What if feminism is a tool of consumerism and the patriarchy?
A prof told me the other day that the title is what her partner thinks, that she is sure that feminism is simply an idea planted by the system to keep actual change from occuring. My prof expanded on it a bit, and I sat down and thought about it too, so heres a mix of our ideas.
What feminism “achieves” is only by virtue of what the system allows it to, the graces it gives. Per example, the right to vote… once that has been achieved the system uses that to remind whilst waving a finger and saying “no youre already equal. see!! you can vote!”
What if the idea of feminism was planted by the patriarchy as a way to placate the masses with the idea of a “revolution”, when in actuality its achievements would be limited, and feminism itself is riddled with the patriarchal blights.
What if the reason that feminism is such a glowing history of racism, phobia, classism, ableism, trans*misogyny, white-savior and white-tears-ism, and a bundle of other gross mainstream issues, because feminism is simply a tool of the patriarchy. Feminism is no better than the system we live under, because it simply mimics the power structure, the fucked up “values” of political campaigns, and brings in the forgotten and excluded for high profile photo ops.
What if we need to abandon feminism altogether.
What if the only way to construct a movement that doesn’t simply copy the faults it claims to fight, is to let it form outside of the political sphere.
Movements for change need to come together out of narratives that refuse to let the system minimize them.Narratives that speak their own tales. This means not letting media tell us allllll we need is gay marriage. This means not letting invisible children and kony ‘12 continue to erase actual voices and build up white savior egos. This means not letting sex positivity contribute to erasure of minorities, trans* bodies, and continue to ignore the cross pollination between the patriarchy and sexuality.
This means being reallly fucking critical that mass media took up pussy riot in a snap - if the ideas that mainstream media are touting are what ‘feminism’ takes up and rallies around - isnt that a big enough sign that there isnt an OUNCE of criticality or awareness? That this talk of intersectionality has brought us nowhere? Isnt this proof that feminism was built by the patriarchy, that it only achieves what its allowed to, and that its ideals are just as fucked as the patriarchy, and that we need to fucking jump ship.
How is it a tool of consumerism? Because consumerism is the mass marketing of products and ideas, creating a placation in the masses, and avoiding actual conflict, and hiding corrupt systems in shinny packages… like white vegans who care more about other animal species than migrant workers. Consumerism and the patriarchy are… one and the fucking same, folks.
also please note that when i say patriarchy i am referring to the power of white cis males. and to position myself, i am a white queer trans*male in university in north america, and if i have worded things incorrectly, or overstepped, please let me know.
Its funny, because when my prof told me that idea, I laughed - how could change be secretly made by the system (oh dear ignorant me…). however, after writing the above… i was already one foot out of “feminism”… and the other most likely will be leaving soon.
