This is not surprising to me because female separatism is effectively always bioessentialist, and it is fundamentally naïve to expect there to be some magical variation of a female separatist movement that isn’t. In addition, in the United States in particular, female separatists have had a long history and trend of being inconsiderate of black women, not understanding how their closeness and finding solidarity in racial marginalization involve being connected with everyone in their black communities, regardless of the gender. Womanists have been calling them out for this shit since the 80s; this isn’t a new revelation.
On the subject of racism, 4B also has racial essentialist views that lead to their own internalized racism, and members of the movement feel like Korean men being the oppressive way they are is due to some inherently negative trait of Korean people as an ethnic group. They hold that western men are actually more likely to be more progressive and “actually good,” unlike South Korean men. 🧢
Their forums have celebrated killing innocent men as well as sexually harrassing men, celebrated the sexual assault andremoved of boys, and encourages having > > sexual relations with colonialist US troops, along with perpetuating racist tropes about Korean men. They are also extremely transphobic and homophobic. This > movement will not lead to women’s liberation.
I understand how tempting it can be to wish to avoid men to this extent due to patriarchal dynamics leading to many of them being oppressive, awful people, but unironically supporting female separatism is woefully undialectical, as it ends up using a tool that, in all cases, perpetuates patriarchy’s existence (essentialism) to fight against it. This is why reactionary sentiments always seem like a logical conclusion of female separatism. The female separatist tendencies try to convert a systemic matter to one that must be handled on an individual level because “Men are just innately evil, and there’s no way we can fight against that regardless of what the system is” happens to be the operative mentality here. This mentality, of course, leads to people straying away from encouraging men to be better.
Not to mention, aside from the transphobia, female separatists movements have also contributed to both homophobia and biphobia. The homophobia comes about because many of these people were straight women who claimed to be lesbians as a part of their separatism, which pushed the notion that lesbianism is just some edgy political choice rather than an actual identity. To be fair, I can understand that a large bulk of female separatist movements popped up when the “Being gay is a choice” belief was a lot more prevalent. However, as a bi/pan person myself, I’m no stranger to some narrow-minded queer people actively shaming bisexual women for being with men instead of women. Female separatist tendencies would definitely have no issue being in favor of this obviously.
The homophobia comes about because many of these people were straight women who claimed to be lesbians as a part of their separatism, which pushed the notion that lesbianism is just some edgy political choice rather than an actual identity.
Political lesbianism. Even some of the theorists behind compulsory heterosexuality (comphet) dabbled in this. Arguing that all women can be lesbians regardless of sexual orientation.
Good.
But also, death to 4B.
Unfamiliar with them. Wassup with em?
They’re TERFs
Damn I should have guessed. With all the pushback against the crazy shit there like nth room somehow they still gotta find time to be TERFs
This is not surprising to me because female separatism is effectively always bioessentialist, and it is fundamentally naïve to expect there to be some magical variation of a female separatist movement that isn’t. In addition, in the United States in particular, female separatists have had a long history and trend of being inconsiderate of black women, not understanding how their closeness and finding solidarity in racial marginalization involve being connected with everyone in their black communities, regardless of the gender. Womanists have been calling them out for this shit since the 80s; this isn’t a new revelation.
On the subject of racism, 4B also has racial essentialist views that lead to their own internalized racism, and members of the movement feel like Korean men being the oppressive way they are is due to some inherently negative trait of Korean people as an ethnic group. They hold that western men are actually more likely to be more progressive and “actually good,” unlike South Korean men. 🧢
As comrade @aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net once put it:
I understand how tempting it can be to wish to avoid men to this extent due to patriarchal dynamics leading to many of them being oppressive, awful people, but unironically supporting female separatism is woefully undialectical, as it ends up using a tool that, in all cases, perpetuates patriarchy’s existence (essentialism) to fight against it. This is why reactionary sentiments always seem like a logical conclusion of female separatism. The female separatist tendencies try to convert a systemic matter to one that must be handled on an individual level because “Men are just innately evil, and there’s no way we can fight against that regardless of what the system is” happens to be the operative mentality here. This mentality, of course, leads to people straying away from encouraging men to be better.
Not to mention, aside from the transphobia, female separatists movements have also contributed to both homophobia and biphobia. The homophobia comes about because many of these people were straight women who claimed to be lesbians as a part of their separatism, which pushed the notion that lesbianism is just some edgy political choice rather than an actual identity. To be fair, I can understand that a large bulk of female separatist movements popped up when the “Being gay is a choice” belief was a lot more prevalent. However, as a bi/pan person myself, I’m no stranger to some narrow-minded queer people actively shaming bisexual women for being with men instead of women. Female separatist tendencies would definitely have no issue being in favor of this obviously.
Political lesbianism. Even some of the theorists behind compulsory heterosexuality (comphet) dabbled in this. Arguing that all women can be lesbians regardless of sexual orientation.