What Type of Feminist (or Pro-Feminist) Are You? - Part 2

My blog has been linked to by another blog called "feminist resources", but I cannot access it. If you are the creator of "feminist resources", please give my access to your blog, so I can see how people are responding to my posts. I am glad to see that my blog is getting more attention (even if some of it comes from people who hate it).
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Introduction 

This second quiz determines whether somebody is a moderate feminist or a radical feminist. Some of you may be wondering why I did not include “black feminism”, “socialist feminism” and “anarchist feminism” in my feminism sorting system. I will explain why in the conclusion of this post. I assure you that by leaving them out, I am not attempting to suggest that these types of feminism are invalid.

I think most revolutionary leftists and anti-racism activists know what they are without needing to be told by a quiz, but if you really want a quiz to tell you such things, you will find plenty. I know of no quiz that adequately addresses the divisions in which exist within modern feminism. If you think you have encountered such a quiz, let me know. 

Quiz Instructions

Only take this quiz if you have already taken the first quiz and were not deemed to be a liberal feminist. This second quiz works the same way as the first one. Write down whether you agree or disagree with the statements below, then use the answer key to calculate your score. Once again, some of the statements are more extreme than others. Not all statements deemed to be “radical” represent all radical feminists, nor do all of them represent my views. An automated version of this quiz is available here.

Quiz Questions (Statements)

1. Violent masculinity is the problem, not masculinity itself. Thus the solution is to promote a new, healthier kind of masculinity to men. This approach to masculinity enables us to challenge male dominance without threatening men’s sense of identity. 

2. The use of high heels and restrictive clothing may not be as harmful as breast implants and other forms of cosmetic surgery, but they can still cause pain and damage to women’s bodies. Thus such practices are not consistent with feminist ideals and we should aim to abolish them. 

3. When promoting our political viewpoints to the public, it is acceptable to phrase our beliefs using language that our political opponents may be sympathetic to (e.g. by claiming that allowing gay couples to adopt children promotes “family values” or that opposing pornography is a form of “sex positivity”).

4. Not everyone is obligated to get married or be part of nuclear family, but equality between men and women can be achieved without challenging these institutions. 

5. Labelling toys as “boy toys” or “girl toys” promotes discrimination. This needs to end, but re-labelling alone will not stop the promotion of harmful traits such as aggression and violence (which are currently promoted through “boy toys”, such as toy guns) or shallowness and a need to please others (which are promoted through “girl toys”.) We need to create different kinds of toys altogether. 

6. The feminist movement should only change its positions when given good reason to believe that its positions are incorrect or inconsistent with feminist principles. Positions should not be changed in order to make the movement more popular, socially acceptable or appealing to men. 

7. Modern day western society is patriarchal (male dominated), as are most other societies around the world. A truly non-patriarchal society would need to have an economic and political system which is totally different to that which currently exists in the West. It would also need a vastly different culture.

8. Mild beauty practices (e.g. putting on make-up, wearing fancy clothing) are not necessarily oppressive or deserving of political/feminist critique. So long as the women performing them feel good about their natural bodies and do not feel pressured into performing them, such beauty practices are consistent with feminist ideals.

9. Men can support feminism, but since they are the dominant group within patriarchy they cannot be considered part of the feminist movement any more than capitalists can belong to union.

10. Our notions of what a “man” or “woman” is should not be based on genitalia or what society says. People have the power to decide for themselves whether they are men, women or something else.

11. Western medicine is a patriarchal establishment that causes more harm than good and cannot be reformed, but should be abolished in favour of more traditional, female-centred healthcare. 

12. The only problem with society’s current beauty standards is that they are too rigid. A broader definition of beauty (one which includes non-white women and women who are not super thin and busty) is the solution to female body image issues. 

13. Gender identity is an innate aspect of all human beings. Attempts at abolishing categories such as “man”, “woman”, “masculine” and “feminine” will either not work or will cause great harm (e.g. it will create a dull, grey world in which there is no individuality.) 

14. The general public should not be intimidated by feminism, for its ideals match the dominant ideals of western society. Negative feelings towards feminism are a result of misunderstandings and poor communication on the part of the movement (e.g. excessive anger, incorrect use of language, etc).

15. In order for women to be fully liberated they should abandon traditional patriarchal religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam (and adopt either an outlook which is free of superstitious/supernatural beliefs or adhere to spiritual belief systems which are more pro-female.) 

