With women’s liberation, civil rights, and homosexual rights, historically oppressed and subjugated minorities have gained more ground in society. Though, in response, there has been a giant cultural backlash, with structural oppression manifesting in numerous forms as a result. One way this is done, and often overlooked, is through the appropriation or co-opting of progressive ideas that help continue to serve capitalist, patriarchal ideals, instead of dismantling them. Another is through our collective unconscious, learned, and internalized prejudices carried along through the technological advances of the time. Often, the problem lies in the ignorance, arrogance, and lack of solidarity with marginalized groups’ issues from more privileged members of society, who don’t face the same issues and experiences, so find it hard to relate. This keeps a tradition of white, male, and upper-class supremacy in place in our culture, despite the tireless efforts of the oppressed to change the system.

This is a long list of some examples of what should be outdated, conservative, or anti-feminist forms of thought, that seeped into the politics of the progressive movement:

Domination and submission are a natural part of human sexuality and romance. Domination, submission, & violence are a natural/inevitable part of male & female relations. Getting off to the fantasy of having power over women isn’t misogynistic; it can be feminist. Dehumanizing portrayals of women in pornography doesn’t reinforce, nor encourage violence against women. Hardcore pornography is just meeting market demand. Criminalizing/banning violent and abusive depictions in pornography is censorship and against freedom of speech/expression. Criminalizing/banning child pornography or sexualized depictions of children is oppressive because it’s a violation of freedom of speech/expression. Female porn actresses are never raped in the making of pornography. Women are never coerced into sex acts in the making of pornography. Women featured in pornography are never harmed in it because it is a choice. Pornography doesn’t cause harm to women and girls in society. Pornography doesn’t condition boys’ thoughts on girls/women, and sexuality. Pornography is a good educational tool for sex; it doesn’t teach rape myths. Pornography is about sexual liberation and has no connection to systemic oppression. The porn industry is completely safe and consensual. There are no corrupt porn companies. Pornography is feminist and a healthy reflection of sexuality. If there were no prostitution or pornography, men wouldn’t be able to control their sex drives around women. Male violence against women in pornography shouldn’t be stopped because it is needed to prevent men from perpetrating crimes against women. Violence and misogyny depicted in pornography are just fantasy. By fetishizing misogyny, sexism, racism, ableism, sexual abuse/slavery as just play; it overcomes these issues in reality. Using historical or current oppressions as pornographic scene themes is simple, fun, entertainment. It’s a form of bigotry for historically oppressed groups to be offended by people imitating their oppression in pornography or as a sexual fetish. It’s more socially acceptable to make oppression into an erotic art in society than it is to fight against it. Parody or satire negates sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, etc. Oppressed groups who are offended by sexist, racist, homophobic & ableist, etc. jokes are humorless. Oppression and abuse are funny. Feminist women against the sex trade are just prudish about sex. It’s oppressive to women to be against the sexual objectification of women. Women who refuse to recreate porn acts with their partners are frigid prudes. Girlfriends and wives should accept their boyfriend or husband’s porn use or else they’re prudes and not open about sexuality. Women who are against media that depicts the degradation or hyper-sexualization of women are moralist prudes. Violence & pain during sex creates a greater bond between two lovers because it evolved naturally with sexual intercourse. The male desire for dominance isn’t something that can be controlled. Women secretly desire for men to be dominant and violent toward them. Dominant & submissive roles, along with some violence, are necessary for relationships to function. Punishing your partner and spanking them to relieve frustrations is healthy and acceptable if it’s done as a sexual fetish. Relationships that practice consensual violence, domination, and submission are superior to other relationships. There is more consent in BDSM relationships and sexual encounters. Creating a safe word other than ‘no’ doesn’t minimize the meaning of the word. Creating safewords other than the words ‘no’ or ‘stop’ is more consensual. Sexual dominance is masculine, and submissiveness is feminine. Equality and mutual respect during sex are too plain and boring. Sex is about getting instant gratification. Trauma can be healed through further humiliation & pain in power exchange relationships. Trauma bonding is part of gaining full trust, forgiveness, and agreement in a relationship. If a woman agrees to subordinate herself to a