#radfem book

[balkanradfem]

I’ve had this idea for a book a while ago, and started thinking of it again today. I don’t feel like I can write it, but I can at least present the concept in a text post.

The book begins with an underground temple of an ancient female goddess; she’s been watching the state of her wards, and she’s angry. She’s been sealed underground, but she’s been festering anger and power, and finally, her seal breaks. The night sky lights up, and consequently, every m*n on the surface on the earth finds that he can no longer move.

Some are motionless on their beds, some have fallen to the floor, finding themselves completely immobile. They cannot speak either. They’re found by their flatmates and wives who are concerned, but ultimately unable to do anything about it; they can bring water and food, but he’s not able to eat or drink. Women quickly realize it’s all of them, and it’s not an individual illness. Female researches, scientists and doctors hurry to figure out what is wrong; but there’s no cause whatsoever, they’re all just immobile and mute. They can’t go to work, they can’t eat or drink, they can’t do anything.

In absence of m*n in the work force, women are quickly forced to take over their shifts and get their work done for them; some work is taken over by co-workers, and sometimes it’s a sister or a wife who is called to guess his passwords, and stays for the job. A lot are facing unpleasant discoveries about the m*n in their life, such as their p**n habits, proofs of pedophilia, stalking, exploitation of prostituted women, cheating, grooming younger women, misogynistic ideas online. The women get even less friendly-feelings towards their male counterparts once they have access to all of their finances - they quickly figure out just how selfish and secretive they’ve all been.

Meanwhile, there is some progress in the male condition. Some males have managed to move around a little, not to speak, but some have realized that the bed/floor they’re laying on, has gotten pretty dirty, and decided to clean it. As soon as they had this thought, an ability of movement was granted to them, and very relieved, they were managing to drink water and wash themselves, only to find themselves immobilized once again, this time on their bathroom floors. Few of them have managed to get up again. Few of them figured out just why. None of them have been able to get out of the house, or to get to work.

Women taking the places of CEO’s get access to the financial records of the companies, and very clearly see just how much it’s possible to pay the workers, vs what they’re actually paid, in order to increase the profits. And women decide to put that practice to the depth of hell. New laws are made where all the profits are equally redistributed to the workers, giving them all a chance for a safe and comfortable life. And these workers, are now women only, so for the first time ever, women are the only ones with significantly big buying power.

Women generally use their money to provide food and safety for their families, so with the increased availability of food, furniture, clothes and weather-protective items, the economy is experiencing a new type of boom, where things geared towards women are now sold easily, and women are gaining the power to purchase their own land, houses, farms.

The women are also having some angry confrontations with the still-immobilized, still speechless m*n on the floor; about their misogyny, about the cheating, about the lies, sexualizing minors, leading businesses that cause massive damage and harm to the workers, about how life is suddenly, easier somehow, instead of being harder and more miserable. Domestic violence victims, for the first time, are safe to walk out of their homes, to report, to start their own lives, because now the entire earth is a safe place. Victims of pedophilia, incest, rape, imprisonment, pimping, are now free to speak up, to do in fact, whatever they wanted to the now motionless abusers who are lying on the floor, unable to hit, rape, abuse, murder, talk back, unable to deny anything.

The m*n who did realize they can move, have managed to figure out how to do it more. They won’t be able to move if they’re thinking about their jobs, or what they need to say to their wives to make sure things go their way, they don’t get to move if they want to do anything for their own satisfaction. But, they can move if they decide to wash the floor. Or wash the toilet. If they think about making a meal for his wife. If they’re doing laundry. Same as it appeared, the ability to move disappears as soon as they fail to be doing that specific tasks. They’ll be allowed to eat or drink, but only as much as it’s necessary for them to be doing the manual labour.

They women notice, and convey this information; m*n, if you want to move, think about domestic labour. Some m*n are just grateful to move, and start cleaning the houses, washing the windows, doing laundry, making meals - but they also don’t get to do meals they like themselves. They get to move if they make food their wives like. Some m*n decide this is beneath them, and refuse to do anything until they’re at the very brink of death by dehydration. Some decide to die rather than to take this role upon themselves. They go angrily, but quietly. They don’t get to yell their indignation at their housemates. The women sadly realize there’s nothing they can do at this point - the m*n have chosen their own destiny. They could have lived, if they just did a bit of housework.

