am i a feminist?

i'm asking myself this question right now. i actually joined this site after searching around looking for opinions and commentary on a couple of topics that feminists generally consider highly important...reproductive rights and the societal effects of porn, specifically. i found a cool blog here that now has me asking myself, am i a feminist?

i certainly agree with many of the stated goals of feminists - the elimination of patriarchy, the emancipation of women...but the more i look into the subject the more i see something worrisome...

over and over from those who identify as feminists, i see the substitution of 'woman' for any kind of coherent class analysis rooted in a solid understanding of how our society works economically. 'woman' is not a class. woman is an oppressed group within class society, just as 'black' is, just as 'gay' is, just as 'disabled' is, just as 'elderly' is, etc.

so that being said - am i a feminist? as someone who believes that the elimination of patriarchy, and the emancipation of women can only come through the process of women building strong, united movements with men, in the political, social, and economic spheres - namely, class struggle - i sometimes hesitate to use the label even though i share a common goal with what's called feminism.

quite simply, a male worker and a female worker have potentially *much* more in common with each other than with a capitalist of the same sex. but it's in the interest of that capitalist to destroy those bonds of solidarity, and to foster a situation in which even if there's legal equality for women, there's no social or economic equality.

when the ruling class encourages conflict between men and women (you can substitute any demographic you like in this example; i've simply given the examples of the two conventionally recognized genders as an illustration of what i'm saying about feminism) they can rob the masses at will, basically.

in short, i believe that in order to eliminate this problem we must eliminate class society itself. now what i'm saying here is NOT that 'after the revolution, all will be made well for women, easy as that' - as if simply creating a revolution would lead to the instantaneous elimination of patriarchy and the oppressive situation that exists for women. hardly.

on the contrary - what i'm saying is that it's not simply the society after a revolution that fixes the situation - but that the process of learning by uniting in common struggle, and creating that revolution, is the situation that quickly teaches people who is on their side and who isn't. it has the great potential to radicalize them, and force them to see that oppressive social relationships previously thought of as inevitable - sexism, racism, and the like - are tools used by the ruling class over and over to divide and rule.

in other words, to arbitrarily separate the emancipation of women, or the emancipation of other oppressed groups, from the class struggle to emancipate workers who are exploited everywhere in the world, is not only a poor tactical decision, in terms of losing the greatest possible number that can become involved in the ongoing struggle against oppression and exploitation, it's ultimately pointless because it offers no inherent strategy for creating revolutionary change - what can a single oppressed group do to fight back? you can educate, you can spread your message, you can even come together and form various solidarity networks to provide support and resources in the daily, defensive struggles - for example in the struggles women face against rape, or against attacks on reproductive rights, and the like.

and this is all very positive stuff which i try to get involved in as much as i can. but it's worth recognizing that these are defensive struggles, defending against attacks made against us. there's another kind of struggle, offensive struggle, that has the power to do something far greater - it has the power to literally revolutionize the world. and only the united working class has that power. how do we use it? literally, by doing nothing. by ceasing to work for the capitalist. and by simultaneously reorganizing society along lines that recognize the inherent need for solidarity among all workers, women, men, black, white, gay, straight, you name it.

so i guess in the end, the answer is yes, i'm a feminist. i can't be a socialist without being a feminist. but to attempt to be a feminist without being a socialist is a sure-fire path to defeat and disappointment.