F.A.Q.

Why do men need feminism?

Men need feminism because everyone has a mother.

Some of us have good mothers. Some of us have bad mothers. Some of us have mothers who are doing the best they can in a country and world that seems to be trying to kill or oppress them constantly.

Women’s needs are men’s needs and vise versa. We need each other to survive. I’ll take it a step further and say that men and women also need trans and nonbinary rights to be protected as well. Even though the trans and intersex are not half the population (that we know of anyway, biological sex assignment is more art than science when you look at the real variety there is), morphological freedom is an issue that affects everyone.

Someone who is not trans or nonbinary may not be directly touched by the need for morphological freedom unless or until they need a tumor removed or a knee replacement. There are people forced to live with debilitating conditions because of legal issues around what is viewed as “elective” surgery.

Someone who doesn’t have a uterus may not be directly affected unless or until one of their family members is in the emergency for a miscarriage or stillbirth, and precious minutes are wasted because the “abortion” could be deemed illegal.

I say this often, but it applies here again, the Kongo saying, “None of us births ourselves or buries ourselves.”

We all need each other to be as well and as free as possible.


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Are maternal feminists right wing?

No.

Just no.

Maternal feminists believe in the legal and social protection of mothers and the freedom of people to choose whether or not to be mothers. In order to do this in practical terms, birth control including abortion must be a right. The government and community law enforcement would have to be up in people’s business enough to ensure marriage and social institutions do not equate to human trafficking or slavery. There would have to be a guaranteed wage for all workers, and this would have to correspond to cost of living.

In other words, a maternal feminist is by default, some level of socialist, or they’re not doing it right.


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Are maternal feminists religious?

Some are and some aren’t.

A maternal feminist is likely to be an adherent of a belief system that explicitly recognizes a Divine Feminine deity or higher self associated ideal or optimal feminine archetype. There are however many maternal feminists in monotheistic or abrahamic systems who reject the misogynist dogma within it, and interpret their systems in egalitarian terms.

On the other hand, there are some religious people who are adhering to misogynistic views while calling themselves maternal feminists. You can tell who is who by whether or not they get the basic principles of maternal feminism.

If they are anti abortion but not anti slavery enough to understand that access to abortion needs to be a legal right, then that is a phony. It can be their opinion that abortion is a tragedy or even a sin, but that legally, it should be available for the same reason use of lethal force to prevent someone from kidnapping you is legal. It can be their opinion that their religion is a wonderful means of spiritual expression, but the moment they want to legally enforce their religion on others, they are no longer representing maternal feminism.


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What are some of the basic principles of maternal feminism?

Maternal feminism involves acceptance of the idea of femininity connected to nurturing, especially the raising of children and care for the elderly. It is not the belief that people assigned female at birth are in any way obligate or even “natural caregivers” by default. This was a modernist idea, and we are in postmodernist times. What people view as biological sex will often or usually correspond with the social role, but fails to do so often enough that generalizations should be applied very carefully if ever. So things have changed a bit, but the basics are still solid.

So rather than limit the role of motherhood and the function of mothering to women, we incorporate all who do this work into the term “mothers”.

1. The nurturing in practical ways and emotional labor that motherers do has value both socially and monetarily. Like any other worker, they should receive a living wage and be rewarded rather than penalized for their work. Otherwise, it is slavery. Ways should be found for all social units from families to nations, to prevent motherhood from being de facto or legalized slavery. The line is in the person caring for people who for some time, do not have sufficient physical or mental agency to consent. Because this person must serve as the physical caregiver and voice of people who cannot consent, they must have the agency of full consent, which means the ability to make decisions regarding their and their charges’ wellbeing without the coercive threat of poverty or violence.

2. People with uteruses should have full reproductive choice, which includes but is not limited to access to birth control including abortion on demand within a reasonable time frame, which is 3-4 months, not six weeks.

If they are denied access, the person should be able to sue those responsible for the person’s lack of knowledge or access for the amount required to compensate for her situation and the child for theirs. They should not escape responsibility for the child just because the child is adopted.

In most other ways, maternal feminism aligns with general feminism. It is under the umbrella of what could be considered “radical” because it requires a level of social and political activism and commitment that permeates one’s life and has an impact on those around them simply from being the person who embodies the idea. A maternal feminist, for instance, would refuse to get into a situation of domestic slavery, or to put someone in that situation. The maternal feminist potential motherer waits until they find a partner who can hold up their end, and the potential fatherer would seek to achieve the financial and social stability to hold up that end. One with the potential for either would prepare for either role. This role can be shared between multiple people. How ever this is arranged, these are people who have given some thought to the role of motherer and fatherer and probably the role of other family members as well.

Basically, a maternal or matricentric feminist today is not the familialist of yesterday, but a family oriented feminist or feminist familist. The family is not prioritized above the individual. The family is made up of individuals who all deserve equal protection and should have the same legal rights and receive equitable treatment.

 

 


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What is maternal feminism?

Maternal feminism is the belief that women are equal in value to all other persons and deserve legal, social, and political equity with consideration for our roles as mothers and caregivers. In the beginning of feminism as a political movement in the west, this was by most considered to be specific to people assigned female at birth based on external anatomy, but today this extends to all women including Trans women. We also consider feminine and nonbinary people who function as parents, caregivers, and nurturers more than allies. We count all motherers as mothers regardless of anatomy or gender, and understand that misogyny degrades this role in all who embody or express it regardless of anatomy or gender.

This was the first kind of feminism, and has likely existed as long as humanity. You can read more about how it developed and in some ways got warped and ultimately destroyed in the mainstream by “white” feminism in the west in Wikipedia. It did survive though, through Africana womanism and other more culturally pluralistic or ethnicity or religious specific streams. There is even Islamic feminism.


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