Introduction to Radical Feminism
By: @pnkgjl on Twitter
The "helpful resources" section is always a work in progress. I am always making changes and adding resources, so make sure to check this Carrd every once in a while. If you want to send me a source that I could add, please send it to me on DM. If you want to debunk something, DM me and we can discuss it (calmly, please). I am open to discussion if you are. Any section with a check mark is a completed section.
RADICAL FEMINISM AND PROSTITUTION + SEX WORKRadical feminists argue that most women who become prostitutes are forced into it by a pimp, human trafficking, poverty, drug addiction, or trauma such as childhood sexual abuse. Women from the lowest socioeconomic classes, impoverished women, women with a low level of education, and women from disadvantaged racial or ethnic minorities are over-represented in prostitution all over the world. If prostitution is a free choice, why are women with the fewest choices the ones most often found doing it?In prostitution, women have sex with men they would never otherwise have sex with. In this case, the money acts as a form of force, and not as a measure of consent. It acts like physical force does in rape; sexual coercion falls under the broad umbrella of sexual assault, as does rape. Since consent given under coercion isn't freely given, it doesn't count as consent. It follows then, that coerced sex (when it involves penetration) would count as rape, even if the other person didn't use physical force or violence. If you have to do something to get someone to have sex with you, otherwise they'd say no, then it's rape by coercion.
- Freely given consent: was the consent offered of the person’s own free will, without being induced by fraud, coercion, violence, or threat of violence?Prostitution and equality for women cannot exist simultaneously. To eradicate prostitution we must seek ways to end the abusive selling and buying of girls' and women's bodies for men's sexual pleasure.Radical feminists have analysed prostitution as one of the cornerstones of patriarchal domination and sexual subjugation of women that impacts all women as a class; prostitution continually affirms and reinforces patriarchal definitions of women as having a primary function to serve men sexually.Radical feminists argue that sexual liberation for women cannot be achieved as long as we normalise unequal sexual practices where a man dominates or has power over a woman in a violent and abusive way. Sexual liberation for women will never be achieved if men continue to see women's bodies as a service that can be bought and used however they'd like.Radical feminists see prostitution as a form of slavery. The industry is rife with physical assault, sexual abuse, and rape. Prostitution leads to a sharp increase in sexual violence against women by sending the message that it is acceptable for a man to treat a woman as a sexual object of which he was total control over.Who are you defending when you defend prostitution? Because it's not the prostitutes who get PTSD due to severe abuse from their pimps and customers. You're defending men who view women as sex objects. You are defending sex traffickers and abusive pimps. You are defending men who pay underage girls to have sex with them. You are defending an industry that takes advantage of disadvantaged women. You can be pro-sex worker because we all want a safe environment for women where they can earn money without being abused by men; however, if you are pro-women, you cannot be pro-sex industry. The sex industry hates women.
RADICAL FEMINISM AND PORNOGRAPHYRadical feminists believe that the production of pornography entails physical, psychological, and/or economic coercion of the women who act/model in it. It is also argued that much of what is shown is abusive by its very nature. Pornography is becoming increasingly violent and women who perform in pornography are brutalised in the process of its production. Radical feminists point to the testimony of well-known participants in pornography and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography by somebody else or by an unfortunate set of circumstances.Pornography contributes to sexism; in pornographic performances, the actresses are reduced to mere objects for sexual use and abuse by men. Radical feminists argue that the narrative is usually formed around men's pleasure as the only goal of sexual activity, and that the women are shown in a subordinate role.Radical feminists also believe that pornographic films tend to show women as being extremely passive, and that the acts which are performed on the women are typically abusive and solely for the pleasure of the male partner.Pornography sexualises and fetishises everything about women. It fetishises mentally ill and vulnerable women. It fetishises women of specific races and reinforces racial stereotypes. It sexualises teenage girls and children. It fetishises the rape, torture, and abuse of women.Pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence through fostering rape myths that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. Rape myths perpetrate sexual violence indirectly by creating distorted beliefs and attitudes about sexual assault and shift elements of blame onto the victims. Porn also causes an increase in sexual violence because boys and men want to reenact what they see in porn. Porn teaches them that women exist for their sexual pleasure and are sex objects that were made to be raped and abused.Not to mention, the porn industry is rife with sex trafficking of women and young girls. It has been proven that more demand for porn increases sex trafficking. If you support or watch porn, you are supporting an industry that profits off of the brutalization of women and children. You don't know which scenes are consensual and which scenes are non-consensual. You don't know if the woman was aware that she was being filmed or not. You don't know which women were trafficked or abducted. You don't know which ones are there against their will. You don't know what is going on behind the scenes.
