檳榔嶼

- Feminists are made, not born. Like all political positions one becomes a believer in feminist politics through choice and action.
- Males benefited from sexism more than females and were as a consequence less likely to want to surrender patriarchal privilege.
- Before women could change patriarchy we had to change ourselves; we had to raise our consciousness.
  - Revolutionary feminist consciousness-raising emphasized the importance of learning about patriarchy as a system of domination, how it became institutionalized and how it is perpetuated and maintained.
  - Understanding the way male domination and sexism was expressed in everyday life created awareness in women of the ways we were victimized, exploited, and, in worse case scenarios, oppressed.
- Importantly, communication and dialogue was a central agenda at the consciousness-raising sessions. Women took turns speaking to make sure everyone would be heard.
- Women with revolutionary feminist consciousness, many of them lesbian and from working-class backgrounds, often lost visibility as the movement received mainstream attention.
  - Once the women's studies classroom replaced the consciousness-raising group as the primary site for the transmission of feminist thinking and strategies for social change the movement lost its mass-based potential.
- Suddenly more and more women began to either call themselves "feminists" or use the rhetoric of gender discrimination to change their economic status.
- The dismantling of consciousness-raising groups all but erased the notion that one had to learn about feminism and make an informed choice about embracing feminist politics to become a feminist advocate.
  - Without the consciousness-raising group as a site where women confronted their own sexism towards other women, the direction of feminist movement could shift to a focus on equality in the workforce and confronting male domination.
  - Without confronting internalized sexism women who picked up the feminist banner often betrayed the cause in their interactions with other women.
- When feminist movement renews itself, reinforcing again and again the strategies that will enable a mass movement to end sexism and sexist exploitation and oppression for everyone, consciousness-raising will once again attain its original importance.
  - take place in communities, offering the message of feminist thinking to everyone irrespective of class, race, or gender.
- Males of all ages need settings where their resistance to sexism is affirmed and valued. Without males as allies in struggle feminist movement will not progress.
  - Feminism is anti-sexism, not anti-male. A male who has divested of male privilege, who has embraced feminist politics, is a worthy comrade in struggle, in no way a threat to feminism, whereas a female who remains wedded to sexist thinking and behavior infiltrating feminist movement is a dangerous threat.
- Significantly, the most powerful intervention made by consciousness-raising groups was the demand that all females confront their internalized sexism, their allegiance to patriarchal thinking and action, and their commitment to feminist conversion.
- As long as females take up the banner of feminist politics without addressing and transforming their own sexism, ultimately the movement will be undermined.