Legal Rights, Radical Liberation,

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Legal Rights, Radical Liberation, Proliferating
Identity Politics

• Continuing Feminisms 1970s-1980s

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• I. Expanding the Base of Women through Inclusion
• A. Racial Stereotypes and Alliances
• See 1971 Asian Women WA p585
• 1977 Combahee River Collective p586
• B. Is lesbianism a feminist issue? Not NOW
• 1969-1971 NOW split over issue
• 1970 Congress to Unite Women
• Lavender Menace, Woman-Identified Woman
• 1971 Resolution a womans right to her own
  person includes the right to define and express
  her own sexuality

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• C. Beauty Standards Fat Liberation
• 1968 Miss America Beauty Pageant Protest
• by New York Radical Women

Bras, girdles, wigs, curlers, cosmetics, were
thrown away, but not burned.
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• 1972-1977 Fat Underground, L.A. ? members moved
  formed more groups
• Reclaiming fat as neutral description cf.
  overweight
• Karen Scott-Jones 1978 Were
• fat, and people shouldnt be afraid to call
  us that. Its a descriptive adjective like
  tall or short, not a dirty word.
• 1) Anti-psychiatry training
• 2) Llewellyn Louderbach, Fat Power 1970
  conclusions
• a) on average fat people did not eat more than
  thin
• b) doctor-supervised diets ? 1-2 not regain in
  5 yrs.
• c) study of fat people in nonjudgmental
  environment

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• 3) Feminism
• ( conflict with Natl Assoc. to Aid Fat
  Americans)
• 4) Sexual Revolution
• (1988 ? CA NOW support 1990)
• 5) Anti-capitalism vs. diet industry
• Disability rights platform
• Cf. 1993 Harvard Public Health study (ideas
  mainstreamed)

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• D. Disability Accommodation
• 1973 Rehabilitation Act, Sec. 504
• 1977 pressure from disabled Americans
• Womens Music Festivals women-only spaces
• E.g. Sweet Honey In the Rock 1973

Shirley Childress Saxton of Sweet Honey In the
Rock teaching Audre Lorde Amer. Sign Lang.
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• E. Feminist Shift from Class Revolution to
  Classism

The Furies collective 1972 published articles
that included societal class analysis
critique of women from m-c backgrounds. Other
former New Left women Organized in factories with
unions. Mid-1970s shift to examining individuals
behavior/values.
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• F. Protecting Women from Male Violence
• Raising Awareness on Rape
• 1971 Speak out
• Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will Men, Women
  and Rape 1975
• Marital Rape
• Diana Russell, The Politics of Rape 1975
• Campaign to criminalize rape within marriage
• Problem Angela Davis, Women, Race, Class 1981
• ch. Rape, Racism the Myth of the Black
  Rapist
• Brownmiller misused Emmett Till
• Russell skewed own data

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• Womens Self-Defense
• 1970s start of womens self-defense movement
• 1974 Inez Garcia case
• 1975 Joann Little case