SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Lessons from history for women’s liberation
RON JACOBS points out that it wasn’t until anti-imperialist and anti-racist movements formed women’s liberation groups that the fundamental roots of oppression could be addressed
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
SIMON DUFF reviews a new composition by German composer and pianist Florian Weber that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
Revolutionary Feminists: The Women’s Liberation Movement in Seattle
Barbara Winslow
Duke University Press, £22.99
LIKE most of the liberation movements of the period we call the 1960s, the women’s liberation movement seems a shadow of its former self.
In a manner similar to those other movements, the politics of what’s known as second-stage feminism have shifted rightward. This is in part due to the non-stop attacks on women’s rights by the right-wing patriarchal forces in the United States — from the Catholic church hierarchy to the Republican Party and its adherents.
Equally important, though, is the fact that the liberal wing of mainstream US politics has yet to make many women’s rights legally protected in a way that prevents the reactionaries from curtailing those rights. Instead, issues crucial to women’s liberation like reproductive rights and pay equity tend to be reduced to Democratic talking points during elections.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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RON JACOBS recommends a new collection of essays that examine the presence of fascism in the US and the struggle against it
RON JACOBS revisits the Antiwar Troupe’s 1971 Tour
Women are not a minority — their issues should not be treated as ‘minority issues’ in our movement, writes MARY DAVIS
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by the characterisation of social media as patriarchal and misogynist, and strategies to resist it