The World Split Open (87 page)

For public farewells to the Left, see Robin Morgan, “Goodbye to All That,” in
Rat
(January 19, 1969); “A Letter to the Editor of
Ramparts
Magazine,”
Notes from the First Year: Women's Liberation
, June 1969; Rita
Mae Brown, “Say It Isn't So,”
Rat
(March 7–21); Marge Piercy, “The Grand Coolie Damn,” in Morgan,
Sisterhood is Powerful.

For black women's struggle with black power advocates and nationalists, see Rivka Polonick's “Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology: How a Black and a White Group of the 1960's Viewed Motherhood,”
Signs
(Spring 1996): 679, and from Black Women's Liberation Group, Mount Vernon, New York,
Statement on Birth Control
in Morgan,
Sisterhood
, 404. For a variety of views, see “Birth Control Pill and Black Children, A Statement by the Black Unity Party” (Peekskill, N.Y.); “A Response,” by black sisters, and “Poor Black Women,” by Patricia Robinson, in the pamphlet
Poor Black Women
(Boston: New England Free Press, c. 1968).

Early critiques of the sexual revolution came fast and furiously. The best single work on the history of sexuality is Estelle Freedman and John D'Emilio,
Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America
(New York: Harper & Row, 1988). Many young feminists argued that the sexual revolution had arrived on men's terms. See Roxanne Dunbar, “Sexual Liberation: More of the Same Thing,”
No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation 31
(November 1969): 49–56; Ti-Grace Atkinson, “The Institution of Sexual Intercourse,”
Notes from the Second Year
, 42–48, APA; “Sex and Women's Liberation in Redstockings,”
Feminist Revolution;
Nancy Hawley, “Dear Sisters,” Xeroxed handout, October 8, 1970, APA; “Women Are Kept Apart,” in Sooki Stambler,
Women's Liberation
(New York: Ace, 1970); “Did You Come,” in
Notes from the First Year
(New York, 1968); “A Fat Woman's Journal,”
Country Women
(October 1972): 7; Laura X, “Our Sexual Revolution,”
Velvet Glove
, circa 1969. Anne Koedt, “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,”
Notes from the First Year
, and an expanded version in Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt, eds.,
Notes from the Second Year
, 36–41, APA. For other critiques of the sexual revolution, see Dana Densmore, “Independence from the Sexual Revolution,” reprinted in
Radical Feminism
, 107–118; Barbara Seaman, “The Liberated Orgasm,”
Ms.
, August 1972; and Anselma Dell'Olio, “The Sexual Revolution Wasn't Our War,”
Ms.
, Spring 1972; Dana Densmore, “On Celibacy,” in Tanner,
Voices from Women's Liberation
, first published in the feminist journal
No More Fun and Games
, no. 1 (1969); Kate, “What Is There to Say About Celibacy?”
Kansas City Women's Liberation Newsletter
4:1 (1974): 10; Leila, “Voices,”
Country Women
(April 1975): 8–9. Celibacy was especially appealing when women needed a respite, felt confused after so much rapid change, and needed to sort things out. See Dana Densmore, “Freedom from Sex,” reprinted in Koedt,
Radical Feminism;
Abby Rockefeller, “Sex: The Basis of Sexism,” in
No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation
(May 1973): 5–37; Ellen Willis, “Radical Feminism and
Feminist Radicalism,” in Sonya Sayres, Stanley Aronowitz, and Ander Stephenson, eds.,
The 60's Without Apology
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1984); “Women Rap About Sex,” in
Notes from the First Year: Women's Liberation
, June 1968, unpaginated; Brenda Starr, “Beyond Orgasm,”
Everywoman
(March 5, 1971): 12; Barbara Brenner Nizislek, “Liberating the Second Sex from the Heterosexual Norm,”
Women: A Journal of Liberation
3:1 (1972): 60; “Sex: An Open Letter from a Sister,”
It Ain't Me Babe
(March 15, 1970). Masturbation as the route to sexual independence is discussed in “Very Pleasurable Politics,”
Rat
(December 17, 1970): 12.

Sources for further research that may not be as widely known are “The Myth of the Liberated Female,” Mary Ann Routledge,
Dayton Women's Liberation Newsletter
(September 27, 1972): 1–2; Ann Markin,
Letter to Women: A Journal of Liberation
(Fall 1969): 47, in which she argues that the freedom of the sexual revolution is simply to be a sex object; Claudia Dreifus, “The Selling of the Feminist: Who Is the Enemy?” in
It Ain't Me Babe
(February 1970).

