Friday, January 17, 2020

Feminism or Women's Liberation?


Feminism or Women's Liberation? 
An Interview with Wolf Larsen
from the book Capitalism Sucks!


Question:  I notice that you're hostile to feminism – why is that?
Answer:  I feel that feminism has betrayed the struggle for women's liberation.  For the past few decades the feminists have been pushing sexual Puritanism, instead of leading the fight for women's equality.  The born-again Christians are also pushing sexual Puritanism.  It's just disgusting that the feminists sound like a bunch of puritanical born-again Christians, especially considering that the born-again Christians are always attacking women's rights.

Q. I see, so you don't like sexual Puritanism, and you equate feminism with sexual Puritanism – and that's why you don't like feminism?
A.  Yes, that's the main reason, but not the only one.

Q. What are some of the other reasons you are hostile to feminism?
A.  The feminists always seem to support the Democrats, no matter what horrible crime the Democrats have committed lately.  When the last Democratic administration ended welfare as we know it and replaced it with slavefare I thought it was disgusting the way that many feminists refused to criticize the Democratic administration for this horrible thing.  As you probably know most people who received welfare were poor women and their children.

Q. But feminists have contributed a lot to the struggle for women's rights – look at the women's right to vote – we can thank the feminists for that, can't we?
A.  Actually, women in the Soviet Union got the right to vote a year before women in the United States got the right to vote.  Perhaps the American government gave women the right to vote because here the American government was criticizing the Soviet Union for so-called totalitarianism and yet women had the right to vote there but not here in the US.

Q. But what about the struggle for equal pay for equal work?
A.  Yes, I remember feminists talking about equal pay for equal work when I was a young teenager in junior high.  I haven't heard them talk about equal pay for equal work very much since, and now I'm a balding middle-aged man.  (Laughs)  In the interim I've heard the feminists mostly talk about how evil testosterone and men are, and how sex and nudity is supposedly degrading to women.

Q. But men are evil (Laughs) – aren't they?  But more seriously don't you think pornography is degrading to women?
A.  Regarding your first question I've heard women in Brazil say a man is the same as a dog.  That seems mean.  Why would anyone say that about a dog?  (Laughs)  In regards to your second question no I do not believe pornography is degrading to women.  If you go out of your way you might be able to find some pornography that's degrading to women.  However, I can tell you from personal experience that most pornography is not degrading to women.  Just because a woman is naked with her legs open in a picture – that is natural.  Women have been getting naked and opening their legs ever since there were human beings!  And lots of women like getting naked and opening up their legs – look at all the people on our planet – how do you think they all got here?  I can't think of anything more natural than getting naked and having sex!  But if someone doesn't want to get naked and have sex, well they shouldn't get naked and have sex if they don't want to, but they shouldn't try to impose their puritanical ideas on everybody else!  What's oppressive to women is paying them less money for the same work.  What's oppressive to women is the lack of quality affordable childcare.  I think good quality child care should be free for all working women.  I think the feminists are focusing on things regarding sex because they are puritanical and also because they want to distract women from what the real issues are.  The real issues are equal pay for equal work, free abortion on demand, and free quality child care for all working women – which are all things I strongly support!

Q. But don't you think that pornography causes violence against women?
A.  No I don't think that!  That's silly!  Violence against women is a serious problem – but it is not caused by pornography.  Anybody who says that pornography causes violence against women obviously doesn't know much about pornography.  Pornography is naked people.  Pornography is people having sex.  Pornography is natural.  Nudity is natural.  Sex is natural.

Q. But aren't there depictions of violence against women in pornography?
A.  If you went out of your way you could find that.  But, it's just as easy to find depictions of women being violent towards men in pornography, you know the whole dominatrix thing.  In fact the latter seems to be more common than the former.

Q. So you defend pornography then?
A. Yes, of course.  As long as all the people involved are adults, and everything is consensual.  I think the whole anti-pornography thing, and the whole puritanical thing of the feminists, is a bunch of nonsense to distract us from the struggle for women's liberation, which begins with the struggle for equal pay for equal work, free abortion rights, and free quality child care.  I'd like to touch upon a subject you mentioned before: violence against women.

