Feminism

Resisting Puerto Rican Sterilization

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, Latino, Privatization, Subjectives of Refusal, White Supremacy

In a newspaper article from the Young Lords in 1970, Iris Morales writes about the genocide committed against Puerto Rican women. In 1947-1948, “7% of the women were sterilized; between 1953-1954, 4 out of every 25 Sisters were sterilized; and by 1965, the number increased to 1 out every 3 women.” Morales identifies the United States government and capitalist systems as the perpetrators of this genocide. She states that sterilization is a mechanism the racist government uses to control the Puerto Rican population. She calls on fellow Puerto Rican women and men to work together to raise awareness of this genocide and resist the demise of the future generation of Puerto Ricans.

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The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism (Audre Lorde, 1981)

1946-1989, Black, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Women

In this piece from Audre Lorde, a renowned intersectional feminist/activist, she offers the use of anger as a unifying force for women across the lines of race. White women struggled to understand the consequences of racism, even in their own activism. Lorde suggests that this divide can be lessened when women empathize with each other and use their divergent experiences to come together against the patriarchy. Anger can be a powerful tool instead of a divisive force.

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“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of Color remains chained. Nor is any one of you.”

Panther Sisters (Black Panther Party, 1969)

1946-1989, Black, Date, Defining the Enemy, History/Theory, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Theory, White Supremacy, Women

This is part of an interview where a group of women in the Black Panther Party discuss how the struggle for women’s rights intersected with their experiences in the Party. Many of them recall how they were expected to fill “women’s roles,” such as secretary positions. This pattern of misogyny and lack of awareness about women’s liberation was disrupted through efforts from women in the party. They assert that freedom can’t be achieved without the full and active participation of women.

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“A revolution cannot be successful simply with the efforts of the men, because a woman plays such an integral role in society even though she is relegated to smaller, seemingly insignificant positions.”

There Was A Young Woman Who Swallowed a Lie (Meredith Tax, 1972)

1946-1989, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, White Supremacy, Women

This series of cartoons produced by the Women’s Liberation Movement holds a deeper meaning and purpose of consciousness raising. It illustrates the standards that women were forced to adhere to and how natural those standards can become in everyday life. As it nears the end, the protagonist’s solution to escape these stifling restrictions is to join liberation movements and push for women’s rights to choose in all aspects of life. Let go of all of the expectations and just exist freely!

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The Sixties Speak to the Eighties (Redstockings, 1983)

1946-1989, Black, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, White Supremacy, Women

The Redstockings are a radical feminist group that emerged partly out of the Women’s Liberation Movement. In this speech, Kathie Sarachild, a prominent activist and leader within the Redstockings, reflects on her time spent with the Civil Rights Movement. Specifically, she focuses on how white feminists need to reflect on who their cause benefits the most and how people in power have intentionally created splits in ideologies so in – fighting remains a constant issue for groups trying to work together. She aims to disrupt the established patterns of thinking and create more opportunities for a collective group working together to disrupt the patriarchy and white supremacy.

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Riot Grrrl Manifesto (1991)

1990-2010, Date, Defining the Enemy, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Women

The Riot Grrrl movement began in Washington State in the 1990s. It sought to address sexism and other forms of oppression in the punk music industry and throughout society at large. This document is their manifesto.

“BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations…

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.”

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Throwing Like A Girl by Iris Marion Young (1980)

1946-1989, Date, Defining the Enemy, History/Theory, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Theory, Women

This feminist essay by Iris Marion Young draws on works from Simone de Beauvoir and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to look at differences in feminine and masculine movement and how that movement is embodied and how it affects the mental and physical space of women.

The women lives her space as confined and closed around her, at least in part as projecting some small area in which she can exist as a free subject.

Iris Marion Young
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bell hooks – Feminism is for Everybody (2000)

1990-2010, Black, Date, Defining the Enemy, History/Theory, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, The Bourgeoisie, Theory, White Supremacy, Women, Workers

bell hooks is a feminist, professor, and activist. In 2000, she published “Feminism is for Everybody”. Key to her politics and feminist philosophy is that the overarching “enemy”/structure to dismantle is the “white suprmacist capitalist patriarchy”. She intentionally does not capitalize her name so that the main focus of her writing is never her name, but rather, the content of her writings/speeches.

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I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities (1985)

1946-1989, Black, Consciousness Raising, Date, Defining the Enemy, History/Theory, Patriarchy, Subjectives of Refusal, Tactics of Disruption, Theory, White Supremacy, Women

In 1985, feminist, civil rights activist, and librarian Audre Lorde published “I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities”. The essay was centered around organizing black women in the fight against patriarchy by uniting women of all sexualities.

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