man, then it is empowering to her as a woman. One should embrace sexual feelings that might arise from their own past, or current, traumatic sexual abuse. Getting a sense of fulfillment from the desire to dominate and control others is a normal sexual desire that has nothing to do with abuse. Pornography hasn’t been used as patriarchal manuals by men. Pornography has no relation to prostitution. Pornography used to coerce or groom people into degrading sex acts or prostitution isn’t a big societal issue. Pornography has no big influence on culture or on people’s behavior and attitude toward women and girls. The women featured in porn choose it, so porn doesn’t perpetuate sexual objectification and degradation. The porn industry doesn’t promote pedophilia, child molestation, and child pornography by sexualizing teens and young women as virginal girls. There is no science to prove pornography influences people’s attitudes or behavior. There’s absolutely no science to back up the claim that pornography has an effect on men committing sex crimes. Pornography doesn’t reinforce or promote misogyny. Violent & degrading, sex and pornography are liberating & empowering for women. A woman can still be a feminist by participating in & promoting misogynistic, and dehumanizing depictions in pornography. It’s sex-negative and bigoted to be opposed to male pornographic fantasies of degrading, raping, torturing, or molesting women/girls, because it’s just fantasy. Women being roughed/beat up by a man who penetrates them for pornography is just a job. Being at risk for sexually transmitted diseases without required protection is just a part of the job. Calling women whores, sluts, bitches, cum dumpsters, etc. is sexy and okay in porn. Sex can be reduced to a transaction; not a mutually equal bond between people. Sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are not inevitable consequences of a growing globalized sex industry; they’re an inevitable result of the criminalization of the sex industry. The criminalization of prostitution is just like drug criminalization, leading to the exact same results. The sex trade commodifying female bodies doesn’t lead to sex trafficking. The sex industry has no relation or close relationship to organized crime. Prostitution isn’t the result of poverty and patriarchy. Men in power paying for sex with women on the side isn’t sexist; it’s receiving a service. Women are sexual objects to be used, bought, and sold for men’s amusement and sexual entitlement. Men’s sexual right to purchase women for sex is a part of women’s sexual liberation. Having sexual access to women is a need that must be provided for men. Paying for sex or access to another person’s body is a human right. Paying for sex or the bodies of prostitutes is always fully consensual. Money equals consent in prostitution. Privileged men with money isn’t a power dynamic in prostitution. Men paying to access women’s bodies isn’t about having power over women; women have the power of sexuality over men. Women selling their bodies to be penetrated by men is empowering and gives women more power in society. Equality means ignoring power relations between different groups of people. Feminists have no business critically analyzing or questioning women’s life decisions, even if they were made within a patriarchal cultural context. Coercion is a choice that women have some personal responsibility in. Women being influenced by beauty standards in the media is empowering and of assistance to them. Unreasonable beauty standards in the media shouldn’t be prevented, as it’s just a reflection of our human desire to idealize certain features. The beauty/modelling industry doesn’t significantly contribute to the sexual objectification or harm of women and girls. Women are meant to be of sexual service to men, and men are meant to be sexually served by women in society. It’s women and girls’ right to sell their sexuality to men in a capitalist, patriarchy, in order to make a living. Some women are more useful for the sexual use of their bodies, they shouldn’t be encouraged to strive to contribute any more than that in society. Women had agency in prostitution throughout history, even though there were highly patriarchal societies back then. Modern-day prostitution used to be considered a sacred part of the spiritual worship of womanhood in the ancient past. Soliciting people on the street for sex is just a business method used to get more customers & employees; never a form of sexual harassment. If a man cheats on his significant other to fulfill his desire for certain sex acts with younger, prostituted women; it should never be condemned, because you’d be condemning a man’s natural sexuality. Men believing they have a right to access female bodies that fit patriarchal beauty standards & what they see in porn, to do what they want with sexually, has nothing to do with male domination. Men’s right to buy access to women’s bodies must never be challenged, because you’d be condemning a man’s natural sexuality. Monogamy is a forced, oppressive, social institution; polygamy is natural so isn’t. Men believing they should be able to have multiple sexual/romantic relationships