title: Heliocentrism

text: Tycho appreciated the Copernican system, but objected to the idea of a moving Earth on the basis of physics, astronomy, and religion. The Aristotelian physics of the time (modern Newtonian physics was still a century away) offered no physical explanation for the motion of a massive body like Earth, whereas it could easily explain the motion of heavenly bodies by postulating that they were made of a different sort substance called aether that moved naturally. So Tycho said that the Copernican system "... expertly and completely circumvents all that is superfluous or discordant in the system of Ptolemy. On no point does it offend the principle of mathematics. Yet it ascribes to the Earth, that hulking, lazy body, unfit for motion, a motion as quick as that of the aethereal torches, and a triple motion at that." Likewise, Tycho took issue with the vast distances to the stars that Aristarchus and Copernicus had assumed in order to explain the lack of any visible parallax. Tycho had measured the apparent sizes of stars (now known to be illusory), and used geometry to calculate that in order to both have those apparent sizes and be as far away as heliocentrism required, stars would have to be huge (much larger than the sun; the size of Earth's orbit or larger). Regarding this Tycho wrote, "Deduce these things geometrically if you like, and you will see how many absurdities (not to mention others) accompany this assumption [of the motion of the earth] by inference." He also cited the Copernican system's "opposition to the authority of Sacred Scripture in more than one place" as a reason why one might wish to reject it, and observed that his own geo-heliocentric alternative "offended neither the principles of physics nor Holy Scripture".


title: Heliocentrism

text: The Jesuit astronomers in Rome were at first unreceptive to Tycho's system; the most prominent, Clavius, commented that Tycho was "confusing all of astronomy, because he wants to have Mars lower than the Sun." However, after the advent of the telescope showed problems with some geocentric models (by demonstrating that Venus circles the Sun, for example), the Tychonic system and variations on that system became popular among geocentrists, and the Jesuit astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli would continue Tycho's use of physics, stellar astronomy (now with a telescope), and religion to argue against heliocentrism and for Tycho's system well into the seventeenth century.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Giordano Bruno (d. 1600) is the only known person to defend Copernicus's heliocentrism in his time. Using measurements made at Tycho's observatory, Johannes Kepler developed his laws of planetary motion between 1609 and 1619. In "Astronomia nova" (1609), Kepler made a diagram of the movement of Mars in relation to Earth if Earth were at the center of its orbit, which shows that Mars' orbit would be completely imperfect and never follow along the same path. To solve the apparent derivation of Mars' orbit from a perfect circle, Kepler derived both a mathematical definition and, independently, a matching ellipse around the Sun to explain the motion of the red planet.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Between 1617 and 1621, Kepler developed a heliocentric model of the Solar System in "Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae", in which all the planets have elliptical orbits. This provided significantly increased accuracy in predicting the position of the planets. Kepler's ideas were not immediately accepted, and Galileo for example ignored them. In 1621, "Epitome astronomia Copernicanae" was placed on the Catholic Church's index of prohibited books despite Kepler being a Protestant.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Galileo was able to look at the night sky with the newly invented telescope. He published his discoveries that Jupiter is orbited by moons and that the Sun rotates in his "Sidereus Nuncius" (1610) and "Letters on Sunspots" (1613), respectively. Around this time, he also announced that Venus exhibits a full range of phases (satisfying an argument that had been made against Copernicus). As the Jesuit astronomers confirmed Galileo's observations, the Jesuits moved away from the Ptolemaic model and toward Tycho's teachings.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In his 1615 "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina", Galileo defended heliocentrism, and claimed it was not contrary to Holy Scripture. He took Augustine's position on Scripture: not to take every passage literally when the scripture in question is in a Bible book of poetry and songs, not a book of instructions or history. The writers of the Scripture wrote from the perspective of the terrestrial world, and from that vantage point the Sun does rise and set. In fact, it is the Earth's rotation which gives the impression of the Sun in motion across the sky.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In February 1615, prominent Dominicans including Thomaso Caccini and Niccolò Lorini brought Galileo's writings on heliocentrism to the attention of the Inquisition, because they appeared to violate Holy Scripture and the decrees of the Council of Trent. Cardinal and Inquisitor Robert Bellarmine was called upon to adjudicate, and wrote in April that treating heliocentrism as a real phenomenon would be "a very dangerous thing," irritating philosophers and theologians, and harming "the Holy Faith by rendering Holy Scripture as false."


title: Heliocentrism

text: In January 1616, Msgr. Francesco Ingoli addressed an essay to Galileo disputing the Copernican system. Galileo later stated that he believed this essay to have been instrumental in the ban against Copernicanism that followed in February. According to Maurice Finocchiaro, Ingoli had probably been commissioned by the Inquisition to write an expert opinion on the controversy, and the essay provided the "chief direct basis" for the ban. The essay focused on eighteen physical and mathematical arguments against heliocentrism. It borrowed primarily from the arguments of Tycho Brahe, and it notedly mentioned the problem that heliocentrism requires the stars to be much larger than the Sun. Ingoli wrote that the great distance to the stars in the heliocentric theory "clearly proves ... the fixed stars to be of such size, as they may surpass or equal the size of the orbit circle of the Earth itself." Ingoli included four theological arguments in the essay, but suggested to Galileo that he focus on the physical and mathematical arguments. Galileo did not write a response to Ingoli until 1624.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In February 1616, the Inquisition assembled a committee of theologians, known as qualifiers, who delivered their unanimous report condemning heliocentrism as "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture." The Inquisition also determined that the Earth's motion "receives the same judgement in philosophy and ... in regard to theological truth it is at least erroneous in faith." Bellarmine personally ordered Galileo


title: Heliocentrism

text: In March 1616, after the Inquisition's injunction against Galileo, the papal Master of the Sacred Palace, Congregation of the Index, and the Pope banned all books and letters advocating the Copernican system, which they called "the false Pythagorean doctrine, altogether contrary to Holy Scripture." In 1618, the Holy Office recommended that a modified version of Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus" be allowed for use in calendric calculations, though the original publication remained forbidden until 1758.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Pope Urban VIII encouraged Galileo to publish the pros and cons of heliocentrism. Galileo's response, "Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems" (1632), clearly advocated heliocentrism, despite his declaration in the preface that,


title: Heliocentrism

text: I will endeavour to show that all experiments that can be made upon the Earth are insufficient means to conclude for its mobility but are indifferently applicable to the Earth, movable or immovable...


title: Heliocentrism

text: I might very rationally put it in dispute, whether there be any such centre in nature, or no; being that neither you nor any one else hath ever proved, whether the World be finite and figurate, or else infinite and interminate; yet nevertheless granting you, for the present, that it is finite, and of a terminate Spherical Figure, and that thereupon it hath its centre...


title: Heliocentrism

text: Some ecclesiastics also interpreted the book as characterizing the Pope as a simpleton, since his viewpoint in the dialogue was advocated by the character Simplicio. Urban VIII became hostile to Galileo and he was again summoned to Rome. Galileo's trial in 1633 involved making fine distinctions between "teaching" and "holding and defending as true". For advancing heliocentric theory Galileo was forced to recant Copernicanism and was put under house arrest for the last few years of his life. According to J. L. Heilbron, informed contemporaries of Galileo's "appreciated that the reference to heresy in connection with Galileo or Copernicus had no general or theological significance."


title: Heliocentrism

text: In 1664, Pope Alexander VII published his "Index Librorum Prohibitorum Alexandri VII Pontificis Maximi jussu editus" (Index of Prohibited Books, published by order of Alexander VII, P.M.) which included all previous condemnations of heliocentric books.


title: Heliocentrism

text: René Descartes' first cosmological treatise, written between 1629 and 1633 and titled "The World", included a heliocentric model, but Descartes abandoned it in the light of Galileo's treatment. In his "Principles of Philosophy" (1644), Descartes introduced a mechanical model in which planets do not move relative to their immediate atmosphere, but are constituted around space-matter vortices in curved space; these rotate due to centrifugal force and the resulting centripetal pressure. The Galileo affair did little overall to slow the spread of heliocentrism across Europe, as Kepler's "Epitome of Copernican Astronomy" became increasingly influential in the coming decades. By 1686, the model was well enough established that the general public was reading about it in "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds", published in France by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and translated into English and other languages in the coming years. It has been called "one of the first great popularizations of science."


