We all know how important it is to promote class consciousness. Often the problem is getting heard, especially beyond your own social circle. On most social media it's difficult to break through the noise if you don't already have a lot of clout.
Enter Yik Yak, a fully anonymous chatting app that is popular with college students (at least in the U.S.). There are no usernames and it's not possible to see an individual's posting/comment history, so there's no risk of doxxing or other negative attention. It's one of the few online spaces where I feel safe promoting radfem ideas.
The chat is restricted to users within a 5-mile radius, meaning there is a lot less noise that you need to cut through.
Most importantly, the audience assumes that every post or comment is coming from one of their peers, their immediate social community. If you are an old crone like I am (i.e., over 25 yrs old) then this is crucial to being heard. Opinions that these students would immediately dismiss when voiced by a "Karen" are considered seriously on YY.
My wife and I wade in to YY occasionally to offer comments that lift up and embolden young women and let them know they deserve better. We've made posts about how gross and dangerous sexual strangulation is, and how men need to stop watching porn. We drag men for their gross sexual entitlement and other male behavior, and post radfem talking points that otherwise would never come up.
I actually think this has started some productive conversations, or at least helps to normalize women knowing their worth and demanding better treatment. Some of our posts have received a surprising number of upvotes, which tells me there is definitely an appetite for feminist values.
If you live near a college campus consider making a YY account to spread some wholesome feminist content. If you do, plz report back to let me know how it goes!
Just letting you know I’m gen z and I’m definitely conscious of the issues that women face, the damage that gender ideology is doing to women and lgb people and our spaces being colonised.
When speaking to my female friends I slip in rad fem beliefs and it’s usually met with unanimous agreement, like sex work is the oldest form of oppression , women should have spaces to feel safe from men, prisons should be single sex , sex is immutable , gender is just stereotypes, porn is misogynistic and negatively affects women etc.
However if I say “rad fems or TERFs believe that ..” it will be met with ridicule and be brushed off as hateful. So they agree with the views it’s just the fear of being called hateful for saying what the TRAs don’t want to hear. The social costs of coming out as gender critical is hefty but I have noticed a shift of ppl questioning gender ideology online on reddit or YouTube. I think the reason why so many gen z vehemently denounce rad fem points is because we were told to, we are taught about gender ideology from a young age as being scientific and the newest modern medicine. Anyone who questions the new science of lady brains and man brains or sexed souls trapped in the wrong body or just changing sex are ✨bigots™️.✨
Growing up on Tumblr I saw things like “ If you like this you may be trans: ” and it’s all things like if you like blue , wearing men’s clothing , girls , played male characters as a child” etc . This led me to believe I may be trans at 14 , luckily I never went further than looking at binder prices before realising I can like all those things and still be a girl. Turns out I was just a GNC bisexual who liked to wear comfy clothes thank god I wasn’t medicalised for it but others weren’t so lucky. One thing that bothers me the most about this is that I don’t know women who identify as lesbians my age (men don’t count), I only know non binary and trans man identifying ones. No one in gen z seems to question why , the same with where have all the cross dressers / transvestites have gone ? Because I don’t think either have gone extinct.