with women at one time because it’s their natural sexuality has nothing to do with patriarchal male entitlement/power. Pointing out the sexual objectification of women in the sex trade in a capitalist, patriarchy is whorephobic and leads to their deaths. Sexual objectification is empowering for women. Sexual objectification is a women’s right. Sexual objectification is natural to our sexuality. Women are meant to be sexually objectified. If women choose to sexually objectify themselves, then it’s empowering. Age of consent laws discriminates against both men and girl’s natural sexuality. Age of consent laws are oppressive and harmful to girls because it prevents them from having bodily autonomy. Pedophilia is a sexual orientation. Pedophilia should never be condemned as a sickness because you’d be discriminating against the pedophiles who haven’t molested kids. Pedophiles are more oppressed than homosexuals. Pedophiles are an oppressed group that faces unfair discrimination. Sex offenders are an oppressed group that faces unfair discrimination. Creep Shaming is discrimination against male sexuality. Animals can consent to sex with humans. If a man says he is a woman, females should be totally accepting and unquestioning of it, or else be labeled as a bigoted, paranoid conspiracy theorist. If a man says he is a feminist or working for the benefit of women; feminist women should be totally accepting/unquestioning of it, or else be labeled a bigoted, paranoid conspiracy theorist. Men who desire to go into a women’s spaces can never have any ill intentions, to think so is to be a bigoted, paranoid conspiracy theorist. Men aren’t desperate to find ways to perv on women or girls in private facilities. Peeping toms and recordings aren’t a big privacy/safety concern for women/girls. Women who fear sexual assault/harassment from men are paranoid & irrational. Female sexual assault victims who fear sex crimes from men accessing female private facilities are paranoid/irrational, & shouldn’t be listened to. Women who believe there are perverted men out there who wish to spy on women in private facilities are paranoid and irrational. Concerns around letting males in female spaces on the basis of self-declared gender identity are hysteria and have no basis in reality. There are no dangerous consequences to making changing/shower/bathrooms gender-neutral or allowing access to the rooms of the opposite sex only on the basis of self-declared gender identity. There have never been any attacks on women and girls from males identifying as women/girls in private facilities and to say so is transphobic. A man can totally understand & relate to what a woman’s lived experience is like living in a patriarchal society. If your feminism centers on women’s issues and doesn’t prioritize men’s feelings or issues, then it is extremist. If your feminism doesn’t accommodate men’s hurt feelings then you’re an extremist misandrist. Men are oppressed by misandry. Men are oppressed by patriarchy. If a woman says a man isn’t feminist because he’s causing harm to other women, she is an extremist misandrist. If a woman says men can’t be feminists because they are part of the oppressor sex class, she is a misandrist. Women born female gathering/organizing together is oppressive & should never be allowed. Women only spaces hurt and silence men. Women are not entitled to female-only protected spaces. There is something wrong with lesbians who refuse penis in their sex lives, they need to be corrected. Lesbians who refuse penis are transphobic. Lesbian women who refuse penis in their sex lives need to try it out or they’re bigoted. Women who have sexual feelings for the female sex, and don’t conform to gender standards, have male brains. Feminist women who center women, and only have relationships with other women, are vagina fetishists. Heterosexual males can be lesbians and know what having a lesbian sexuality is like. If transwomen activists threaten or act aggressively toward women it’s acceptable & justifiable, but when women do it to men it’s wrong. There is no reverse racism, but reverse sexism is called: Radical Feminism. TERF is not a slur, they’re a subgroup of women that deserve hatred, misogyny, death and rape threats. Women who acknowledge that women are oppressed on the basis of their sex are reducing women to vaginas. Women are privileged over men. Gender doesn’t oppress women, they’re privileged by it. Women are privileged by their subordinate gender status. Gender gives women and girls easier lives than men. Girls do not experience a significant difference in gender socialization as boys do. There is no significant gender socialization in culture, it’s biologically destined. There is no distinction between male and female lived realities. Females do not experience the same material realities based on their sex. Females as a sex class are not oppressed on the basis of their biological sex. Female biology is whatever a man says it is. Woman is whatever a man defines it as. Being a woman in this world is like whatever a man feels like it is. Being a woman is just a feeling. Woman is anything a man associates with femininity. Woman is a stereotypical gender