The world is looking for an explanation of what is going on, and the book follows a team of female archeologists, who have recorded some explainable findings, patterns and rocks leading close to the underground temple, that we have seen in the beginning. They feel they’re onto something, and their exploration is being reported on social media, the women hoping to find out what has caused this world-wide event of m*n losing their power to move.

Some women decide this is an act of god and something that cannot be influenced or explained, and the reasoning for it is mysterious, but they’re doing the best they can to keep leading their lives, now free of harassment and sexual abuse. Some women decide, that since it destroyed their relationships and love, it must be an act of a demon or a devil, and they gather and start a cult of blaming other women for it, trying to find which horrid witch was evil enough to do this to them, personally. They’re wreaking havoc on the most vulnerable women in the population, before they’re seized and stopped in their tracks, other women refusing to tolerate the religious nonsense, and violence towards their own. 

The women  gain power to reduce carbon footprint and exploitation of the third-world workers and resources; now that the goal is no longer to increase profit, these issues become resolvable by paying for the resources fairly, and quitting the practices that cause insane amounts environmental damage. The women are taking several months to get it down, but within a year, practices have changed, and new laws have been put into motion to prevent the development of more harm.

It’s now months since the m*n have been rendered motionless, and some have started recovering, and walking around to some point; but never outside their house. They’ve been grateful they’re allowed to eat meals, and sleep in a bed. They’re spending their days doing housework, and they also found out, that there’s differences in what each of them has to do in order to move. If this specific one had a woman continuously cook for him, and clean for him, then these specific actions are what he has to do. If the woman has been taking care of his child around the clock, now he has to do it, in the same way she would, or he goes limp again. If he wasn’t specifically counting on a woman to do these tasks, then he’s recovering a little bit faster than the others, allowed to get some free time, only unable to tell when it’s going to end.

They discover they can talk, if they’re saying pleasing and loving things to women. They can clean themselves, as long as the soaps they use are nice-smelling to women. They can fix their appearance, as long as women like to see them like that. They can make themselves sexually appealing, but only if a woman is in the mood for that. If they reach to touch her, to make her, the ability to move is denied for days. Some of them learn the first time; some of them fail to survive this.

The team of the female archeologists, after going through multiple perils, finally find their way down into the ancient goddess temple, and they’re rewarded for their effort; they’re allowed to speak to the goddess directly. They ask, for how long is this going to last? And she replies “For as long as the opposite lasted.”

-

With a book like that, I’d want to put all m*n into a situation where all women have been at one point or another. Where their survival depends directly on being useful and convenient to m*n. Where their appearance, demeanor and behaviour is allowed to exist, only while it’s convenient and attractive to m*n. Where their only option is to appeal to m*n, offer up their labour, their time and energy, their love and compassion, to be rewarded with nothing but continued survival. Where the only place they’re allowed to exist in, is a property of a male. Where the laws are being made not for their success, but for them to be stripped from protection and rights. Where people in power have no regard for their interests.

This is not a revenge fantasy; no m*n is murdered, tortured, raped, dismembered, sold into sex slavery, or turned into a corpse against his own will, they all have a choice, and it’s a choice women have been invisibly making for centuries. I’d like m*n to be aware, just for a moment, what that position feels like, what it means looking at a life of servitude, versus ensured silence and death.

It also calls attention to how bad our situation really is, or was at some point in our lives. We had all but no choice, but to do housework for males at some points in our lives. To cook for them, to clean their property, to take care of their children/animals/possessions, to comfort them, to please them, to appeal to them, to endure whatever abuse they put our way, if we want to keep living and to be acknowledged as human beings. We don’t get rights if we don’t prove to be useful. That is painful. That feels like being motionless and useless and in danger of perishing, unless we do as we’re told, as we’re conditioned to. I want us to be aware as well, that this is a crime against our humanity. We never should have been in that position. Nobody should.

