Feminism

[Kukulofori]

Women have been subordinate in pretty much any culture (let me know if I'm wrong) since the beginning of time. Why'd feminism just pop up recently?

[New Tet]

Women have been subordinate in pretty much any culture (let me know if I'm wrong) since the beginning of time. Why'd feminism just pop up recently?

I think that there was a time in pre-history in which some, if not all, human families were governed by matriarchies. To what extent those matriarchies exercised a[c]tual physical and mental control over its, ahem, male members is unknown to me.

But that, of course is not the objective of feminism. As see it, feminism attempts to transcend both matriarchal and patriarchal society by empowering women and men since childhood to feel, think and act as equals to their sexual counterparts.

[War Cry]

Your view of history must be quite Eurocentric for you to assert that statement. Many, many indigenous cultures have been nonpatriarchal.

Contemporary American feminism has cropped up pretty recently but it's certainly not an original idea. Dissent is a natural tendency, nothing will live with oppression for long. A coyote will chew off it's own leg before submitting to a hunters trap.

I realize that's quite fluffy. I'll write something far more interesting later. With sources.

[New Tet]

Your view of history must be quite Eurocentric for you to assert that statement. Many, many indigenous cultures have been nonpatriarchal.

I think some anthropologist say that patriarchy emerged with the development of agriculture and the farmer/warrior class that arose out of it.


Contemporary American feminism has cropped up pretty recently but it's certainly not an original idea. Dissent is a natural tendency, nothing will live with oppression for long.

You're right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

Also see Ibsen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibsen).

I happen to think that incipient feminism came into existence as far back as the Renaissance and Reformation wherein women of the aristocracy began, albeit timidly, to assert their rights of inheritance, aided, of course by very sexist men, who did so out of personal self-interest.

I think Feminists everywhere ought to hold Elizabeth I (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England) in high esteem since she managed to rule an entire country and then some for 40 years without the need of a royal consort.

[Kukulofori]

Dissent is a natural tendency, nothing will live with oppression for long. A coyote will chew off it's own leg before submitting to a hunters trap.

Which is exactly my point. Why did it take so long?

[The Ungovernable Farce]

Which is exactly my point. Why did it take so long?
There's a difference between women reacting to their oppression and "feminism" per se (which I'd probably date back to Mary Woolstonecraft, more or less). It's like how class struggle's always existed, but Marxism and anarchism are both really recent. Sheila Rowbotham's really interesting on women's history.
Also, see wiki on Protofeminism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protofeminist)

[ComradeOm]

Women have been subordinate in pretty much any culture (let me know if I'm wrong) since the beginning of time. Why'd feminism just pop up recently?Because feminism as we know it* is a product of the modern world, ie industrialised (or industrialising) capitalist societies, while its intellectual framework is largely derived from the Enlightenment. To try and transplant this into medieval times (or ask why it did not occur then) is akin asking why the Reformation did not occur yesterday. All ideas are products of their time and the societies from which they emerge

*Ha, now there's a qualifier for you

[Janine Melnitz]

Yeah; until the past few centuries, patriarchy has been relatively stable for the same reason that institutions of slavery in the ancient world went on for millenia with barely a hiccup. If you are constantly occupied by toil, are forbidden education and prevented from organizing (a housewife is a lot more isolated than any galley slave), there's not much you can do; you hardly have the chance to think about doing anything.