expression; heels, dress, make up, & femininity. Societal gender norms are just as, if not more, oppressive to men than they are for women. If a male gravitates toward female gender stereotypes, then he is actually a woman, because no real man would ever do those things. Femininity is an empowering choice for women. Women who reject femininity are femmephobic. There’s something innate about feminine and masculine gender. Gender identity is innate and fixed. Gender must be affirmed in society, not abolished. Ending sexism means biological sex isn’t real. Men should be leading & dominating the feminist discourse in a women’s movement. If your feminism doesn’t please men or isn’t approved by men, then it’s bad and harmful. Men patronizing, policing, publicly humiliating, & silencing marginalized women is okay as long as you demonize them for their feminist sociopolitical views first. Men were the great heroes and go-getters of the past, who achieved great things; not the oppressors of women. Women weren’t that much more oppressed than men were in the past. Women’s oppression is equal to men’s. Women must treat their oppression as equal to men’s in their struggle to end their oppression. Equality with men should be the main goal of feminism to end oppression. Joining forces with men in a revolution is the only way women will end their oppression. Men can’t be blamed for their actions, culture is. Poor, disadvantaged, men were only victims who never dominated women in the past. Men do not have more power over women in society. Male violence isn’t the biggest problem in the world. Intersectionality means not focusing on male violence against women. Intersectionality means putting women’s issues behind other issues. Intersectionality means women have just as much power as white, heterosexual, men do in society. Intersectionality means women are not a political group with their own needs. Intersectionality means centering women in feminism is bigoted. Intersectionality is about putting more importance on solidarity with other oppressed groups than on women having solidarity with each other. White supremacy has no link to male supremacy. Racial minorities need to cooperate with the establishment to end systemic racism. The large sex trade in indigenous or racial minority women and girls has no link to white supremacist colonialism. Heteronormativity is feminist; it’s equality between men and women. Going along to get along with your oppressor is about equality, not submissiveness. Giving up independence to live with a man is an empowering choice for women. Women choosing submissive roles is feminist. Marriage isn’t a patriarchal institution, it’s about equality. Women who have been most affected by patriarchy in their lives don’t have more of a say about their oppression than men do. Women are not an oppressed sex class, whose goal should be that of collective liberation, it should be about individual empowerment. Ignoring male privilege & the lived experiences of oppressed women is treating them equally to men. If women want to be treated equally, then there is no reason to respect them as women. A man believing himself to be intellectually superior to women in politics and saying a woman hast nothing intelligent to say, is legitimate criticism and has nothing to do with sexism. Labeling women, crazy, isn’t sexist if you think they’re being illogical, and there are no historical sexist implications to that. Feminist words and ideas are more violent than actual violence. Radical feminism causes male violence and crimes against women, not the men who perpetrate them. Women perpetuate patriarchal violence. Women can be blamed for male violence. Materialism, consumerism, neoliberalism, and poverty aren’t the inevitable results of capitalism. A free market under capitalism creates freedom for all. Personal choice is of the utmost importance. Everything in our lives is the result of our own choices. If someone volunteers to do something, then it’s not exploitative or harmful. Wage labor, economic exploitation, and striving to become a part of the capitalist class are feminist goals. Women and racial minorities will become free through wage labor. Members of historically oppressed groups supporting & gaining levels in a capitalist system ends oppression. Equality and liberation can only be achieved through the top down. The West using military force in third-world countries are saving women and girls. Pointing out how the inferior status & control of women is enforced and maintained through religion is offensive, extremist, and anti-feminist. Conservatism in religion isn’t extremist, anti-theism is. Feminist women who are against religion just need to learn more about religion from religious groups/people. We must respect religious cultural traditions/values. We should always look at other cultural practices from a cultural/moral relativist perspective, not in the context of oppression. Female Genital Mutilation should be a respected cultural practice; it’s racist and colonialist to oppose it. An outright ban of Female Genital Mutilation is a form of cultural prejudice. Labiaplasty is a choice free from coerced patriarchal beauty expectations and has no