#fantasy #book idea #radical feminism #feminism #radfem #radfem book #utopia fantasy

[neroraven]

Which radical feminism works do you recommend to get started on it? (Reading I mean)

I recommend starting with general feminist readings and then getting to know the work of Adrea Dworkin, Angela Davis and Kate Millet. This is a reading list I compiled some time ago with free PDFs. Hope it helps!

#radfem #radical feminism #feminist theory #feminist readings #radfem book #radfem readings #books #ask #m

[fembrie]

i can't put into words how succinctly kim jiyoung, born 1982 pinpoints the experience of womanhood in the 21st century and tears a fucking hole right through it. it's people who point to laws and gender equality committees and mandatory hr sensitivity trainings who need to read this book the most - women already know that our suffering looks like realizing you've been trained to put other people first your whole life, knowing men live more freely because they do not. we know that our oppression is not just men's violent outbursts, but the slow and steady lifelong culmination of excessive responsibility, pressure and routine injustice. i used to wonder whether it's even possible to communicate experiences so familiar to one sex and alien to the other across these lines. pay gaps are easy to talk about because they're quantifiable, but how do you communicate the cruelty of making us choose between having children and our ambitions? how do you express the frustrations of toeing the line between fellow human and consumable sex object in the eyes of men? how do you explain the ways in which cycles of unassuming acceptance of our place in society, rebellion and defeat mould, contort, disfigure our beings? and is it even worth trying? fwiw, i think cho nam-joo has come as close to succeeding at this as you can

#oh how i missed u reading a whole book in one sitting #kim jiyoung born 1982 #bookblr #book review #radfem #radical feminism

[femmesandhoney]

being a woman means asking for gifts that aren't conventionally feminine gifts and being gifted conventionally feminine gifts because others think that's what you "really" wanted or needed underneath your obviously fake and stupid real wants that cannot possible be satisfactory enough for you, a woman.

#'i got you an ulta giftcard bc i didn't have time to get those books you wanted' okay. then why didn't u just get me a b&n giftcard? #the time my mom got me a very cute expensive bag that is very cute sure but way too fancy and expensive for me #and i will never use it and it will make us both sad #like i don't get why people try to buy stuff for others that is not even close to what they asked for #radical feminism #radical feminist #radfem

[spookyradluka]

#radfem #radblr #radical feminists please interact #radical feminist community #radical feminism #intersectional feminism #feminism #book quotations

[radfemtiktok]

submitted by @shesawitch

#i think the book she is talking about is who cooked the last supper #tiktok #radblr #radfem #radical feminism #radfem friendly #feminism

[whocookedthelastsupper]

“Yet some would say, why women's history at all? Surely men and women have always shared a world, and suffered together all its rights and wrongs? It is a common belief that whatever the situation, both sexes faced it alike. But the male peasant, however cruelly oppressed, always had the right to beat his wife. The black slave had to labor for the white master by day, but he did not have to service him by night as well. This grim pattern continues to this day, with women bearing an extra ration of pain and misery whatever the circumstances, as the sufferings of the women of war-torn Eastern Europe will testify. While their men fought and died, wholesale and systematic rape-often accompanied by the same torture and death that the men suffered — was a fate only women had to endure. Women's history springs from moments of recognition such as this, and the awareness of the difference is still very new. Only in our time have historians begun to look at the historical experience of men and women separately, and to acknowledge that for most of our human past, women's interests have been opposed to those of men. Women's interests have been opposed by them, too: men have not willingly extended to women the rights and freedoms they have claimed for themselves. As a result, historical advances have tended to be "men only" affairs. When history concentrates solely on one half of the human race, any alternative truth or reality is lost. Men dominate history because they write it, and their accounts of active, brave, clever or aggressive females constantly tend to sentimentalize, to mythologize or to pull women back to some perceived "norm." As a result, much of the so-called historical record is simply untrue. For example, Joan of Arc was burned not for heresy but for wearing men's clothes, as were other women right up to the eighteenth century. Florence Nightingale was never called "the Lady with the Lamp," but "the Lady with the Hammer," an image deftly readjusted by the war reporter of the Times since it was far too coarse for the folks back home. Far from gliding about the hospital with her lamp aloft, Nightingale earned her nickname through a ferocious attack on a locked storeroom when a military commander refused to give her the medical supplies she needed.”