title: Heliocentrism

text: In 1687, Isaac Newton published "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica", which provided an explanation for Kepler's laws in terms of universal gravitation and what came to be known as Newton's laws of motion. This placed heliocentrism on a firm theoretical foundation, although Newton's heliocentrism was of a somewhat modern kind. Already in the mid-1680s he recognized the "deviation of the Sun" from the center of gravity of the Solar System. For Newton it was not precisely the center of the Sun or any other body that could be considered at rest, but "the common centre of gravity of the Earth, the Sun and all the Planets is to be esteem'd the Centre of the World", and this center of gravity "either is at rest or moves uniformly forward in a right line". Newton adopted the "at rest" alternative in view of common consent that the center, wherever it was, was at rest.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Meanwhile, the Catholic Church remained opposed to heliocentrism as a literal description, but this did not by any means imply opposition to all astronomy; indeed, it needed observational data to maintain its calendar. In support of this effort it allowed the cathedrals themselves to be used as solar observatories called "meridiane"; i.e., they were turned into "reverse sundials", or gigantic pinhole cameras, where the Sun's image was projected from a hole in a window in the cathedral's lantern onto a meridian line.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In the mid-eighteenth century the Catholic Church's opposition began to fade. An annotated copy of Newton's "Principia" was published in 1742 by Fathers le Seur and Jacquier of the Franciscan Minims, two Catholic mathematicians, with a preface stating that the author's work assumed heliocentrism and could not be explained without the theory. In 1758 the Catholic Church dropped the general prohibition of books advocating heliocentrism from the "Index of Forbidden Books". The Observatory of the Roman College was established by Pope Clement XIV in 1774 (nationalized in 1878, but re-founded by Pope Leo XIII as the Vatican Observatory in 1891). In spite of dropping its active resistance to heliocentrism, the Catholic Church did not lift the prohibition of uncensored versions of Copernicus's "De Revolutionibus" or Galileo's "Dialogue". The affair was revived in 1820, when the Master of the Sacred Palace (the Catholic Church's chief censor), Filippo Anfossi, refused to license a book by a Catholic canon, Giuseppe Settele, because it openly treated heliocentrism as a physical fact. Settele appealed to pope Pius VII. After the matter had been reconsidered by the Congregation of the Index and the Holy Office, Anfossi's decision was overturned. Pius VII approved a decree in 1822 by the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition to allow the printing of heliocentric books in Rome. Copernicus's "De Revolutionibus" and Galileo's "Dialogue" were then subsequently omitted from the next edition of the "Index" when it appeared in 1835.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Three apparent proofs of the heliocentric hypothesis were provided in 1727 by James Bradley, in 1838 by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, and in 1851 by Léon Foucault. Bradley discovered the stellar aberration, proving the relative motion of the Earth. Bessel proved that the parallax of a star was greater than zero by measuring the parallax of 0.314 arcseconds of a star named 61 Cygni. In the same year Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve and Thomas Henderson measured the parallaxes of other stars, Vega and Alpha Centauri. Experiments like those of Foucault were performed by V. Viviani in 1661 in Florence and by Bartolini in 1833 in Rimini.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Already in the Talmud, Greek philosophy and science under general name "Greek wisdom" were considered dangerous. They were put under ban then and later for some periods.


title: Heliocentrism

text: The first Jewish scholar to describe the Copernican system, albeit without mentioning Copernicus by name, was Maharal of Prague, in his book "Be'er ha-Golah" (1593). Maharal makes an argument of radical skepticism, arguing that no scientific theory can be reliable, which he illustrates by the new-fangled theory of heliocentrism upsetting even the most fundamental views on the cosmos.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Copernicus is mentioned in the books of David Gans (1541–1613), who worked with Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Gans wrote two books on astronomy in Hebrew: a short one "Magen David" (1612) and a full one "Nehmad veNaim" (published only in 1743). He described objectively three systems: Ptolemy, Copernicus and of Tycho Brahe without taking sides.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591–1655) in his "Elim" (1629) says that the arguments of Copernicus are so strong, that only an imbecile will not accept them. Delmedigo studied at Padua and was acquainted with Galileo.


title: Heliocentrism

text: An actual controversy on the Copernican model within Judaism arises only in the early 18th century. Most authors in this period accept Copernican heliocentrism, with opposition from David Nieto and Tobias Cohn. Both of these authors argued against heliocentrism on grounds of contradictions to scripture. Nieto merely rejected the new system on those grounds without much passion, whereas Cohn went so far as to call Copernicus "a first-born of Satan", though he also acknowledged that he would have found it difficult to counter one particular objection based on a passage from the Talmud.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In the 19th century two students of the Hatam sofer wrote books that were given approbations by him even though one supported heliocentrism and the other geocentrism. The one, a commentary on Genesis "Yafe’ah le-Ketz" written by R. Israel David Schlesinger resisted a heliocentric model and supported geocentrism. The other, "Mei Menuchot" written by R. Eliezer Lipmann Neusatz encouraged acceptance of the heliocentric model and other modern scientific thinking.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Since the 20th century most Jews have not questioned the science of heliocentrism. Exceptions include Shlomo Benizri and R. M.M. Schneerson of Chabad who argued that the question of heliocentrism vs. geocentrism is obsolete because of the relativity of motion. Schneerson's followers in Chabad continue to deny the heliocentric model.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In 1783, amateur astronomer William Herschel attempted to determine the shape of the universe by examining stars through his handmade telescopes. Herschel was the first to propose a model of the universe based on observation and measurement. At that time, the dominant assumption in cosmology was that the Milky Way was the entire universe, an assumption that has since been proven wrong with observations. Herschel concluded that it was in the shape of a disk, but assumed that the sun was in the center of the disk, making the model heliocentric.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Seeing that the stars belonging to the Milky Way appeared to encircle the Earth, Herschel carefully counted stars of given apparent magnitudes, and after finding the numbers were the same in all directions, concluded Earth must be close to the center of the Milky Way. However, there were two flaws in Herschel's methodology: magnitude is not a reliable index to the distance of stars, and some of the areas that he mistook for empty space were actually dark, obscuring nebulae that blocked his view toward the center of the Milky Way.


title: Heliocentrism

text: The Herschel model remained relatively unchallenged for the next hundred years, with minor refinements. Jacobus Kapteyn introduced motion, density, and luminosity to Herschel's star counts, which still implied a near-central location of the Sun.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Already in the early 19th century, Thomas Wright and Immanuel Kant speculated that fuzzy patches of light called nebulae were actually distant "island universes" consisting of many stellar systems. The shape of our own galaxy was expected to resemble such "islands universes."


title: Heliocentrism

text: However, "scientific arguments were marshalled against such a possibility," and this view was rejected by almost all scientists until the early 20th century, with Harlow Shapley's work on globular clusters and Edwin Hubble's measurements in 1924. After Shapley and Hubble showed that the Sun is not the center of the universe, cosmology moved on from heliocentrism to galactocentrism, which states that the Milky Way is the center of the universe.


title: Heliocentrism

text: Hubble's observations of redshift in light from distant galaxies indicated that the universe was expanding and acentric. As a result, soon after galactocentrism was formulated, it was abandoned in favor of the Big Bang model of the acentric expanding universe. Further assumptions, such as the Copernican principle, the cosmological principle, dark energy, and dark matter, eventually lead to the current model of cosmology, Lambda-CDM.


title: Heliocentrism

text: The concept of an absolute velocity, including being "at rest" as a particular case, is ruled out by the principle of relativity, also eliminating any obvious "center" of the universe as a natural origin of coordinates. Even if the discussion is limited to the Solar System, the Sun is not at the geometric center of any planet's orbit, but rather approximately at one focus of the elliptical orbit. Furthermore, to the extent that a planet's mass cannot be neglected in comparison to the Sun's mass, the center of gravity of the Solar System is displaced slightly away from the center of the Sun. (The masses of the planets, mostly Jupiter, amount to 0.14% of that of the Sun.) Therefore, a hypothetical astronomer on an extrasolar planet would observe a small "wobble" in the Sun's motion.


title: Heliocentrism

text: In modern calculations, the terms "geocentric" and "heliocentric" are often used to refer to reference frames. In such systems the origin in the center of mass of the Earth, of the Earth–Moon system, of the Sun, of the Sun plus the major planets, or of the entire Solar System, can be selected. Right ascension and declination are examples of geocentric coordinates, used in Earth-based observations, while the heliocentric latitude and longitude are used for orbital calculations. This leads to such terms as "heliocentric velocity" and "heliocentric angular momentum". In this heliocentric picture, any planet of the Solar System can be used as a source of mechanical energy because it moves relatively to the Sun. A smaller body (either artificial or natural) may gain heliocentric velocity due to gravity assist – this effect can change the body's mechanical energy in heliocentric reference frame (although it will not changed in the planetary one). However, such selection of "geocentric" or "heliocentric" frames is merely a matter of computation. It does not have philosophical implications and does not constitute a distinct physical or scientific model. From the point of view of general relativity, inertial reference frames do not exist at all, and any practical reference frame is only an approximation to the actual space-time, which can have higher or lower precision. Some forms of Mach's principle consider the frame at rest with respect to the distant masses in the universe to have special properties.


title: Eben Byers

text: Ebenezer McBurney Byers (April 12, 1880 – March 31, 1932) was a wealthy American socialite, sportsman, and industrialist. He won the 1906 U.S. Amateur in golf. He earned notoriety in the early 1930s when he died from multiple radiation-induced cancers after consuming Radithor, a popular patent medicine made from radium dissolved in water.


title: Eben Byers

text: The son of industrialist Alexander Byers, Eben Byers was educated at St. Paul's School and Yale College, where he earned a reputation as a sportsman. He was the U.S. Amateur golf champion of 1906, after finishing runner-up in 1902 and 1903. Byers eventually became the chairman of the Girard Iron Company, which had been created by his father.


title: Eben Byers

text: In 1927, Byers injured his arm falling from a railway sleeping berth. For the persistent pain, a doctor suggested he take Radithor, a patent medicine manufactured by William J. A. Bailey. Bailey was a Harvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and had become rich from the sale of Radithor, a solution of radium in water which he claimed stimulated the endocrine system. He offered physicians a 1/6 kickback on each dose prescribed.


title: Eben Byers

text: Byers began taking several doses of Radithor per day, believing it gave him a "toned-up feeling", but stopped in October 1930 (after taking some 1400 doses) when that effect faded. He lost weight and had headaches, and his teeth began to fall out. In 1931, the Federal Trade Commission asked him to testify about his experience, but he was too sick to travel so the commission sent a lawyer to take his statement at his home; the lawyer reported that Byers's "whole upper jaw, excepting two front teeth and most of his lower jaw had been removed" and that "All the remaining bone tissue of his body was disintegrating, and holes were actually forming in his skull."


title: Eben Byers

text: His death on March 31, 1932, was attributed to "radiation poisoning" using the terminology of the time, but it was due to cancers, not acute radiation syndrome. He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a lead-lined coffin.


