Feminists in Struggle

By Ann E. Menasche.

This piece is the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Feminists in Struggle as an organization.

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal, as revealed in the Epstein files, provides all that we need to know about the men (and a few women) at the highest echelons of wealth and power and their support of, or at best indifference to, the ubiquitous sexual exploitation of women and girls.  In their eyes, women and girls are merely sexual objects, property to be bought and sold, used and abused by men.  Women are not recognized as full human beings.

Clearly, Epstein himself was both a misogynist and a sociopath – a sex trafficker and serial child molester, raping and torturing underaged girls, delivering them as prey to the powerful men he flew on the “Lolita Express” and “serviced” on his islands.  He was a pathological liar (he even lied about obtaining a college degree). a thief, a crook, who raised his millions through dishonesty and complete lack of a conscience.  He was also a eugenicist and trans-humanist, enamored with the fantasy of creating a super-race from his own sperm; and a close collaborator with the reactionary leadership of the Israeli state, whose dehumanizing of Palestinians and myriad crimes against humanity are re-known (none of which have made Jews one iota safer).

The scandal is also a mirror into the souls of the men who run our society – the Banksters, war profiteers, imperialists, real estate speculators, owners of the fossil fuel industry, Big Pharma, the health insurance industry, corporate politicians and others of or beholden to the billionaire class who cavorted with Epstein and embraced him as one of their own.  It is not a pretty sight.

The Epstein files have also exposed men on the Left including well-known intellectuals and anti-imperialists like Noam Chomsky who associated with, and defended Epstein.  This continued even after Epstein was convicted of child abuse, thereby revealing Chomsky’s own sexism, hypocrisy, and moral bankruptcy.

The refusal of so many men on the Left to recognize women as fellow humans deserving of full rights or to see us at all, has not only led to defending sex traffickers like Epstein, and to supporting institutions that degrade and exploit women’s bodies such as prostitution, pornography, and commercial surrogacy.  It has also led to the wholesale embrace by the male dominated Left of gender identity ideology that deems women’s rights expendable and subordinated to males who claim to be women, thereby rendering us invisible or reduced to our body parts or lack thereof (“uterus-bearers”, “non-men”).

Patriarchy and capitalism are joined at the hip; one cannot be uprooted without the other.  Men who purport to be on the Left need to figure out whose side they are on, i.e., whether their identification with male power and privilege is greater than their commitment to securing a peaceful, just and sustainable world for the women and ultimately for all the people of this planet.

By Al Addesso

(This post is the opinion of the author and not an official statement of Feminists In Struggle as an organization.  However, many of our active members share these sentiments and are similarly appalled by Renee’s murder at the hands of ICE agents. )

Renee Good was a mother, writer, former chorus singer, lesbian, wife and American citizen. But she will be forever remembered for her murder that was recorded and viewed by millions on the internet.

On January 7, 2026 Good blocked ICE agents in the middle of the street with her SUV in an effort to stop their terrorizing of her Minneapolis neighborhood, even though she had only lived in the city for a year.

“..we stopped to support our neighbors,” said her wife Becca Good. “We had whistles. They had guns.”

The ICE agents surrounded her car while her wife stood in the street.

As she began to reverse and turn to get away from them, one officer who was lightly tapped by Good’s vehicle shot her at point blank range. In the audio of the video Jonathon Ross, the agent that shot Good, can be heard saying “fucking bitch” after shots are fired, the same slur that most women hear before they are murdered by males.

Renee Good’s death was a femicide committed by an agent of the State.

Good was the widow of a military veteran and was also murdered by a military veteran. Ross served in the Iraq War and had worked for ICE since 2016. Ross was dragged 50 yards by a vehicle 6 months earlier after he bashed in a car’s window and unlocked the door while trying to detain someone.

               The State sanctioned murder of Renee Good spotlights not just the fascist terror of the current US administration and militarized aggression being used against US residents, but also the patriarchal system and blatant woman hate that undergirds it. Ross gets the thoughts and prayers of the federal government and those that support it. Good, as women often do, gets blamed for her own murder.

Feminists In Struggle has signed onto  a statement protesting this horrific UK experiment on the bodies of healthy children, most of whom, if left alone, would likely grow up to be gay or lesbian.

Our FIST member, Shannon, who also runs the Hear She! Hear She! list, has issued this powerful statement about why this experiment must be stopped:

The UK Destruction of Children Continues with Wes Streeting’s Puberty Blocker Medical Trial.  They are experimenting on  LIVE HEALTHY CHILDREN. Not guinea pigs, rabbits, or even just the decency of reviewing existing data. Children as young as 9, as old as 15, 220 children will be burdened for life from UK’s new 2 year medical trial set to ask the all important transgender question: Does medicalization make you feel good or bad? There is only ONE correct answer.