-Rosalind Miles; Who Cooked the Last Supper? The Women’s History of the World

#HEYY posting quotes from the book in my username starting NOW #radblr #radfem #radical feminism #radical feminist safe #radical feminists do interact #radical feminists do touch #radical feminists please touch #feminism #feminist literature #who cooked the last supper #literature #radical feminist theory #womens history #herstory

[disillusionedmonster]

I read Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" for @letters-from-x reading challenge and I loved it. I loved the way it felt like Plath was musing through her character but also like she was speaking to me. I loved listening to her reflect on childbirth and the nature of men. She had so many good things to say. And I felt so gripped by her exploration of her mental health and I felt rage at how she was treated. Plath completely sucked me in with her writing and how natural the progression of the book felt. I seriously enjoyed it. Some of my favourite lines in no particular order:

There was also this part where she had this metaphor about a fig tree and her life being wasted, which she commented on a couple pages later saying that musing was caused by her hunger which made me laugh.

#sylvia plath #radfem #radical feminism #book challenge #radfem book challenge #rec #i have already read Invisible Women so I think I will read the short text next

[balkanradfem]

religion to women: you need to be servants >:(

religion to m*n: you deserve servants :D

#a m*n wrote those books #anti patriarchy #radical feminism #radfem #radblr #anti christianity

[nx18]

Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.

Bonnie Burstow

#feminism #femininity #feminist #feminist theory #book blog #book #feminist quote #radfem #radical feminism #radical feminist theory #woman #gender roles #liberal feminist #intersectionality #intersectionalfeminism #father and daughter #daddy issues #patriarchy #male gaze #bonnie burstow #often father and daughter look down on mother

[fluffytimearts]

Jaden from Lease bound if she bothered to research and learned about others instead of being close-minded.

#Watch the terfs call this “lesbophobic” because a character is actually learning about the rest of her community #“she would never say that” thats because no one made her pick up a book or bother to ask somebody #fluffytimearts #artists on tumblr #my artwork #my art #lease bound #lease bound still sucks #wheeze-- #fuck transphobes #trans rights are human rights #lgbtq rights #mogai #aspec #terfs dni #terfs fuck off #fuck terfs #terfs are not real feminists #radfems not safe #terf not safe

[nansheonearth]

Lesbian Herstory ig

#lesbian herstory #signal boost #pdf #lesbian #wlw #herstory #history #book #sisterhood #o #radfem

[spookyradluka]

What I'm more interested in, is asking what kind of man thinks it's okay to purchase the body of another human being and use it as a sex toy? What kind of man thinks it's okay to buy rape? ... Money doesn't change the fact that she doesn't want to have sex with you, it just means she lets you do it in exchange for the funds to pay her bills. If money wasn't involved, there would be no consent."

Why do Feminists Hate Men? by Alexandra Golding

#anti prostitution #radfem #radblr #radical feminists please interact #radical feminist community #radical feminism #intersectional feminism #book quotations #feminism

[iphnh]

I would say at least 50% of the male Leftists you encounter online are former MRAs. You notice this in how they argue. Everything is about humiliation and dominance. I think these men realized that, as MRAs, they would largely be seen as losers; but as self-branded Leftists, they could easily seduce a female audience and thus double, triple, quadruple their following. I think this shift  happened at the same time that social media platforms were making it easier to monetize content. These men realized that they needed to rebrand themselves if they wanted to make money. 

I’m not sure where the idea that misogyny is caused by capitalism (and so didn’t exist before the 1600s) came from. But I’m willing to bet MRAs-turned-Leftists had something to do with it lol. The idea that capitalism caused misogyny fits into their idea that the “real victims” of society are poor people (read: poor men)  and the fact that women of all classes suffer in society is just a weird coincidence. 

Ironically, their communist king Engels came to the exact opposite conclusion. In Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, Engels argues that misogyny is the root of capitalism. But of course, none of these self-identified MRAs-turned-Leftists have actually read anything. 

#leftist men #radfems please interact #radfems please touch #I feel I could write a book about the chronically online leftist men of the world on god

[gendiebrainrotreceipts]

https://www.tumblr.com/wakewithgiggli/725579420725854208/the-threead-continues-all-people-have-a-tendency

You have to wonder why people bother siding with trans women when they are openly stating and writing books about how no matter how much you grovel to them, you are still a terf in their eyes no matter what you do.

