Author Archives: Vanessa

Susan Brownmiller and Shirley Chisholm

by Vanessa

Women’s Liberation parade on Fifth Ave, in New York, in August, 1971

 

It seems, from what we’ve read, and seen in Far From Heaven, that most women during the 1950s embraced and rather enjoyed the position of vulnerable, sensitive housewife. All the women surrounding Cathy continuously reminded her that she was to remain in her place if she did not want to be exiled from their group. However, we see a growth in resentment towards living a life as a controlled and dependent housewife beginning in the 1960s. Women grew tired of being “silently” beaten and/or raped by their husbands without society batting an eye. The following two posts (p. 510-511) demonstrate just how tired women were of the cruel treatment they received, and what they planned to do about it.

Firstly—

Women also began to speak openly, for the first time, about the problem of rape. Each year, fifty thousand rapes were reported and many more were unreported. Women began taking self-defense courses. There were protests against the way police treated women, interrogated them, insulted them, when women filed rape charges. A book by Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will, was widely read—it is a powerful, indignant history and analysis of rape, suggesting self-defense, individual or collective:

Fighting back. On a multiplicity of levels, that is the activity we must engage in, together, if we—women—are to redress the imbalance and rid ourselves and men of the ideology of rape. Rape can be eradicated, not merely controlled or avoided on an individual basis, but the approach must be long-range and cooperative, and must have the understanding and good will of many men as well as women…

Susa Brownmiller’s Against Our Will’s excerpt clearly shows a dramatic shift from the feeble, quiet image that women were encouraged to maintain, to a more liberated, independent woman figure. Now, instead of women enduring the abuse of their husbands, or other men, they were being encouraged to fight back. Rape was something that was not seen as vile up until the ‘60s and ‘70s. A woman would not fare well if she tried to declare that she was raped. “Rape? What rape? There’s no such thing as rape, men control you. You are their property, so they can and will do as please with you” would be the thought of policemen if they heard any accusations of rape. Brownmiller was taking a bold stance in declaring that such a disgusting act would not be tolerated any longer. Not only will women fight back, but they will change society’s views on rape so that people may realize that rape is and has always been an evil act. That is why Zinn included her. Women are no longer accepting that they are men’s property. They are not, and never have been. Brownmiller is a strong figure of women’s power and liberation.

Secondly—

Many women were active in trying to get a Constitutional amendment, ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), passed by enough states. But it seemed clear that even if it became law, it would not be enough, that what women had accomplished had come through organization, action, protest. Even where the law was helpful it was helpful only if backed by action. Shirley Chisholm, a black Congresswoman, said:

The law cannot do it for us. We must do it for ourselves. Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes… We must replace the old, negative thoughts about our femininity with positive thoughts and positive action…

The ERA was a legal symbol of women’s liberation. However, Zinn argues that what women accomplished was mainly due to protesting and taking action. Shirley Chisholm held the same belief despite being a black Congresswoman. People such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and students at Kent State held protests, and those protests are what caused change. Likewise, the protests and actions that women took in order to erase the image of vulnerable, dim housewife also caused great change. Her influential position is what made Zinn include her. She influenced women to change the stereotypes and traditional roles for the image of a new, liberated woman. This is how all liberation movements were effective. People protested, marched, spoke loudly, demanded, and acted. Zinn includes Brownmiller and Chisholm because they were some of the perhaps lesser known voices of the women’s liberation movement. Nevertheless, their words helped many women fight against centuries of oppression, and they were victorious.

Diminishing Patriarchy

by Vanessa

Gloria Steinem, Equal Rights for Women—Yes and No (1970)

 

“Women are not more moral than men. We are only uncorrupted by power. But we do not want to imitate men, to join this country as it is, and I think our very participation will change it. Perhaps women elected leaders—and there will be many of them—will not be so likely to dominate black people or yellow or men; anybody who looks different from us.”

Pre-1970s, women were seen as vulnerable, nurturing creatures. It was believed that women were biologically more inclined to desire caretaking, as well as naturally more level-headed than men. Women during the 60s and 70s challenged those beliefs. Gloria Steinem tries to convince a patriarchal society that women should play a role that has been dominated by men since the inception of government. She desires for women to have political power, but strangely, she uses the same preconceived notions about women, thus reinforcing gender stereotypes. She says that women are more moral than men, uncorrupted by power (because women are innocent). She is using these tactics to convince Americans that women should be in power because they will not be as corrupt as men.

Regardless of Steinem’s prominent position in American society as a journalist and social and political activist, she still faced discrimination because of her gender. Since she is a woman, she has faced legal and social discrimination. From being refused to be served in public restaurants, to being turned away from apartment rentals, she has felt the immense pressure to be a stereotypical woman (housewife) and retaliation against her nonconformist ways. The society she lives in isn’t ready to see a self-fulfilled woman like Steinem. They prefer women to be vulnerable, dependent on, and submissive to men, and wear tapes over their mouths. Steinem says no more to this treatment of women as animals. It’s time to take the tape off our mouths.

Did They Dig Their Own Graves?

by Vanessa

“They control the people through the people’s own money.” (p. 256) “I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small…let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings.” (p. 262). The early capitalists established the rules in such a way that it would create a never-ending dependence of the rich by the poor. The big banks had the people’s money, who voluntarily contributed to the establishment and continuation of corporate capitalism. Little did they know that they would soon be putting their finances and future in the hands of men like J.P. Morgan, who only wanted power and did whatever he deemed necessary to obtain it, including selling rifles that would shoot off the thumbs of the soldiers using them.

The poor lived in a system of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. They would work for meager wages that would barely sustain their families. They would die doing the dirty work while the rich sat in their mansions, unsoiled. They increased the wealth of bankers by emptying their own pockets and willingly giving them the capital to support the system that oppressed them. This system was created by the rich, but fed by the poor. Unfortunately, once the Carnegies and the Rockefellers of that era claimed dominance of the nation’s wealth and created monopolies, there was little the poor could do to go against it or they would face financial starvation. In the end, both sides are to blame for the system that destroyed the lives of many during industrialization. The rich for creating such a system that deprived the poor and reduced them to mere tools to be thrown away once deemed useless, and the poor for feeding such a system with their blood, sweat, tears, and money.