Radical Feminist Movement
The liberation of the women’s movement is also called and regarded as the: feminist, feminist movement, or women’s movement. The action involved a continuous sequence of political campaigns that advocated for several cross-sectional issues that affected the quality of women’s lives in the United States of America. To a more considerable extent, the problems that affected the American women were also the problems that faced all the women in the larger world. It explains why the feminist movements have been a common occurrence in different parts of the world. Even up to today, for this case, I will only concentrate on the women’s movement in the United States of America for the discussion. The discussion will help us understand that radical feminism was not a logical companion protest movement to the civil rights movement (Hyde, 2018).
The American pageant protest of 1968 is one of the significant and historical feminist complaints that American has ever experienced. In many ways, the rally brings out the fact that feminism was not a logical companion protest movement as women were experiencing and having a degree of real power over their own lives hence holding the American pageant protest. Among other issues, the women advocated that they be regarded as equal human beings; therefore, statements such as the women are people, not livestock. The radical women supported the immediate termination of the competition and did away with the show. They regarded it as an excellent example of the more significant problem that the women were facing, as it celebrated few women who fit limited beauty standards. The contest was seen from the women protestors as pitching the ladies against each other through the beauty standards.
I regard the feminist movement was not a logical companion protest because the issues that the women were raising were so weighty and worthy of being considered. Equality at the workplace, women are securing and being involved in more substantial and weighty roles in society and even the prohibition of gender-based discrimination in the area of work. All these are important issues that they were requesting addressed so that America could achieve a more equal and non-discriminatory society. One of the achievements of this activism is that the people of color were able to claim their rights and more American society positions. The ladies were more fond of the traditional roles, such as getting married, bearing children, and taking care of the family. The parts were unfulfilling to them; hence they started advocating for more inclusion in a bigger and better society (Williams, 2016).
Women were not allowed to own anything at all in the eyes of the law; they lacked any civil status. They were considered civilly dead upon their marriage. In the event they never got married, they were always regarded as legal minors. All these issues indicated that women had legitimate problems to fight for, and hence I can’t consider their struggles and effort for an equal society to just a logical companion. It is very accurate that they all faced the same problems and had to stick together throughout the revolution to achieve their objectives. The women who initiated the movement regarded themselves as radical; they were informed, educated, and even had started getting to the positions of influence in different organizations. The power that came with their job made them open up and advocate for fellow women’s rights. Women such as Mary King and Casey Hayden approved for the equal treatment of women and men in the workplace.
The adjective radical is well applied; throughout the primary reading documents, this word extreme has been widely used to describe the women who were the pioneers of the different waves of the feminist movement. The nature of the women’s problem needed them to be so focused on the task. The liberating and even educating the fellow ladies on the issues and how they could jointly come together to solve the problems they were facing in all ways the ladies were radical as they were able to. The movement involved the mobilization of fellow women to come out and advocate for their rights. They did so by inviting them through the writing of letters. Information is written; their placards were in always extreme an excellent example of the placard information is “women are people and not livestock’s.” Feminists were attacking the family institution, church, and even the then laws that were accepted by all people, and in the Victorian Era was not an easy task. The movement mobilized women from the grassroots and one door to another, communicating and passing one massage of the women’s rights and the issues affecting them. The collection of signatures among them was another way they followed to champion for their rights. In always, the women’s movement was radical and focused on their rights and did not have any support.
The feminist movement is indeed considered a reliable and united solitary action. The campaign was so united among all the women from the class roots to the working ladies. The women’s movement never received any support from the religious government, or even the existing laws never provided any help to female rights. The constitution of the time never included the word women; it only had the name male in it, which cost the women about 52 years of campaigns to lobby their male counterparts to support their views. The women’s creativity was incredible as they came up with messages that were so appealing to the masses. An excellent example of the letter is “traditional womanhood is dead, traditional women were beautiful, but powerless (Xaba, 2017). ‘Uppity” women were even more beautiful, but still, powerless Sisterhood is powerful! Human hood the ultimate!” the women did all by themselves without help from the government, family, religion, or even family help. In any case, all this system worked against them.
References
Hyde, C. A. (2018). Charisma, collectives, and commitment: hybrid authority in radical feminist social movement organizations. Social Movement Studies, 17(4), 424-436.
Williams, C. (2016). Radical inclusion: Recounting the trans-inclusive history of radical feminism. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 3(1-2), 254-258.
Xaba, W. (2017). Challenging Fanon: A Black radical feminist perspective on violence and the Fees Must Fall movement. Agenda, 31(3-4), 96-104.