That Feminist Dyke

lettherebecramp:

Radscum are a particularly nasty breed of radical feminist (i.e., those that are scum.) There’s a common misconception that “radical feminism” just means … well, any feminism that is radical. However, it refers to a specific kind of feminism that, in my experience, is characterized by rampant transmisogyny and a fuckton of internalized misogyny.

(To be fair, I’m sure there exist some radical feminists that aren’t scum. I just … haven’t met any.)

Most, if not all (actually probably all) radscum identify with some form of the “Womyn Born Womyn” movement, also known as the “If You Don’t Have a Vagina I Will Never Give Any Shits About You Ever” movement. They actively attack, belittle, and oppress trans women, and treat trans men as disappointments at best, traitors at worst. In short, they are scum.

They also seem to believe that any woman who is not a radical feminist is not smart enough to make decisions for herself. Most of them are anti-pornography, anti-burlesque, anti-femme, anti-heterosexuality, anti- … okay, they’re just anti-women-claiming-their-sexuality. Interactions with radscum in this context usually go like this:

Me: *wears makeup/wears a dress/shaves legs/etc.*

Radscum: HEY! DON’T DO THAT! STOP THAT! YOU’RE SUPPORTING THE PATRIARCHY! YOU’RE COOPERATING WITH THE ENEMY!

Me: Uhm, actually, even though I understand that mainstream beauty standards originated from the patriarchy to oppress and sexualize women, I’m actually doing this as a femme reclamation and a refusal to allow them to dictate my appearance. Also, outside of a feminist context, I just really like how this looks and it makes me happy.

Radscum: NO! WRONG! YOU CAN’T DO THAT! IT WILL ALWAYS BELONG TO THE PATRIARCHY! YOU DON’T REALLY WANT THAT, YOU’RE BRAINWASHED!

So basically what they’re saying is that a woman cannot make her own choices because her opinion will never outweigh a man’s opinion (not using inclusive language here because I’m referring to THEIR bullshit definition of “woman”), and that female-presenting people can never reclaim anything because anything that we attempt to reclaim belongs to men and always will.

Which, uh. Doesn’t sound very feminist to me.

And for people who screech so much about how gender/sex divisions are harmful and evil, they seem very very very concerned with policing who’s a “REAL WOMYN!!!!!!!!” and who isn’t.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Long story short is that they are very very unpleasant people and I don’t like them.

((rebloggable by request!))