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Gender

1975

The Laugh of the Medusa

feminism

non-fiction

philosophy

essays

Hélène Cixous - 1975

Cixous is issuing her female readers an ultimatum of sorts: either they can read it and choose to stay trapped in their own bodies by a language that does not allow them to express themselves, or they can use their bodies as a way to communicate."The Laugh of the Medusa" is an extremely literary essay and well-known as an exhortation to a "feminine mode" of writing; the phrases "white ink" and "écriture féminine" are often cited, referring to this desired new way of writing.

It is a strident critique of logocentrism and phallogocentrism, having much in common with Jacques Derrida's earlier thought. The essay also calls for an acknowledgment of universal bisexuality or polymorphous perversity, a precursor of queer theory's later emphases, and swiftly rejects many kinds of essentialism which were still common in Anglo-American feminism at the time. The essay also exemplifies Cixous's style of writing in that it is richly intertextual, making a wide range of literary allusions.(From Wikipedia)

Wages Against Housework

Silvia Federici - 1975

They say it is love.

We say it is unwaged work.They call it frigidity. We call it absenteeism.Every miscarriage is a work accident.Homosexuality and heterosexuality are both working conditions…but homosexuality is workers’ control of production, not the end of work.More smiles? More money. Nothing will be so powerful in destroying the healing virtues of a smile.Neuroses, suicides, desexualization: occupational diseases of the housewife.

Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape

Susan Brownmiller - 1975

As powerful and timely now as when it was first published, AGAINST OUR WILL stands as a unique document of the history of politics, the sociology of rape and the inherent and ingrained inequality of men and women under the law.

In lucid, persuasive prose, Brownmiller has created a definitive, devastating work of lasting social importance.Chosen by THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW as One of the Outstanding Books of the Year

The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community

Mariarosa Dalla Costa - 1975

A superb introduction to the prospect of opening our idea of the working class to include non-waged workers, specifically women who work in the home.

A simple idea with profound revolutionary consequences. If the workers of the world are not all in the factory, and are not all men, where does that leave us?

The Newly Born Woman

Hélène Cixous - 1975

Published in France as Le jeune née in 1975, and found here in its first English translation, The Newly Born Woman is a landmark text of the modern feminist movement.

In it, Hélène Cixous and Catherine Clément put forward the concept of écriture feminine, exploring the ways women’s sexuality and unconscious shape their imagination, their language, and their writing. Through their readings of historical, literary, and psychoanalytic accounts, Cixous and Clément explore what is hidden and repressed in culture, revealing the unconscious of history.

Woman's Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family

Evelyn Reed - 1975

Assesses women's leading and still largely unknown contributions to the development of human civilization and refutes the myth that women have always been subordinate to men..

Assesses women's leading and still largely unknown contributions to the development of human civilization and refutes the myth that women have always been subordinate to men.

Black-Eyed Susans

Mary Helen Washington - 1975

This book combines in one volume two now classic short story collections.

The editor has added a new introduction and prefatory material."Mary Helen Washington has had a greater impact upon the formation of the canon of Afro-American literature than has any other scholar." —The New York Times Book Review

Anarchism: The Feminist Connection

Peggy Kornegger - 1975

Originally published in Second Wave: A Feminist Magazine, Spring 1975 (Vol 4 No.

Abortion Is a Blessing

Anne Nicol Gaylor - 1975

In Abortion Is a Blessing Ms.

Gaylor spares no one in her trenchant analysis of where the responsibility lies for the suffering, degradation and death caused by anti-abortion laws.