title: Eben Byers

text: Byers's death received much publicity and it heightened awareness of the dangers of radioactive "cures".


title: Eben Byers

text: The Federal Trade Commission issued an order against Bailey's business to "cease and desist from various representations theretofore made by them as to the therapeutic value of Radithor and from representing that the product Radithor is harmless". He later founded the "Radium Institute" in New York and marketed a radioactive belt-clip, a radioactive paperweight, and a mechanism which purported to make water radioactive.


title: Eben Byers

text: After exhuming Byers's body in 1965, MIT physicist Robley Evans estimated Byers' total radium intake as about 1000 μCi (37 MBq).


title: Eben Byers

text: "Note: Byers died before the founding of the Masters Tournament, and never played in The Open Championship. As an amateur, he could not play in the PGA Championship."<br>


title: Sun bear

text: The sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) is a species in the family Ursidae (the only species in the genus Helarctos) occurring in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. It is the smallest bear, standing nearly at the shoulder and weighing . It is stockily built, with large paws, strongly curved claws, small rounded ears and a short snout. The fur is generally jet-black, but can vary from grey to red. Sun bears get their name from the characteristic orange to cream coloured chest patch. Its unique morphology—inward-turned front feet, flattened chest, powerful forelimbs with large claws—suggests adaptations for climbing.


title: Sun bear

text: The most arboreal (tree-living) of all bears, the sun bear is an excellent climber and sunbathes or sleeps in trees above the ground. It is mainly active during the day, though nocturnality might be more common in areas frequented by humans. Sun bears tend to remain solitary but sometimes occur in pairs (such as a mother and her cub). They do not seem to hibernate, possibly because food resources are available the whole year throughout the range. Being omnivores, sun bears have a broad diet including ants, bees, beetles, honey, termites and plant material such as seeds and several kinds of fruits; vertebrates such as birds and deer are also eaten occasionally. They breed throughout the year; individuals become sexually mature at two to four years of age. Litters comprise one or two cubs that remain with their mother for around three years.


title: Sun bear

text: The range of the sun bear is bound by northeastern India to the north and extends south to southeast through Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in mainland Asia to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to the south. These bears are threatened by heavy deforestation and illegal hunting for food and the wildlife trade; they are also harmed in conflicts with humans when they enter farmlands, plantations and orchards. The global population is estimated to have declined by 35% over the past three decades. The IUCN has listed this species as vulnerable.


title: Sun bear

text: The sun bear is named so for its characteristic orange to cream coloured, crescent-like chest patch. The generic name "Helarctos" comes from two Greek words: (, 'related to the sun') and (, 'bear'). Another name is 'honey bear', in Malay and Indonesian, in reference to its habit of feeding on honey from honeycombs. 'Honey bear' can also refer to the kinkajou.


title: Sun bear

text: The scientific name "Ursus malayanus" was proposed by Stamford Raffles in 1821 who first described a sun bear from Sumatra. In 1825, Thomas Horsfield placed the species in a genus of its own, "Helarctos", when describing a sun bear from Borneo.


title: Sun bear

text: "H. anmamiticus", described by Pierre Marie Heude in 1901 from Annam, is not considered a distinct species, but is subordinated as a junior synonym to "H. m. malayanus". In 1906, Richard Lydekker proposed another subspecies by the name "H. m. wardii" for a sun bear skull, noting its similarities to a skull from Tibet with a thicker coat; however the Tibetan specimen was later found to be an Asian black bear ("Ursus thibetanus"). Genetic differences between the two subspecies are obscure. It is considered to be monotypic.


title: Sun bear

text: The phylogenetic relationships among ursid species have remained ambiguous over the years. Noting the production of fertile hybrids between sun bears and sloth bears ("Melursus ursinus"), it was proposed that "Helarctos" be treated as a synonym of "Melursus". However, studies differed on whether the two species were closely related. A 2007 phylogenetic study gives the relationships of the sun bear with other species of Ursidae based on complete mitochondrial DNA sequences as shown in the cladogram below. The brown bear/polar bear genetic lineage was estimated to have genetically diverged from the two black bears/sun bear lineage around (mya); the sun bear appears to have diverged from the two black bears between 6.26–5.09 mya. and 5.89–3.51 mya.


title: Sun bear

text: Nuclear gene sequencing of bear species revealed that the sloth bear and the sun bear were the first Ursinae bears that radiated and are not included in the monophyletic "Ursus" group; moreover, all relationships between the bears were well resolved.


title: Sun bear

text: The sun bear is the smallest of all bear species. It is stockily built, with large paws, strongly curved claws, small rounded ears and a short snout. The head-and-body length is between , and the shoulder height is nearly . Adults weigh . The snout is grey, silver or orange. The fur is generally jet-black, but can vary from grey to red. The hair is silky and fine, and is the shortest of all bear species, suiting their hot tropical habitat. The characteristic chest patch, typically U-shaped but sometimes circular or spotlike, varies from orange or ochre-yellow to buff or cream, or even white. Some individuals may even lack the patch. Sun bears can expose the patch while standing on their hindfeet as a threat display against enemies. Infants are greyish black with a pale brown or white snout and the chest patch is dirty white; the coat of older juveniles may be dark brown. The underfur is particularly thick and black in adults, while the guard hairs are lighter. Two whirls occur on the shoulders, from whence the hair radiates in all directions. A crest is seen on the sides of the neck and a whorl occurs in the centre of the breast patch. The edges of the paws are tan or brown, and the soles are fur-less, which possibly is an adaptation for climbing trees. The claws are sickle-shaped; the front claws are long and heavy. The tail is long. The sympatric Asian black bear has cream-coloured chest markings of a similar shape as those of sun bears; a 2008 study discussed differences in claw markings of both bears as a means of identification. Their tongues can be over 10 inches long.


title: Sun bear

text: During feeding, the sun bear can extend its exceptionally long tongue to extract insects and honey. The teeth are very large, especially the canines, and the bite force is high relative to its body size for reasons not well understood; a possible explanation could be its frequent opening of tropical hardwood trees with its powerful jaws and claws in pursuit of insects, larvae, or honey. The head is large, broad and heavy in proportion to the body, but the ears are proportionately smaller; the palate is wide in proportion to the skull. The overall unique morphology of this bear—inward-turned front feet, flattened chest, powerful forelimbs with large claws—indicates adaptations for extensive climbing.


title: Sun bear

text: Sun bears lead the most arboreal (tree-living) lifestyle among all bears. They are mainly active during the day, though nocturnality might be more common in areas frequented by humans. The sun bear is an excellent climber; it sunbathes or sleeps in trees above the ground. Bedding sites consist mainly of fallen hollow logs, but they also rest in standing trees with cavities, in cavities underneath fallen logs or tree roots, and in tree branches high above the ground. It is also an efficient swimmer. Sun bears are noted for their intelligence; a captive bear observed sugar being stored in a cupboard then locked by a key, and later used its own claw to open the lock. A study published in 2019 described skillful mimicry of facial expressions by sun bears, with precision comparable to that seen in some primates (such as gorillas and humans).


title: Sun bear

text: Sun bears are shy and reclusive animals, and usually do not attack humans unless provoked to do so, or if they are injured or with their cubs; their timid nature led these bears to be tamed often and kept as pets in the past. However, other sources state that sun bears are known as very fierce animals when surprised in the forest. They are typically solitary but are sometimes seen in pairs (such as mothers and cubs). Sun bears stand on their hindfeet for a broader view of their surroundings or smell far-off objects; they try to intimidate their enemies by displaying the chest patch if threatened. Vocalisations include grunts and snuffles while foraging for insects, and roars similar to those of a male orangutan during the breeding season; less commonly they may give out short barks (like a rhinoceros) when they are surprised. Sun bears do not seem to hibernate, possibly because food resources are available the whole year throughout the range. They occupy home ranges of varying sizes in different areas, ranging from in Borneo and peninsular Malaysia; a study in Ulu Segama Forest Reserve in Sabah (Malaysia) gave the sizes of ranges as . Tigers are major predators; dholes and leopards have also been recorded preying on sun bears but cases are relatively fewer. In one incident, a tiger-sun bear interaction resulted in a prolonged altercation and in the death of both animals. In another incident, a wild female sun bear was swallowed by a large reticulated python in East Kalimantan.


title: Sun bear

text: Sun bears are omnivores and feed on a broad variety of items such as ants, bees, beetles, honey, termites and plant material such as seeds and several kinds of fruits. Vertebrates such as birds, deer, eggs and reptiles may be eaten occasionally. They forage mostly at night. Sun bears tear open hollow trees with their long, sharp claws and teeth in search of wild bees and honey. They also break termite mounds and quickly lick and suck the contents, holding pieces of the broken mound with their front paws. They consume figs in large amounts and eat them whole. In a study in the forests of Kalimantan, fruits of Moraceae, Burseraceae and Myrtaceae species made up more than 50% of the fruit diet; in times of fruit scarcity, sun bears switched to a more insectivorous diet. A study in Central Borneo revealed that sun bears play an important role in the seed dispersal of "Canarium pilosum" (a tree in the family Burseraceae). Sun bears eat the centre of coconut palms, and crush oil-rich seeds such as acorns. Oil palms are nutritious but not enough for subsistence.


title: Sun bear

text: Sun bears are polyoestrous; births occur throughout the year. Oestrus lasts five to seven days. Sun bears become sexually mature at two to four years of age. Reported lengths for pregnancies vary from 95 to 240 days; pregnancy tends to be longer in zoos in temperate climate possibly due to delay in implantation or fertilisation. Births occur inside hollow tree cavities. A litter typically comprises one or two cubs weighing around each. Cubs are born deaf with eyes closed. The eyes open at nearly 25 days but they remain blind till 50 days after birth; the sense of hearing improves over the first 50 days. Cubs younger than two months are dependent on external stimulation for defecation. Cubs are kept on buttress roots at the base of trees until they learn how to walk and climb properly. Mothers protect their cubs aggressively. Offspring remain with their mother for nearly the first three years of their lives. Lifespan in captivity is generally over 20 years; one individual lived for nearly 31 years.