RADICAL FEMINISM AND BDSM + KINKSHard kinks are the fetishisation of slavery, power imbalances, rape, incest, pedophelia, and abuse. Hurting your partner and/or getting hurt by your partner does not become okay just because it turns you on. Having a rape fetish means that you are turned on by rape; it doesn't matter if your partner agreed to play along with your weird rapist fantasies. If rape (or any of the other mentioned kinks above) turn you on, then you have a problem. Let's use rape kinks as an example. Why does rape turn you on? Is it sexy to you when a woman is screaming and crying? Do you find it hot when a woman is constantly telling you no? If so, you have a problem that you seriously need to adress. If anything that involves rape, torture, abuse, slavery, or children turns you on, then you are exactly like the people who act on these "kinks" for real. The only difference is that you found someone who will let you do these things to them "consensually."Now, let's talk about the people who enjoy having these things done to them. Radical feminists aren't shaming the women who enjoy kinks, we're shaming the men who enjoy hurting their partners. Sure, you may like getting choked, tortured, abused, etc. because it turns you on. However, your body cannot differentiate between harm that is inflicted consensually and harm that is inflicted non-consensually. Your throat doesn't care if you consented to being choked or not. A kink like choking has long lasting effects on your body. Your skin and bones do not care if the punches and cuts you received were "consensual" or not.Hard kinks and BDSM just reinforce power imbalances between men and women. It normalises violence against women and it gives men a way to freely get away with abuse. Abuse means "cruel and violent treatment of a person or animal." BDSM and most kinks are abusive by nature and they should not be normalized. We live in a time where men are freely talking about their rape and abuse fantasies while using the excuse "it's just a kink!" While men talk about the disgusting things they want to do to women, women are talking about the things they want done to them. This is not empowering. It reinforces male sexual domination. The only people who gain power from the normalisation of BDSM and kinks are the men who are now able to get away with abusing women.Young boys are taught that it's okay to have these thoughts while young girls are taught that they're "boring and vanilla" if they don't enjoy these things. If you criticise a man who is talking about his rape fantasies online, you are called a "kinkshamer." Radical feminists analyse the reason why these kinks exist, and there is a very clear pattern of male and female socialisation, the patriarchy, the idea that women are sex objects, and so on. People with rape, torture, abuse, incest, etc. kinks are turned on by these things for the same reasons that rapists, abusers, torturers, incestuous people, etc. are turned on by these things. However, one is seen as bad and the other is seen as healthy and normal; what's the difference, though? Both rapists and men with rape kinks are turned on by rape.Just to make it clear, Radical feminists are against BDSM all together. We are anti-BDSM. However, we are not anti-kink; we're just kink critical. Not all kinks are inherently harmful (a lot are, but not all). For example, food kinks, although questionable, are not inherently harmful. The same is said for kinks of a similar nature.
