Hi! Your blog is practically the first place where I’ve began to read about anarchism, thanks for the introduction! I’m wondering, how much do/can feminism and anarchism coexist or do they clash? This might be a really beginner question, but I think it would help me to draw some kind of a roadmap from ideologies that I am more familiar with to anarchism. Much appreciated, thank you!

Hi! I’m glad you like my Tumblr. 🙂 Here’s my two cents:

Anarchism at its core strives for non-hierarchical and non-coercive communities and aims to dismantle all forms of oppression to get there, so I’d say feminism should always be a vital part of anarchism. And for many anarchists it is.

When an anarchist commits a lot of their energy to the feminist part of anarchism, they’d usually call themselves an
anarcha-feminist. Anarcha-feminism acts on the basis that all forms of oppression are interconnected. The existence of the patriarchy and gender roles helps sustain things like capitalism and racism, while capitalism and racism in turn sustain the patriarchy and gender roles. There are many great texts on anarcha-feminism, for example in the Anarchist Library

• https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/topic/feminism
• https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/topic/feminist 
• https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/topic/anarcha-feminism

But to start simple, the wikipedia text isn’t bad either: 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcha-feminism

Anarcha-feminism is a big movement within anarchism and during its
history many anarchists have been very vocal feminists. Most anarchists
I’ve met consider anarcha-feminism a vital part of anarchism though they don’t all commit the same amount of energy to it.

It’s not always sunshine and rainbows though. You’re likely to encounter two conflicts:

1. Sexist anarchists definitely exist and a significant part of anarcha-feminism consists of dealing with sexism in anarchist spaces. Quite a few male anarchists don’t want to do the work to face and unlearn their own harmful behaviors and will accuse you of ‘liberal identity politics’ and all sort of other nonsense if you address their sexism. These men are often referred to as ‘manarchists’. It’s not a compliment. If you’re tired of reading after the first few sources, check out the manarchist song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCphXVo6Dcc. Some anarchists (mostly manarchists) oppose putting any effort into anarcha-feminism based on the claim that once capitalism and the state have been dismantled, sexism will just automatically disappear. These same anarchists will usually also roll their eyes if you spend time fighting racism, homophobia, etc.

2. Anarcha-feminists also clash with feminists from other political movements, especially those who support capitalism like liberal feminists. You see, the aim of liberal feminists is to create a fair and equal place for women within the current capitalist society, without fundamentally changing any other part of that society. So a liberal feminist will want more female CEOs, equal pay for female celebrities who already make millions, a female president. An anarcha-feminist doesn’t want ANY CEOs, millionairs of presidents, and thus has no interest in giving women an equal part in the oppression game. Anarcha-feminists believe that since capitalism requires exploitation to function, feminist must always be anti-capitalist. Otherwise it is just
pink-ribboned

windowdressing on the continued exploitation of millions of women.

So you’ll see
anarcha-feminist

clash with manarchists and you’ll see
anarcha-feminist

clash with

liberal feminists.

But in the end, anarchism and feminism are interlinked because neither is worth much without the other. Anarchism must be feminist to reach its core goals of
non-hierarchical and non-coercive community. Feminism must be anti-capitalist to be of any use at all.