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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