16. Feminists should oppose any practice that promotes the belief that a woman’s physical appearance is more important than her inner qualities, including beauty pageants, fashion shows, the use of make-up and the promotion of dolls that stress the importance of looking pretty (e.g. Barbie dolls and Bratz dolls.) 

17. It is natural for there to be variations in human genitalia, but the sex roles which are imposed onto people, based on the kind of genitalia they have, are not natural. It is possible and desirable to create a world in which such roles, which are sometimes referred to as “gender roles”, do not exist. 

18. The abortion rights movement should acknowledge that most abortions are morally complex or potentially harmful. Failure to make this acknowledgement will result in women becoming alienated from pro-choice activism. 

19. Feminists are under no obligation to be respectful towards dominant institutions and ideas. All beliefs, traditions and art (no matter how revered they may be within a particular culture) should be open to political critique.

20. Criticising extreme beauty practices (such as breast implants and face lifts) is okay, but women who reject beauty practices altogether (e.g. by going out in public without putting on makeup or shaving their legs) and encourage other women to do the same, are going too far. 

Answer Key

1. Agree: -5 ------- Disagree: +5

2. Agree: +5 ------- Disagree: -5

3. Agree: -6 ------- Disagree: +4

4. Agree: -5 ------- Disagree: +5

5. Agree: +7 ------- Disagree: -4

6. Agree: +5 ------- Disagree: -5

7. Agree: +5 ------- Disagree: -5

8. Agree: -5 -------- Disagree: +5

9. Agree: +6 -------- Disagree: -4

10. Agree: -5 ------- Disagree: +5

11. Agree: +5 ------- Disagree: -5

12. Agree: -4 ------- Disagree: +5

13. Agree: -5 ------- Disagree: +5

14. Agree: -6 -------- Disagree: +4

15. Agree: +6 ------- Disagree: -4

16. Agree: +6 ------- Disagree: -4

17. Agree: +4 ------- Disagree: -6

18. Agree: -6 -------- Disagree: +4

19. Agree: +5 ------- Disagree: -5

20. Agree: -6 -------- Disagree: +4

From -100 to -21: Moderate Feminist

Notable Theorists / Representatives: Anita Sarkeesian, Jackson Katz, Ariel Levy
Related Concepts: Social Democracy, Media Criticism, Opposition to Sexual Objectification.

You are a moderate feminist. I came up with the term "moderate feminist" myself, so you probably do not know of anyone who uses the label. I use the term to describe feminists who are neither liberal nor radical. Moderate feminists are not liberal feminists because they oppose pornography, prostitution, extreme beauty practices (such as breast implants and genital surgery) and the spread of soft core pornographic images throughout the culture. They cannot be considered radical feminists, because they promote "healthy" masculinity and femininity, instead of calling for gender to be abolished. While they are usually critical of capitalism, they believe that it should be reformed, rather than abolished and would prefer to avoid angering those with power.

Your moderate feminist ideas do pose a challenge to the status quo. Thus, I consider them to be a genuine form of feminism. In universities, liberal academics sometimes denounce moderate feminists as "sex-negative" and "prudish", but your ideas are not viciously despised in the way that radical feminist ideas are and students are at least allowed to consider them. If students are lucky, a moderate feminist text may even appear on their reading lists.

From -20 to +20: Borderline

This borderline category works the same way as the one in the first quiz. If you get this score, take some time to think about your views, then come back and do the quiz again. After you have done this, it may be clearer whether you are a moderate or a radical feminist or it may not be. It is okay to not be certain.
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From +21 to +100: Radical (or Pro-Radical) Feminist

Notable Theorists / Representatives: Lierre Keith, Gail Dines, Robert Jensen
Related Concepts: Gender Abolition, Sex Criticism, Radical Anti-Capitalism, Radical Environmentalism.

You are a radical feminist (or a supporter of radical feminism). Like moderate feminists, radical feminists oppose pornography, prostitution, sadomasochism (often euphemistically referred to as "BDSM"), extreme beauty practices and highly sexualised depictions of women within the culture. Unlike moderate feminists, radical feminists are gender abolitionists. They recognise that the concepts of "masculinity' and "femininity" do not have to exist and that they encourage men to behave in a dominate manner, while encouraging women to submit to such dominance. They often oppose other systems which are considered foundational to modern society, such as capitalism and traditional religion.

