At 11:44 AM 9/12/99 -0700, Daniel Ust wrote:
>statism. Most social conservatives want to shove their moral agenda down
>everyone's throats in the same way that most radical feminists want special
>treatment, subsidies, and men to be punished (which amounts to using the
>government to bludgeon other people), and the Left (with few exceptions)
>wants to use governmental power to enforce whatever is in currency as social
>justice at the moment.
I would like to address for a moment the categorization of 'radical feminists'.
There are in reality two categorical labels, one claimed by the individual feminist, and one put onto the individual feminist by persons who disagree with her particular viewpoint. This labeling seems to be very dependent upon the circumstances, and oftentimes external to the content of the writings in question.
In my own experience, having short hair and expressing a libertarian viewpoint can get any woman labeled a 'radical feminist', even if she isn't expressing the viewpoint of the self-identified radical feminists. It has become shorthand among the right wing for any outspoken woman, and we have learned to laugh it off. But I would also hope that the libertarians themselves would not engage in this kind of labeling. Many self-identified radical feminists support libertarian ideas, more than they are getting credit for.
Kathryn Aegis