Companion Post: Why Radical Feminism?

In my latest video I asserted that Radical Feminism is how we change minds. I neglected to explain what that means or why I think that.

If Liberal Feminism has done such a great job changing laws, why do we need to go any further?

Because the institutions we are changing have their foundation in male supremacy. No matter how many renovations and additions you put on a ranch house, it’s still the same building with the same small slab underneath.

And how does Radical Feminism tackle this problem?

I think the key to the answer is Gender Criticism. This is the concept that there is no such thing as sex-specific activities. Or vocations. Or clothes. That people have individual personalities and boys are not necessarily sporty just like girls are not necessarily dainty.

So many of us – I dare say most of us – have suffered with a sense of inferiority because we are not what the world tells us we should be. Men still feel pressure to be breadwinners and women are still expected (even assumed) to be caregivers. This is why, after all these years, we as a society still struggle with getting women into board rooms and men into nurseries.

If you are not a feminine woman, you are often treated like a failure as a person. And if you are a feminine woman, you are seen as vapid and shallow. It’s a lose-lose.

I’m not going to delve into how this system hurts men, because they also benefit from it in ways women don’t. And no, the traditional sexist deference given to women is not a benefit. Being on a pedestal is still very limiting.

If we can give up our assumptions about people based on their sex, we will go a long way to furthering the cause of equality.

And imagine the personal freedom! If you could wear what you like and do what you like and sleep with who you like, without ever hearing “I love seeing a woman in a dress, you just don’t see many good girls anymore!” (I have heard this many times. So much to unpack there! I could write a whole post. They obviously don’t know me.) “Why don’t you wear something more flattering?” “No man wants a woman who makes more money than he does.” “You just haven’t met the right man yet.” Ugh, are we still talking about corrective rape??

I’m talking about personal freedom. I’m talking about a future where people can be themselves without getting flack. Where boys can like sparkly things and girls can like sports.

Because why not? The only argument I have ever heard is that it would destroy the Natural Order, wherein men are Men (meaning superior and stoic) and women are Women (meaning inferior and hysterical.)

If you think for a second that men and women are going to stop pairing off and having children because women use power tools and men wear skirts, I don’t know what to say. We would no sooner do that then we would stop eating. These societal boxes serve nothing other than to keep us from progressing. They are stupid and they are cruel.

And everyone has something to gain by tossing them in the garbage pile of History where they belong.