Both the first edition of Boston Women's Health Collective's “Women and Their Bodies,” printed by the New England Free Press in 1970, as well as the first commercial edition of
Our Bodies, Ourselves
(Simon and Schuster, 1973), included material on masturbation and described women's shame about the practice, as well as how they learned to do it.

Interpretative essays on the sexual revolution include: Diana Newell, “Sex in the '70s: A Wrap-up of the Decadent Decade,”
Play girl
, December 1979; Shere Hite,
The Hite Report
(New York: Dell, 1976), 263; Deirdre English and Barbara Ehrenreich, “Sexual Liberation: The Shortest Revolution,” in Evelyn Shapiro and Barry Shapiro, eds.,
The Women Say, The Men Say: Women's Liberation and Men's Consciousness
(New York: Delta, 1979), 120–27; Sheila Jeffreys,
Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective of the Sexual Revolution
(New York: NYU Press, 1990); Ellen Willis, “Toward a Feminist Sexual Revolution” in
No More Nice Girls
(Hanover: University Press of New England, 1992), 19–51; Lynn Segal,
Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994); Susan Douglas,
Where the Girls Are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media
(New York: Anchor Press, 1987); Naomi Wolf,
Promiscuities
(New York: Random House, 1997); and David Allyn,
Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution, an Unfettered History
(New York: Little Brown, 2000) offer different perspectives on the sexual revolution.

Abortion. For historical background, see Leslie Reagan,
When Abortion Was a Crime
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997); Cynthia Gorney,
Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998); and Linda Gordon,
Woman's Body, Woman's Right
(New York: Grossman, 1976). The search for the right “Jane Doe” can be found in Marian Faux,
Roe v. Wade: The Untold Story of the Landmark
Supreme Court Decision That Made Abortion Legal
(New York: New American Library, 1988).

The story of one illegal abortion underground service is in Laura Kaplan,
The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995); for feminist analysis and scholarship on abortion, also see Rosalind Pollack Petchesky,
Abortion and Women's Choice
(New York: Longman, 1984); Beverly Wildung Harrison,
Our Right to Choose: Toward a New Ethics of Abortion
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1983); Kristin Luker,
Abortion: The Politics of Motherhood
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); Carole Joffe,
Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe v. Wade
(Boston: Beacon, 1995) and
The Regulation of Sexuality: Experiences of Family Planning Workers
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986); Rickie Solinger,
The Abortionist: A Woman Against the Law
(New York: Free Press, 1994).

Androgyny. In the mid-seventies, the topic of androgyny became increasingly trendy. Some feminists took the idea seriously. See Paul Rust,
Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty and Revolution
(New York: New York University Press, 1995). The most important book was Carolyn Heilbrun's widely read book,
Toward a Recognition of Androgyny
(New York: Knopf, 1973), which was much debated.

Beauty. Some of the earliest writings in the women's movement addressed the artificial and narrow definition of beauty that the media promoted. See, for example, in Morgan,
Sisterhood
, Zoe Moss, “It Hurts to Be Alive and Obsolete: The Ageing Woman”; Alice Embree, “Media Images 1: Madison Avenue Brainwashing—The Facts”; Florika, “Media Images 2: Body Odor.” Lois Banner,
American Beauty
(New York: Knopf, 1983); Kim Chernin,
The Obsession
(New York: Harper and Row, 1981), and Marcia Millman,
Such a Pretty Face
(New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1980), were important early works that analyzed the influence of beauty culture.