relation to Female Genital Mutilation. Groupthink, and using a position of power to intimidate, and bully those you disagree with, are effective strategies that show your position is the correct one. As long as you aren’t sending rape and death threats it is okay to persecute some feminists for their beliefs. Working toward a truly equal and free society is overly idealistic and Utopian; only reformism in an oppressive system is the solution. Wanting a society or belief system that isn’t built around a superior/inferior hierarchical structure is extremist. Oppressed groups can reclaim the slurs used against them, even if they weren’t created by them in the first place. Men achieved and earned their privilege in society; women just need to compete more. Even if born males who claim to be transgender have a past of murdering, abusing, or raping females, they should still be respected as women, be allowed to change their identity, and be granted access to women’s safe spaces. Men saying they feel female, even if only sometimes, is enough for them to be considered women, and allowed in women’s safe and private spaces. If a man says he is a woman, gender fluid, or non-binary, that puts him in a group that is more oppressed than both women and racial minorities. White, heterosexual men who’ve experienced gender dysphoria are in a more oppressed group than women and racial minorities. Heterosexual males are a part of LGBT+. Heterosexual males are victims of homophobia. Males are victims of misogyny. Men who’ve experienced gender dysphoria suffer more than oppressed women. Patriarchal oppression, internalized misogyny, body image issues, enforced gender norms, or lesbian/bisexual interests are not causes for gender dysphoria in girls. Gender dysphoria means transgender; a gendered culture or other mental health issues shouldn’t be considered as contributing factors. Even if gender dysphoria is a delusion, it should be treated as if it’s real. Gender dysphoria in people can only be treated by encouraging the belief that they’re born in the wrong body, must go straight to transitioning, & undergo a sex change operation. Gender non-conforming children are transgender. Sterilizing and experimenting with hormone blockers on prepubescent children, who are told they’re born in the wrong body, is healthy. There are no moral issues with operating on children for a sex change, when many don’t realize they are homosexual until later on in life. Children that don’t fit into gender stereotypes associated with their sex, and like stereotypical things associated with the opposite sex, should be assumed to be internally the opposite gender. Claiming transgender status is not a way people are dealing with internalized homophobia in a heteronormative society with strict gender roles. Gender dysphoria isn’t a symptom of a gendered society showing gender is wrong; it shows gender is real and innate. Medical transition is healthy, not harmful. Pharmaceutical companies aren’t pathologizing gender non-conformity for profit. Sex-segregated spaces are exactly the same as the racist segregation of the past. Forcing schools to grant male teens access to the girls’ locker rooms if they say they’re transgender isn’t a violation of Title IX & complicit in sexual abuse. Gender-neutral bathrooms and changing rooms are about gender equality. Transwomen need safety from male violence, not females. Homosexual interests/behavior may be a sign of sexual inversion. The fetishization of violence against women must be respected as a sexual orientation, but not lesbianism; women loving the female sex. Women who recognize biology and sexual dimorphism are obsessed with genitalia. Women who want to protect female-only safe spaces from predatory men are bigoted. Women who don’t want violent males in their spaces believe women can’t be violent. Female violence is as much of a problem as male violence. Men being able to hit women is about gender equality. Men are not biologically, physically stronger than women. Male penetrative rape isn’t more physically harmful or any different from a woman sexually assaulting another woman. Male penetrative rape isn’t about patriarchal power. There is nothing potentially more harmful and dangerous about Penis in Vagina for females; to say so is to be discriminatory toward male sexuality. To say Penis in Vagina is a patriarchal sexual expectation women are forced into, is anti-male sexuality. Women who feel victimized and violated by revenge porn are ashamed of their bodies. Sharing nude photos without a woman’s consent wouldn’t be a problem if more women felt comfortable being naked around men. Real radical feminists adhere to male demands of what feminism should be like. It’s men’s job in feminism to weed out the women who say things they don’t like. Radical feminist women must be inclusive of men calling themselves women, even if they terrorize, stalk, and threaten them with anti-feminist tactics. Brain sex theory is science that proves gender exists. Transwomen are female. Saying men can’t be women is hate speech. Transracial is cultural appropriation, but transgender is legitimate. Feminists who reject gender are sexists who promote the gender