point—but it is still real rough. The defenses of sex exploitation
are simply too consistent, too strong, too intensely felt, all along
the political spectrum of power-based discourse and organizing to
be ignored by women who recognize that they are women, not
persons, as right-wing women do. Simply put, the Right will continue to have the allegiance of most women who see how real the sex-class system is, how intransigent it is, as long as antifeminism
is the heartfelt stance of those with other political views, whatever
the views. Those optimistic women who think the antifeminism of
the Left or center is somehow more humane than the antifeminism
of the Right will ally themselves as persons with whatever groups
or ideologies best reflect their own social or human ideals. They
will find without exception that the antifeminism they ignore is a
trenchant political defense of the woman hating they are victimized
by. Right-wing women, who are less queasy in facing the absolute
nature of male power over women, will not be swayed by the politics of women who practice selective blindness with regard to male power. Right-wing women are sure that the selective blindness of
liberals and leftists especially contributes to more violence, more
humiliation, more exploitation for women, often in the name of
humanism and freedom (which is why both words are dirty words
to them).
Facing the true nature of the sex-class system means ultimately
that one must destroy that system or accommodate to it. Facing the
true nature of male power over women also means that one must
destroy that power or accommodate to it. Feminists, from a base of
powerlessness, want to destroy that power; right-wing women,
from a base of powerlessness, the same base, accommodate to that
power because quite simply they see no way out from under.
Those with power will not help; those who are powerless like
themselves arguably cannot. Feminists, after the defeat of previous
movements throughout history and facing some kind of disintegration again (with the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States, the possible enactment of the Family Protection
Act, the Human Life Amendment or Statute, and other social,
political, and legal initiatives promoting female subordination*),
have to face the real questions. Can a political movement rooted in
a closed system of subordination—with no political support among
power-based political movements—break that closed system apart?
Or will the antifeminism of those whose politics are rooted in sex-
class power and privilege always destroy movements for the liberation of women? Is there a way to subvert the antifeminism of power-based political programs or parties—or is the pleasure and
profit in the subordination of women simply too overwhelming,
* Feminists all over the world report similar backlash.
too great, too marvelous, to allow for anything but the political
defense of that subordination (antifeminism)? Will it take a hundred fists, a thousand fists, a million fists, pushed through that circle of crime to destroy it, or are right-wing women essentially
right that it is indestructible? Can the wall of prostitution be
scaled? Can what is at the heart of sex oppression—the use of
women as pornography, pornography as what women
stopped? If antifeminism triumphs over the liberation movement of