Your beliefs pose a serious threat to those with power (especially those who run the sex industry and the beauty industry) and are likely to get you in trouble at university. Radical feminists are rarely mentioned by academics. When they are it is only so that they can be attacked as "sex-negative", man-hating lunatics. The good news is that I am on your side. I got a 70 on this quiz. Feel free to get in touch with me (via comments or messages.)
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Conclusion

The reason I did not include “black feminism” or “socialist feminism” in my quizzes is because such labels do not actually reveal whether somebody is a liberal, radical or moderate feminist. For example, one can believe that a socialist revolution should be brought about partially so that women can be liberated through “feminist pornography” which is produced by “empowered sex workers” in a democratically managed sex industry (yeah, right), in which case that person would be a socialist who supports liberal feminism. One may also believe that a socialist revolution should put an end to the sex industry and create a world in which sexual acts are never motivated by a need for money or a sense that one has some of kind of duty to provide others with sexual pleasure. Such a person would be a socialist who promoted moderate or radical feminism. In a previous post, I argued that liberalism is not truly compatible with opposition to racism and capitalism. Nevertheless, I recognise that some non-white women and socialists do in fact embrace liberal feminism.

I am a socialist myself. I also support anti-racism activism, both for its own sake and because I recognise that, in most of the world, the participation of non-whites is needed to carry out a popular socialist revolution. According to this second quiz, I am more radical than moderate. I believe that gender has to be abolished in order for women to be liberated and I think a socialist revolution could enable this. My score was not 100%, so my ideas are not completely in line with radical feminism, but they are more radical than moderate. I guess you could call me a revolutionary socialist who supports radical feminism or you can call a totalitarian, prudish, hateful monster. It is up to you.
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I hope you enjoyed my quizzes. Let me know what result you get and whether it was what you expected. Feel free to try and guess which “radical” statements I disagreed with. As always, constructive criticism is welcome.

Liberal Feminist Trope 2: Mind Your Own Business

I will confess that this post may seem a padded out. I wanted to make it roughly as long as the others on the site and I apologise for any repetition that may have been created as a result. I feel it was important for me to get this post out there since the "Mind Your Own Business" trope is used pretty frequently by liberals and I am curious about other people's experiences with it. If you have heard it used in a particularly obnoxious way, feel free to leave a comment describing the incident.
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 “A few large cities have sex clubs and S/M bars for lesbians, while pornographic magazines and videos produced by lesbians for other women have proliferated across the United States. Our sexuality has become as public as our tattoos and our pierced bodies.” Karla Jay, a liberal feminist, in ‘Dyke Life’. Quoted in "How Orgasm Politics Has Hijacked the Women's Movement" by Shelia Jeffreys

Type: Argument trope / Rhetoric trope, Clearly Liberal

Definition and Uses

The Mind Your Own Business trope is committed when a person shouts “mind your own business” or some other statement that implicitly accuses their opponent of violating someone’s privacy, when clearly no such violation has occurred or is likely to occur in the near future. It can be used as a rhetorical phrase to express anger or it may be put forward as an argument.

Use of the phrase “mind your own business” is of course legitimate in situations where actual attempts at privacy violation have occurred. To commit the Mind Your Own Business trope is to use the phrase in an illegitimate way, to go after someone who has not committed a privacy violation and is in fact either responding to a public proclamation of some kind (e.g. an individual bragging about their sex life online) or discussing a phenomenon that everybody knows exists (e.g. prostitution) in general terms, without referring to any particular individual.

This trope is most often employed by defenders of pornography, prostitution and BDSM, right after they’ve spent a paragraph bragging about how awesome their work/sex life is, only to find that not everyone is totally in favour of what they are involved in. When the trope is employed by liberal feminists is it usually used in relation to sex, but it can also be used in relation to other controversial behaviours (e.g. smoking.)

Generic Examples

“How dare you criticise porn/sex work/BDSM/beauty practices. You should all just be quite and mind your own business. Stop shoving your noses into other people's bedrooms/homes.”

“What I do in my bedroom is my business, not anyone else's. It is certainly not the business of some nasty feminist/politician/conservative. Those people should just stick to fixing up their own lives instead of getting so worked up about what the couple next door does.”

Exception Examples

Anti-Abortionist: “Why are you so pro-abortion, you’ve had one, haven’t you?”

Abortion Rights Defender: “Whether or not I’ve had an abortion is beside the point. I’m not interested in talking to you about my personal life.”