RADICAL FEMINISM TRADITIONAL MARRIAGES + FAMILIESTraditional families cause women and mothers to be financially dependent on men. No, women should not be financially dependent on men. Traditional/nuclear families put women in a situation where they dedicate their entire lives to taking care of their children and husbands; they cook, clean, take care of the children, and so on. The housekeeping that mothers do is enough to get them paid around 100,000 dollars a year (with the assumption that she doesn't have a nanny or a maid to help her, which most mothers don't); this is unpaid labour. This creates a power imbalance between the wife and the husband. This means that it is difficult for a woman to leave her husband due to her financial dependency. If she leaves, in a lot of countries, she would have virtually no money under her name (due to unfair inheritance laws and a lack of income). If a woman needs to leave due to any circumstances, she will not be able to. She will have no money, no job, and no shelter. Because of all these things, a woman usually has no choice but to stay with her husband, even when she has to leave. In some traditional families, the husband might even ask his wife to quit her job in order to take care of the house/children. Not to mention, women in traditional marriages give up their entire lives to take care of others. This takes a toll on them, and studies have shown that unmarried and childless women are much happier.Marriage was created by men, for men. Traditional marriages and nuclear families, at this point in time, can't and won't benefit women. In traditional marriages, a woman goes from being the property of her father to being the property of her husband. Traditional marriages exist so that men can have legal access to a woman's womb and her ability to give birth. Radical feminists understand this, and as a result, are against traditional marriages that involve a man and a woman.
Anti Beauty Industry : work in progress
Anti Surrogacy: work in progress
Pro Bodily Autonomy: work in progress
Pro Gender Abolition: work in progress
Understanding Sex-Based Oppression: work in progress
Anti Capitalism: work in progress
Religion Critical: work in progress
Anti "Choice Feminism": work in progress
Pro Intersectionality: work in progress
RadFem Goals + Solutions: work in progress
RADICAL FEMINISM HELPFUL RESOURCESPROSTITUTION[STUDY] Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder[ORGANISATION] Forced Prostitution[GOVERNMENT] The Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking[STUDY] Emotional Experiences of Performing Prostitution[ARTICLE] Half of all Korean Men Pay for Sex[STUDY] Origins and Working Conditions of Female Sex Workers in Urban Thailand: Consequences of Social Context for HIV Transmission[RESEARCH PAPER] Prostitution in Thailand: Representations in Fiction and Narrative Non-Fiction[RESEARCH PAPER] Street Prostitution: Ten Facts in Search of Policy[STUDY] Violence and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a Sample of Inner City Prostitutes[STUDY] Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder[ORGANISATION] What is the Nordic Model?[STUDY] HIV and Sexual Risk Behavior Among Commercial Sex Workers in the Netherlands[STUDY] Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?PORNOGRAPHY[ARTICLE] 13-year-old Boy Sexually Abuses 5-year-old Sister Thanks to Porn, Says Therapist[ARTICLE] 13-year-old Says ‘Gay Porn’ Led to Repeated Rape of 4-year-old[ARTICLE] Hours ‘Trawling’ the Internet for Online Porn Led to 15-year-old Rapist’s Crimes[ARTICLE] Children Sexually Molesting Other Children, and Porn Is at the Root[ARTICLE] 13-year-old Pleads Guilty to Rape of 8-year-old girl: Was Addicted to Porn by Age 10[ARTICLE] How Porn Fuels Sex Trafficking[ORGANISATION] The Connections Between Pornography and Sex Trafficking[STUDY] Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis Update[ARTICLE] Blackburn Boy, 13, Rapes Sister, 8, After Watching Porn on Xbox[ARTICLE] How Violent Porn Fueled A 400% Rise In Child-On-Child Assaults In The UK[STUDY] Pornography Viewing Among Fraternity Men: Effects on Bystander Intervention, Rape Myth Acceptance and Behavioral Intent to Commit Sexual Assault[ARTICLE] Porn Actress Nikki Benz Sues MindGeek, Brazzers, Co-Stars for Sexual Battery, Gender Violence[ARTICLE] Man Raped Women After Luring Them to Be Part of Fake Sleep Study, Sold Video of the Attacks