Mission Statement: QueerFeminism.com stands in radical opposition to patriarchy through providing education and resources, fostering discussion in and out of feminist circles, and challenging openly challenging all patriarchal beliefs.

Feminism in the 21st century has a problem.

Despite wonderfully bold activism by many young and older feminists, online and in person, broad swathes of the feminist movement are plagued by racism, homophobia, transphobia, imperialism, sex-negativity, and similar ills. Well-meaning feminists spend more time declaring their immunity from these “isms” than they do working to address actual marginalization within the feminist community. It’s time for a change.

This site defines Queer Feminism as radical opposition to patriarchy.

The term queer does mean that this definition of feminism explicitly includes queer people, but it goes beyond LGBT and other gender/sexuality minorities. By Queer Feminism, we mean a feminism that is different–a feminism that directly challenges the issues above and does not rest on its laurels. We believe that the definition of feminism that focuses on equality between men and women both excludes non-binary genders and ignores the serious problems created by patriarchy that harm people of any gender and can be exacerbated by people of any gender.

We stand in radical opposition to patriarchy, a system that includes:

Racism, imperialism, genocide, and violence
Strict rules about gender and sexuality that hurt everyone whether male, female, both, or neither
Blaming and shaming of trans people, queer people, prudes, sluts, and anyone who does not fit a narrow and arbitrary body standard
Rape culture
A tendency to claim that democracy and liberal politics fixes all ills, rather than addressing society’s problems

We welcome contributions on a regular or one-time basis. All contributions must be in line with our mission statement and these principles. We encourage discussion in comments and through social media. Together, we hope to build a better feminism and a better world.

Mutual Respect Policy

The purpose of this site is to redefine feminism in a more inclusive and productive way, not to complain about individual feminists or organizations. Part of building a better movement is calling out folks who make feminism look bad, and so criticism is encouraged where it is due.

We also welcome those who do not self-identify as femininsts to contribute to the discussion by submitting an article or commenting. We respect that feminism has been used as a weapon against many people who may not feel comfortable repurposing the term or applying it to themselves. We have a duty as femininists who have a vision for a better movement to show our commitment through making change, not criticizing those who do not call themselves feminists. If we want to change the popular understanding of what “feminism” means, we need to do that by example first.

Hate speech will never be tolerated on this site, and comments are actively moderated.

#transchat 2/3: Engaging with Our Histories

Posted on February 2, 2013 by avory

Two comments came up among my circle this week that made me think it’s time for a candid conversation among trans folks about a topic that’s not easy to sum up, and is sometimes difficult to discuss, but is vitally important. The topic is, more-or-less, engaging with our feminine or masculine histories—not to say that we ever were in fact women or men, but sometimes we do need to engage with how we were perceived when we were younger and what impact that perception, in the context of a patriarchal gender-policing society, has on us as adults.

In most cases we try to bridge gender with #transchat topics, and this one will be a bit different. Folks who were perceived to be boys are likely going to have different things to discuss from those perceived to be girls. But with all the hoopla lately about gender, trans identity, and feminism, I hope that we can sit down on Sunday and have an intra-community discussion about the role of our histories and some of the present problems we might experience, from guilt about our pasts to misogyny within the community. Some ideas for discussion:

Trauma experienced as a female-perceived person and the difficulty of engaging with that/talking about it as a man or non-binary person
Engaging with an actual history of perpetrating violence, abuse, verbal insults, etc. when socialized as male without bolstering the fucked-up “trans women are violent” narrative
Finding space for discussions about gender where one has actual experience that is relevant without encouraging others to misgender us
Cycles of abuse for trans people
How do we address misogyny within the trans community while still fighting external fights (ex, transformative justice approach?)
What is the impact of specific cultural narratives around gender on trans people and how do we address problematic aspects of how we were raised to understand gender while maintaining a cultural identity and fighting racism, xenophobia, bigotry, etc?

Join us on Twitter this Sunday, 2/3, from 2pm-4pm EST, by following the hashtag #transchat to join the conversation!

Avory Faucette is a genderqueer radical feminist activist and writer. Zie writes at the blog Radically Queer and works at the National Center for Transgender Equality. Hir work focuses on intersections of gender, sexuality, and other identities. Zie is particularly interested in non-binary gender and sexuality. Zie is also an award-winning international human rights legal activist with a law degree from the University of Iowa. Hir views stated here do not reflect those of any organization or entity.

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#transchat 2/3: Engaging with Our Histories