The cult is strong. The burden of global peer pressure on said children being set up to “save” all transgender children of the world leaves only one correct answer. No scientific methods needed for trans global capture! Sterilized? Oh well. Disabled? So sorry. Brain damage? Small price. Suffering as patients for life, is part of the trans joy afterall (see trans-tiktok). STOMA bags are sold as the ultimate freedom. Surgeries (100% failure rate) also introduce infections, necrosis, sepsis, opioid use.

Dr. Cass supports this trial stating, “At least children won’t have to get the drugs from the dark web.” Do we do this with heroin? Crack? ANYTHING? If it’s not legal, it is criminal. How could a child stand against such global pressure and check off “NO” at the end of this trial? Could a child have stood up to the Spanish Inquisition? Is BIID next? The removal of arms is illegal, but female organs are now disposable. One “trans care” surgeon calls the hysterectomy surgery “jack-o-lanterning.” No misogyny there. No elective body parts. ONE BODY. NO child is born in the wrong body. Would we tell this to disabled children?

We have the DATA, rendering this trial as unnecessary. The white lab coat effect and powerful, profiting industry and lobbyists have allowed this latest medical atrocity to play out on our youngest girls, who are always vulnerable, especially during prepubescence. But the money! $1 million per female by the age of 21 put through the medical system. The T industry won’t give it up easily. Why do NHS social medical systems AND the US “for-profit” system both agree on trans medicalization? Money.

PUBERTY IS NOT PATHOLOGY. Puberty is a human right. Ratified by 196 countries, the UN convention on the Rights of the Child upheld to “ensure the right to development and freedom from abuses”…including from a doctor. We are not Peter Pan. After the lovebombing of the all-curing snake oil of false “gender-affirming care” (sold by doctors and preschool teachers alike), the data demonstrates use of puberty blockers lead 98% to continue onto cross sex hormones and many have irreversible surgeries. Suffering broken bodies, chronic pain, brain fog, decreased IQ, prolapsed uteruses, osteoporosis, cut clitoris nerves, anorgasmia, even heart attacks in their 20’s! Dr. Malone of SEGM states, “it is me who has to tell the 29 yo woman who suffered a heart attack to stop the hormones. The gender clinic from 15 years ago doesn’t do it, I have to.”

NO evidence exists that support these interventions. This is modern Skoptsy cult, and as brutal as the thalidomide and lobotomy horrors. Our children deserve protection. Shame on us. Selling false promises. For example, many children have “a strong desire” (this is the decisive measurement (?) to justify child mutilation for this trial) to fly, but we don’t surgically attach wings and throw them out the window telling them emphatically, we are adults, we know you can fly! Who are we to say they shouldn’t try? Facts must matter.

As the fact of “woman” was erased, so now is “child.” “Mature minor” and the atrocious “Gillick competence test” makes a child as young as 12, an adult. We know “consent” is its next use. Children can consent to dismemberment, why not sex? What types of men love the idea of a child’s body of legal age?

“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. – Confucius

Trans suicides are a lie, used to push T medicalization. Parental hatred is another falsity. The Skirmetti Supreme Court case forced T pusher/lawyer Chase Strangio (f) (funded in perpetuity by HRC to ACLU) to admit in court that transgender suicides are nil. Suicides DO happen AFTERWARDS, when the lovebombing of the T cult fades, when broken promises remain with broken bodies, chronic pain, no family, sunken costs, and a cult that will destroy them if they “detransition.” Facts must matter.

Women are always the barrier for the child, their only protection. FGM, misogyny, mastectomies, deadnaming, family alienation, glitter families, no outside information, no debate, men in women’s prison cells/shelters/sports/bathrooms, kidnapping, billionaire T pushers/lobbyists, shunned or worse if detransition ..literal pound of flesh -stunted bodies, minds, IQ’s.. all CULT based.

Politically, trans ideology TAKES rights. T is destroying many countries’ next generation, compelling speech, voiding laws and constitutional rights..The T is a boon for any enemy. We must give NO QUARTER. Puberty creates victors, not victims! Stand against forcing every child to “choose” between a “cis” or a “trans” puberty.

Trans industries need us to accept biology and body parts as “optional” in order to socially engineer society for transhumanism. It is here. The new “conversion therapy bans” actually legally force medicalization! Trans IS medical conversion! The Trans cult spreads by social contagion AND powerful trans pushers. Foster care children are used as trans guinea pigs!

