Introduction
Under the Nazis, it was believed that 'biology is destiny.' For Jews and gypsies this meant persecution and genocide.
It was natural that the revulsion against their racist mythology led to a turning away from the view that biological and genetic factors could be the primary determinants of an individual's path in life. There was an even greater reluctance to accept that whole groups could be categorised in general terms rather than seen as individuals first and foremost.
Feminism as a philosophy has existed since at least the Middle Ages with Christine de Pizan perhaps the first overtly feminist writer. The impact of the suffragettes is also well known but after the Second World War a new kind of feminist emerged.
Most modern feminists take as their starting point the ideas put forward by Simone de Beauvoir in her book 'The Second Sex.' This launched the 'radical feminist' movement, though the actual term came into use later. In the sixties the slogan was 'women's lib' but by the seventies the radical feminists had come to dominate the movement.
Earlier feminist thinkers like Betty Friedan soon found themselves dismissed as 'liberal feminists' with a whole new and frankly, mythological structure of ideas being formulated.
The most fundamental of these is the myth of 'patriarchy.' This claims that, simply by virtue of their gender, men enjoy a more privileged position in society than women.
Another rad fem myth is the idea that we live in a 'rape culture.' This is often combined with a paranoid attitude towards pornography, most obviously manifested in the notorious Andrea Dworkin statement, 'pornography is the theory, rape is the practice.'
The third myth is that the nuclear family is an anti-female institution
The fourth myth is that femininity is weakness and that in order to be fulfilled a woman must, essentially, imitate a man.
All these and other ideas will be explored in this blog which I hope eventually to make into a book. I don't see myself as a feminist - even a liberal one - but I don't see myself as anti-feminist either.
Over the years I've evolved, partly out of my own thoughts and life experiences and partly out of reading and discussion with others, a philosophy of gender relations that I call 'femalism.' Femalism looks on men and women as different but not in a way that devalues either sex.
If you're still interested, I'll begin writing the next section of my blog!
It was natural that the revulsion against their racist mythology led to a turning away from the view that biological and genetic factors could be the primary determinants of an individual's path in life. There was an even greater reluctance to accept that whole groups could be categorised in general terms rather than seen as individuals first and foremost.
Feminism as a philosophy has existed since at least the Middle Ages with Christine de Pizan perhaps the first overtly feminist writer. The impact of the suffragettes is also well known but after the Second World War a new kind of feminist emerged.
Most modern feminists take as their starting point the ideas put forward by Simone de Beauvoir in her book 'The Second Sex.' This launched the 'radical feminist' movement, though the actual term came into use later. In the sixties the slogan was 'women's lib' but by the seventies the radical feminists had come to dominate the movement.
Earlier feminist thinkers like Betty Friedan soon found themselves dismissed as 'liberal feminists' with a whole new and frankly, mythological structure of ideas being formulated.
The most fundamental of these is the myth of 'patriarchy.' This claims that, simply by virtue of their gender, men enjoy a more privileged position in society than women.
Another rad fem myth is the idea that we live in a 'rape culture.' This is often combined with a paranoid attitude towards pornography, most obviously manifested in the notorious Andrea Dworkin statement, 'pornography is the theory, rape is the practice.'
The third myth is that the nuclear family is an anti-female institution
The fourth myth is that femininity is weakness and that in order to be fulfilled a woman must, essentially, imitate a man.
All these and other ideas will be explored in this blog which I hope eventually to make into a book. I don't see myself as a feminist - even a liberal one - but I don't see myself as anti-feminist either.
Over the years I've evolved, partly out of my own thoughts and life experiences and partly out of reading and discussion with others, a philosophy of gender relations that I call 'femalism.' Femalism looks on men and women as different but not in a way that devalues either sex.
If you're still interested, I'll begin writing the next section of my blog!
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