Best of
Feminism

1984

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches


Audre Lorde - 1984
    These essays explore and illuminate the roots of Lorde's intellectual development and her deep-seated and longstanding concerns about ways of increasing empowerment among minority women writers and the absolute necessity to explicate the concept of difference—difference according to sex, race, and economic status. The title Sister Outsider finds its source in her poetry collection The Black Unicorn (1978). These poems and the essays in Sister Outsider stress Lorde's oft-stated theme of continuity, particularly of the geographical and intellectual link between Dahomey, Africa, and her emerging self.

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center


bell hooks - 1984
    Continuing the debates surrounding her controversial first book, Ain't I A Woman, bell hooks suggests that feminists have not succeeded in creating a mass movement against sexist oppression because the very foundation of women's liberation has, until now, not accounted for the complexity and diversity of female experience. In order to fulfill its revolutionary potential, feminist theory must begin by consciously transforming its own definition to encompass the lives and ideas of women on the margin. Hooks' work is a challenge to the women's movement and will have profound impact on all whose lives have been touched by feminism and its insights.

When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America


Paula J. Giddings - 1984
    Drawing on speeches, diaries, letters, and other original documents, Paula Giddings powerfully portrays how black women have transcended racist and sexist attitudes--often confronting white feminists and black male leaders alike--to initiate social and political reform. From the open disregard for the rights of slave women to examples of today's more covert racism and sexism in civil rights and women'sorganizations, Giddings illuminates the black woman's crusade for equality. In the process, she paints unforgettable portraits of black female leaders, such as anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, educator and FDR adviser Mary McLeod Bethune, and the heroic civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, among others, who fought both overt and institutionalized oppression.When and Where I Enter reveals the immense moral power black women possessed and sought to wield throughout their history--the same power that prompted Anna Julia Cooper in 1892 to tell a group of black clergymen, "Only the black woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole . . . race enters with me.'"

Homegirls and Handgrenades


Sonia Sanchez - 1984
    Winner of the American Book Award.Sonia Sanchez is a poet, activist, and scholar and one of the most important writers of the Black Arts Movement. She is the author of sixteen books and lives in Philadelphia.

Goddesses in Everywoman


Jean Shinoda Bolen - 1984
    Psychoanalyst Jean Bolen's career soared in the early 1980s when Goddesses in Everywoman was published. Thousands of women readers became fascinated with identifying their own inner goddesses and using these archetypes to guide themselves to greater self–esteem, creativity, and happiness.Bolen's radical idea was that just as women used to be unconscious of the powerful effects that cultural stereotypes had on them, they were also unconscious of powerful archetypal forces within them that influence what they do and how they feel, and which account for major differences among them. Bolen believes that an understanding of these inner patterns and their interrelationships offers reassuring, true–to–life alternatives that take women far beyond such restrictive dichotomies as masculine/feminine, mother/lover, careerist/housewife. And she demonstrates in this book how understanding them can provide the key to self–knowledge and wholeness.Dr. Bolen introduced these patterns in the guise of seven archetypal goddesses, or personality types, with whom all women could identify, from the autonomous Artemis and the cool Athena to the nurturing Demeter and the creative Aphrodite, and explains how to decide which to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes to become a better "heroine" in one's own life story.

Daughters of Copper Woman


Anne Cameron - 1984
    Now comes a new edition that includes many pieces cut from the original as well as fresh material added by the author. Here finally, after twenty-two years of gathering dust, is the complete version of the groundbreaking bestseller.In this, her best-loved work, Anne Cameron has created a timeless retelling of northwest coast Native myths that together create a sublime image of the social and spiritual power of woman. Cameron weaves together the lives of legendary and imaginary characters, creating a work of fiction with an intensity of style matched by the power of its subject.

The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine


Rozsika Parker - 1984
    In this fascinating study, Rozsika Parker traces a hidden history--the shifting notions of femininity and female social roles--by unraveling the history of embroidery from medieval times until today.

Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde


Audre Lorde - 1984
    Originally Published in Essence Magazine in 1984 the conversation about shared and divergent racial history between Black men and women remains relevant today.The interview can be read here: http://mocada-museum.tumblr.com/post/...

Native Tongue


Suzette Haden Elgin - 1984
    Set in the twenty-second century, the novel tells of a world where women are once again property, denied civil rights and banned from public life. Earth's wealth depends on interplanetary commerce with alien races, and linguists--a small, clannish group of families--have become the ruling elite by controlling all interplanetary communication. Their women are used to breed perfect translators for all the galaxies' languages.Nazareth Chornyak, the most talented linguist of the family, is exhausted by her constant work translating for trade organizations, supervising the children's language education, running the compound, and caring for the elderly men. She longs to retire to the Barren House, where women past childbearing age knit, chat, and wait to die. What Nazareth comes to discover is that a slow revolution is going on in the Barren Houses: there, word by word, women are creating a language of their own to free them from men's control.

Virginia Woolf Reader


Virginia Woolf - 1984
    An ideal volume for those encountering Woolf for the first time as well as for those already devoted to her work. Edited and with a Preface by Mitchell A. Leaska.

Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood


Kristin Luker - 1984
    She draws data from twenty years of public documents and newspaper accounts, as well as over two hundred interviews with both pro-life and pro-choice activists. She argues that moral positions on abortion are intimately tied to views on sexual behavior, the care of children, family life, technology, and the importance of the individual.

Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism


Elly Bulkin - 1984
    Cultural Writing. New to SPD. The award-winning feminist and lesbian press Firebrand Books closed its doors last year after sixteen years in the business. The authors of YOURS IN STRUGGLE -- Elly Bulkin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Barbara Smith -- have now made the 1988 Firebrand edition of their collaborative work available through SPD. They write, YOURS IN STRUGGLE happened because we were able to talk to each other in the fist place, despite our very different identities and backgrounds -- white Christian-raised Southerner, Afro-American, Ashkenazi Jew. Each of us speaks only for herself, and we do not necessarily agree with each other. Yet we believe our cooperation on this book indicates concrete possibilities for coalition work.

Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis of Women's Oppression


Christine Delphy - 1984
    

To Work and to Love


Dorothee Sölle - 1984
    

Clara Zetkin: Selected Writings


Clara Zetkin - 1984
    Ed. by Philip S. Foner; Foreword by Angela Y. Davis. Index. Notes. Illustrations.

Hélène Cixous: Writing the Feminine


Verena Andermatt Conley - 1984
    Her work quickly became controversial because it frankly tested a distinction between male and female writing. Her literary experiments and her conclusions make her one of the most stimulating and most elusive feminist theorists of our time. Verena Andermatt Conley, a professor of French and women's studies at Miami University, has written the first full-length study of Cixous in English. Looking at Cixous as writer, teacher, and theoretician, Conley takes up Cixous's ongoing exploration of the "feminine" as related to the "masculine"—words not to be equated with "woman" and "man"—and her search for a terminology less freighted with emotion and prejudgment. Conley has updated this paperback edition with a new preface, bibliography, and interview with Cixous conducted by the editors of Hors Cadre.

We Are All Part of One Another


Barbara Deming - 1984
    

Abortion And Woman's Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom (Northeastern Series on Feminist Theory)


Rosalind Pollack Petchesky - 1984
    

What We Wore: An Offbeat Social History of Women's Clothing, 1950-1980


Ellen Melinkoff - 1984
    

Crazy Quilts


Penny McMorris - 1984
    It reads: "Never has there been such intense interest in a particular quilt style as there was in the crazy quilt during 1876-1900." This is a definitive book on this fascinating subject. A very interesting book for quilters and anyone interested in the art of fabric.

Only the Rivers Run Free: Northern Ireland, the Women's War


Eileen Fairweather - 1984
    

Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation


Mari Evans - 1984
    This unique volume provides each writers reflection on her work, an evaluation of that writer by two perceptive critics, and detailed biographical and bibliographical data.  Included are Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and ten other outstanding writers.

Sexual Relations And The Class Struggle


Aleksandra Kollontai - 1984
    

Légende: The Story of Philippa and Aurelie


Jeannine Allard - 1984
    They had no other models of such a thing, so they chose this solution: one of them posed as a man for most of their life together; they were married, adopted a child, and were very happy together.The one who posed as a man was lost at sea, and a statue was erected to her, symbolizing all the collective losses suffered by their small town. Many years later, when it was known that she had in fact been a woman, the statue was destroyed by angry and frightened people.This legend is still told in Brittany. Now Jeannine Allard has built from it, creating a hauntingly beautiful story of two women in love.

Fate Keeps on Happening: Adventures of Lorelei Lee & Other Writings


Anita Loos - 1984
    

The Strength of the Weak: Toward a Christian Feminist Identity


Dorothee Sölle - 1984
    Over the years, Soelle had challenged European and American readers with incisive commentary on a variety of social, ethical, literary, and theological topics. This work embodies the constant drive to radicalization and the passionate involvement that have always been the hallmark of her writing.

Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology


Robin Morgan - 1984
    These truth-telling, impassioned essays celebrate the diversity as well as the similarity of women's experience; they also reveal shared female rage, vision, and pragmatic strategies for worldwide feminist solidarity and political transformation.The first such international collection, Sisterhood Is Global became an instant classic and remains unequalled in its breadth and comprehensiveness. The book covers Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and includes moving essays from such distinguished writers as Marjorie Agosin (Chile), Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana), Shulamit Aloni (Israel), Peggy Antrobus (Caribbean), Simone de Beauvoir (France), Lidia Falcon (Spain), Hema Goonatilake (Sri Lanka), Fatima Mernessi (Morocco), Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Ana Titkow (Poland), Marilyn Waring (New Zealand), and Xiao Lu (China).

Daughters of the Moon Tarot Book


Ffiona MorganJerri-Jo Idarious - 1984
    Book by Morgan, Ffiona

When Biology Became Destiny


Renate Bridenthal - 1984
    The history documented in this book provides us with a perspective from which to analyze our own time, for in the history of Weimar and Nazi Germany we see the issues surrounding women, family, and reproduction as powerful mobilizing forces for both right and left.

Woman in the Bible: An Overview of All the Crucial Passages on Women's Roles


Mary J. Evans - 1984
    Evans examines the Old and New Testament texts, as well as the cultural and religious attitudes which together shaped the early church's ideas about women's roles. 160 pages, paper

Women and Russia: Feminist Writings from the Soviet Union


Tatyana Mamonova - 1984
    Women scientists, workers, artists and intellectuals of all ages and ethnic backgrounds and from all parts of the Soviet Union report on their experiences as workers, mothers, daughters and dissidents.

Sexual Exploitation: Rape, Child Sexual Abuse, and Workplace Harassment


Diana E.H. Russell - 1984
    Although public awareness of sexual and non-sexual abuse of adults and children has grown steadily over the past few years, the three categories have been analysed and treated as separate issues. Diana Russell uses an original analytical framework to integrate extensive literature on these topics, revealing numerous links between issues that are often considered separate and distinct.