title: Sun bear

text: The sun bear is native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia; its range is bound by northeastern India to the north and extends south to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to the south. Its presence in China was confirmed in 2017 when it was sighted in Yingjiang County of Yunnan Province. It is extinct in Singapore.


title: Sun bear

text: These bears dwell primarily in two main types of forests throughout their range: deciduous and seasonally evergreen forests to the north of the Isthmus of Kra, and non-seasonal evergreen forests in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are typically found at low altitudes, such as below in western Thailand and peninsular Malaysia. However, this varies widely throughout the range; in India larger numbers have been recorded at an elevation of up to than in low-lying areas, probably due to habitat loss at ground level. They occur in montane areas in northeast India, but may not extend farther north into the unfavourable and colder Himalayan region; their distribution might be restricted to the northwest due to competition with sloth bears. The sun bear is sympatric with the Asian black bear throughout the remaining areas in the mainland range featuring a mix of seasonal forest types, with monthly rainfall below for a long spell of three to seven months. In mountainous areas, Asian black bears are more common than sun bears, probably due to scarcity of invertebrates to feed on. The major habitats in southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia are moist evergreen forests, with more or less non-varying climate and heavy rainfall throughout the year, and low-lying or montane dipterocarp forests. Mangroves may be inhabited, but usually only when they are close to preferred habitat types.


title: Sun bear

text: The sun bear tends to avoid heavily logged forests and areas close to human settlement. However, sun bears have been seen in farmlands, plantations and orchards, where they may be considered vermin. A survey in Lower Kinabatangan Segama Wetlands showed that sun bears were feared but were not common in oil palm plantations; Bornean bearded pigs, elephants and macaques were far more damaging to crops. Sun bears have been reported preying on poultry and livestock.


title: Sun bear

text: Fossil remains suggest its occurrence farther north during the Pleistocene; it may have occurred as far south as Java in the middle to Late Pleistocene. Fossils also known from the Middle Pleistocene of Thailand along with "Stegodon", gaur, wild water buffalo and other living and extinct mammals. Today, it has been eliminated from the majority of its erstwhile range, especially in Thailand; populations are declining in most of the range countries. It disappeared from Singapore during the 1800s and 1900s, possibly due to extensive deforestation. Sun bear populations appear to decrease in size northward from Sundaland, and numbers are especially low in the northern and western extremes of the range. This has possibly been the case since prehistoric times and is not a result of human interference. The population density varies from in Khao Yai National Park to in the Harapan Rainforest in southern Sumatra.


title: Sun bear

text: According to the IUCN Bear Specialist Group, sun bear populations have fallen by an estimated 35% in the last three decades. Numbers are especially low in Bangladesh and China, and populations in Vietnam are feared to decline severely by 50–80% in the next 30 years. Habitat fragmentation is on the rise particularly in Borneo, Sumatra and some areas of the mainland range. Heavy deforestation (due to agriculture, logging and forest fires) and hunting for wildlife trade are severe threats throughout the range; human-bear conflicts are a relatively minor threat. Compared to other continents, southeastern Asia has undergone severe depletion in forest cover over the past few decades (by almost 12% between 1990 and 2010); this has resulted in substantial habitat loss for forest-dependent species such as sun bears. A 2007 study in East Borneo recorded severe loss of habitat and food resources due to droughts and forest fires brought about by the El Niño. With lack of research in predation, sources have documented very few predation events. In the island of Borneo sun bears were found to be hunted by python in their most vulnerable state. Pythons are successfully able to attack by taking advantage of the nighttime when the sun bears are sleep or nursing their cub. In Southeast Asia, the Panthera pardus (male leopard) has been photographed with a sun bear cub being held by the throat. This reported case has been reported to be the second confirmed predator as of 2019.


title: Sun bear

text: During surveys in Kalimantan between 1994 and 1997, interviewees admitted to hunting sun bears and indicated that sun bear meat is eaten by indigenous people in several areas in Kalimantan. Studies have found evidence of pet trade and sale of sun bear parts such as gall bladders in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shops in Sabah and Sarawak. In 2018 and 2019 a total of 128 TCM outlets in 24 locations across Sabah and Sarawak were surveyed and bear parts and derivatives were recorded for sale in 25% of the outlets surveyed – many of which would have been derived from locally-sourced sun bears. Sun bears were killed by shooting or administering poison to protect coconut and snakefruit plantations in East Kalimantan. A report published by TRAFFIC in 2011 showed that sun bears, along with Asian black bears and brown bears, are specifically targeted for the bear bile trade in southeastern Asia, and are kept in bear farms in Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Poaching is common in several countries in the region. Hunting pressure is rising even in some protected areas; in the Nam Ha National Protected Area in Laos, hunter snares have been found that specifically target bears. A study in Nagaland (northeastern India) recorded a sparse distribution of sun bears in the Fakim and Ntangki National Parks, and reported extensive illegal hunting for food and trade in bear parts. Protective laws have shown little success in controlling these threats, especially due to poor execution and high potential for gains by the trade.


title: Sun bear

text: The sun bear is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and is included in CITES Appendix I. With the exception of Sarawak (Malaysia) and Cambodia, the sun bear is legally protected from hunting in its whole range. A 2014 report documented rampant poaching and trade in sun bear parts in Sarawak, more than anywhere else in Malaysia; the researchers recommended stricter legislations in the state to protect local sun bears.


title: Sun bear

text: The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, founded by Wong Siew Te in Sabah (Malaysia) in 2008, aims to work for the welfare of sun bears rescued from poor conditions in captivity and spread awareness about their conservation. The Malayan sun bears are part of an international captive-breeding program and a Species Survival Plan under the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since late 1994. Since that same year, the European breed registry for sun bears is kept in the Cologne Zoological Garden, Germany.


title: Jim Kelly

text: James Edward Kelly (born February 14, 1960) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent two seasons with the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League (USFL). Kelly played college football at Miami, where he was the Offensive MVP of the 1981 Peach Bowl.


title: Jim Kelly

text: One of the six quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft, Kelly was selected 14th overall by the Bills. He chose to sign with the Gamblers instead and did not play for the Bills until the USFL folded in 1986. Employing the "K-Gun" offense, known for its no-huddle shotgun formations, Kelly led one of the greatest NFL scoring juggernauts. From 1990 to 1993, he helped guide the Bills to a record four consecutive Super Bowls, although the team lost each game. Kelly was also named to five Pro Bowls and received first-team All-Pro honors in 1991.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Along with teammates Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith, Kelly is one of only three players to have his number retired by the Bills. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up about 60 miles to the northeast, in East Brady. He was a standout at East Brady High School and won all-state honors after passing for 3,915 yards, 44 touchdowns, and 1 interception in his career. After his senior year, Kelly played in the Big 33 Football Classic. Kelly also played basketball in high school, scoring over 1,000 points with six 30-plus-point games. As a senior, he led East Brady to the Pennsylvania Class 'A' basketball state quarterfinals, and averaged 23 points and 20 rebounds.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly was offered a scholarship to play college football at Penn State University under coach Joe Paterno, but Paterno wanted Kelly at linebacker, not quarterback. Instead, University of Miami head coach Lou Saban promised Kelly he would be playing quarterback, luring Kelly to South Florida. Kelly became an important piece in helping build the program into one of the nation's best. Kelly finished his career at Miami with 376 completions in 676 attempts for 5,228 yards and 33 touchdowns. He was inducted into the university's Hall of Fame in 1992.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Because of fellow quarterback John Elway's well-publicized reluctance to play for the Baltimore Colts, which chose him in the 1983 NFL Draft, Kelly's agent asked whether there were any teams he would not play for. Kelly, who disliked cold weather, listed the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers, and Buffalo Bills. He was pleased to see while watching the 1983 draft on television that the Bills did not select him as the 12th pick in the first round, but learned from his agent that the team had another first-round pick; the Bills chose Kelly as the 14th pick. Although Kelly at the time stated that he had expected the Bills to choose him, he later said, "You have to say those things ... I cried. (Laughs) I didn't really literally cry. I just had tears. I'm like, 'You got to be kidding me.'"


title: Jim Kelly

text: Although he believed that team owner Ralph Wilson would not bring in the right players to build a championship team, Kelly was resigned to playing for the Bills. While meeting with the team to negotiate his contract, however, a Bills secretary mistakenly let Bruce Allen, general manager of the rival United States Football League's Chicago Blitz, reach Kelly on the telephone; Allen persuaded Kelly to leave the meeting. Kelly later claimed that the USFL offered him his choice of teams because of the league's interest in signing quarterbacks. He signed with the Houston Gamblers, who played in the climate-controlled Houston Astrodome, and said, "Would you rather be in Houston or Buffalo?"