They literally are given the benefit of the doubt all the time in their own circles…what is this imaginary world where they’re oppressed within the very community that they have in a stronghold? And I don’t doubt visibly gnc men may be the victims of harassment or violence, but I don’t understand why they need a self defense book specifically for them? What makes them so different to other men that they cannot defend themselves like other men do? That they can’t read and learn from a regular self defense book?

#I mean a self defense book specifically for women makes sense because if her attacker is male she is at a disadvantage and needs different #advice/teaching than a regular self defense book may offer #but here…why…. #they’re not physically different from any other man they can just use the default self defense techniques #default self defense techniques are literally designed in their favour as they’re men and men are already assumed to be the default for #everything #gender critical #gendie brainrot receipts #radfem safe

[balkanradfem]

Do you ever think about how sad and messed up it is to grow up in this world as a little girl who likes to read. Because you are a child, and you don't get that there's a difference in who writes the books, you read everything you like, you read the adventures and the fantasy and the mysteries and the traumatic stuff and if you're also very isolated and lonely, these books build your worldview. Because why wouldn't they? They're written by humans, so they have the attitudes, opinions, perceptions, morals and spirits of human beings in them, they're telling you what humans think and feel about things, how they go about situations, what they imagine, what they desire. What your role in all this is, or what it could potentially be.

But, since you are not capable of differentiating the material, and you just read what is available to you, you end up reading a lot of books written by m*n. You also have to go thru the required reading at school - 90% written by m*n. And so slowly, since young age, without even socializing or learning it thru interaction, you find yourself in a world shaped by minds who do not have empathy for women, especially not for little girls. You find yourself relating to the male protagonists, but you also find out that girls only play a passive role in their stories. You find that m*n problems are centered, made important, their suffering and violence critical points in the story, while women are cast aside as helpers, servants, givers, caretakers, and generally just exist in the background, not a thought given to what they are going thru.

You learn thru books written by m*n, that your experience is secondary. Even if you cast yourself as the adventuring, immensely important and struggling protagonist, even then the other women in your mind end up being just background characters, caregivers who do not need a thought spared for their suffering.

Books written by m*n, even for children, will trivialize female suffering to the point where they shape the child's mind into one that looks at the world from a male perspective. Where women either don't matter, or are capable only of giving and aiding, to be cast aside for more important matters, such as male aspirations for their own lives.

Thinking back, I understand why I felt myself unimportant and trivial in any social setting - I understood my role from the written word, and I knew adults found me trivial, secondary, only a background figure to someone else's adventure or mission. As much as I could fight it in my fantasies, and make myself the main character, it felt like a pipe dream, like something that was incredible self-indulged and selfish and would never translate to reality.

I wish it had been different. I wish I had been introduced specifically and only to books written by women, for women. I wish I had found empathy for myself in those books. I wish I had found myself standing on high ground, equal ground, with other women, our desires centered, our lives translated into tales of epic importance - because that's what they are. I wish I had been born into a world where female perspective is available from the start, not after years of growing up and finding feminist literature and having to re-write my own role in my brain, from all of those years of reading male perspective as the default.

I don't think any little girl should be exposed to literature that shape her world as a place where she doesn't matter. I don't think books written by males and shaped by their worldview should be allowed into children's literature, or teenage or for young adults. Girls should not be learning from fiction that their most important value is empathy and understanding for male problems, and their second, to be desired and/or helpful to them, all while being treated as nothing but service and background noise until you're desired for something. We need to open books and find out that we matter too. That our lives can be the center of our existence, rather than being in the service of someone else's life.

#reading as a little girl #analysis of male written literature #radical feminism #feminism #worldview shaped by books #radfem #radblr #thinking of all of the books i absorbed in my childhood where women didn't matter :( #and how messed up thoughts i ended up having of trying to be helpful and useful in order to have value #but i would never have value #because i was a girl in a misognystic world #and the books were informing me of that #and all i wanted was a bit of escape from reality #fiction written by men is garbage :(