Q. Go ahead.
A. Unlike the feminists and most of the other so-called progressives in our country I am a strong defender of the Second Amendment!  Women should have the right to defend themselves from violent men!  Men are physically more powerful than women, but the Second Amendment makes all of us male or female equal.  I think women should have the right to use the Second Amendment against rapists.  I think women should have the right to use the Second Amendment if they are being beaten by their boyfriends or husbands.  Most feminists are against the Second Amendment, and thus the feminists condemn women to be the victims of violent men.  If women don't have the right to protect themselves with the Second Amendment then who's going to protect them?  The trigger-happy police?  By the time the police arrive the women are often dead, or severely beaten, or raped.  And when women defend themselves against violent men with the Second Amendment they are often hauled away in handcuffs as if they were criminals.  This is an outrage!  Women must have the right to defend themselves!  The best way to stop violence against women is to give women the right to defend themselves!

Q. Do you think it's a good idea for you to criticize feminism – after all you are a man!
A.  Yes I'm a man – so what!  Many men have wives and girlfriends who work.  If women's wages were raised to be the same as men's then there would be more money in American households – and lots of men would support that!  Also, many men would support free quality child care for all working women – because that would be one less household expense – and also because everyone wants their children to receive good quality child care.  Usually parents don't want their children just to be plunked in front of some television set.  When I was a longshoreman my union had a strong position defending women's right to an abortion, and it would have been great if us so-called "macho" blue collar guys were called out to defend abortion clinics.  I'll tell you, we'd give a new meaning to Bible thumping.  We'd teach those born-again Christians to leave abortion clinics alone!

Q. Do you think feminists misrepresent men – particularly blue-collar men like yourself?
A.  Well, I was a blue-collar man for 12 years.  And yes I do believe that feminists misrepresent men.  Some men are every rotten word you can think of.  But most men are okay.  Most men do not beat women.  Most men do not rape women.  There are many men like myself who strongly support women's struggle for liberation and equality.  It's important for men to support the struggle for women's liberation and equality.  I think that feminist male-bashing only divides male and female workers against each other, and the only people that serves is the bosses.  Regarding blue-collar men I think we are often misrepresented on television and whatnot.  We are not all ignorant.  In fact, I think most blue-collar men are more intelligent than George Bush, our current president, and he went to Yale, which seriously makes me doubt the intelligence of many Ivy League graduates.  (Laughs)

Q. So what do you propose as a replacement for feminism, if it's really true as you contend that feminists are not fighting for women's rights strongly enough?
A.  It's not just that feminists are not fighting strongly enough for women's liberation.  The problem is feminists are not fighting for women's liberation at all.  I can't even remember the last time that I heard a feminist even bring up a subject remotely connected to women's rights – like equal pay for equal work, or free quality child care for all working women.  The fact that the feminists ally themselves with the Democrats is truly repulsive to me – because the Democrats don't give a damn about women's rights.  What we need is a third party – a workers party – a party that will fight for free abortion on demand, free contraceptives, equal pay for equal work, and free quality child care.

Q. But one of the major candidates in the Democratic primaries was a woman – how can you say that the Democrats don't care about women's rights?
A.  During the last Clinton administration Hillary flew halfway across the world to lecture the Chinese on women's rights when meanwhile here in America the born-again Christians were bombing abortion clinics.  Putting a woman's face in high places changes nothing for working-class women.  If the President of the United States of America has a vagina between her legs what difference does that make for the women struggling to find quality affordable childcare for her children?  What difference does it make for women struggling to pay the bills on  miserly wages?  (You know a woman is often paid less than a man for doing the same work!)  Having a woman as President will do nothing to improve the lives of working-class women.  To improve the lives of working-class women we need a workers party that will fight for the rights of working women.

Women's Equality from my YouTube channel SucksCapitalism:



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