title: Jim Kelly

text: In two seasons in Houston, leading offensive coach Mouse Davis's run-and-shoot offense, Kelly threw for 9,842 yards, 83 touchdowns, and 45 interceptions with a 63% completion percentage for an average of 8.53 yards per attempt. He was the USFL MVP in 1984, when he set a league record with 5,219 yards passing and 44 touchdown passes. Kelly's USFL records eclipsed those of fellow league quarterbacks Doug Williams and Steve Young. When the Houston Gamblers folded, Kelly went to the New Jersey Generals and was slated as their starting quarterback. Kelly appeared on a cover of "Sports Illustrated" while holding a Generals' helmet, but the league collapsed before he ever fielded a snap with the Generals.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Led by Kelly, the Houston Gamblers took on the Los Angeles Express and quarterback Steve Young, on February 24, 1985. The game was supposed to be televised by ABC, but they opted to cover Doug Flutie's debut with the New Jersey Generals instead. Only cameramen that worked for both teams were on hand to record the game. Houston raced out to an early lead, but the Express mounted a comeback that led to them being ahead 33–14 with just under ten minutes left in the game. Kelly led the Gamblers on a comeback that would see them pull off a 34–33 win, and in the end, Kelly threw for 574 yards.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly threw three touchdown passes in the last Gambler drives of the game, including what turned out to be the game winner, a 39-yard strike to receiver Ricky Sanders. The Express thought they had the game won, especially after safety Troy West picked off a Kelly pass, and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. The Gamblers got the ball back and it just took two plays for them to score, as Kelly tossed a pass to Richard Johnson that ended up being a 52-yard score. The drive took less than a minute. The Gamblers defense forced a punt, and the offense scored again, this time Kelly found receiver Vince Courville for a 20-yard strike. The drive was aided by a poor punt from Express punter Jeff Partridge that only netted 16 yards and allowed the Gamblers to take over at the Express 43 yard line.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly found Sanders for the go-ahead score, Sanders beating Troy West on the play. West had picked off two Kelly passes that day, but Kelly ended up with the last laugh. The Express were driving to get in range for their placekicker, Tony Zendejas to kick what had the potential to be the game winner. That was not to be as Young was picked off by Gamblers linebacker Mike Hawkins.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly finally joined the Bills (who had retained his NFL rights) in 1986 after the USFL folded. He helped lead the Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances (Super Bowl XXV–Super Bowl XXVIII) and six divisional championships from 1988 to 1995. The Bills are both the only franchise to reach the Super Bowl four years in a row and to lose the Super Bowl four years in a row. Buffalo made the playoffs in eight of Kelly's 11 seasons as their starting quarterback. Kelly's primary 'go-to' wide receiver with the Bills, Andre Reed, ranks among the NFL's all-time leaders in several receiving categories. Kelly and Reed connected for 65 touchdowns during their career together trailing only the tandems of Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison (112), Philip Rivers and Antonio Gates, (87), Steve Young and Jerry Rice (85), Dan Marino and Mark Clayton (79), Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne (69), and Drew Brees and Marques Colston (68) for touchdowns by an NFL quarterback and receiver tandem. Kelly, along with Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas, and Scott Norwood, was the subject of the "30 for 30" film—"Four Falls of Buffalo".


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly retired after the 1996 NFL season due to injuries. After sitting out the 1997 season, in 1998 Kelly seriously considered an offer to sign with the Baltimore Ravens who were coached by his former offensive coordinator Ted Marchibroda. Kelly declined the offer due to family reasons and stayed retired; the Ravens instead opted to trade with the Indianapolis Colts for Jim Harbaugh as the latter team prepared for the Peyton Manning era.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly ran the Bills' "K-Gun" no-huddle offense, which was a fast-paced offense named after tight end Keith McKeller, that denied opposing defenses the opportunity to make timely substitutions (the NFL later changed the rules in response to this to allow opposing defenses time to change formations under no-huddle situations, but this applied only if the offense made personnel substitutions). This offensive scheme called for multiple formation calls in a huddle, so that after each play was completed, the Bills would eschew a following huddle, instead lining up for the next play where Kelly would read the defense and audible the play. This led to mismatches and defensive communication breakdowns and, in the 1990s, established the Bills as one of the NFL's most successful and dangerous offenses, instrumental in leading Buffalo to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly holds the 2nd all-time NFL record for most yards gained per completion in a single game (44), established on September 10, 1995 in the Bills' game against the expansion Carolina Panthers. He recorded an NFL-best 101.2 passer rating in 1990, led the league with 33 touchdown passes in 1991, (which remained a Bills record until 2020 when it was broken by Josh Allen) and made the Pro Bowl five times (1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1992).


title: Jim Kelly

text: In his four Super Bowls, Kelly completed 81 of 145 passes for 829 yards and two touchdowns, with seven interceptions. His 81 completions are the fifth most in Super Bowl history behind Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner, and Joe Montana. In Super Bowl XXVI, he set a record with 58 pass attempts, and in Super Bowl XXVIII he set a record with 31 completions (this was later surpassed).


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly finished his 11 NFL seasons with 2,874 completions in 4,779 attempts for 35,467 yards and 237 touchdowns, with 175 interceptions, all of which are Buffalo records excluding the interceptions. He also rushed for 1,049 yards and seven touchdowns.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Including his time in the NFL and USFL, he finished with over 45,000 passing yards and 320 touchdowns. In 2001, the Buffalo Bills retired his number 12 jersey.


title: Jim Kelly

text: On August 3, 2002, Kelly was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was enshrined during the first year he was eligible and headlined a class that also featured John Stallworth, Dan Hampton, Dave Casper, and George Allen. Fellow Hall of Fame member and former head coach Marv Levy was Kelly's presenter at the ceremony.


title: Jim Kelly

text: As of the 2021 NFL season, Kelly is the last starting quarterback to lose his Super Bowl debut and make it back to the big game.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly devoted much of his post-football life to his son, Hunter James Kelly, who was diagnosed with globoid-cell leukodystrophy (Krabbe disease) shortly after his birth on February 14, 1997 (which was Kelly's 37th birthday). Hunter died as a result of this disease on August 5, 2005 at the age of 8. To honor his son, Kelly established a non-profit organization in 1997: Hunter's Hope. Kelly's advocacy on behalf of Krabbe patients has increased national awareness of the disease. He and his wife Jill founded the annual Hunter's Day of Hope, which is held on February 14, the birthdays of both Jim and Hunter Kelly. The Hunter James Kelly Research Institute was founded at the University at Buffalo in 2004, where neuroscientists and clinicians are studying myelin and its diseases. When Kelly was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002, he dedicated his speech to Hunter. "It's been written that the trademark of my career was toughness," he said as he choked back tears. "The toughest person I ever met in my life was my hero, my soldier, my son, Hunter. I love you, buddy."


title: Jim Kelly

text: Two of Kelly's nephews, both the sons of his younger brother Kevin, have also played quarterback. Chad Kelly played college football at the Division I level for the Clemson Tigers and the Ole Miss Rebels and took part in the 2017 NFL Draft, in which he was selected last overall in the seventh round by the Denver Broncos, earning the honor of Mr. Irrelevant. He now plays for the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and won the Grey Cup with them in 2022. Casey Kelly, Chad's younger brother, played quarterback for national powerhouse Mallard Creek High School and graduated in 2019. Casey Kelly also enrolled at Ole Miss, but chose to convert to tight end and play for the team as a walk-on.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly is a devout Christian, and has several business ventures, including Hall of Fame Life Promotions, a promotional company that is committed to donating a percentage of all of its proceeds to the Hunter's Hope Foundation. In 2011, Kelly founded Jim Kelly Inc. a company which produces the MyFanClip line of all-purpose clips which bear sports team logos and other insignia. MyFanClip has licensing agreements with the NFL, MLB, NHL and NASCAR. Proceeds also benefit the Hunter's Hope Foundation, his charity.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly has hosted the annual Jim Kelly Celebrity Golf Classic golf tournament since 1987 to benefit his Kelly for Kids Foundation. A public charity function called StarGaze was held from 1992 to 1995 to complement the golf tournament.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Since 1988, Kelly has run a football camp for youths between the ages of eight to 18 at the Buffalo Bills facilities. It started with 325 campers in its first year, growing to over 500 campers a year. This camp provides teaching from experienced coaches and previous players from all over the country. Kelly also participates in various drills with the participants.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly owned and operated Sport City Grill restaurant with the attached Network nightclub on the ground floor of Main Place Tower in Buffalo from 1993 to 1996.


title: Jim Kelly

text: On June 3, 2013, Kelly announced that he had been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a form of cancer, in his upper jaw. He underwent surgery at a Buffalo hospital on June 7. Kelly reported to news outlets shortly after his surgery that the procedure was successful and he was now cancer-free. On March 14, 2014, after a follow-up test at the Erie County Medical Center, it was announced that Kelly's cancer had recurred, and that he would begin radiation and chemotherapy treatment. It was announced on August 20, 2014 that doctors could no longer find evidence of cancer.


title: Jim Kelly

text: On November 1, 2014, Kelly announced he had contracted MRSA within his bones, three months after being declared cancer-free. A few weeks after the announcement, Kelly said he was MRSA-free.


title: Jim Kelly

text: Kelly announced in March 2018 that the cancer had returned. He underwent surgery that month to remove the cancer and reconstruct his upper jaw. In June 2018, it was announced that Kelly would receive the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the 2018 ESPYs. In late June 2018, Kelly returned to a New York City hospital for additional surgery.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists view society as fundamentally a patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women. Radical feminists seek to abolish the patriarchy in a struggle to liberate women and girls from an unjust society by challenging existing social norms and institutions. This struggle includes opposing the sexual objectification of women, raising public awareness about such issues as rape and violence against women, challenging the concept of gender roles, and challenging what radical feminists see as a racialized and gendered capitalism that characterizes the United States and many other countries. According to Shulamith Firestone in "The Dialectic of Sex" (1970): "[T]he end goal of feminist revolution must be, unlike that of the first feminist movement, not just the elimination of male "privilege" but of the sex "distinction" itself: genital differences between human beings would no longer matter culturally." While radical feminists believe that differences in genitalia and secondary sex characteristics should not matter culturally or politically, they also maintain that women's special role in reproduction should be recognized and accommodated without penalty in the workplace, and some have argued compensation should be offered for this socially essential work.


title: Radical feminism

text: Early radical feminism, arising within second-wave feminism in the 1960s, typically viewed patriarchy as a "transhistorical phenomenon" prior to or deeper than other sources of oppression, "not only the oldest and most universal form of domination but the primary form" and the model for all others. Later politics derived from radical feminism ranged from cultural feminism to syncretic forms of socialist feminism (such as anarcha-feminism) that place issues of class, economics, etc. on a par with patriarchy as sources of oppression.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists locate the root cause of women's oppression in patriarchal gender relations, as opposed to legal systems (as in liberal feminism) or class conflict (as in Marxist feminism).


