You think I just don't understand, but I don't believe you.

RF2013 Programme is available!

Register here.

From the Conference Website.

The aim of this conference is to re-build a radical feminist movement and support the re-emerging interest in radical feminism among women.

We will:

■ Raise awareness and increase understanding about radical feminism
■ Increase networks and connections between Radical feminists
■ Improve activist skills and knowledge among attendees

We are committed to building a strong and vibrant women’s liberation movement and a community of women of all ages and from diverse backgrounds. It is important that we meet as often as we can so that we can build solid relationships and plan for strategies to build a free and safe future for all of our sisters in the female class. We have hope that we can make positive changes for women through the development of a committed movement of women all over the world.

WHAT IS RADICAL FEMINISM?

Radical feminism goes to the heart of female oppression by naming male domination and violence as being responsible for women’s subordination.

OPPOSITION TO GENDER ROLES

Radical feminists believe gender roles are harmful to women. We seek freedom from “femininity” and “masculinity”. Gender only exists for the benefit of men, as a class, at the expense of women, as a class.

THE FOCUS OF RADICAL FEMINISM

Radical feminism names, and brings attention to, all forms of male domination, violence and control, including:

■ Women’s exploitation, degradation and torture within prostitution and pornography,
■ Sexual violence towards women and the way this is culturally normalised,
■ Compulsory heterosexuality as an institution which oppresses women
■ Ways in which women are controlled and harmed by gender roles

WHO IS THIS CONFERENCE FOR?

We welcome radical feminists and those women who want to learn more about radical feminism. It is women-only because we believe that we need to organise autonomously in order to fight for our freedom from patriarchy. We aim to make the conference a safe space for female victims/survivors to talk about multiple experiences of male violence and oppression. We need women-only (female) spaces to do that. We will actively promote radical feminism and radical feminists.

We are revolutionaries, fighting for social change, and overthrowing current patriarchal systems. We want a radical alternative to both right wing, biological determinist and post modern versions of “genderism”. In other words, we oppose the promotion of gender roles as “natural”, inevitable, desirable, innate, or exaggerated performances of “femininity” and “masculinity”. We believe that gender is a destructive hierarchy, which harms women and needs to be abolished. We also oppose the the multi-billion pound sex industry. We disagree with “identity politics” which is counter to our goal of abolishing gender and male domination. The language of identity politics re-enforces patriarchy, even though sometimes people use the language of revolution to push these male centred ideologies. This conference will explore radical feminist critiques of all these oppressive aspects of patriarchy and promote alternative ways forward.

COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS

We support the human rights of all people to live free from violence or verbal abuse. We support the existence of laws to ensure those rights are protected. We support the rights of all groups who are disadvantaged within society to autonomously organise. Although we support rights and freedoms for all, this conference will be focused on the liberation of all females.

Make the Connection.

L-R, Cathy Brennan, Sally Tatnall, Alix Dobkin, 2012.

 “Ever since childhood, I have been honing my skills for living the life of a Radical Feminist Pirate and cultivating the Courage to Sin,” she wrote in the opening of “Sin Big.” …The word ‘sin’ is derived from the Indo-European root ‘es-,’ meaning ‘to be.’ When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a woman trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, ‘to be’ in the fullest sense is ‘to sin.’ “ - Mary Daly.

I first met Sally Tatnall in the early 1990s through one of my best friends, who happens to be related to Sally. In the early 1990s, I lived in Buffalo, New York, where I attended law school at SUNY Buffalo (yey state schools and affordable tuition!) We drove the three hours to Cleveland to visit the city and Sally, who lived in a huge collective house of women.

[...]

Why is it that heterosexual third-wave feminists understand “intersectionality” when it comes to everyone except Lesbians?

You know, Lesbians? Your sisters? Your sisters who love other Women (and by Women, I mean Women – not Trans Women).

A friend alerted me to a discussion on the Guerrilla Feminism Facebook page, run by a Woman named Lachrista Greco. I don’t pay much attention to Feminist Facebook pages, as they tend to ban Radical Feminist discussions, and I had never heard of Greco until two days ago.

Greco made a statement on her page that “Transphobia will not be tolerated” in response to a thread that devolved into a “what about the transwomen” discussion.

And she banned Women. A lot of Women (including me, because I am mean and scary).

The “transphobia” was, of course, Women, many of whom are Lesbian, stating that “transwomen are men.”

This statement – that transwomen are men – is KIND OF REALLY IMPORTANT for Lesbians.

Why? [...]

One of my favorite philosophers, if one actually has favorite philosophers,  is David Hume. If you don’t know David Hume, watch this helpful video.

David Hume was an Empiricist. Empiricism is the idea that you derive “knowledge” from EVIDENCE.  EVIDENCE includes facts, information, and data that demonstrates that a particular belief is “true” or valid.

[...]

Ok, let’s be honest.

I am trans.

You are trans.

Everyone except a (female) Barbie Doll is trans (because male Barbie dolls are Trans).

[...]

Any time a Woman speaks out for Women over Men, that Woman is bound to face the wrath of Men angry that she dare stand for Women.

Roseanne Barr has come out in defense of Women over Men who exploit “Gender Identity” as a means to penetrate Women-Only Space.

For that, she has earned violent threats like this:

[...]

Guilt and shame are powerful tools for control, and are used with regularity by so-called leaders of the GLBTQWTF Movement and their lemmings against Gays and Lesbians who don’t sign onto the Movement’s Party Line on Gender Identity.

hai tony!

[...]

All women are damaged.  Damage is injury or harm that reduces us.

You, woman, are damaged.

Does this offend you? Do you believe you are not damaged, that you are somehow immune to the forces at work that make women hate each other?

You are lucky.

Who WOULDN’T be damaged? Damage to women is both a direct goal of male supremacy and a by-product of living in a woman-hating culture.

I don’t blame women for this damage.

All women are two-faced.  We engage in deception when we pretend we believe one thing, and act according to a different belief.  We “have” to be two-faced. How else would women survive in a woman-hating culture, where what we are socialized to be loyal to doesn’t always match up with what we know to be true in our hearts? And, so, often we sell ourselves out, just as much as well sell out other women.

I don’t blame women for adopting tactics needed to survive.

I am a woman. I am not immune from these observations.

I am damaged and two-faced.

But how do we trust women in light of the fact that all women are damaged and all women are two-faced (and three- and four-faced, depending on the lives we lead and the masters we serve)?

[...]

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

A baby girl is born. It’s a girl! Pink! Baby Dolls! Dresses! Other Stuff! From this moment, the girl is groomed for life as a Heterosexual Woman. She is groomed for a life as a wife and servant for Men. She is groomed to  want to have babies and raise the children of men. She is groomed for Compulsory Heterosexuality, the concept coined by Baltimore native and Radical Feminist Adrienne Rich that identifies heterosexuality as the agent that keeps Females from actualizing their full sexual and emotional capacities, an agent that denies a sexual way of being unrelated to Male pleasure – Lesbian sexuality.

All girls in our culture are groomed towards Compulsory Heterosexuality.

All of us. Including Lesbians. As Lesbians, we have been socialized since birth – like all Females – to be sexually accessible to Males. As Lesbians, many of us work for years with internalized self-hatred and misogyny before we finally are able to confront our sexual attractions and honor our sexuality. This is a long and – for many of us – a lifetime process, as we are constantly bombarded with cultural messages that Lesbian sexuality is wrong.

[...]