GC Participants: Do you consider yourself a radfem?

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[–]Radish 1 insightful - 5 fun1 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 5 fun -  (15 children)

Sexuality and attraction can change to some degree over a lifetime. I don't mean that I could turn around tomorrow and be all into men, but I know at least one woman who honestly believes that she was straight until her early 20s and became a lesbian. I don't really know what's in her mind, so I have to take that at face value, I guess, since it is her feelings about it. To me that does not seem possible. Neither position is scientifically provable, so therefore, saying one is anti-science is not true. Yes, things touted as medical treatments that go against the scientific laws would be considered anti-science.

I don't think there's "a face" to the movement. Radical feminists don't recruit, or have settled dogma, or anything else. Some are better known than others, those who dare to speak up. That doesn't make them more right or anything they say law.

Also, I'm opposed to religion, which I don't think is good for people, so I don't really care for seeing anything used in the way religion is, not radical feminism, not science.

We can disagree without one of us being wrong, which is what makes this an interesting conversation. Thank you.

[–]MarkTwainiac 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I know at least one woman who honestly believes that she was straight until her early 20s and became a lesbian.

She might be bisexual or she might be a lesbian. The fact is, it takes many people well into their 20s or beyond to figure out who they are & what their sexuality is. This is especially true for people who are lesbian, gay or bi.

The human brain doesn't stop developing until age 25 - which is one of the reasons I think it's damaging to expect pre-teens, teens & young adults to openly proclaim their sexual orientation & to applaud those who slap sexual-orientation identity labels on themselves & others. Moreover, many people - particularly those of minority sexual orientations & who grew up in religious & conservative families & milieus where homophobia & shame were rife - have to overcome a huge amount of real & perceived social stigma as well as their own internalized prejudices before they feel comfortable exploring, expressing & publicly stating their orientation.

Taking a longer view, some people do change apparent sexual orientation later in life. Many women who didn't realize they were bi in their youth enter lesbian relationships after they've been married to men & have borne & raised children. Quite a few women who were just an eensy bit bi in our college years & lived as straight women for most of our adult lives end up partnered with women in our retirement years.

Also, there are people today & in the past who are or claim to be entirely asexual & who don't deal with the issue by adopting lifestyles of celibacy. I knew many Roman Catholic nuns who lived & died without claiming or expressing sexual orientation. On the other hand, my own father in his mid-60s married a woman who had been an entirely celibate RC nun for 45 years, from the time she was 16 to 61. I had another friend who spent his early adulthood as an Episcopal priest & was celibate his whole life until nearly 70 when he came out as gay.

Neither position is scientifically provable, so therefore, saying one is anti-science is not true.

Are you saying that sexual orientation can't be determined using the methods of science? I don't think that's entirely true. Sexual attraction & arousal cause physiological responses that are observable & measurable. At the same time, however, I don't think there's always & necessarily a direct correlation between what stimuli individuals respond to physically & what their sexual orientation is. I think this is especially the case for women, but it might also well be true for boys & men. We humans are a complicated, funny lot.