RadFems Rock! Specificity...what's in a name?

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a8d466_6beb447a2f8449ea99446827e383fde4/480p/mp4/file.mp4

This was a fun little video editing project. I wanted to make a tribute to all the Radical Feminists who inspire, teach, and create a better world for women and girls.

I utilized the CapCut application using only the free features. The background video was a sample within the app. I then played around with the text formatting, animation, and timing to create this piece. CapCut is a great tool for artists on a budget who want to use an app that offers a robust set of features within the free version.

I juxtaposed the text and video with the classic female anthem, "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. At times it seems that no woman has a worse reputation than the radical feminist. I’ve always been a feminist since I discovered the name for it, but I never specified the type of feminist I am. Depending on the particular echo chamber I’m in, others bestow a label on me. I proudly claim the term feminist, but the adjective in front of the word was never a point of focus for me. I would usually call myself a “hardcore feminist” to lightheartedly convey that I had no fear claiming the term feminist. But I never thought I needed to specify more than that.

In this current phase of male supremacy, I have learned that specificity does matter. I lived in a postmodernist echo chamber for some time without an understanding of the labels attached to the feminism I was practicing. My feminist viewpoints don’t fall perfectly into any one feminist school of thought. Like most people, I’m varied in my beliefs and get overwhelmed trying to differentiate categories. But if I must choose one label, then radical feminist fits closest. Now I’m realizing the importance of including that leading adjective. In 2024 it’s cool to say you’re a feminist, just as long as it’s not the radical kind. I finally have the awareness to see this isn’t by chance. Postmodern and capitalist male influences have infiltrated many feminist spaces, resulting in the truncating of feminist critical analysis and a dilution of the meaning of feminism. Postmodern feminism has confused specificity and exclusivity for discrimination. We have to ask why it is that root-cause analysis is being disparaged in the feminist movement. One glaring reason is that radical feminism lays bare the female sex-class struggle of women and girls and there’s no version of an effective feminist movement that could include everyone. Inclusivity is a beautiful idea, but the practice of it has become heavy-handed and uncritical. I was born in 1983 and since that time my race, sex, and sexual orientation have been relabeled by those around me into ever-broader categorizations. It’s like we’re becoming this amorphous blob of oneness, which sounds cool as shit during a “metaphysical” shroom trip, but is it practical in reality? No. That’s the simple answer. Occam’s razor. We don’t need volumes of text to understand this. Specificity does matter. Exclusivity has its place. These are the ideas underlying self-determination, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. We will simultaneously need to safeguard against those who mean to exploit specificity and exclusivity - namely the supremacist ideologues. Afterall, we have seen the impacts of oppressors who create exclusive spaces to gather and refine their means of exploitation - from “Pick-up Artists” to the KKK. But if we ethically moderate and regulate communication, then we have a chance at safely utilizing specificity and exclusivity. For the oppressed and free alike, it is paramount to have access to this. Race and sex separatism exists because of this need. The irony is that in the U.S. males can gather exclusively and European Americans can gather exclusively, but not their counterparts.

Ultimately my day-to-day feminist work will continue regardless of the leading adjective I pick. I’ll never be satisfied with any adjective because it’s impossible for our beliefs to all perfectly fit into one label. Despite these limitations, I will proudly call myself a radical feminist so that I can work to destigmatize this adjective, just like I did that work for the noun it specifies.