#womens oppression

[balkanradfem]

m*n raising little girls: well how is she going to cook and clean and take care of children and do chores endlessly and serve her husband, if she's already acting disobedient now? I need to get her in order immediately. Also she should be practicing all that by being in servitude to me at all times. Any aggression towards her is appropriate.

m*n raising little boys: well, he's going to figure out easily how to be authoritative and violent towards his wife and children <3 already doing so well <3 show them who's the boss

[miiju86]

- From now on, whenever | get asked, "You're a feminist, so do you hate men?” I'm going to ask, “You're not a feminist. So do you hate women?” -

Funny how men see female liberation as "man-hating". But it's unsurprising, since they see us as objects and a mere resource they are entitled by birthright to posess; our freedom feels to them as their loss, our right to humanity as a threat.

[red-flag-news]

Zelda D’Aprano, famous for chaining herself to the railings of the Commonwealth Building in Melbourne in 1969 to demand equal pay for women, died on 21 February, aged 90.

Zelda was born into a working class Jewish family in Carlton in 1928. Following her mother’s example, she became a member of the Communist Party. Initially, she worked in factories and later for the Meat Industry Union.

The meat industry was a test case for the equal pay campaign. She and other unionists were present at the Arbitration Commission ruling that the minimum wage would continue to be set at different rates for men and women.

Four male judges decided not to grant “equal pay for work of equal value” but only “equal pay for equal work” to the few women who did the same work as men in male-dominated occupations. Female-dominated industries such as nursing missed out, and only about 5 percent of women got equal pay.

READ MORE: Vale Zelda D’Aprano, a fighter for women’s liberation

[balkanradfem]

If you see a female body and think 'this needs to be fixed', that's not a natural thought. There's nothing that needs to be modified about bodies of living beings, especially not to fit some inane standards. If you believe there's something wrong with the way female body looks naturally, then you either are hateful of women, or your mind has been hijacked to believe it's normal to hate women's bodies. That's not normal. If we accepted how every animal in the world looks, if we accepted how half of the human population looks and are fine with it, why is the other half 'needing to be fixed'?

Why can't we look at women's bodies and go 'yeah, they're fine as they are', and move on, like we do with everything else? What gives anyone even the entitlement to be the one allowed to judge women's bodies? To imply something about them isn't 'good enough' is already a disrespect and implication that women don't exist as living, feeling, human beings, but just as something to be judged and put into place by someone else.

[balkanradfem]

Hello, I have an issue and I don't really have anyone to talk to about that specific thing. I stopped waxing my body hair two years ago when I stumbled across radical feminism on tumblr, and it's been amazing! My confidence is through the roof and I stopped caring about men. Except. For the body hair. I mean, I still don't shave or anything. But I have very thick body hair due to hormonal issues and repeated waxing/shaving since I was 12. Especially on my chin where I have very thick duvet. I caved and allowed my mother to pay for laser hair removal. But it makes me crazy because I want to do it all over now. I used to swim regularly but I lost my only swimsuit where my "luscious" pubic hair was not visible (kind of... it basically goes halfway down my thigh) and they are really rare and expensive, most swimsuits are basically pubic hair out. And even while I had that one, I was very uncomfortable with my armpit hair which is literally longer than my hair. I have my hair until my ears but still, that's really long. Do you have advice, or I don't know really, stuff to make me change my mind about pubic/armpit hair and laser hair removal? I know it's not good for skin, causes skin cancer I think? But I feel so alone and idk, like a hairy beast. It gets lonely.

Ah I can relate to being scrutinized and judged in public for your body hair, even if I don't have the extra hormonal, but I remember struggling to feel normal and always feeling like I'm being watched.

I can only offer a part of what helped me: there's actually no law stating that you have to wear a woman's swimming suit on the beach or anywhere else. I wear swimming trunks and a whole t-shirt when I'm swimming and nobody has said one word to me, and I've felt super comfortable in those! It's not very eye-drawing and it's great for a transition before you are able to feel comfortable - or in some cases, if there's males around, I understand never being able to feel comfortable because they will objectify you, but that has nothing to do with your body hair, that's just the way they are.

But you don't have to wear swimming clothing that's been designed for male fantasies and fetishes, you can absolutely make or get something that makes you comfortable and un-selfconscious.

