What is female liberation?

scorchedsouI · 2022-02-01T18:49:22+00:00

Firstly, female liberation is safety from male violence, inside the house and outside.

Even the reason why education and financial independence is encouraged in girls is so that they can protect their minds from malicious manipulation and their bodies from men's blows.

Men are a more elevated class, their safety and humanity is a given. They seek knowledge and money so that they can be empowered even further, and explore the full potential of the human mind (or what they have available). They seek to fullfil the highest levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, esteem, self-actualisation, transcendence. Unlike them, women haven't even achieved safety yet, one of the most base levels, we're like prey.

We live the way people used to live in ancient times, too busy looking over our shoulders for predators and overanalyzing their behaviour to fully utilize our mental faculties and invest our energy in building empires. We're navigating a perilous jungle that's not made for us. In this context, an educated and financially independent woman isn't the king of the jungle, men are, she's just prey with a protective shell. Her efforts in being independent is an act of compensation.

For as long as men pose a threat to women, female liberation and equality can't exist. Women can survive, and get a taste of what it means to be human, but they won't ever achieve their full potential like men have. This might be a disappointing realization for us, but for men, historically speaking, just the fact that we could have this small thing has been a terrifying possibility.

tortllaa · 2022-02-01T18:38:13+00:00

liberation is the freedom from oppression, so yes to everything you listed and so much more. true liberation requires a radical societal shift (and i mean the world society, not just in the west. women are not free until ALL women are free) in which all hierarchies are abolished. if one person is at the top of a hierarchy, it means many people are at the bottom, including women and POC.

as someone else has said in the comments, liberation is not the same as female equality. equality to who? why is it always white men that are the standard that marginalized groups aim to be equal to? we have to do away with that kind of thinking and instead, start building a new social structure from the ground up.

TikiTikiTata-chalala · 2022-02-01T17:00:30+00:00

Female liberation to me boils down to the social network created between women to prioritize women and children on a larger social scale. This already happens everywhere on a small scale- the neighborhood potlucks, and game nights, the online groups, the hobby meetings, the book clubs... We create these communities in small scales everywhere. And that is how we protect and nurture ourselves, one another, and our children.

It's not about continuing to function within this male-dominance driven hellscape- by performing beauty, or defending ourselves physically -it's about creating a fulfilling social network with other women. Our current social climate has divided women from one another in order to enforce male dominance over women of every race and class.

Yes, we can exclude any an all men and demand that those that are included constantly prove that they are worthy. And we can exclude women who actively work against the support and protection the community works to provide.

calico_moon · 2022-02-01T17:02:04+00:00

I think it is also full dismantling of patriarchy, the end of the systematic oppression, equal pay, maternity leave, abortion rights, female only spaces, an end to porn and prostitution, and so much more. This may be controversial, but also the end of women wanting to/being seen as equal. Males and females will never be equal. Just considering monthly cycles, pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding, there is nothing equivalent for males. We have different needs and until they are realized there is no liberation.

DieMadwithScrotacity · 2022-02-01T20:42:17+00:00

To me, women's liberation means true freedom and choice. That looks like guaranteed income, housing, schooling, childcare, transportation, and medical care for all women. We need our choices to be free from the coercion of capitalist market forces. Until all women have true economic and personal security, we cant have truly free choices.

DiosaCordilia · 2022-02-01T16:45:38+00:00

Male absence 🤡

katiekat0214 · 2022-02-01T22:47:12+00:00

It is, but it's also personal power: the power to decide to get married, stay single, be partners. The choice of whom to marry. The choice to divorce, and not be shamed or outcast for it. The choice to have a child or not, and be supported which ever way you choose.

It is also hugely economic: the ability to get an education, get a job, keep a job because you have access usually to a vehicle or other dependable transportation, enough money to buy gas or a subway pass. The ability to buy professional clothes as needed. The ability to own your own home, save, have a pension plan, buy investments. The ability not to be so broke that you can only think in the moment or a few days or weeks, months ahead.

It boils down to not having to depend on any man or some company for your survival.

melympia · 2022-02-01T20:54:01+00:00

I wouldn't say that beauty standards in and of themselves are diametrically opposed to female liberation. We have beauty standards for men, too.

However, once those beauty standards become harmful - like being (severely) underweight, having blown up lips or DDDDD breasts - standards that cannot be met naturally and in a healthy fashion - then they are oppressive. To me, anything that needs surgery, severe dieting and/or daily application of make-up are oppressive, but also things like having to wear hijab (is that even a beauty standard?) or having to appear young forever.

Being free from the fear of phsical threat - be it violence or sexual assault - sure is a hallmark we still need to get to.

However, I think female liberation is way more than just those three things. Because there are so many more things that are still going wrong that also need to change for true female liberation:

wage gap
the ability to skip child support for deadbeats
any kind of male privilege
distribution of chores and emotional labor in a relationship
same standards for men and women - be it for job attire, level of being groomed (if makeup is a thing for women, it should be a thing for men, too!), chances at promotions...
anything about the sex industry...

I'm sure there's more, but that's what came up when I first thought about it.

LogisticalConundrum · 2022-02-01T16:59:43+00:00

Women pursuing careers and life paths towards self-sufficiency and financial independence.
Women doing personal work to heal trauma caused by being raised to be a woman and trauma caused by men and boys.
Women organizing towards to common goal of systemic change in the systems and institutions that are the source of inequity between men and women.

PuzzleheadedMiddle44 · 2022-02-01T16:42:35+00:00

Freedom from all male idolatry and every system ( religion, laws, cultural standards/shaming) that squash a woman’s right to individuality.

Title	What is female liberation?
Author	jomofomo
Upvotes	88
Comments	17
Date	February 1, 2022 4:39 PM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/FemaleDatingStrategy
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/comments/shz8we/what_is_female_liberation/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/what-is-female-liberation.1100318 https://theredarchive.com/post/1100318

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