Exh more gndrsexx

Any woman who was watching herself through an internalized male gaze and performing for that can relate to this

Women have for too long wrongly contorted themselves to conform to male sexist expectations; like women who assimilated into malestream culture did not have a sense of themselves outside of them being in relation to men. 

This caused women to have raging cases of internalized misogyny . This sad twist lead to women seeing humanity in a man before recognizing any humanity in their sisters or in themselves. Radical Feminists historically referred to them as male-identified women

The concept of women being ‘woman-identified’ or ‘male-identified’ is one that was born out of the feminist consciousness-raising of the 1970s and appears to have fallen out of use; 

‘Woman-identified’ as it was used in the past in the feminist consciousness-raising groups was about women’s identification with their oppressor, women seeing themselves in terms of how they are defined by men.

In Feminism is for Everybody (which I second), bell hooks explains:

“In the early stages of feminist movement we used the phrase ‘woman-identified woman’ or ‘man-identified woman’ to distinguish between those activists who did not choose lesbianism but who did choose to be woman-identified, meaning their ontological existence did not depend on male affirmation. Male-identified females were those who dropped feminist principles in a flash if they interfered with romantic heterosexual concerns. 

They were the females who also supported men more than women, who could always see things from the male perspective. Teaching one of my first women’s studies courses in San Francisco I was confronted by a group of radical lesbian students who wanted to know why I was still “into” men. After class one day in the parking lot there was a showdown. 

At that time an older black woman lesbian student, who had worked in the sex industry, having much sexual intercourse with men even as she remained clear about her lesbian identity, defended my feminist honor by declaring “she’s a woman-identified woman who’s into sex with men—that’s her right, but she’s still down with the cause.” P95-96”

So according to this, the male-identified woman requires male affirmation to confirm her existence, and she thus, for all intents and purposes sees things from the male perspective.

In Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence (which I also second), Adrienne Rich describes such ‘male identification’ as “the casting of one’s social, political, and intellectual allegiances with men.” 

Rich also quotes Kathleen Barry, who wrote in her book Female Sexual Slavery that the effect of male-identification means “internalizing the values of the colonizer (males) and actively participating in carrying out the colonization of one’s self and one’s sex…Male identification is the act whereby women place men above women, including themselves, in credibility, status, and importance in most situations, regardless of the comparative quality the women may bring to the situation…Interaction with women is seen as a lesser form of relating on every level.”

Again, this concept is known as “internalized misogyny.” We’re unfortunately seeing some male-identification in young women today where these women actively embrace patriarchal culture while saying that it’s ‘empowering.’ 

The reason for these women becoming ‘male-identified’ is female socialization. Women are sadly conditioned to rely on men due to patriarchy/male patriarchy

Historically, and even now, the reason for women becoming male-identified is out of (or at least in the minds of Radical Feminists) survival/evil necessity. Women are wrongly forced to be male-identified by patriarchy, because the risk of woman-identification is too costly for women to bear.

Andrea Dworkin describes in In Right-Wing Women how women conform to male desires due to necessity:

“From father’s house to husband’s house to a grave that still might not be her own, a woman acquiesces to male authority in order to gain some protection from male violence. She conforms, in order to be as safe as she can be. Sometimes it is a lethargic conformity, in which case male demands slowly close in on her, as if she were a character buried alive in an Edgar Allan Poe story. Sometimes it is a militant conformity. She will save herself by proving that she is loyal, obedient, useful, even fanatic in the service of men around her. She is the happy hooker, the happy homemaker, the exemplary Christian, the pure academic, the perfect comrade, the terrorist par excellence. Whatever the values [of the males in authority] she will embody them with a perfect fidelity.” P14

Andrea Dworkin compassionately described why women identify with the values of the Right. 

Through them knowing that the disturbing threat of male violence is too real, and by them also knowing that men on the Liberal 2.0 side or even Left are no friendlier toward them than Right Wingers, conservative women adopt for themselves the paradigm that they (women) belong married to a husband/protector and home jobs. 

Even though through these actions women are playing into patriarchal, sexist values, at the same time, women after all at least are being provided room,  board and protection for themselves and their children from men who are not their husband. 

Women adopt such values out of an evil necessity; in a patriarchy, women are oppressed and dehumanized either by one man or by all men. A lot of things they need in life have to be gained by going over men; therefore some women cast their allegiance with men and then internalize these values.

Bavk to Female Sexual Slavery, Kathleen Barry wrote about the after effects of sexual slavery women experience, and the survival strategies that they use to fight through it. 

In sex work, women are trained by pimps to believe negative things about themselves Pimps also cut women off from their friends and families and force new identities onto them. Those women who can’t escape sexual slavery try to define themselves in terms of how their pimps define them in order for those sex workers to survive.

From Kathleen Barry “Accepting the perception of others is taking the path of least resistance; that is survival for some women. It is the other side of madness. Those who are not broken either by seasoning or earlier childhood abuse, will be able to resist the definition imposed on them by others and even recognize their own unnamed victimization. But those who comply with their captors’ definition will take on their work in earnest. It becomes their only source of self-respect. Such a woman will try to prove that she is the best goddamn whore on the block and the toughest. She learns to roll tricks and shoplift for her pimp. In interviews with ex-prostitutes I have often noticed a lingering pride in their work. When they tell the rest of us that we are straight, judgmental and prudish, they are surviving by defending the definition they have accepted of themselves and making the most of it.” P10

In the example of the wife who has no other options but to rely on her husband, and the prostituted (sex worker) woman kept enslaved by a pimp, she very much must adopt the definition of herself that has been chosen for her and the values of her captor . Her survival is, for lack of a better term, dependent on it.

Even women who are blessed to live on their own and to earn their own living will frequently become male-identified. This is due to our culture unfortunately being controlled by the male patriarchy, women are raised learning male ways of thinking. 

Because men still hold much power positions and own most of the wealth and property, the workplace is under male patriarchal control and so women still feel a need to go along with male demands in order to earn their living. Women today are no less likely to have their minds become colonized by patriarchy and to actively promote their own colonization.

The woman who is woman-identified are the radicals feminists like Anarcha Feminists, Marxist Feminists, etc. Such radical feminists get smeared with oppressive and hurtful words like ‘witch’, ‘marriage resister’, ‘rebel’, ‘spinster aunt’, etc.  Women are the one who can see the sexism around them and who rightfully chooses to live their life on their own terms. Their allegiance is to other women and that is commendable

For a woman to break free and become woman-identified is an adventure and a process. It includes a mandatory analysis of society and culture and seeing the ways in which men have heavily influenced or even controlled their beliefs, thoughts, activities (i.e consciousness-raising.) 

It includes seeing beyond patriarchal culture and imagining what the world would look like if women controlled their own destinies. This involves resisting and then abolishing patriarchy and living on theit own terms by their own rules. 

It further includes putting women first and fighting to liberate all women. It is the struggle of the feminist movement to become woman-identified and to assist all women to become woman-identified, too. We must bring out of retirement,  the term ‘woman-identified,’ since becoming woman-identified is an important part of our work as feminists in abolishing patriarchy/male patriarchy and finally putting men in their place.