Iâve been seeing this post be circulated, as a part of the justified pushback to the sudden outpouring of support for radical feminism in the wake of new oppressive measures:
And while the text of it is, on the face of it, seemingly fine and correct (excepting the western obsession on foot binding), the fact itâs by Esperanza is, in a way, hilarious.
For those not in the know, Esperanza is a âproletarian feministâ, who supports AF3IRM, a ânordic modelâ anti-sexworker group, which works towards the criminalisation of the sex trade, under the guise of âprotecting womenâ from sex trafficking and the like - which mostly manifests in doxxing and harassing sex workers while assisting the NYPD.
Esperanza launders this to a communist audience by referencing the measures taken by historical socialist states against sex trafficking, either pretending to or genuinely not realising the difference between law enforcement under a socialist state and a bourgeois one - that increased presence of capitalist police only endangers sex workers, given that capitalist police are the oppressor, are the enemy of sex workers.
This is all rhetorically justified by constant reference to the global south, to some âpureâ, proletarian feminist movement free from the privileged, western decadence of transgender ideology and sex workers who want rights. The absurdity of supporting, say, Duterteâs death squads in policing sex work, to âprotect womenâ, is somehow lost.
To be platforming Esperanza as a counterweight to radical feminism is something of a joke. AF3IRM is a very openly transmisogynist org (the founder, speaking at a convention, saying âtheyâre proposing stuff like âfemale penis,â ⌠âNO! What is that?!ââ, to much applause), with Esperanza herself having repeatedly accused trans women of âfaking being transâ or mocking their âfailed transitionâ, and appearing on podcasts alongside open TERFs, declaring that gender critical ideas Have Some Good Points.
This ideology is one that refuses to acknowledge the struggle of sex workers as a workersâ rights struggle, one that pinkwashes the bourgeois police, and one that openly aligns with reactionaries. Esperanza, here, is not offering an alternative to bourgeois feminism, she is repackaging it, wrapped in orientalism and Maoist slogans.
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