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists assert that global society functions as a patriarchy in which the class of men are the oppressors of the class of women. They propose that the oppression of women is the most fundamental form of oppression, one that has existed since the inception of humanity. As radical feminist Ti-Grace Atkinson wrote in her foundational piece "Radical Feminism" (1969):


title: Radical feminism

text: The first dichotomous division of this mass [mankind] is said to have been on the grounds of sex: male and female ... it was because half the human race bears the burden of the reproductive process and because man, the ‘rational’ animal, had the wit to take advantage of that, that the childbearers, or the 'beasts of burden,' were corralled into a political class: equivocating the biologically contingent burden into a political (or necessary) penalty, thereby modifying these individuals’ definition from the human to the functional, or animal.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists argue that, because of patriarchy, women have come to be viewed as the "other" to the male norm, and as such have been systematically oppressed and marginalized. They further assert that men as a class benefit from the systematic oppression of women. Patriarchal theory is not defined by a belief that all men always benefit from the oppression of all women. Rather, it maintains that the primary element of patriarchy is a relationship of dominance, where one party is dominant and exploits the other for the benefit of the former. Radical feminists believe that men (as a class) use social systems and other methods of control to keep women (as well as non-dominant men) suppressed. Radical feminists seek to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions, and believe that eliminating patriarchy will liberate everyone from an unjust society. Ti-Grace Atkinson maintained that the need for power fuels the male class to continue oppressing the female class, arguing that "the "need" men have for the role of oppressor is the source and foundation of all human oppression".


title: Radical feminism

text: The influence of radical-feminist politics on the women's liberation movement was considerable. Redstockings co-founder Ellen Willis wrote in 1984 that radical feminists "got sexual politics recognized as a public issue", created second-wave feminism's vocabulary, helped to legalize abortion in the US, "were the first to demand total equality in the so-called private sphere" ("housework and child care ... emotional and sexual needs"), and "created the atmosphere of urgency" that almost led to the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. The influence of radical feminism can be seen in the adoption of these issues by the National Organization for Women (NOW), a feminist group that had previously been focused almost entirely on economic issues.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists in the United States coined the term women's liberation movement (WLM). The WLM grew largely due to the influence of the civil rights movement, that had gained momentum in the 1960s, and many of the women who took up the cause of radical feminism had previous experience with radical protest in the struggle against racism. Chronologically, it can be seen within the context of second wave feminism that started in the early 1960s. The leading figures of this second wave of feminism included Shulamith Firestone, Kathie Sarachild, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Carol Hanisch, Roxanne Dunbar, Naomi Weisstein and Judith Brown. In the late sixties various women's groups describing themselves as "radical feminist", such as the UCLA Women's Liberation Front (WLF), offered differing views of radical feminist ideology. UCLA's WLF co-founder Devra Weber recalls, "the radical feminists were opposed to patriarchy, but not necessarily capitalism. In our group at least, they opposed so-called male dominated national liberation struggles".


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists helped to translate the radical protest for racial equality, in which many had experience, over to the struggle for women's rights. They took up the cause and advocated for a variety of women's issues, including abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, access to credit, and equal pay. Many women of color were among the founders of the Women's Liberation Movement (Fran Beal, Cellestine Ware, Toni Cade Bambara); however, many women of color did not participate in the movement due to their conclusion that radical feminists were not addressing "issues of meaning for minority women", Black women in particular After consciousness raising groups were formed to rally support, second-wave radical feminism began to see an increasing number of women of color participating.


title: Radical feminism

text: In the 1960s, radical feminism emerged within liberal feminist and working-class feminist discussions, first in the United States, then in the United Kingdom and Australia. Those involved had gradually come to believe that it was not only the middle-class nuclear family that oppressed women, but that it was also social movements and organizations that claimed to stand for human liberation, notably the counterculture, the New Left, and Marxist political parties, all of which were male-dominated and male-oriented. In the United States, radical feminism developed as a response to some of the perceived failings of both New Left organizations such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and feminist organizations such as NOW. Initially concentrated in big cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, and on the West Coast, radical feminist groups spread across the country rapidly from 1968 to 1972.


title: Radical feminism

text: At the same time parallel trends of thinking developed outside the USA: The Women's Yearbook from Munich gives a good sense of early 1970s feminism in West Germany:


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists introduced the use of consciousness raising (CR) groups. These groups brought together intellectuals, workers, and middle-class women in developed Western countries to discuss their experiences. During these discussions, women noted a shared and repressive system regardless of their political affiliation or social class. Based on these discussions, the women drew the conclusion that ending of patriarchy was the most necessary step towards a truly free society. These consciousness-raising sessions allowed early radical feminists to develop a political ideology based on common experiences women faced with male supremacy. Consciousness raising was extensively used in chapter sub-units of the National Organization for Women (NOW) during the 1970s. The feminism that emerged from these discussions stood first and foremost for the liberation of women, as women, from the oppression of men in their own lives, as well as men in power. Radical feminism claimed that a totalizing ideology and social formation—"patriarchy" (government or rule by fathers)—dominated women in the interests of men.


title: Radical feminism

text: Within groups such as New York Radical Women (1967–1969; not connected to the present-day socialist feminist organization Radical Women), which Ellen Willis characterized as "the first women's liberation group in New York City", a radical feminist ideology began to emerge. It declared that "the personal is political" and the "sisterhood is powerful"; calls to women's activism coined by Kathie Sarachild and others in the group. New York Radical Women fell apart in early 1969 in what came to be known as the "politico-feminist split", with the "politicos" seeing capitalism as the main source of women's oppression, while the "feminists" saw women's oppression in a male supremacy that was "a set of material, institutionalized relations, not just bad attitudes". The feminist side of the split, whose members referred to themselves as "radical feminists", soon constituted the basis of a new organization, Redstockings. At the same time, Ti-Grace Atkinson led "a radical split-off from NOW", which became known as The Feminists. A third major stance would be articulated by the New York Radical Feminists, founded later in 1969 by Shulamith Firestone (who broke from the Redstockings) and Anne Koedt.


title: Radical feminism

text: During this period, the movement produced "a prodigious output of leaflets, pamphlets, journals, magazine articles, newspaper and radio and TV interviews". Many important feminist works, such as Koedt's essay "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm" (1970) and Kate Millet's book "Sexual Politics" (1970), emerged during this time and in this milieu.


title: Radical feminism

text: At the beginning of this period, "heterosexuality was more or less an unchallenged assumption". Among radical feminists, it was widely held that, thus far, the sexual freedoms gained in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, in particular, the decreasing emphasis on monogamy, had been largely gained by men at women's expense. This assumption of heterosexuality would soon be challenged by the rise of political lesbianism, closely associated with Atkinson and The Feminists.


title: Radical feminism

text: Redstockings and The Feminists were both radical feminist organizations, but held rather distinct views. Most members of Redstockings held to a materialist and anti-psychologistic view. They viewed men's oppression of women as ongoing and deliberate, holding individual men responsible for this oppression, viewing institutions and systems (including the family) as mere vehicles of conscious male intent, and rejecting psychologistic explanations of female submissiveness as blaming women for collaboration in their own oppression. They held to a view—which Willis would later describe as "neo-Maoist"—that it would be possible to unite all or virtually all women, as a class, to confront this oppression by personally confronting men.


title: Radical feminism

text: The Feminists held a more idealistic, psychologistic, and utopian philosophy, with a greater emphasis on "sex roles", seeing sexism as rooted in "complementary patterns of male and female behavior". They placed more emphasis on institutions, seeing marriage, family, prostitution, and heterosexuality as all existing to perpetuate the "sex-role system". They saw all of these as institutions to be destroyed. Within the group, there were further disagreements, such as Koedt's viewing the institution of "normal" sexual intercourse as being focused mainly on male sexual or erotic pleasure, while Atkinson viewed it mainly in terms of reproduction. In contrast to the Redstockings, The Feminists generally considered genitally focused sexuality to be inherently male. Ellen Willis, the Redstockings co-founder, would later write that insofar as the Redstockings considered abandoning heterosexual activity, they saw it as a "bitter price" they "might have to pay for [their] militance", whereas The Feminists embraced separatist feminism as a strategy.


title: Radical feminism

text: The New York Radical Feminists (NYRF) took a more psychologistic (and even biologically determinist) line. They argued that men dominated women not so much for material benefits as for the ego satisfaction intrinsic in domination. Similarly, they rejected the Redstockings view that women submitted only out of necessity or The Feminists' implicit view that they submitted out of cowardice, but instead argued that social conditioning simply led most women to accept a submissive role as "right and natural".


title: Radical feminism

text: The radical feminism of the late 60s was not only a movement of ideology and theory; it helped to inspire direct action. In 1968, feminists protested against the Miss America pageant in order to bring "sexist beauty ideas and social expectations" to the forefront of women's social issues. Even though bras were not burned on that day, the protest led to the phrase "bra-burner". "Feminists threw their bras—along with "woman-garbage" such as girdles, false eyelashes, steno pads, wigs, women's magazines, and dishcloths—into a "Freedom Trash Can", but they did not set it on fire". In March 1970, more than one hundred feminists staged an 11-hour sit-in at the "Ladies' Home Journal" headquarters. These women demanded that the publication replace its male editor with a female editor, and accused the "Ladies Home Journal", "with their emphasis on food, family, fashion, and femininity", of being "instruments of women's oppression". One protester explained the goal of the protest by saying that they "were there to destroy a publication which feeds off of women's anger and frustration, a magazine which destroys women."


