Cultural Feminism: Feminist Capitalism and the Anti-Pornography Movement Author(s): Alice Echols Source: Social Text , Spring - Summer, 1983 , No. 7 (Spring - Summer, 1983), pp. 34-53 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/466453 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Duke University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Text This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism: Feminist Capitalism and the Anti-Pornography Movement ALICE ECHOLS PREFACE This article offers a critique of the dominant strain in current radical feminism, cultural feminism, whose ideology, I argue, mirrors dominant cultural assumptions about gender and sexuality. This is a critique which has developed from within the women's movement and it reflects the author's involvement in the lesbian-feminist community over the past eight years. Within this movement in general there has been a stifling of debate over the last decade. For instance, anti-pornography feminists try to discredit their feminist critics by labeling them non-feminist or by suggesting that they represent but a "tiny offshoot" of the movement. Cultural feminism's selective reevaluation of femininity has contributed to this prohibition against dissent. Cultural feminists have not only characterized criticism as "unsisterly" or a carryover from the "trashing style" of the male left, but as "male- identified." It is hoped that this paper will contribute to the re-opening of debate around the crucial areas of gender and sexuality. INTRODUCTION - THE NEW FEMINISM OF YIN AND YANG No politics remains innocent of that which it contests. For any oppressed group it is tempting to seek solace in the reclamation and rehabilita- tion of that identity which the larger culture has systematically denigrated. This approach becomes especially compelling when the possibilities for radical structural change seem remote, and the only alternative seems to be the liberal solution of token representation an assimilation into an oppressive and inegalitarian system. Unfortunately, as recent feminism has become synonymous with the reclamation and establishment of a so-called female principle, it has come to reflect and reproduce the dominant cultural assumptions abou women. This is particularly ironic since early radical feminists, rather than accep tions about women, had sought the abolition of gender as a meaningful ALICE ECHOLES is a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Michigan. She teach Studies Program at Michigan and deejays in gay bars. I want to thank the following individuals for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of Contratto, Constance Samaras, Kathleen Stewart, Ellen Willis, Marilyn Young, and Patricia efforts by Sandra Silberstein, Ann Snitow, and Sharon Thompson have improved this paper version of this paper is forthcoming in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. An Thompson and Christine Stansell. 1. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, "The Personal Is Not Political Enough," Marxist Perspective p. 94. 34 This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 35 believe that the male wor femaleness,' that the opp institutions."2 "Masculini rather than biologically d discuss gender difference maleness and femaleness. with ecology and peace an away from what one fem advantage rather than an female sensibility not only izations about women, bu structed. At best, there ha are biological or cultural in and some feminists have c spring from socialization, f patriarchal society.'"s For women "we know who we are."'6 To be sure, since the beginning of the women's movement there have been radical feminists for whom gender is an absolute rather than a relative category. Valerie Solanas's 1967 S.C.U.M. Manifesto is the earliest articulation of this view.7 However it has only been in the past few years that this perspective has gained legitimacy and achieved hegemony within the radical feminist movement. This view represents such a fundamental departure from the early radical feminist vision that it is important to differentiate between the two. I will therefore refer to this more recent strain of radical feminism as cultural feminism because it equates women's liberation with the development and preservation of a female counterculture.8 The phrase, radicalfeminism will be used to describe the earlier antecedent of this movement.9 Of course, to maintain that there exists a theoretical coherence to cultural feminism is not to suggest that it is monolithic. 2. Bonnie Kreps, "Radical Feminism I" in Radical Feminism, ed. Anne Koedt, Ellen Levine, and Anita Rapone (New York: The New York Times Book Co., 1973), p. 239. 3. Adrienne Rich, Mary Daly, and Susan Griffin are the best known proponents of these views: However, the notion that women's more extensive experience with nurturance makes them natural pacifists is fairly widespread among feminists. 4. Julia Penelope, "And Now For the Hard Questions," Sinister Wisdom (Fall 1980), p. 103. 5. Janice Raymond, The Transsexual Empire (Boston: Beacon Press, 1979), p. 114. 6. Ibid. 7. Solanas achieved some fame when she shot Andy Warhol in 1968. 8. The reconstituted Redstockings, a N.Y. radical feminist group, termed this theoretical tendency cultural feminism in their 1975 publication Feminist Revolution. Although their critique did identify some of the problems with cultural feminism, it was seriously marred by its paranoia and homophobia. More recently, Ellen Willis has critiqued cultural feminism especially as it informs the anti-pornography movement and eco-feminism. See her fine collection of essays, Beginning To See The Light (New York: Knopf, 1981) and her Village Voice articles. 