The above is not an example of the Mind Your Own Business trope, because the anti-abortionist really was seeking to obtain private information that he/she had no right to and that the abortion rights defender had no interest in revealing. Though the anti-abortionist in this situation is not using force to extract private information out of the abortion rights defender, the latter might still feel pressured to give in to the demand for information. Personal questions of this nature should not be used in the context of a political discussion, unless one has a very good reason for asking them.

Analysis

This trope is dishonest, because it contains an implied accusation that is not true. The right to privacy is of course very important, but when one uses this trope they often express a concern for their own privacy which borders on paranoia. Users of this trope seem to believe that mere criticisms of behaviours, which they or others publicly brag about, are morally equivalent to creating an Orwellian state in which cameras are placed in everyone’s bedrooms and everyone’s sex lives are closely monitored. Radical feminists have no intention of creating such a situation. They typically do not have much interest in learning the details of specific individuals' "empowered" sex lifes, either.

If one decides to speak publicly about their private life (remember, the internet counts as a public forum) they should understand that such a decision has consequences. Criticism is one such consequence. Those who cannot handle criticism should refrain from bragging about their “social boundary transgressing” sex lives in public. Those who think the entire world needs to know about how amazing their sex lives are should learn to deal with the fact that not everybody thinks about sex in the same orgasm-centric way they do.

The trope also ignores the way in which many of the behaviours defended by the trope are actually quite public (as illustrated by the above quote). Pornography is probably the clearest example of the “private” behaviour that actually has very public consequences. Then you have politically active groups, such as the BDSM community, who wish to transform mainstream culture in such a way so as to ensure that their sexual practices are promoted just as frequently as more conventional sexual behaviours. If political activists within the BDSM community had their way, depictions of (and imagery related to) their sexual practices would be almost unavoidable. I suspect that when the Fifty Shades of Grey film comes out next year we will have a hard time avoiding discussions of it and of BDSM. Opponents of BDSM and other supposedly "transgressive" sex acts cannot be expected to mind their own business, when other people's "business" is all over the place.

Proponents of such behaviours may contend that those who practice them are not responsible for what corporations decide to promote. Indeed it is true that not all people who practice a particular sex act want that sex to be promoted among the general public. Some BDSM practicers have even criticised Fifty Shades of Grey, but not on the grounds that it promotes violent, male-dominated sex (instead they take issue with the way in which BDSM is portrayed.) However, this does not change the fact that sex acts which are promoted in such a manner can no longer be considered "private" and thus the supposed privateness of a particular sex act cannot be used to defend it, regardless of whether those who practice it are responsible for making it public or not.

This is not to imply that violating the privacy of those who participate in BDSM is justified, though women who feel that their BDSM relationships have become abusive should be allowed to step forward and share their stories. In general, however, people have a right to keep their sexual behaviours to themselves. Opponents of BDSM focus on the practices themselves and not on trying to undercover the identities of those who practice them, because, frankly, the sex lifes of random strangers are not all that fascinating.

Conclusion

Use of this trope, by someone who claims to be a feminist, is a good indication that the person is a liberal (or fun) feminist and a paranoid one at that. Those who wish to challenge liberalism should uphold the right to privacy, while not falling into this trope by unfairly accusing people of commiting privacy violations. Before shouting, “mind your own business” or a similar phrase, one should ask themself whether their opponent is actually attempting to violate their privacy. If nobody's privacy is being violated then the phrase "mind your own business" is pointless, since the person in question is minding their own business, in the sense of not actively interfering with other people's private lives. Most of the time, the person simply has an opinion about a particular behaviour that they would like to express.

Since the trope does nothing to invalidate whatever criticism is being made, it should simply be regarded as a distraction or (as those familiar with logical fallacies might put it) a red herring. Even if a person was committing a genuine privacy violation that would not prove that their viewpoint was wrong, since the truthfulness of a viewpoint is not dependent on whether its proponents behave in an ethical manner. This trope is yet another attempt by liberals to silence dissent by making false appeals to genuine ethical principles.

Coming Soon: You Think Too Much (in which political analysis of “private” sex acts is seen as a bad thing)
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Please remember that I do not allow defences of liberal feminism on trope pages. Constructive criticism is fine. So far I have only had a few commenters (a big thank you to those who have commented) and none of them have been from political opponents, so for the moment I do not think it is necessary to establish more commenting rules, this may change in the future.

Note that a link to a particular piece of writing, even if it is referenced in a positive manner, does not indicate complete agreement with it or its author