Many of the different feminist attitudes towards sexuality manifest today were already in existence from the 1860s. Of central importance to feminists has always been the organization of sexuality.
One example of this was the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts in England between 1864 and 1869. This act was supposed to stop the spread of venereal diseases. The police were allowed to arrest and test women thought to be prostitutes while their male clients (presumably infected as well) were never apprehended. The Acts were the focus of massive feminist protest, and the campaigns against them were followed by other anti-vice campaigns. (Prostitution and Victorian Society by Judith Walkowitz, Cambridge University Press, 1982.)
In America, many different types of women came together to fight for the vote and look at the position of women in general during the Suffrage movement in the decades leading up to 1914. Many of its members made the choice to remain celibate (seen as an early form of separatism) rather than endure disrespectful relationships with men. Instead, they poured their energy into womens issues.
Other women took a very different view of heterosexual relationships, believing that the answer lay not in the rejection of men, but in finding new forms of interacting. Many ‘free-thinkers’ around the turn of the century established committed, but not legalized, heterosexual relationships in which the woman strove for equality and autonomy.
Alexandra Kollontai, the only woman in Lenin’s USSR 1917 government, was known to look at the new forms of society explored in the early post-revolutionary years. Kollontai believed the ‘sexual crisis’ was three-quarter socio-economic, and that emotional possessiveness and egotism in men needed to be challenged. (Allexandra Kollontai, Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle, SWP, 1984.)
Other women, such as anarchist Emma Goldman in New York, tried to separate love and marriage. She saw marriage as a purely economic arrangement to which she was vehemently opposed. (Love Your Enemy? Onlywoman Press, 1981.)
At the time when the study of sexology was popular among the radical intelligentsia, politically active women such as British contraception and abortion campaigner,Stella Browne, were attracted by what they saw as its liberating ideas. (Stella Browne, Sex Variety and Variability Among Women, British Society for the Study of Sexual Psychology pamphlet, 1915.) Many of these women were well aware that society would have to change radically before attitudes about sex could fundamentally alter. Without a means of preventing endless pregnancies, it would be difficult for heterosexual sex to be equally good for men and women alike.
During the turn of the century, some feminists lived in lesbian relationships, though this was down-played by all sections of the movement. Stella Browne believed that 'congenital lesbianism' was tolerable--if inferior--to heterosexuality but that it should not be encouraged for 'ordinary' women. Emma Goldman held similar views, although it is known that she had at least one lesbian relationship.
In the 1920's, once women had gained the vote, organized feminism lost energy and ceased. The only text published over the next forty years to discuss womens sexual issues was Simone deBeauvior's The Second Sex (1953). Here she put forward the concept that the history of an individual is not fatalistically determined, but is comprised of choices. deBeauvoir saw lesbianism as a choice which should be fully allowed by society.
Feminists from these earlier times maintained it was obvious that women should wish to fight against the restrictions placed upon them. This included those restrictions imposed by heterosexual society. What was less understandable to these women who were politically active and influential was why more women did not fight back.
One example of this was the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts in England between 1864 and 1869. This act was supposed to stop the spread of venereal diseases. The police were allowed to arrest and test women thought to be prostitutes while their male clients (presumably infected as well) were never apprehended. The Acts were the focus of massive feminist protest, and the campaigns against them were followed by other anti-vice campaigns. (Prostitution and Victorian Society by Judith Walkowitz, Cambridge University Press, 1982.)
In America, many different types of women came together to fight for the vote and look at the position of women in general during the Suffrage movement in the decades leading up to 1914. Many of its members made the choice to remain celibate (seen as an early form of separatism) rather than endure disrespectful relationships with men. Instead, they poured their energy into womens issues.
Other women took a very different view of heterosexual relationships, believing that the answer lay not in the rejection of men, but in finding new forms of interacting. Many ‘free-thinkers’ around the turn of the century established committed, but not legalized, heterosexual relationships in which the woman strove for equality and autonomy.
Alexandra Kollontai, the only woman in Lenin’s USSR 1917 government, was known to look at the new forms of society explored in the early post-revolutionary years. Kollontai believed the ‘sexual crisis’ was three-quarter socio-economic, and that emotional possessiveness and egotism in men needed to be challenged. (Allexandra Kollontai, Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle, SWP, 1984.)
Other women, such as anarchist Emma Goldman in New York, tried to separate love and marriage. She saw marriage as a purely economic arrangement to which she was vehemently opposed. (Love Your Enemy? Onlywoman Press, 1981.)
At the time when the study of sexology was popular among the radical intelligentsia, politically active women such as British contraception and abortion campaigner,Stella Browne, were attracted by what they saw as its liberating ideas. (Stella Browne, Sex Variety and Variability Among Women, British Society for the Study of Sexual Psychology pamphlet, 1915.) Many of these women were well aware that society would have to change radically before attitudes about sex could fundamentally alter. Without a means of preventing endless pregnancies, it would be difficult for heterosexual sex to be equally good for men and women alike.
During the turn of the century, some feminists lived in lesbian relationships, though this was down-played by all sections of the movement. Stella Browne believed that 'congenital lesbianism' was tolerable--if inferior--to heterosexuality but that it should not be encouraged for 'ordinary' women. Emma Goldman held similar views, although it is known that she had at least one lesbian relationship.
In the 1920's, once women had gained the vote, organized feminism lost energy and ceased. The only text published over the next forty years to discuss womens sexual issues was Simone deBeauvior's The Second Sex (1953). Here she put forward the concept that the history of an individual is not fatalistically determined, but is comprised of choices. deBeauvoir saw lesbianism as a choice which should be fully allowed by society.
Feminists from these earlier times maintained it was obvious that women should wish to fight against the restrictions placed upon them. This included those restrictions imposed by heterosexual society. What was less understandable to these women who were politically active and influential was why more women did not fight back.