9. Major cultural feminist texts include: Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born (New York: Norton, 1976); Mary Daly, Gyn-Ecology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1978); Janice Raymond, The Transsexual Empire; Kathleen Barry, Female Sexual Slavery (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1979). The now defunct L.A.-based magazine Chrysalis also served as a major outlet for cultural feminist work since its founding by Susan Rennie and Kirsten Grimstad in 1977. The best single radical feminist anthology is Koedt, Levine, and Rapone, op. cit. Additionally, see Shulamith Firestone, The Dialectic of Sex (New York: Morrow, 1970). This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 36 Echols This paper basic charac 70s phenom sade. While possible to (FEN) and studies allow DEFINING CULTURAL FEMINISM How does cultural feminism both derive and depart from radical feminism? Compare today's cultural feminists, radical feminists of the late 60s and early 70s seem like r materialists. Some radical feminists, especially the Redstockings, stressed the material b of partiarchy."I For instance, the Redstockings suggested that a woman's decision to ma should be interpreted as a rational strategy rather than confirmation of false conscious At the same time, most radical feminists understood sexism as a primarily psycholo dynamic that was manifested in material conditions. Cultural feminism exaggerates tendency and subordinates material reality to a supporting role. Andrea Dworkin, instance, argues that "freedom for women must begin in the repudiation of our mas ism." 2 Thus the goal of feminism becomes the development of an alternative consc ness, or what Mary Daly terms "the spring into free space."'3 Unlike most radical femin cultural feminists assume that individual liberation can be achieved within a patriar context. This analysis has the disadvantage of denying agency to those "unliberated" "male-identified" by cultural feminist standards. It can also encourage a dangerously e attitude among those who consider themselves "woman-identified." For instance, suggests that heterosexual women are pre-conscious lesbians who should simply "choo be agents of be-ing": It is obvious to Hags that few gynecologists recommend to their heterosexual patients the foolproof of solutions, namely Misterectomy. It is women who choose to be agents of be-ing w have pointed out that tried and true, and therefore, taboo, "method." The Spinsters who pr this way by our be-ing, liv-ing, speak-ing can do so with power precisely because we are preoccupied with ways to get off the hook of the heterosexually defined contraceptive dilemm By promoting an overdetermined psychological analysis of gender asymmetry, cultu feminists focus attention away from the structure of male supremacy onto male beh Thus Robin Morgan contends that "the Man's competitiveness and greed" are respon for "sexism, racism ... hunger, war and ecological disaster.""5 If the source of the wo many problems can be traced to the dominance of the male principle, its solution c 10. There are two major feminist anti-pornography organizations. Women Against Violence in Pornog and Media (WAVPM), a Bay Area group, was formed in 1976 and Women Against Pornography (WAP), a York group, was established in 1979. Since the two groups take essentially the same position on pornogr will refer onvly to WAP in this paper when discussing the organized anti-pornography movement. 11. Here I am referring to the original Redstockings. 12. Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), p. 111. 13. Daly, Gyn-Ecology, p. 12. 14. Ibid., p. 239. 15. Robin Morgan, Going Too Far (New York: Random House, 1978), p. 93. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 37 found in the reassertion feminists reduce women a than in their character sexuality as muted and correctly advised her to me and one thing led to able to control himself. stop. I would no longer responsibility to tame a sexuality. Even more troubling than this attachment to traditional stereotypes of masculinity and femininity, is the growing tendency among some cultural feminists to invoke biological explanations of gender differences. The energy which radical feminists devoted to refuting biological justifications of gender hierarchy makes this fascination with biological determin- ism especially distressing. These cultural feminists generally attribute patriarchy either to the rapaciousness or barrenness of male biology. Thus Susan Brownmiller argues that rape is a function of male biology. For Brownmiller male biology is destiny: "By anatomical fiat- the inescapable construction of their genital organs-the human male was a predator and the human female served as his natural prey.""7 By contrast, Daly argues that the "emptiness" of male biology explains male dominance. And, as though this proved her point, she cites arch-conservative George Gilder's view that "while the female body is full of internal potentiality, the male is internally barren. ... ."' Daly has even suggested that men are "mutants," who may, like other mutations, "manage to kill themselves off eventually."'' While radical feminists viewed female biology as a liability and thus in some cases