Womanhood is under attack by radical feminists, but where do nationalists stand in the question of femininity and women’s role in society?
One of the many misconceptions that the left and liberals have of nationalists is that they are a collective of so-called misogynistic, woman-hating “incels” (short for involuntarily celibate) who are obsessed with the concept of complete male dominance over women in society and the subjugation of women to the role of “baby-making factories” to be kept at home, never to be allowed any sort of independence whatsoever. The sheer level of exaggeration in ill-founded beliefs such as these in the socio-political mainstream is not only absurdly high, but it is also very much commonplace among the political left and centre.
Anybody who has spent any decent amount of time among nationalist circles and engaging with them on the subject matter of women in society should be familiar with the fact that the concept of traditional womanhood is something which is deemed crucial in any nationalist community. If anything, the idea that women are somehow inferior to men and should only be used as so-called “baby-making factories” to be kept stuck at home as “trad housewives” very much goes against true nationalist thinking and attitudes towards the role of women in the ideal nationalist society.
The woman in any society is every bit as important as the man in society. Without the contribution of women, a truly conservative, traditionalist and nationalist community can never be possible. Throughout the ages of human history, women in everyday civilian life have indeed predominantly played a role as a housewife and as an ever-present member of the traditional nuclear family – a wife to a devoted husband and a mother to loving children.
However, it would be totally dishonest to claim that being a housewife is the ONLY role that a woman should play, and has played throughout history. Women have taken the roles of monarchs, politicians, soldiers, scientists, artists and even – albeit within the realms of mythology – as deities, all serving as examples of what genuinely strong, independent and powerful women look like – examples that every woman can look at and be inspired by.
What is Feminine Beauty?
Even men can find much inspiration from the many great deeds and achievements undertaken and accomplished by countless women throughout the ages. The very nature and concept of feminine beauty – both physical and mental – is something that should be viewed as an example of both strong physical and mental health. That said, even women who may feel that they do not “fit in” with modern society’s expectations of “feminine beauty” will find that within nationalist thinking and philosophy, feminine beauty and womanhood do NOT mean that you must always resemble the stereotypical blonde-haired, blue-eyed and pale-skinned women that you may have seen in various romanticist paintings or pro-family posters throughout the decades.
Feminine beauty and womanhood are concepts which are so much more meaningful than just simply focusing on outward appearance. Any woman can dye their hair, get coloured contact lenses, tan their skin, etc. The same factors can apply to men – any man can go to the gym to get fit, change their hair and beard styles, wear different types of clothes, etc. It is not about what you look like physically on the outside, but rather what you can bring to society through your knowledge, your values, and your personal actions. Outward appearance is often the physical “manifestation” and expression of what your personality and values are like.
It is no coincidence that society views the stereotypical nationalist woman as blonde-haired, blue-eyed and pale-skinned. Yes, such an image has largely come about as a result of pro-family posters put up by nationalists throughout Europe and the wider Western world in the early 20th century, but even as far back as ancient times, we see in both art and literature examples of what every culture’s image of the “ideal woman” looks like and how she behaves, in accordance with the respective societal values of the time.
Likewise, it is no coincidence that the stereotypical image of a woman adhering to the radical left (lesser so the centre) is one bearing multicoloured dyed hair, wearing ragged and dirty hand-me-down clothing and engaging in debauched activities, such as drug use, promiscuous sexual activity and creating bizarre examples of so-called contemporary art. It is the latter example of women that we will look at in this article, for it is women such as these who are taking ever more radical steps in their campaign to “smash the patriarchy” and destroy the most basic and traditional concepts of womanhood.
As there are numerous examples in these opening years of the 2020s of what radical feminists have done in order to further their ambitions, in the interest of time, we will take a look at two of the most outlandish – yet true – accounts of radical feminist activities in the past couple of months – activities which have made the most intimate parts of a woman’s body their main rallying symbol. For decades, this part of a woman’s body has been a symbol for radical feminists in many of their campaigns to damage the traditional concept of womanhood, but in the 21st century, it has gained even wider popularity among feminist activists…and to truly disturbing outcomes.
The Tale of the Uterus-Shaped Cereal
No, you did not read that sub-heading wrong. Feminine hygiene company Intimina, based in Stockholm, Sweden, has recently unveiled its own brand of breakfast cereal, called Period Crunch. The cereal has been deliberately designed to look like the entire female reproductive organ, and to make matters even more disturbing, the cereal has been dyed the colour red, in order to represent period blood. If you are curious about what the cereal tastes like – although it is doubtful that most people reading this would even be wondering about such a thing – it is raspberry-flavoured. The cereal box itself also features a diagram of the female reproductive organ for “educational purposes”, with the target audience for such a diagram intended to be children.