binary. Feminists who believe gender is a social construct are promoting genocide. Using the wrong pronouns on a trans person is equivalent to systematic violence. Feminists who resent men are just broken, abused individuals, who have a warped view on life, and blame men for all their problems. Feminists who believe the sex industry and gender are harmful are responsible for male violence. The sex trafficking of girls and women to fulfill male sexual demands isn’t a big deal. Underage girls can choose to go into sex work. Men paying to have sex with underage girls isn’t sexual abuse; it’s receiving a service. Even if a woman started prostitution while underage, it’s still work, not sexual exploitation. Women’s bodies being violated, penetrated by penises, while having the highest risk for STDs, violence, rape, and death from men; isn’t different from any other job. Sex work should always be a voluntary option provided for women to get out of poverty. The problems in prostitution all stem from the stigmatization of selling sex, not from male power/entitlement/violence and the sexual objectification of females. The personal accounts of ex-prostituted women, who’ve joined prostitution abolition movements, shouldn’t be trusted, because they’re traumatized. Exited or current prostituted women who speak out against the sex industry are ideologues and liars. Exited or current prostituted women who see the sex industry as harmful, because of traumatic experiences, deserve hate and abuse. Ex-prostituted women working to abolish the sex trade in women/girls should be silenced for their oppressive views against prostituted women/girls. Ex-prostituted women who join abolition movements just had a negative experience, it shouldn’t reflect badly on the sex industry. Women who experience trauma from being prostituted are just not cut out for the job. Only those who like being prostituted should be listened to, the rest are lying for an anti-sex, man-hating, and radical feminist agenda. The sex industry has no relation to structural oppression whatsoever, it’s just sex. The West using wombs for rent from impoverished, women of color in the third world, for surrogates has no relation to exploitation, it’s all about choice. Poor women renting out their wombs to a wealthier couple has no relation to women’s economic oppression & exploitation of reproductive labor; it’s a consensual agreement. Women and racial minorities are the oppressors of themselves and of gender non-conforming men. Radical feminist women are oppressing women. Second wave feminists are outdated, bigoted, and shouldn’t be listened to. Older feminists aren’t as feminist as the new generation of third-wave feminism. Feminists who believe that feminism requires full devotion from women for it to be successful in liberating them are bad. Showing a commitment to radical feminist goals/concepts is ideological purity. It’s excusable to threaten, harass, track, stalk, and dox feminist women online if they don’t seem ‘progressive’ enough. Polygamy is a good arrangement because it keeps men sexually satisfied and women from turning to prostitution. There’s no such thing as sexism among gay men because they have been oppressed as much as women. Women of color should keep quiet about their abusive relationships because it makes men of color “look bad”. All-girl schools are bad for girls because by keeping them away from boys it doesn’t prepare them for “the real world”. You can’t choose two or more racial identities but you can identify as male and female. Women who critically examine the sex industry and sexuality are oppressive and comparable to Nazis. Women who say they’re oppressed because they’re biologically female are oppressive and comparable to Nazis. Women must be stopped from gathering in public spheres to discuss how their rights are being impacted by changes to definitions in policies and law. It is acceptable to threaten violence or be violent toward women labeled transphobic or TERF because their ideology is comparable to Nazis. Transwomen deserve sympathy no matter who they harm. Women/girls assaulted and harassed in safe spaces/refuges/prisons by men/boys identifying as women/girls, are just collateral damage in the effort to accommodate trans people. Young girls aren’t allowed to say they’re uncomfortable with male bodies around them in their private/safe spaces or establish boundaries with men/boys who identify as women/girls. Misgendering someone is a hate crime but not misogyny. It is okay to use authority to force people to accept others’ personal identity. Exit services for women/girls in the sex industry aren’t needed, more legal brothels are needed.

The solution here requires a lot of effort from the progressive movement to start critically examining the positions they are pushing and advocating for to see whether they are actually free from the strong influences of systemic oppression, or being influenced by, and helping to continue the institutions that perpetuate the subjugation of others. Then, to go onto working to dismantle these institutions.

You are welcome to leave any more examples that you can think of in the comments below… and I will keep adding to this list.