is more important than fringe-types of feminism, obviously.

The feminists who actually live their ideals in the day to day are the ones who matter, not the people who sit and contemplate their feminist navels and then write books, pretty much for each other, containging many repetitions of words like "deconstruct" and "paradigm".

Oh, and why on earth do you think that NOW is mainly concerned with the passage of the ERA? They do much more than that.

But you didn't answer my question. Did you think that the ERA was all that NOW was concerned with, and if so, why did you think that?

but there are large numbers of feminists who don't want to see women leading patriarchy, but overthrowing the system for matriarchy.

i wasn't discussing the usefulness of the ERA, but rather defining feminism as a movement as being restricted to the search for it.

i also notice that after what about 30 years, NOW has failed to give it to us?

i purposely stated that the failure to rid society of hierarchy need not relegate us to a continued existence of oppression.

the contribution of academics is to inspire the public to problems which need to be addressed, and occassionally propose solutions. as academics, they are scholars.

my biggest problem with this theory is that the pursuit of it has not been coupled with a pursuit of a methodology for "converting" governments, that is encouraging democratic development in peoples and countries (not related to the idea of forcing democracy by invasion). rather indirectly, i'm actually pursuing that question in one of my current papers which pursues a practical approach to genocide recovery and prevention and democritization. i'm a very ambitious little scholar.

The above example demonstrates rather well. By using "gender" to refer to human beings instead of "sex"”as the bastards bloody-well know they should be”they try to put some sort of connection between physical sexual differences and gender differences in language.

After they've brain-washed the populace into believing that they are indeed related, they proceed to beat the masculine gender out of the language on the grounds that its use constitutes a sort of sexism.

All the while, they completely ignore the actual origin of words (history) and simply focus on decreasing a seemingly "male-dominance" in the language with a dominance that is clearly for the purpose of being female (herstory).

See, they are normal, and like men in a romantic and sexual way similar to the way men like them... being normal humans and such.

But that time has passed, feminism has overstayed its welcome, and most people I talk with agree.

Well, I guess they were a little busy securing the right to an abortion, expanding contraceptive access, and improving workplace conditions for women.

That's all very special, I'm sure - but here on Planet Earth, Dorothy Aken'Ova is about to have her child taken away in retribution for her stance on same-sex marriage in Nigeria. Six international health workers have just narrowly escaped the death sentence after being falsely accused of innoculating children with HIV by the Libyan government, in retribution for the prosecution fo the Lockerbie bombers. Churches around the country are agitating for increased government persecution of gays and lesbians.I'm sure that your little project is so very interesting. That's great, but it has fuck-all to do with feminism.

since i'm not valuable and neither are the women who have tried to pursue academic careers and research in the face of great discrimination and belittling, especially from those who call them "out of touch" like you, i want nothing to do with your feminism.

My wife is pursuing an academic career

your smug sense of self-satisfaction

as well as your dripping contempt for people who actually get things done