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Ifeminists, or individualist feminists, say that the feminist slogan "a woman's body, a woman's right" should extend to every peaceful choice a woman can make. Ifeminists believe that freedom and diversity benefit women, whether or not the choices that particular women make are politically correct. They respect all sexual choices, from motherhood to porn. As the cost of freedom, ifeminists accept personal responsibility for their own lives. They do not look to government for privileges any more than they would accept government abuse. Ifeminists want legal equality, and they offer the same respect to men. In short, ifeminism calls for freedom, choice, and personal responsibility. How is ifeminism different? In recent years, feminism has come to be associated with anger toward men who, as a class, are viewed as the political enemy. Some feminists have attacked the sexual choices of adult women who enjoy consuming and posing for pornography. Many feminists have called for the government to impose affirmative action policies and speech codes. Other feminists even want to ban new reproductive technologies that offer hope to infertile women. Ifeminism turns the old stereotype of feminism on its head. Pornography and prostitution? Let women do what they want to with their own bodies. Verbal sexual harassment? If women want an equal right to explore their own sexuality, they risk encountering the offensive sexual attitudes of others. Affirmative action? You cannot create equality with men by embedding gender privilege for women into the law. Freedom and choice do not threaten women. Government and orthodoxy do. A new generation faces the millennium. They deserve a new feminist paradigm that celebrates the diversity of their choices and the wonders that technology can offer to them. Read more questions and answers at the ifeminists.com FAQ.
There are two opposing traditions within feminism -- individualism and socialism. Both believe that women should have the same rights as men, and that women should be equal, but the meaning of equality differs within the feminist movement. Throughout most of its history, American mainstream feminism considered equality to mean equal treatment under existing laws and equal representation within existing institutions. (read this essay) |
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ifeminists.com is edited by Wendy McElroy; it is made possible by support from The Independent Institute and members like you.