Quote Originally Posted by icey View Post
feminism was originally about women fighting for the right to be equal, have the vote, have the right to speak for themselves,have equal opportunities etc well as far as im aware we have that dont we?
Except that women are still in the majority at the bottom end of the world of work, doing the shit jobs that they can't get men to do for the price, and in a minority in management that gets smaller the higher you go. If they're naturally equal, then the system is still loaded against them; you can't have it both ways.
and in relation to bdsm i can never quite understand how the two could ever possibly be connected or questioned, because women have the right to choose whether or not they wish to be submissive or Dominant and unless in an abusive r/ship and forced into submission (which is a totally seperate issue from bdsm) then they're choosing to submit of there own free will they are able to make that choice because they have the right the freedom and the confidence to do so.
Ah, these young folks...

Long, long ago, when a computer was a million-dollar toy for colleges and a mobile phone was a backpack radio, feminism was ripped apart by the issue of BDSM. Not, you understand, in the Mf sense or even Fm - in those days hard core feminists didn't have sex with men anyhow - but over whether it was politically OK for lesbians to do BDSM, or whether they were "internalising patriarchy" and should be re-educated to understand that violence and dominance were male vices shunned by properly empowered women.

There were a few holdouts still fighting the Lesbian SM Wars when I got involved in the '90s, so I know people weren't making this stuff up. If anyone's interested, "Coming to Power" by Samois is still available discussing the issues from our side, and Dworkin's various works probably give the best view of the other side.