I see. I thought what your describing is feminism generally as a whole, and the different types boil down to why they exist and how they can be removed. Radical being "uh, MEN!" pretty much. Marxist Feminists because the exploitation by the upper class creates not only exploitation of working class females via typical inter-class exploitation but also because the stressed out male takes it out on the female. Liberal feminists because current policies in place allow the exploitation to exists, no one really likes it, and by altering how government policy works it can get rid of the exploitation. Black feminists combine the sexism they face by exploitation by males, but also talks about the racism they are faced in their exploitation. Dual-system feminism talks about how they combine the radical feminists view that men are built to exploit females, and the marxist view that the current currency system encourages exploitation by the upper class to the lower class (I can't spell the correct terms, sorry).Bruce said:Radical feminism holds that when it comes right down to it the differences between male and female are at best highly exaggerated by modern culture, resulting in misery as everyone invariably falls outside what is considered 'normal'.
This is what makes it radical, it questions the very basis of a lot what we mean by gender and how gender roles are formulated.
Take aggression as an example, a trait that is seen as male. A woman will get called a '*****' mostly for doing the same things that get a man called 'dynamic' and a 'natural leader'. Meanwhile because we culturally assume men to be more aggressive, we are automatically seen as a threat - which means longer prison sentences and that little bit more of a presumption of guilt in cases involving violence.
Another example is nurturing, which is seen as a female trait. You get women who just don't fit the nurturing mould, and men who do but because women are seen as the nurturing sex they are forced into it while the men who would actually be good at it are often looked down upon.
From a radical feminist perspective, homophobia and transphobia are symptoms of how this system plays out - because in both cases you have people who fall outside of their boxes, and society trying to shove them back in.
I thought what makes it somewhat radical is the rather extreme nature of the view that females are better than males. In the same way radical religious people tend to be terrorists.
I'll have to actually keep in mind your interpretation, at the very least so I don't shoot my mouth off and look like an idiot next time I rant and rave about "UGH, DEM RADICAL FEMINISTS!". Is there a name for the movement that led to things like political lesbianism though? Besides "sexist" anyway.