re: #145 Dark_Falcon

What does it mean? Please keep in mind that I’m very seldom a fan of radical anything.

Hey DF. Quick post here as I have to talk to Jimmah— the ‘radical’ only refers to the Latin radicalis “of roots”. Radical Feminism seeks the source or root of women’s oppression and identifies it as being the source of all oppression everywhere— that is, that the oppression of women was the first sort of oppression in human history and is the model for all other forms of oppression.

It also locates the source or root of women’s oppression in biology— specifically, female sexuality and reproduction. It identifies the control of female sexuality and female reproductve life as central to the oppression of women. (this is not to deny that there are other forms of oppression, it just places the primary locus of the oppression of women as rooted there).

Consequently a radical feminist, at the very least, will believe that ensuring women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy is central to the liberation of women.

Some will go further and argue that the oppression of women is ‘worse’ than all other kinds of oppression. I don’t play that game; I’m not interested in grading who is oppressed more, and I’m opposed to oppression full stop, but that is a consequence of my being a humanist, not only a feminist.

But when we consider the world as a whole, and that women make up 51 percent of that world, and look at the condition of women worldwide, (which is also something a radical feminist is interested in, not merely women in the US, or western industrialised nations) there is no doubt that the oppression of women is more widespread than that of any other single group, and that’s purely a consequence of population stats.
Hope this helps.