Grassroots radical feminists focused on interpersonal relations and elimination of cultural and economical factors that supported male supremacy. New York Radical Women pioneered consciousness raising to spread universal feminism on the basis: "personal is political". The session helped women understand their place in society, encouraging them to share personal accounts of sexism and violence:
“[a] deep personal connections of women… [which] often ignore barriers of age, economics, worldly experience, race, culture—all barriers that, in male or mixed society, had seemed difficult to cross.” -Gloria Steinem, Ms. Magazine, 1972 (on consciousness raising) |
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A consciousness raising session |
Leftist organizations of feminists such as Redstockings, Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (WITCH) and Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM), promoted female separatism and death to males. “Male supremacy is the oldest and most basic form of domination…the model for all other forms of oppression… including racism and capitalism…thus the tapeworm must be eliminated” -Redstocking (radical feminist group) “Many of the new feminists are surprisingly violent in mood…Hundreds of young girls are learning karate...distributing threatening handouts (‘Watch out! You may meet a real castrating female!’), and even citing... the late revolutionary Frantz Fanon: An oppressed individual cannot feel liberated until he kills one of the oppressors” -Time, 1969 |
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Dumbfounded male watches women's liberation march, 1970 “What I want to cut off is the power men exercise over women. And if a man associates that power with his genitalia, that’s his problem” -Anne Koedt, New York Radical Feminist |