[Saya]

Originally Posted by CuckooTuli

From what I can see, it's become one of those chicken/egg circle jerks: feminism is inherently skewed in terms of class/education because it's not really part of 'mainstream' identity politics (a racist or homophobic comment will usually generate far more anger, and "just a joke", be seen as a far less valid defence of such a remark, than with your average garden-variety sexist comment); it's generally (in my opinion & experience) more of an academic niche, than a part of everyday public consciousness. Yet it's hard for it to go truly mainstream so long as feminist debates are dominated by educated, privileged voices. Earlier and more prevalent education would be a good way of addressing this.

I don't think feminism is less mainstream than anti-racism or anti-homophobia, at least not for white women. After all it was white women feminists who thought it would be appropriate to have several people holding signs that say "Women are the n*gger of the world", as if black women aren't really women, right? And while ignoring criticism from women of colour who by virtue of being women of colour are always assumed to be promiscuous and hypersexual.

I also think that people only have a basic idea of how racism is wrong. Its something an individual person, they don't realize its systematic and persists to this day. You can talk about how lazy Natives are, but you don't say the n word so you're not really racist. A lot of racist language isn't challenged.

Also, feminism wasn't always academic, and while I DO love the academic theory, I think overall feminism was far more revolutionary in the second wave, before there was women's studies classes. We were educated in collectives, not in schools. And schools can be just as problematic, I remember one class where we were talking about trans* youth and whether they should be allowed to take hormones while underage. And everyone, even the prof, was like, "teens are too young for that!" and I'm like, you know, we do give cis teens hormones. Called birth control.

Originally Posted by Despanan

I gotta say Saya, with some of the run-ins I've had with the establishment left lately...I'm pretty pissed at liberals these days. Not only have they virtually ignored the issues that don't relate to the white middle and upperclass, they seem to be as willing as the right to employ oppressive hierarchical bullshit - if not moreso.

So yeah, remember when I said this isn't about your "pet issues"? Guess what? I was wrong. This is about everyone's pet issues, because more often than not those things are interconnected AND integral to keeping this horrifying capitalist/fascist machine running. The plight of women is the plight of the lower classes, it's the plight of everyone who is kept down in order to prop up this tiny entitled and well-entrenched minority, and we can't have liberation without women's liberation, and we can't have women's liberation without egalitarianism and solidarity BETWEEN women of all classes, races, and persuasions.

TL;DR - Shit's fucked up

Some of the manuals from The Ruckus Society puts a visual to this, our system of oppression is like a table with legs. There's legs of sexism, racism, colonialism, classism, etc. Knocking out each one is mutually beneficial for all, until the whole thing comes down.