The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Sudden Onset Lesbian Syndrome

“Men who rule, and male leftists who seek to rule, try to depoliticize sex . . . in order to prevent us from acting to end our oppression and challenging their power. As the question of homosexuality has become public, reformists define it as a private question of who you sleep with in order to […]

Feminist Theory, Human Nature and the Punch Seen ‘Round the World

It’s all so calculated. She’s got a calculator. She’s my soft touch typewriter And I’m the great dictator. Two little Hitlers Will fight it out until One little Hitler Does the other one’s will. — Elvis Costello, 1979 Watching the video in which Ray Rice knocked out his fiancée (now wife) Janay, the thought occurs: […]

Is Rachel @Maddow’s Haircut Waging War Against Heteronormative Patriarchy?

“I’m a big lesbian who looks like a man. I’m not Anchor Babe and I’m never going to be. … I one hundred per cent believe that the reason I have not gone further in television is not only because I’m gay but because of what I look like.” — Rachel Maddow, 2007 “A lot […]

Kate Millett’s Tedious Madness

“[A] disinterested examination of our system of sexual relationship must point out that the situation between the sexes now, and throughout history, is . . . a relationship of dominance and subordinance. What goes largely unexamined, often even unacknowledged (yet is institutionalized nonetheless) in our social order, is the birthright priority whereby males rule females. […]

Sex Trouble: Feminism, Mental Illness and the Pathetic Daughters of Misfortune

“The idea that acts of violence can be excused due to a victim’s dress, state of intoxication, location and sexual history is absolutely ridiculous and feeds into a cultural view of sexual assault as not a real crime.” — Liz Sheridan, SlutWalk Chicago organizer, 2014 “Yesterday’s mental illness is today’s social policy.” — Kathy Shaidle, […]

Feminism Repeats Itself, the First Time as Tragedy, the Second Time as Farce

Amy Austin (@amymarieaustin) is a British university student, a lovely blonde soprano, who wrote a blog post about “gender roles” that became something of a viral sensation among feminists. We’ll get to that in a minute, but first let’s acknowledge that Amy Austin has suffered serious misfortune. Her father committed suicide in December. She describes […]

‘Wacky Conservative Hit Piece About Raging Lesbian Feminist Carmen Rios’

Carmen Rios (@c_rios) is communications coordinator at the Feminist Majority Foundation and also a columnist at the lesbian blog Autostraddle, which has been sarcastically called “Cosmo for Queers.” Ms. Rios’ career as a lesbian activist was the subject of a blog post here Sunday, the latest in my “Sex Trouble” series about radical feminism. This […]

Sex Trouble: #DearFeministMen Illustrates a Fundamental Problem

“You can never please a feminist woman. And even feminist women despise men whom they can push around.” — Charlotte Allen “That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.” — Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind (1939) Let’s begin by explaining something that should be obvious, […]

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