Lesbian feminism. Two of the earliest pieces on lesbian feminism were Del Martin, “If That's All There Is,” n.d., UWA, and Martha Shelley, “Notes of a Radical Lesbian,” in Morgan,
Sisterhood
, 343–48. For powerful stories written by women who were hidden and eventually came out, see Julia Penelope Stanley and Susan J. Wolfe, eds.,
The Coming Out Stories
(Watertown, Mass: Persephone Press, 1980). Two of the most widely debated essays were Radicalesbians, “The Woman-Identified Woman,” APA, also reprinted in Koedt,
Radical Feminism
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987), 240–46, and Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,”
Signs
5:4 (Summer 1980): 631–60; Nancy Whittier,
Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Women's Movement
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995), emphasizes the importance of lesbians'
role in sustaining the movement and its institutions. On the political limits and contradictions of the “woman-identified woman,” see Shane Phelan,
Identity Politics: Lesbianism and the Limits of Community
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), chapter 3. There is an enormous literature on the origins, impact, and consequences of lesbian feminism and separatism. See Nancy Myron and Charlotte Bunch, eds.,
Lesbianism and the Women's Movement
(Baltimore: Diana Press, 1975); Dolores Klaich,
Woman + Woman: Attitudes Toward Lesbianism
(New York: William Morrow and Co., 1974); Alison M. Jagger,
Feminist Politics and Human Nature
(Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983), 12; Lillian Faderman,
Surpassing the Love of Men
(New York: William Morrow, 1981); Toby Marotta,
The Politics of Homosexuality
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981); and Charlotte Bunch,
Passionate Politics
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987). Carol, Natalie, Ellen, and Pat, eds.,
Lesbians Speak Out
(San Francisco: Free Women's Press, 1971), is an important essay collection.
Come Out! Selections from the Radical Gay Liberation Newspaper
(New York: Times Change Press, 1970); Gay Women's Liberation, Berkeley, “What It Means to Be a Lesbian,” December 1969, APA, reprinted in
Lesbians Speak Out;
Gay Women's Liberation, “Lesbians As Women,” November 1969. Audre Lorde, in her book
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
(Trumansburg, N.Y: The Crossing Press, 1984) and in her article “An Open Letter to Mary Daly,” in Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds.,
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
(New York: Kitchen Table Press, 1983), offers the best examples of her ability to describe triple oppression, while not casting herself as a victim.

Women's health movement. Sheryl Burt Ruzek,
The Women's Health Movement
(New York: Praeger, 1978), offers a good overview of the health movement. Barbara Seaman,
The Doctors' Case Against the Pill
(New York: P. H. Wyden, 1969), was a critique of the use of the Pill; Rose Kushner,
Breast Cancer: A Personal History and Investigative Report
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975), questioned radical mastectomies; Phyllis Chesler,
Women and Madness
(New York: Doubleday, 1972), examined gendered views of mental illness. Some of the most valuable criticisms of the medical establishment came from Ellen Frankfort,
Vaginal Politics
(New York: Quadrangle Books, 1972); Helen Marieskind and Barbara Ehrenreich, “Toward Socialist Medicine: The Women's Health Movement,”
Social Policy
(May/June 1975); Colette Price, “The First Self-Help Clinic,”
Feminist Revolution
(New York: Random House, 1978); “Off Our Backs,”
Health Supplements
(Summer 1971); Ruzek, “Medical Response to Women's Health Activities: Conflict, Accommodation and Co-optation,”
Research in the Sociology of Health Care
(Greenwich: Jai Press Inc., 1980); Paul Starr,
The Social Transformation of American Medicine
(New York: Basic Books, 1982). Health Policy Advisory Center, “Health PAC Bulletin”
(New York: 1970–72), offer different critiques of the medical profession's attitude toward and treatment of women. I am greatly indebted to Wang Zheng, whose unpublished master's thesis, “The Women's Health Movement in the United States,” U.C. Davis, 1987, taught me a great deal. For critiques on how medicine abused women, see Lucinda Cisler, “Unfinished Business: Birth Control and Women's Liberation,” in Morgan,
Sisterhood
, 274–320; Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English,
Complaints and Disorders
and
For Her Own Good
(New York: Anchor, 1979); Helen Marieskind, “The Women's Health Movement,”
International Journal of Health Service Research
5:2 (1975);
Off Our Backs, Health Supplement
(Summer 1971); Gena Corea,
The Mother Machine
(New York: Harper and Row, 1985).

Rape. The most powerful and first critique of rape from a feminist activist came from Susan Griffin, “Rape: The All-American Crime,”
Ramparts
10:3 (1971): 26–35. Other early critiques are Barbara Mehrhof and Pamela Kearon, “Rape: An Act of Terror,” reprinted in Koedt,
Radical Feminism
, 228–33;
Women Against Rape, Stop Rape
(Detroit, 1971); “Anatomy of a Rape” and “Disarm Rapists,” in
It Ain't Me, Babe
(July 23 and August 6, 1970). In 1975, Susan Brownmiller's influential book
Against Our Will
appeared. Other important material on rape includes Dorothy L. Barnes,
Rape, A Bibliography 1965–1975
(New York: Winston Publishers, 1977); New York Radical Feminists,
Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women
, Noreen Connell and Casandra Wilson, eds. (New York: Plume, 1974); and Nancy Mathews,
Confronting Rape: The Feminist Anti-Rape Movement and the State
(London: Routledge, 1994); Kathleen Barry, “The Vagina on Trial: The Institution and Psychology of Rape,” in
Women Against Rape, Stop Rape
(Detroit, 1971).