It has become clear that some of you need this.

First wave feminism:

  • Focused on combating legally explicit oppression (mostly the right to vote).

  • Succeeded in all their goals.

  • Wish they had more goals lol.

Second wave feminism:

  • Rekindled struggle for women's equality. This part is cool, enjoy it, because it's all downhill from here.

  • New theoretical basis where women are the keepers of the ineffable moon spirit or some shit. (Okay fine, it's more nuanced than this, but not in a way worth giving a damn about.)

  • Only cares about white women.

  • Yes it's more nuanced than "ineffable moon spirit," but not in a way worth giving a damn about.

  • We needed third wave feminism for a reason. Anybody who still identifies with second wave feminism either really likes ineffable moon spirits or is willing to put up with them so they can be a TERF.

Third wave feminism:

  • Gendered oppression is just one of a number of different, sometimes overlapping, kinds of oppression in our society (also race, sexual orientation, gender expression, ability, etc). The loosely overlapping collection of kinds of oppression is called the kyriarchy.

  • The ranking of people within the kyriarchy is intentionally loose. Who has less rights between a white trans woman and a black man with Asperger's? The answer will be determined on the fly, in whatever way is most convenient for people in power, in that moment, for that case.

  • People facing overlapping kinds of oppression face different oppression than just the sum of the parts. The oppression that a black trans woman faces is different than the sum of the oppression a black person, trans person, and woman face. The best way to understand oppression is to look the complete intersection separately. This is called intersectionality.

  • The best way to understand an intersection is to ask people who live in it. This does not mean leaving them to their own devices sans support, it means fucking ask.

  • We will not win liberation for women until we win it for black women, trans women, disabled women, lesbians, and every other intersection with women. We will not win liberation for black people until we win it for black women, black trans people, disabled black people, gay black people, yadda yadda yadda and so forth for every other group.

Marxist feminism:

  • Is still third wave feminism, all aspects of that apply.

  • Let's add class as an axis of oppression within the kyriarchy.

  • Hot damn, that turned out to be a really useful addition.

  • Despite the name, not all Marxist Feminists understand class in the Marxist sense. A lot of the time they end up just meaning wealth rather than relation to the means of production. Wealth actually ends up being a useful thing to add to intersectionality too though, so I'd recommend adding both wealth and class (this time in the Marxist sense). *slaps roof of kyriarchy* this bad boy can fit so many axes of oppression in it

  • Class ends up being the most important axis of oppression. However, the other ones still matter. Marxist feminists is prone to over-simplifying things and pretending that only class matters. This is called class reductionism, and it makes you a bad feminist. It also makes you a bad organizer.

  • Revisiting intersectionality with class: The oppression that a black transwoman worker is different than just the sum of the oppression a black person, trans person, woman, and worker face. (Aside: holy shit are trans people illustrative here; the difference in experience between a wealthy trans person and a poor one is stark as fuck.)

  • We will not win liberation for the workers until we win it for black workers, trans workers, disabled workers, lesbian workers, female workers, and every other intersection with workers.

  • Marius [she/her]
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    4 years ago

    This feels very inauthentic, like you fetishize the role of a teacher. I don’t like being condescended to, regardless of topic. I’ll speak authentically:

    Modern feminists have been twisted and deformed to a point that try to defend what meager gains society has from being eroded by the lizard people at an even faster rate. Feminists may win the right for both parents to enter the work force, to the delight of the lizards, but they’ll never win the right for either parent to stay home because they lack the weapons necessary to create a new world.

    Your incredibly basic introductory lesson could have been learned in pretty much any subreddit. Low-effort, condescending, high ego. If you think for even a moment that these “effort posts” help the movement, then don’t clock out early, because you’re not done

    Marxist feminists is prone to over-simplifying things and pretending that only class matters. This is called class reductionism, and it makes you a bad feminist. It also makes you a bad organizer.

    I have seen no proof that this is true besides stories told around camp fires. Only class matters. There I said it. Lol for a bad organizer I organized my workplace pretty well and won us health insurance during a pandemic. Have you organized anything, or just slapped the roof of kyriarchy? I think you have a lot more time to spend as a student before you spend it as a teacher

    • SerLava [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      Only class matters. There I said it.

      Racism is a literal religion and there's a lot of people who would steal Geordi LaForge's holodeck time just fucking because. This is like the 0.1% of the time when "class reductionist" doesn't make my eyes roll. I believe class matters more than anything, but Americans are fucking crazy, CRAZY. Whiteness is the Holy Spirit here, I'm fuckin telling you.

      If Jesus came down from the sky with his brown skin, there would be a decent number of evangelical satanists the next day.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Culture is real, and it matters. There is more beneath the heavens than is dreamed of in your economics.

    • Owl [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      Hi thanks for reading a whole bunch of weird shit into my introductory feminism post! That was really kind and charitable of you!

      I wrote this because there was a bunch of anti-feminist garbage in the comments earlier today, and a feminism 101 post seemed necessary. Maybe the fact that it was titled "feminism for babies" should've indicated that it might be an intro-level post without a very serious tone.

      Yes I organize. I've never seen class-reductionism in real life, just online, but hey look we're online.

      • Marius [she/her]
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        4 years ago

        Would it have been more kind and charitable to pretend it was helpful, condemning you to a child’s fantasy!

      • Marius [she/her]
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        4 years ago

        Yeah but I wonder if anyone finds it authentically useful, or if everyone who finds it useful has a hypothetical audience, much like owl and his hypothetical classroom of students

      • Marius [she/her]
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        4 years ago

        It makes me a bad organizer, a bad feminist, and now it makes me a honky. Okay.

        Go ahead, what else does it make me? Can you show why it’s bad other than repeating what your masters told you?

        • PartyMonster [they/them,any]
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          4 years ago

          who the fuck talks like this? u sound like someone that has unironically studied the way of the sword lmao

        • PartyMonster [they/them,any]
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          4 years ago

          what else does it make me?

          a try hard loser and a reactionary shit pretending to be a leftist 💁‍♀️