It does take years and years to become comfortable with body hair, even the normal amount. I remember at one point realizing that what I'm having, the full body hair, is normal, and being completely shaved and bare is weird, mimicking children's immature bodies, and also making your body vulnerable to infections and diseases, as well as causing discomfort. Most of body hair we have is so that our skin wouldn't chafe together, to make our movement more comfortable! So seeing women shaved naked makes me uncomfortable, I know they're undergoing discomfort, itching, bleeding, chafing, prickling and all other stuff that comes with shaving. Seeing a woman with full body hair just makes me relax and I feel so happy that she's comfortable too. Being completely shaved to me is a sign of oppression.

And later when I became even more comfortable, the thought of being a bit more repulsive and unpalatable to males made me happy. It's slightly harder to objectify a woman who is fully comfortable and unwilling to mimic a child's body with her own. So I'm displaying full freedom from their desires in front of them and don't have to care. I am however, still sad for all the women who can't do it, and are undergoing discomfort only to be slightly more palatable to their oppressors.

I don't know if my opinions can help you see it in a different way at all, it was a long journey for me, and the best I can say is, take your time. It's okay if it takes a decade to feel fully comfortable, I believe that you'll get there! There's nothing but comfort and joy waiting for you at the end of it.

[balkanradfem]

I'm watching this video about how Jehovah witnesses treat women, and it was worse than I imagined. Like, there was this song called 'Guard Our Hearts,' and they changed it to 'We Guard Our Hearts' because they didn't like the idea of a woman telling a man what to do. And even sons have more authority than their mothers. The age to be baptized is like 10, and a 10 year old can teach 60 year old women, but those women can't teach him.

I hope this helps clarify your message. Let me know if there's anything else I can do!

Oh that is horrifying, it's patriarchy on steroids. I can't imagine how awful it feels living like this is normal, like males all ages have authority over women all ages. My heart goes out to the women, I know they feel in their hearts its wrong.

Thank you for bringing me this information anon, I appreciate it!

[balkanradfem]

m*n will see a feminist liberation movement and go ‘This must be for me and it’s goal has to be for women to understand my feelings better and act accordingly. They’re not doing a good job of it and it’s time for me to explain it to them how to go about it. I’m off to bully and harass these women!”

[balkanradfem]

Hey there! I don't have a blog myself, but I do visit yours often and it has become kind of like a safe space for me. I have a question for you, and even if you don't have an answer for me, I feel like just typing it out will help me feel a little bit better. (I'm a fellow Balkan woman (hi!) so my English might not be great, but I hope you'll be able to understand me.) 1/2

(cont.)My question for you is: how do you cope with knowing all the horrors women have been through, are going through right now, and will go through in the future? Every time I feel even an ounce of happiness I instantly think of the women who didn't/don't have it as good as I do and I'm devastated again. And I want to prosper because I feel like I owe it to them and to myself, but just thinking about our opression paralizes me. (There's so much more I want to write but sadly I'm out of space :() 2/2

That is a very deep question, I remember feeling as you do and feeling all of the suffering all at once, and for a long time I couldn't really figure out how to deal with it, because it's overwhelming and devastating. And I don't think we're meant to feel this devastation forever.

I managed to admit to myself that I am one of the women who are suffering, I had to deal for the most of my life with domestic abuse, sexual abuse, a lot of violence and trauma, and I spent a lot of time in grief and generally feeling hopeless. And on top of that, I felt helpless to prevent the suffering of the billions of women in the world. It's too much of a burden for one person to carry. I know we want to figure it all out for everyone, but eventually, you have to make peace with the fact that you're only one person, and you need the power of the community in order to create change.

Thinking of practical things to do, in order to make the suffering a little less for even one person, gives you a great way out of feeling helpless and paralyzed. Even if that one person is you! Making your own life less painful and horrible, will in turn, reduce the amount of suffering in the world. And things that helped me were resources, women writing out their passion and anger and hatred towards men, as well as their own dreams and visions for the future, dreaming of a better reality where there would be more women-controlled land, those things made me feel hope and inspiration! So I joined in, created the same writings and resources that helped me, to also help others. And I feel like a lot of us are helped by that little safe space, the movement where we are people and our suffering matters, and no one will try to exploit us, where our rights and lives are represented.

Radical feminism makes things a little better for me, and I feel a lot of women feel better knowing there is a community and a movement that is with them, on their side, no matter what ruthless war against patriarchy they're facing. And the common dream, that one day we can get away from all of this, live in a food forest and make baskets and art and books and food together, without the oppression, that keeps me going.