Rhetorical questions: Is it wrong to wonder whether — similarly to covert domestic ops like Cointelpro that infiltrated Vietnam-era anti-war movements from within — the white radical feminist movement may have been infiltrated with turncoats in the nature of domestic double-agents charged to divide and conquer feminism as a viable political force for change? How better to derail the liberation of women than from the inside?

We as women are inherently very powerful, so much so that covert tactics may have been the only thing that would derail second-wave feminism. Before, there was witch-torture to destroy non-patriarchal women, continuing there is rape and murder, along with modern sex-torture porn freely available to anybody online (including power tools to destroy permanently the tender tissues of the female cervical/anal platform, for example). If so, what is our best strategy now? Certainly pole-dancing as sex-pozzie “liberation” cannot be considered authentic feminism by any woman in control of her own mind, the body notwithstanding.

Small wonder that sisterhood so far is not so powerful with global patriarchy aligned against us. Maybe we must each claim our own true power as a start and refuse to let anybody (female, male, other animal) exploit us no matter what their stated or unstated politics. We can learn to discount the rhetoric of women whose loyalty is questionable much as we intelligently ignore men when they are talking. We can focus on behavior instead of rhetoric, no matter who is doing the behaving.

Harriet Tubman is my hero. Women remain today’s virtual slaves of gender caste, because even prominent women only reach their status in step with the society men have made. To paraphrase Tubman: “I freed 1,000 slaves; I’d have freed more if they’d known they were slaves.”

On the rapist Polanski, apart from his morally bankrupt Hollywood friends and parts of the French goverment (who as a matter of principle refuse to accept that non-French laws should ever apply to Frenchmen) he has found very few supporters. Neither should he.

Spare me.

And right on about the silencing that is occurring on some feminist blogs. It’s sad how often a different angle on the subject under discussion, especially one that comes from an older woman with a different life experience, is not welcome. Yes, I’m bitter.

Still, this new “i’m not an oldfashioned feminist so don’t be frightened” attitude is letting her write about how sick we all are of the porno at eye level in newsagencies – the stuff we edit out of our daily rant quota because we’ve tried and failed. Silver lining.

Re Polanski. I just don’t get it. She was a child, poor thing. He drugged her and raped her. It’s not possible for a child to consent. Much less a child who has been drugged. Much less a child who has been drugged and is trying to run away and repeating “no”. The media commentators who contend that she somehow contributed to the rape are contemptable.

Miranda Divine pointed out the other day “If he were a Catholic priest arrested for child sex abuse 30 years ago there would be no pleas for leniency, nor should there be.”

I am also kind of sick of commentators insisting feminism has to be fashionable and simple. Feminism isn’t about slogans. I feel it gets so dumbed down in order to get mainstream appeal. All this girl power bullshit instead of having real dialogue about important issues.

Shit like “Feminism — or whatever you want to call it — is back, and we’re not going to take it any more.” just makes me want to barf. How about some respect for women who have been fighting the whole time these same commentators crapped on about how feminism wasn’t fashionable but apparently now is.

And Tor I completely agree with you re: sex pos feminism.

I do wonder though if sex pos feminism (in its watered down, mass media form) has contributed to the mainstream’s idea that feminism has not been challenging the increasingly sexualised culture we live in.

‘Cause while sex pos feminism has good intentions, I do think that in championing things like burlesque as a feminist practice, it has allowed the mainstream to simply miss the point behind sex positivity and just be blinded by the boobies: “Whooyeah! Stripping is feminist now!”