Are feminists liberals or extreme conservatives?

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AJisHere
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23 Feb 2016, 10:32 pm

AR15000 wrote:
Well those differing factions are comprised of MORE than one individual. Given that there are thousands, perhaps even millions of feminists in this world, if each feminist had her own distinct idea of what feminism is and no one could agree with another on anything there would be no ideology or political movement.

You cannot get anything done if there isn't common ground among at least 2 and preferably far more individual people :!: Don't be ridiculous. Being part of a movement where everyone agrees is hardly a red flag, it's a green flag that means there is massive cooperation. When people are in agreement they effectively organize and take action and s**t gets done.


I think there's a difference in the scale we're talking about here. I should have been clearer.

Obviously, everyone doing their own thing is not effective, but internal dissent is extremely important to avoid groupthink... which is not a positive thing.

The disagreement I'm referring to is that between different schools of feminism. Marxist feminists, Radical feminists and Liberal feminists all agree on what problem they are trying to solve but do not agree on the cause of the problem or the manner in which it can be solved. A recent example of this can be seen in Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright's comments towards women supporting Bernie Sanders and the reaction to those comments. To Steinem and and Albright, a woman in the White House would be a crowning achievement. To others it's just "that'd be nice... but what does it actually fix?"

So like I said, feminism is not monolithic.

The terms I used above also need clarification; a feminist who is conservative can still be a Liberal feminist (and probably is). The term does not mean "a feminist who is liberal", it refers to a specific approach to feminism and the name is rooted in classical liberalism, from which what people in the US call liberalism and conservatism both derive. Coming back around to the original question? One can be nearly anywhere on the political map and be a feminist. It's not tied to a specific point. I think people further to the left may be more inclined to it, but it is not theirs.

AR15000 wrote:
... if each feminist had her own distinct idea of what feminism is...


A very interesting and telling choice of pronoun. You're missing something.


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AR15000
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24 Feb 2016, 1:42 am

AJisHere wrote:
AR15000 wrote:
Well those differing factions are comprised of MORE than one individual. Given that there are thousands, perhaps even millions of feminists in this world, if each feminist had her own distinct idea of what feminism is and no one could agree with another on anything there would be no ideology or political movement.

You cannot get anything done if there isn't common ground among at least 2 and preferably far more individual people :!: Don't be ridiculous. Being part of a movement where everyone agrees is hardly a red flag, it's a green flag that means there is massive cooperation. When people are in agreement they effectively organize and take action and s**t gets done.


I think there's a difference in the scale we're talking about here. I should have been clearer.

Obviously, everyone doing their own thing is not effective, but internal dissent is extremely important to avoid groupthink... which is not a positive thing.

The disagreement I'm referring to is that between different schools of feminism. Marxist feminists, Radical feminists and Liberal feminists all agree on what problem they are trying to solve but do not agree on the cause of the problem or the manner in which it can be solved. A recent example of this can be seen in Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright's comments towards women supporting Bernie Sanders and the reaction to those comments. To Steinem and and Albright, a woman in the White House would be a crowning achievement. To others it's just "that'd be nice... but what does it actually fix?"

So like I said, feminism is not monolithic.

The terms I used above also need clarification; a feminist who is conservative can still be a Liberal feminist (and probably is). The term does not mean "a feminist who is liberal", it refers to a specific approach to feminism and the name is rooted in classical liberalism, from which what people in the US call liberalism and conservatism both derive. Coming back around to the original question? One can be nearly anywhere on the political map and be a feminist. It's not tied to a specific point. I think people further to the left may be more inclined to it, but it is not theirs.

.




If you are a conservative, particularly a classic right-wing christian conservative, then being a feminist too is putting yourself in a state of cognitive dissonance. Those people have a long history of actively opposing feminism including women's suffrage but became particularly active in opposing abortion rights, domestic violence legislation, and the ERA.

Religion prescribes a certain role for women and maintains that it's Gods law so women must accept this role if they wanna go to heaven. Feminists overall tend to oppose women being forced into motherhood, marriage, and a role that ultimately puts them in a position of dependency on men.