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists used a variety of tactics, including demonstrations, speakouts, and community and work-related organizing, to gain exposure and adherents. In France and West Germany radical feminists developed further forms of direct action.


title: Radical feminism

text: On 6 June 1971 the cover of "Stern" showed 28 German actresses and journalists confessing “We Had an Abortion!” () unleashing a campaign against the abortion ban. The journalist Alice Schwarzer had organized this avowal form of protest following a French example.


title: Radical feminism

text: Later in 1974, Schwarzer persuaded 329 doctors to publicly admit in "Der Spiegel" to having performed abortions. She also found a woman willing to terminate her pregnancy on camera with vacuum aspiration, thereby promoting this method of abortion by showing it on the German political television program "Panorama". Cristina Perincioli described this as "... a new tactic: the ostentatious, publicly documented violation of a law that millions of women had broken thus far, only in secret and under undignified circumstances." However, with strong opposition from church groups and most of the broadcasting councils governing West Germany's ARD (association of public broadcasters), the film was not aired. Instead Panorama's producers replaced the time slot with a statement of protest and the display of an empty studio.


title: Radical feminism

text: In the 1970s, radical women's centers without a formal hierarchy sprang up in West Berlin. These Berlin-based women's centers did abortion counseling, compiled a list of Dutch abortion clinics, organized regular bus trips to them, and were utilized by women from other parts of West Germany. Police accused the organizers of an illegal conspiracy. "The center used these arrests to publicize its strategy of civil disobedience and raised such a public outcry that the prosecutions were dropped. The bus trips continued without police interference. This victory was politically significant in two respects... while the state did not change the law, it did back off from enforcing it, deferring to women's collective power. The feminist claim to speak for women was thus affirmed by both women and the state."


title: Radical feminism

text: In West Germany, 1973 saw the start of a radical feminist group campaign to withdraw from membership in the Catholic Church as a protest against its anti-abortion position and activities. "Can we continue to be responsible for funding a male institution that ... condemns us as ever to the house, to cooking and having children, but above all to having children". In Germany those baptized in one of the officially recognized churches have to document that they have formally left the church in order not to be responsible for paying a church tax.


title: Radical feminism

text: In November 1972 two women in a sexual relationship, Marion Ihns and Judy Andersen, were arrested and charged with hiring a man to kill Ihns's abusive husband. Pretrial publicity, particularly that by "Bild", Germany's largest tabloid, was marked by anti-lesbian sensationalism. In response, lesbian groups and women's centers in Germany joined in fervent protest. The cultural clash continued through the trial which eventually resulted in the conviction of the women in October 1974 and life sentences for both. However, a petition brought by 146 female journalists and 41 male colleagues to the German Press Council resulted in its censure of the Axel Springer Company, "Bild"'s publisher. At one point in the lead up to the trial "Bild" had run a seventeen consecutive day series on "The Crimes of Lesbian Women".


title: Radical feminism

text: Helped women to gain knowledge about how their own bodies functioned so they would no longer need to rely solely on the medical profession. An outgrowth of this movement was the founding of the (FFGZ) in Berlin in 1974.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists have generally formed small activist or community associations around either consciousness raising or concrete aims. Many radical feminists in Australia participated in a series of squats to establish various women's centers, and this form of action was common in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By the mid-1980s many of the original consciousness raising groups had dissolved, and radical feminism was more and more associated with loosely organized university collectives. Radical feminism can still be seen, particularly within student activism and among working-class women. In Australia, many feminist social organizations had accepted government funding during the 1980s, and the election of a conservative government in 1996 crippled these organizations. A radical feminist movement also emerged among Jewish women in Israel beginning in the early 1970s. While radical feminists aim to dismantle patriarchal society, their immediate aims are generally concrete. Common demands include:


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists have written about a wide range of issues regarding the sex industry—which they tend to oppose—including but not limited to what many see as: the harm done to women during the production of pornography, the social harm from consumption of pornography, the coercion and poverty that leads women to become prostitutes, the long-term detrimental effects of prostitution, the raced and classed nature of prostitution, and male dominance over women in prostitution and pornography.


title: Radical feminism

text: Feminists who oppose the acceptance and endorsement of prostitution by rebranding it as "sex work" are sometimes disparagingly labeled as "sex worker exclusionary radical feminists" or "SWERF". These argue that the term "sex work" contains political assumptions, rather than being a neutral term. They argue the term endorses the idea that sex is labour for women and leisure for men, accords men the social and economic power to act as a boss class in the matter of intercourse, and also implies that women's bodies exist as a resource to be used by other people.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists argue that most women who become prostitutes are forced into it by a pimp, human trafficking, poverty, drug addiction, or trauma such as child sexual abuse. Women from the lowest socioeconomic classes—impoverished women, women with a low level of education, women from the most disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities—are over-represented in prostitution all over the world. Catharine MacKinnon asked: "If prostitution is a free choice, why are the women with the fewest choices the ones most often found doing it?" Radical feminist Melissa Farley conducted a 2004 study of 854 people involved in prostitution internationally, finding that 89% of respondents stated they wanted to escape prostitution but could not, 72% were currently or formerly homeless, and 68% met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.


title: Radical feminism

text: MacKinnon argues that "In prostitution, women have sex with men they would never otherwise have sex with. The money thus acts as a form of force, not as a measure of consent. It acts like physical force does in rape." They believe that no person can be said to truly consent to their own oppression and no-one should have the right to consent to the oppression of others. Kathleen Barry argues that consent is not a "good divining rod as to the existence of oppression, and consent to violation is a fact of oppression". Andrea Dworkin wrote in 1992:


title: Radical feminism

text: Dworkin argued that "prostitution and equality for women cannot exist simultaneously" and to eradicate prostitution "we must seek ways to use words and law to end the abusive selling and buying of girls' and women's bodies for men's sexual pleasure".


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminist thinking has analyzed prostitution as a cornerstone of patriarchal domination and sexual subjugation of women that impacts negatively not only on the women and girls in prostitution but on all women as a group, because prostitution continually affirms and reinforces patriarchal definitions of women as having a primary function to serve men sexually. They say it is crucial that society does not replace one patriarchal view on female sexuality—that women should not have sex/a relationship outside marriage and that casual sex is shameful for a woman—with another similarly oppressive and patriarchal view—acceptance of prostitution, a sexual practice based on a highly patriarchal construct of sexuality: that the sexual pleasure of a woman is irrelevant, that her only role during sex is to submit to the man's sexual demands and to do what he tells her, that sex should be controlled by the man, and that the woman's response and satisfaction are irrelevant. Radical feminists argue that sexual liberation for women cannot be achieved so long as we normalize unequal sexual practices where a man dominates a woman. "Feminist consciousness raising remains the foundation for collective struggle and the eventual liberation of women".


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists strongly object to the patriarchal ideology that has been one of the justifications for the existence of prostitution, namely that prostitution is a "necessary evil", because men cannot control themselves, and that it is therefore "necessary" that a small number of women be "sacrificed" to be abused by men, to protect "chaste" women from rape and harassment. These feminists argue that far from decreasing rape rates, prostitution actually leads to an increase in sexual violence against women, by sending the message that it is acceptable for a man to treat a woman as a sexual instrument over which he has total control. For instance, Melissa Farley argues that Nevada's high rate of rapes is exacerbated by the patriarchal atmosphere encouraged by legal prostitution.


title: Radical feminism

text: Indigenous women are particularly targeted for prostitution. In Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, and Taiwan, studies have shown that indigenous women are at the bottom of the race and class hierarchy of prostitution, often subjected to the worst conditions, most violent demands and sold at the lowest price. It is common for indigenous women to be over-represented in prostitution when compared with their total population. This is as a result of the combined forces of colonialism, physical displacement from ancestral lands, destruction of indigenous social and cultural order, misogyny, globalization/neoliberalism, race discrimination and extremely high levels of violence perpetrated against them.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists, notably Catharine MacKinnon, charge that the production of pornography entails physical, psychological, and/or economic coercion of the women who perform and model in it. This is said to be true even when the women are presented as enjoying themselves.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists point to the testimony of well-known participants in pornography, such as Traci Lords and Linda Boreman, and argue that most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else or by an unfortunate set of circumstances. The feminist anti-pornography movement was galvanized by the publication of "Ordeal", in which Linda Boreman (who under the name of "Linda Lovelace" had starred in "Deep Throat") stated that she had been beaten, raped, and pimped by her husband Chuck Traynor, and that Traynor had forced her at gunpoint to make scenes in "Deep Throat", as well as forcing her, by use of both physical violence against Boreman as well as emotional abuse and outright threats of violence, to make other pornographic films. Dworkin, MacKinnon, and Women Against Pornography issued public statements of support for Boreman, and worked with her in public appearances and speeches. She later became a born-again Christian and a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists hold the view that pornography contributes to sexism, arguing that in pornographic performances the actresses are reduced to mere receptacles—objects—for sexual use and abuse by men. They argue that the narrative is usually formed around men's pleasure as the only goal of sexual activity, and that the women are shown in a subordinate role. Some opponents believe pornographic films tend to show women as being extremely passive, or that the acts which are performed on the women are typically abusive and solely for the pleasure of their sex partner. On-face ejaculation and anal sex are increasingly popular among men, following trends in porn. MacKinnon and Dworkin defined pornography as "the graphic sexually explicit subordination of women through pictures or words that also includes women dehumanized as sexual objects, things, or commodities..."


