Facing our Fear: Transgenderism vs Radical Feminism – interview with Meghan Murphy, May 2012
MM: What is your perspective on transgenderism? SJ: I understand transgenderism to be a diagnosis of the medical profession constructed in the late 20th century … it seems to have come from work that was being done by sexologists in the mid 20th century when the sexological profession – endocrinologists and so on – invented […]
Eugenics and the practice of transgendering children – November 2011
“The practice of eugenics is returning to contemporary Australia in the treatment of transgendered children. With the cooperation of the Family Court, children as young as ten are being put on puberty delaying drugs after being diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” or “gender dysphoria”. There is the expectation that they will be moved onto cross-sex hormones at […]
Where have all the radicals gone? When feminism gets moderate – April 2011
In a world where feminism as a whole is often touted as a bad word, radical feminism in particular is marginalized, not only by the mainstream media, but often within third-wave feminist discourse. Are we afraid to be ‘too’ radical at the risk of alienating the masses? Or is radical feminism simply misunderstood? This radio […]
Sheila Jeffreys on Kate Millet – March 2009
Contributing to the Key Thinkers seminar series at the University of Melbourne, radical feminist scholar Sheila Jeffreys talks about the influence of Kate Millett on feminism. Watch the video on YouTube here.
Marriage is a form of prostitution – November 2008
The feminist author Sheila Jeffreys has never shied away from controversy. Now, with The Industrial Vagina, she takes on the global sex trade. Julie Bindel meets her. It was in the early 1990s, when the British feminist Sheila Jeffreys migrated to Australia, that she realised just how huge the global sex industry had become. Prostitution […]
Sheila Jeffreys: Beauty Practices and Misogyny – April 2006
Sheila Jeffreys speaks on beauty practices and misogyny This speech was given by Sheila Jeffreys at the Andrea Dworkin Commemorative Conference, April 7, 2006. This original transcript was prepared by another radical feminist (blog now defunct). Hello everybody, it’s terrific to be here, and to be invited to be here, for this Commemoration of Andrea Dworkin, because of […]
The Ugly Side of Beauty – July 2005
Breast implants for 18-year-olds? Hymen reconstructions? Rape-themed fashion collections? Don’t tell Sheila Jeffreys these are signs of female liberation. The radical feminist talks to Julie Bindel Jeffreys, a revolutionary lesbian feminist, is pursuing her 30-odd-year mission to shift women out of their collective complacency. Beauty And Misogyny is her sixth book. Like the others, its […]
Queer theory and violence against women – March 2004
“I want to talk about how queer and ‘postmodern’ theory has affected the ability of feminists and lesbians to organise against, or even to recognise violence against women. In queer and postmodern theory, based on liberal individualism, important forms of violence are renamed ‘transgression’, ‘choice’ or ‘agency’. I shall concentrate on 3 forms of violence here, men’s prostitution […]
Why has the Big O seduced so many feminists? May 1996
“The November/December 1995 issue of Ms., cover-lined HOT UNSCRIPTED SEX, showed a close-up of an African American woman licking her lipsticked lips. Despite all the feminist work that has been done in the last quarter-century to critique and challenge the male-supremacist construction of sex, none of the four articles inside made connections to the whole […]
Interview on Irish TV “Kenny Live” in 1990
Interview with Sheila Jeffreys on “Kenny Live”, an Irish TV show, in 1990, following publication of her book “Anticlimax”. Watch the interview on YouTube here.