In a recent HuffPost-article self-described radical feminist and lesbian Julie Bindel asked “Where’s the Politics in Sex?“ Let’s see… Where is it? Nowhere.

Politics is not about whom you sleep with, it’s about the way you view and affect the world around you. Feminism is not about condemning men, it’s about self-determination and creating equality and understanding between men and women (and I would even say all genders). Bindel is well known for her blatant biphobia, transphobia, and misandry, and in her latest diatribe against bisexual women she has once again made it clear that she thinks men are the enemy, and so are you, if you have sex with them. She says that “if bisexual women had an ounce of sexual politics, they would stop sleeping with men.” Well, I believe that if Ms. Bindel had an ounce of sexual politics, she would stop trying to mandate people and who they can or can’t sleep with. It makes her not a whit better than the religious zealots and machos who keep telling gay women they shouldn’t love women and just how much better The Dick would be for them; and she’s every bit as patronizing.

Disavowing men wholesale and scapegoating everybody who doesn’t adhere to your brand of politics does nothing to bring about the positive changes we need so badly. You can’t change a society in a positive way by creating division in people’s hearts and minds. It can only be done by sustained dialogue between all affected parties and a lot of education, and feminist men are of great help in these efforts. (Yes, feminist men exist. Imagine that.) Men are not the enemy, and neither are bisexuals. Every person who supports equality and freedom is an ally. People who adhere to dangerously closed-minded and chauvinist mentalities are the enemy. Desiring men or women, both, others or none does not make you better or worse than everyone else. It’s not political, it’s an expression of some of the many parts that make you who you are. Fighting male violence and then going home to a man are not mutually exclusive. The sex of the person you go home to is irrelevant. Important is what kind of person they are, and personally, I hold women and men to the same standards.

Bindel goes on to argue that distrusting bisexuals is the obvious and logical thing to do, as even some bisexual women distrust other bisexuals. That, dear Ms. Bindel, is called internalized biphobia, and it’s every bit as serious and damaging as internalized homophobia.  Demanding that one group of people should be able to live free of such internalized negativity but expect another to put up with it and sacrifice its dignity does not make you a heroic feminist. It makes you a hyprocrite.

We get yet another taste of her hypocrisy when she follows up by telling bisexual women they should choose lesbianism because she believes it to be a “liberatory act”. Denying who you are and stuffing part of yourself into some dark closet is supposed to be a “liberatory act”? Seriously? Lesbians have been fighting for such a long time to be able to freely be who they are without negative repercussions, but she thinks it’s perfectly fine to deny bisexual women that same basic right anyway. There is nothing liberating about fighting what you are. The most liberating act is the realization that whom you desire has nothing to do with how good a feminist or person you are.

Ultimately, we must arrive at a point where people won’t be judged by their biological makeup or who they have sex with, but by their character. While Ms. Bindel is busy hating every man and bisexual on the planet, I’m going to bask in the happiness and integrity that has come to me by accepting my fabulous bisexual self. I can even guarantee you — I haven’t hurt my feminism along the way. Partially thanks to people like Julie Bindel, arriving at this point has been a long and arduous process for me. I can wholeheartedly recommend the result though.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-bindel/where-is-the-politics-in-_b_1589435.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/30/women-gayrights

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