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical feminists say that consumption of pornography is a cause of rape and other forms of violence against women. Robin Morgan summarizes this idea with her oft-quoted statement, "Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice." They charge that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment. In her book "Only Words" (1993), MacKinnon argues that pornography "deprives women of the right to express verbal refusal of an intercourse".


title: Radical feminism

text: MacKinnon argued that pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering rape myths. Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. She held that "rape myths perpetuate sexual violence indirectly by creating distorted beliefs and attitudes about sexual assault and shift elements of blame onto the victims". Additionally, according to MacKinnon, pornography desensitizes viewers to violence against women, and this leads to a progressive need to see more violence in order to become sexually aroused, an effect she claims is well documented.


title: Radical feminism

text: German radical feminist Alice Schwarzer is one proponent of the view that pornography offers a distorted sense of men and women's bodies, as well as the actual sexual act, often showing performers with synthetic implants or exaggerated expressions of pleasure, engaging in fetishes that are presented as popular and normal.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical lesbians are distinguished from other radical feminists through their ideological roots in political lesbianism. Radical lesbians see lesbianism as an act of resistance against the political institution of heterosexuality, which they view as violent and oppressive towards women. Julie Bindel has written that her lesbianism is "intrinsically bound up" with her feminism.


title: Radical feminism

text: During the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1970s, straight women within the movement were challenged on the grounds that their heterosexual identities helped to perpetuate the very patriarchal systems that they were working to undo. According to radical lesbian writer Jill Johnston, a large fraction of the movement sought to reform sexist institutions while "leaving intact the staple nuclear unit of oppression: heterosexual sex". Others saw lesbianism as a strong political tool to help end male dominance and as central to the women's movement.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical lesbians criticized the women's liberation movement for its failure to criticize the "psychological oppression" of heteronormativity, which they believed to be "the sexual foundation of the social institutions". They argued that heterosexual love relationships perpetuated patriarchal power relations through "personal domination" and therefore directly contradicted the values and goals of the movement. As one radical lesbian wrote, "no matter what the feminist does, the physical act [of heterosexuality] throws both women and man back into role playing... all of her politics are instantly shattered". They argued that the women's liberation movement would not be successful without challenging heteronormativity.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radical lesbians believed lesbianism actively threatened patriarchal systems of power. They defined lesbians not only by their sexual orientation, but by their liberation and independence from men. Lesbian activists Sidney Abbott and Barbara Love argued that "the lesbian "has" freed herself from male domination" through disconnecting from them not only sexually, but also "financially and emotionally". They argued that lesbianism fosters the utmost independence from gendered systems of power, and from the "psychological oppression" of heteronormativity.


title: Radical feminism

text: Rejecting norms of gender, sex and sexuality was central to radical lesbian feminism. Radical lesbians believed that "lesbian identity was a 'woman-identified' identity'", meaning it should be defined by and with reference to women, rather than in relation to men.


title: Radical feminism

text: In their manifesto "The Woman-Identified Woman", the lesbian radical feminist group Radicalesbians underlined their belief in the necessity of creating a "new consciousness" that rejected traditional normative definitions of womanhood and femininity which centered on powerlessness. Their redefinition of womanhood and femininity stressed the freeing of lesbian identity from harmful and divisive stereotypes. As Abbot and Love argued in "Is Women's Liberation a Lesbian Plot?" (1971):


title: Radical feminism

text: As long as the word 'dyke' can be used to frighten women into a less militant stand, keep women separate from their sisters, and keep them from giving primacy to anything other than men and family—then to that extent they are dominated by male culture.


title: Radical feminism

text: Radicalesbians reiterated this thought, writing, "in this sexist society, for a woman to be independent means she can't be a woman, she must be a dyke". The rhetoric of a ""woman-identified-woman"" has been criticized for its exclusion of heterosexual women. According to some critics, "[lesbian feminism's use of] woman-identifying rhetoric should be considered a rhetorical failure. Critics also argue that the intensity of radical lesbian feminist politics, on top of the preexisting stigma around lesbianism, gave a bad face to the feminist movement and provided fertile ground for tropes like the ""man-hater"" or ""bra burner"".


title: Radical feminism

text: Since the 1970s, there has been a debate among radical feminists about transgender identities. Some radical feminists, such as Catharine MacKinnon, John Stoltenberg, Andrea Dworkin, Monique Wittig, and Finn Mackay have supported recognition of trans women as women, which they describe as "trans-inclusive" feminism, while others like Mary Daly, Janice Raymond, Robin Morgan, Germaine Greer, Sheila Jeffreys, Julie Bindel, and Robert Jensen, have argued that the transgender movement perpetuates patriarchal gender norms and is incompatible with radical-feminist ideology.


title: Radical feminism

text: Those who exclude trans women from womanhood or women's spaces refer to themselves as "gender critical" and are referred to by others as trans-exclusionary. Radical feminists in particular who exclude trans women are often referred to as "trans-exclusionary radical feminists" or "TERFs", an acronym to which they object, say is inaccurate (citing, for example, their inclusion of trans men as women), and argue is a slur or even hate speech. These feminists argue that because trans women are assigned male at birth, they are accorded corresponding privileges in society, and even if they choose to present as women, the fact that they have a choice in this sets them apart from people assigned female.


title: Radical feminism

text: Gender-critical or trans-exclusionary radical feminists in particular say that the difference in behavior between men and women is the result of socialization, and the idea that someone would have an inborn sense of femininity or masculinity runs contrary to the theory of gender socialization. Lierre Keith describes femininity as "a set of behaviors that are, in essence, ritualized submission", and hence, gender is not an identity but a caste position, and the philosophies of gender-identity (specifically the feminine essence philosophy) are an obstacle to the abolition of gender and a reversion to a sex-based society. Julie Bindel argued in 2008 that Iran carries out the highest number of sex-change operations in the world, because "surgery is an attempt to keep gender stereotypes intact", and that "it is precisely this idea that certain distinct behaviours are appropriate for males and females that underlies feminist criticism of the phenomenon of 'transgenderism'." According to the BBC in 2014, there are no reliable figures regarding gender-reassignment operations in Iran.


title: Radical feminism

text: In 1978, the Lesbian Organization of Toronto voted to become womyn-born womyn only and wrote:A woman's voice was almost never heard as a woman's voice—it was always filtered through men's voices. So here a guy comes along saying, "I'm going to be a girl now and speak for girls." And we thought, "No you're not." A person cannot just join the oppressed by fiat.


title: Radical feminism

text: In "" (1979), the lesbian radical feminist Janice Raymond argued that "All transsexuals rape women’s bodies by reducing


title: Radical feminism

text: the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves. However, the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist violates women’s sexuality and spirit, as well. Rape, although it is usually done by force, can also be accomplished by deception. It is significant that in the case of the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist, often he is able to gain entrance and a dominant position in women’s spaces because the women involved do not know he is a transsexual and he just does not happen to mention it." In "The Whole Woman" (1999), Germaine Greer wrote that largely male governments "recognise as women men who believe that they are women ... because [those governments] see women not as another sex but as a non-sex"; she continued that if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were a mandatory part of sex-change operations, the latter "would disappear overnight".


title: Radical feminism

text: Sheila Jeffreys argued in 1997 that "the vast majority of transsexuals still subscribe to the traditional stereotype of women" and that by transitioning they are "constructing a conservative fantasy of what women should be ... an essence of womanhood which is deeply insulting and restrictive." In "Gender Hurts" (2014), she referred to sex reassignment surgery as "self-mutilation", and used pronouns that refer to biological sex. Jeffreys argued that feminists need to know "the biological sex of those who claim to be women and promote prejudicial versions of what constitutes womanhood", and that the "use by men of feminine pronouns conceals the masculine privilege bestowed upon them by virtue of having been placed in and brought up in the male sex caste".


title: Radical feminism

text: By contrast, trans-inclusive radical feminists claim that a biology-based or sex-essentialist ideology itself upholds patriarchal constructions of womanhood. Others assert that trans women also contributed to the feminist movement, and Susan Stryker stated that "transsexual women were active in the radical feminist movement of the late 1960s, but were almost entirely erased from its history after 1973" due to pushback from gender critical feminists. Andrea Dworkin argued as early as 1974 that transgender people and gender identity research have the potential to radically undermine patriarchal sex essentialism:


title: Radical feminism

text: ...work with transsexuals, and studies of formation of gender identity in children provide basic information which challenges the notion that there are two discrete biological sexes. That information threatens to transform the traditional biology of sex difference into the radical biology of sex similarity. That is not to say that there is one sex, but that there are many. The evidence which is germane here is simple. The words "male" and "female," "man" and "woman," are used only because as yet there are no others.


title: Radical feminism

text: In the late 2010s, interest in the issue of trans-inclusive feminism rose as trans acceptance gained headway. In 2015, radical feminist Catherine MacKinnon said:


title: Radical feminism

text: Male dominant society has defined women as a discrete biological group forever. If this was going to produce liberation, we'd be free ... To me, women is a political group. I never had much occasion to say that, or work with it, until the last few years when there has been a lot of discussion about whether trans women are women ... I always thought I don't care how someone becomes a woman or a man; it does not matter to me. It is just part of their specificity, their uniqueness, like everyone else's. Anybody who identifies as a woman, wants to be a woman, is going around being a woman, as far as I'm concerned, is a woman.