You can be a feminist and still be a libertarian, but conservative values are contrary to pretty much all feminist factions. NewFuturamaSucks gave the best explanation why 2nd wave feminists favor censorship of pornography: Because to them it reinforces social norms which they seek to abrogate.



Now groupthink is an extreme example but lately the opposite extreme is happening: Factionalism and fragmentation. Modern feminists nowadays are more interested in using feminism as a way to boost their status than to solve social problems.

[u]Case in point. [/u]



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24 Feb 2016, 3:04 am

I don't doubt that conservative feminists exist, but I doubt anyone would seriously argue that they're common, or even a real factor compared to their left wing brethren.


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AR15000
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24 Feb 2016, 5:43 am

Dox47 wrote:
I don't doubt that conservative feminists exist, but I doubt anyone would seriously argue that they're common, or even a real factor compared to their left wing brethren.



Tis true. But do not underestimate the extent to which feminism and postmodernism have become intertwined which is why AJ and Edenthiel are arguing that feminism is totally an arbitrarily defined group that is politically diverse and has no direction on the political spectrum.



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24 Feb 2016, 6:43 am

frenchmanflats wrote:
Gloria Steinem said of Paglia that, "Her calling herself a feminist is sort of like a Nazi saying they're not anti-Semitic." Paglia said that Steinem, whom she accused of not having read her, had compared her to Hitler and Sexual Personae to Mein Kampf Paglia called Steinem "the Stalin of feminism."


[Tongue firmly in cheek, ironical mode on]

Tch. Women, eh?


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AJisHere
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24 Feb 2016, 10:35 am

AR15000 wrote:
Tis true. But do not underestimate the extent to which feminism and postmodernism have become intertwined which is why AJ and Edenthiel are arguing that feminism is totally an arbitrarily defined group that is politically diverse and has no direction on the political spectrum.


Do not attempt to straw man me.

If you need clarification, ask and I will try to explain more clearly.

AR15000 wrote:
If you are a conservative, particularly a classic right-wing christian conservative, then being a feminist too is putting yourself in a state of cognitive dissonance. Those people have a long history of actively opposing feminism including women's suffrage but became particularly active in opposing abortion rights, domestic violence legislation, and the ERA...

... You can be a feminist and still be a libertarian, but conservative values are contrary to pretty much all feminist factions. NewFuturamaSucks gave the best explanation why 2nd wave feminists favor censorship of pornography: Because to them it reinforces social norms which they seek to abrogate.


If the group you talked about was representative of all conservatism, you'd have a point. As it is, this is disingenuous. It's extremely rare for a person to agree with every aspect of an ideology or for people within it to agree on how the whole thing works (i.e. "what is a conservative?"). This can be a form of cognitive dissonance, but it can also be an alternate interpretation of these things.

A fundamentalist Christan conservative is very likely to conflate conservative values and fundamentalist Christian values, for example. But since many (in all likelihood most) conservatives are not fundamentalist Christians, that doesn't really change what is accepted as "conservative values".

AR15000 wrote:
Modern feminists nowadays are more interested in using feminism as a way to boost their status than to solve social problems.


I have to call you out on this again. Especially given your use of the "modern feminist" dogwhistle (again, very telling as was your earlier implication that feminists are all female), your claim that what has generally proven an excellent way to harm one's status is actually a way to boost it, and the implication that this behavior is common.

Let's see you back this up.


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24 Feb 2016, 11:19 am

AJisHere wrote:



I have to call you out on this again. Especially given your use of the "modern feminist" dogwhistle (again, very telling as was your earlier implication that feminists are all female), your claim that what has generally proven an excellent way to harm one's status is actually a way to boost it, and the implication that this behavior is common.

Let's see you back this up.


Did you not read the linked article I posted earlier?



AJisHere
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24 Feb 2016, 12:23 pm

I didn't notice it until you pointed it out. Just read it. It's a perfectly fine article, but at most it just barely and very obliquely references the point I'm saying you need to support, i.e. "status".


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AR15000
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25 Feb 2016, 5:56 am

f**k cloudfail!