Tavistock data, and many others data already exist showing harmful irreversible outcomes. Thus far, when children are left alone, PUBERTY literally cures the so-called “gender dysphoria/dysmorphia. This WES STREETING medical mutilation of children “TRIAL” cannot know which child would be cured naturally, and which will not. This moment calls to us to have courage, so we can answer the question, “where were you when the global child dismemberments were happening?”

NOT one more child. We must NOT obey. Women always protected the children. Fists up!

Please SIGN: https://protectingpuberty.com/#sign-statement Protecting Puberty – Memorandum of Understanding LET your legislators know too! # PUBERTYISNOTPATHOLOGY

Thank you sisters of FIST, for standing up for children.

In Solidarity, Shannon

Hear SHE! Hear SHE! Join us! 1 anonymous action email/week: hearshehearshe@gmail.com .

Sisters,

We in FIST have had an amazing year.  We have continued our highly successful program of feminist forums on zoom.  We took stands on important issues like opposing so-called “gender affirming care” that does permanent physical harm to gender non-conforming children and youth, mostly future lesbians and gays.  We supported the duly ratified Equal Rights Amendment which we women need desperately to give us the tool we need to achieve equal rights under the law everywhere in this nation.

We signed onto two amicus briefs for recognition of the ERA ; one, the case of Equal Means Equal v. Donald Trump, which will be heard in Federal Court this coming March.  The second, Putnam v. Putnam, is a North Carolina case challenging sex discrimination in application of the child welfare standard for custody.

We did all this while growing our grassroots membership-run multi-issue radical feminist organization.

Our 2026, feminist forum series should start off with a bang.  We will be hosting Karla Mantilla on February 7, 2026 to lead a discussion on “What Happened to Women’s Studies”,  the erosion of feminist-oriented women’s studies programs at universities by misogynist ideologies like “gender identity” and “queer theory.”  Tickets are on-sale now. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-happened-to-womens-studies-tickets-1979025432342?aff=oddtdtcreator

For International Women’s Day, we will be hosting an organization advocating for women refugees and mothers who are escaping domestic violence. In addition, we have plans for a forum to help launch the lesbian-feminist anthology, “I Wish I Were A Lesbian” that will be published later this year by Spinefex Press. Stay tuned!

In a time of darkness, we the women, hand-in-hand, struggling for our liberation are the light!

PLEASE JOIN US BY BECOMING A MEMBER!  SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL!

By Ann Menasche

This opinion piece is that of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Feminists In Struggle as an organization.

Working as I do representing people who lack regular homes, many of them sheltering in RVs or other vehicles, I have noticed a demographic change in this population.  When in the past unhoused people were mostly men, and mostly people with disabilities and retirees on fixed incomes that were not enough to live on, or people whose drug and alcohol addiction precipitated their homelessness, nowadays the population is more and more female, with many holding down jobs, sometimes more than one.   They are often single and divorced women, women who more often than not are escaping domestic violence from male partners, some without children, others with young children and still others grandmothers.  They are native-born women who have to fear police drowning them in tickets they cannot afford to pay, impounding their vehicles and criminalizing them as they attempt to stay safe and build an independent life away from their abusers; and immigrant women, who are terrified of ICE raids and deportations on top of everything else.   The women are even sometimes working professionals.  A medical doctor that I know moved into her RV after her divorce but unlike most of my clients, can afford to pay for an RV park in the city.  She just can’t afford the $3,000 to $4,000 per month cost of renting an apartment in San Diego.  I know women lawyers who came darn close to being on the streets.

Rather than their homelessness being a “choice” or a “lifestyle”, these women are the victims of factors beyond their control – the skyrocketing cost of housing that has left half the population of San Diego struggling to pay the rent – one illness, one layoff, or one rent raise away from homelessness; and abysmally low female wages. Even women in the professions still make less than their male counterparts.

The average women makes 81.5% of what men make when compared to men with similar demographic characteristics, family situations, work hours and experiences. This discrepancy is worse for women of color. Wage inequality begins early and worsens over time. Lower pay means women in their senior years have lower pensions and Social Security payments.

Decades after the passage of the Lily Ledbetter Act, and we are still being denied equal pay for equal work.  The recognition of the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the Constitution and stronger equal pay laws are needed, which, given the segregation of the workforce itself,  should also include equal pay for work of comparable value.  Why should a school teacher or social worker, female dominated professions that require advanced education, get less pay than an engineer?

When we think about the poor this holiday season, let’s keep the female face of poverty uppermost in our minds.  And if we want to put a dent on homelessness, paying women fairly would be a start.

Happy holidays, sisters!