>On Aug 25, 2006, at 3:19 PM, info at pulpculture.org quoted:
>
>>A way has still never been made societally and culturally -- after
>>thousands
>>and thousands of years -- for us, as women, to buy, with dollars,
>>any bodily
>>presentation which makes our lives tolerable and our passage in
>>this world more
>>comfortable. In fact, our bodies ensure our rough and difficult
>>passage in
>>this world, and there is no remedy for this, or has not been,
>>outside of
>>feminism.
>
>Wow that's harsh, and maybe self-hating. Sure, terrible things happen
>to women's bodies, but really. Women - and I can attest to this by
>recent direct experience - can enjoy intense pleasures from
>pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding that men are have barely an idea
>of. Many of them seem to enjoy sex a lot too.
>
>Doug
In the first place, your thoughts on the matter would pretty much be written off as the expression of a man.
If you were a woman, to quote one of 'em recently, you would not "have any practical idea of (your) place as a member of the sex-class."
Most of the radfems in blogoliciouville tend to be people who have experienced abuse, rape, or violence at some point in their lives or are deeply cognizant of the issue and focus on it almost exclusively. I'm planning on reading Wendy Brown's stuff on the politics of injury soon because I suspect that it will illuminate.
Anyway, any discussion of a more complicated view is effectively shut down with the charge of "false consciousness."
If I had time, I'd give you an overview of this book I read recently. Seeing all these radfems operating from work down over twenty years ago, and not updated at all, I decided to read a contemporary statement on the issues. 'Radically speaking' was supposed to address criticisms of radfem essentialism, racism, classism, etc. I was hopeful because, at least a couple of decades ago, there'd been a strain of internal self-criticisms. I figured they'd improved their theory and I might better understand the radfems in blogoliciousville.
But what I found was just incredible. They actually engaged, again, and unapologetically, in racism. Seriously. I was literally floored by what the editors allowed to be published. E.g., race is "social construct" before which we too often "cringe" and the "real" is "rape."
They pretty much write off every thinker critical of radfem as a male identified patriarchy fucker.We're all just butt smooching men's asses, traitors to the femininist revolution.
the completely get wrong all of the criticisms put forth by Judith Butler, etc. When they're criticized for cultural essentialism, they defend themselves by denying they are biological essentialists and explain that they are cultural essentialists. Well, they don't use the phrase, they just defend themselves by upholding the very cultural essentialism for which they are being criticized. Because they don't freakin' know how to read, apparently!
I did a series on it at the blog called "No More Ms Nice Bitch".
Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org