According to Intimina, the cereal was created in order to promote a more open attitude among families towards the idea of talking about periods, which is indeed still a topic of conversation that most people do not have very much interest in discussing so openly – let alone over breakfast when people are trying to eat and drink. This highly provocative campaign follows a survey conducted by Intimina which revealed that out of approximately 2,000 girls and women surveyed, 48% of them were reportedly too shy or afraid of openly talking about their periods with their family and friends. It is yet to be seen how effective this bizarre breakfast cereal campaign is in encouraging more girls and women to be more open in discussing their monthly intimate bleeding, but if you are still wondering whether this cereal is indeed real or not, on the plus side, Period Crunch is simply a PR stunt and will not be put on shelves for sale in the near future. On the downside, however, the cereal is indeed still real, and you can simply contact Intimina to request a box of Period Crunch for delivery to your door… if you really want to.
Another factor that inspired Intimina to produce Period Crunch was the recent proposition by the Spanish Government to offer all women fully paid and unlimited leave during their monthly periods. According to Intimina’s Danela Zagar:
Periods are normal and talking about periods should be normal…But because of the ongoing stigma around menstruation, period conversations remain difficult and embarrassing for people, even with loved ones…There’s no more normal and everyday a scene than the whole household sitting down together at the kitchen table and talking over a meal…And if period conversations were truly normalised, then they wouldn’t be off this table – or off any table, for that matter.
The Tale of Two Women & Vagina Festival
No, you didn’t read that sub-heading wrong either. A festival created for the purpose of giving women a place to speak openly about their personal experiences with the most intimate parts of their bodies, the second annual Vagina Festival took place in London, the UK on the 25th of May. The first one was a digital event held via Zoom in March 2021 during a COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. Allegedly, over 450 people were in attendance at the Zoom meeting. One silver lining to the event was that it had reportedly raised over £2,400 for the Eve Appeal, which is a charity dedicated to researching medical treatments for gynaecological cancer. Vagina Festival was founded by writer Ellamae Fullalove and spoken-word poet Emilie Epperlein – also known by her stage name as My Hairy Vulva & Me. We can all see where this is going.
Epperlein’s story is especially telling of her rationale for co-founding Vagina Festival. In an interview with LGBT news outlet PinkNews, Epperlein stated that she grew up in a strict, religious household where an open conversation about the body was strongly discouraged. During her postgraduate studies in Psychology at the University of East London (she attained a degree in German Language & Literature at the University College London), in what can only be described as an act of youth rebellion, Epperlein wrote her dissertation on vulva aesthetics, for the sake of “shaking things up”. Allegedly, the core hypothesis of the dissertation was that serious physical and psychological damage can be done to a woman if they have a “damaging relationship with her vulva”. Unsurprisingly, despite being a published work, Epperlein’s thesis did not garner the popularity that she had expected. In her own words:
I published this paper and I thought, “Wow! I’ve done such a great job for feminist kind! I can sit back and relax!…Then a few months went by and I realised that people weren’t reading it. And that’s for a number of reasons – it was behind a paywall; it was written in this thick, scientific language…It’s meant to be a barrier. It’s meant to be complicated…I really wanted to be able to communicate my message that presenting vulva diversity in the world is really important.
Being unable to effectively deliver her message via academia, Epperlein has since resorted to the world of spoken-word poetry in an attempt to get her message across, however vague – if extremely sexualised – it is. Her co-founding of the Vagina Festival is but a more dramatic step in her radical feminist activism.
In contrast, Ellamae Fullalove’s story of her co-founding of the Vagina Festival is rather more tragic. Born with a condition called MRKH Syndrome, Fullalove does not have proper biological female reproductive organs. Because of her understandably difficult biological situation, Fullalove began her path towards radical feminism at the age of 16, following an official medical diagnosis of her condition. She was also revealed to be infertile and unable to bear children.
This immediately tells us that Fullalove, as opposed to the sexual rebelliousness of Emilie Epperline, has a much more personal and deeper psychological rationale in her radical feminist activism. It is an indication that although radical feminists who use sexuality as their main symbol of activism are morally and ethically destructive in the things that they espouse in society, their respective “origin stories” can tell us a lot not only about why they believe the things that they believe but also what society should look out for in such girls at a younger age who may be at risk of potentially going down the same path of destructive radical feminism in their own futures.
Some radical feminist origin stories are more tragic than others and can even give traditionalists and nationalists valuable insight into how to tackle such issues at a deeper level, ultimately – and hopefully – leading to scenarios in which such women could even begin to abandon radical feminism and gradually turn to more traditionalist ways of thinking and behaving, for the benefit of both themselves and their respective communities – an eventual return to true womanhood.