mirrored the culture's devaluation of the female body, cultural feminists have over-reacted to this earlier position by arguing that female biology is in fact a powerful resource.20 Although Jane Alpert's 1973 article, "Mother-Right," is the earliest articulation of this position, Adrienne Rich is its most eloquent exponent: I have come to believe, as will be clear throughout this book, that female biology ... has far more radical implications than we have yet come to appreciate Patriarchal thought has limited female biology to its own narrow specifications. The feminist vision has recoiled from female biology for these reasons; it will, I believe, come to view our physicality as a resource, rather than a destiny. In order to live a fully human life we require not only control of our bodies . .. we must touch the unity and resonance of our physicality, our bond with the natural order, the corporeal ground of our intelligence.'"21 Unlike radical feminists who argued that the identification of women with nature was an oppressive patriarchal construct, these cultural feminists, especially eco-feminists and paci- 16. Barry, Female Sexual Slavery, p. 218. 17. Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), p. 16. 18. Daly, Gyn-Ecology, p. 360. For an astute analysis of Gilder, see Michael Walzer, "Gilderism," The New York Review of Books (April 2, 1981). 19. Quoted in Off Our Backs (OOB) (May 1979). 20. Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex illustrates the radical feminist view of female biology. For the cultural feminist view, see Rich, Of Woman Born. 21. Rich, Of Woman Born, p. 39. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 38 Echols fist feminist natural orde and ecologica conditioned f which they passivity is Not all cult of gender. B this position the control o theories and to create Janice Raym or biological Radical femi that individ benefit ultim would dimin identify the as they iden oppressor no on the basis tions, has be immutable, t maleness rat Similarly, cu its analysis i feminists ha cultural fem prevents us In fact, cul feminism in Rather than members of conversion t took shape w 22. See Griffin (January 1981) 23. Morgan, G 24. Anne Koed 25. See Kathle Chrysalis 1 (1 "Mother-Right 26. Barbara De 27. Rennie and G that upon Alper This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 39 Cultural feminists vilif belief system, especially culture "returns" to fem hierarchy. In fact, cultur fallout which will be sw Cultural feminists belie demonstrates, not the di defiled the mother-daug They further make femin tation of the mother-daug mother-daughter relatio blames the father while e of male lust and female daughter bond can rema acknowledge the extent Finally, cultural feminis distinctions. In The Tran the integration of male have us believe that all boundaries of what con contrast to radical femini tion of gender, cultural f of the female principle. This difference is, of c envisioned an androgyn Joreen describes the re What is disturbing about qualities traditionally def arrogant, at times egoisti "eternal feminine." She disdains the vicarious life deemed natural to women because she wants to live a life of her own.32 This rather skewed idea of androgyny seems characteristic of those radical feminists who found "femininity" even less attractive than "masculinity." By contrast cultural feminists explicitly reject androgyny as a "masculinist" concept and propose the reclamation of a female principle. Sally Gearhart suggests that: ". . . in the spirituality arena of the women's movement there is the world's most radical political potential, for in its redemption of female feminist movement." This prompted 00B reporter, Madeleine Janover to ask with great prescience, "What does this mean for radical feminism?" See OOB (December, 1974) p. 5. 28. Rich, Of Woman Born; Pauline Bart, review of The Reproduction of Mothering, in OOB (January 1981, p. 19. 29. Daly, Gvn-Ecology, p. 39. 30. For the cultural feminist view see Florence Rush, The Best Kept Secret (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1980). For an honest, trenchant feminist analysis, see Judith Herman and Lisa Hirschman, "'Father-Daughter Incest," in Signs (Summer 1978). 31. Raymond, The Transsexual Empire, pp. 109-110. 32. Joreen, "'The Bitch Manifesto," in Koedt, Levine, and Rapone, p. 52. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 40 Echols values and mental fem Of course, should be "maximize conditione female bon repress the Given stro into cultur responsible for lesbian forced fem and, to a l precluded choice. Ma dismissed tioned that feminism tant, becau lesbianism many lesb grounds. Lesbian recognition was achieved by locating the discussion within the already estab- lished framework of separatism.36 Lesbian separatists, like the Washington D.C. Furies collective, argued that heterosexual women were impeding the movement's progress. Rita Mae Brown opined: "Straight women are confused by men, don't put women first. They betray lesbians and in its deepest form, they betray their own selves. You can't build a strong movement if your sisters are out there fucking with the oppressor."37 By defining lesbianism as a political choice, implying the immutability of gender differences, and promoting a sentimental view of female sexuality, lesbian-feminists deprived heterosexual feminists of one of their favorite charges against lesbianism-that it was male-identified.38 However, 33. Sally Gearhart, "The Spiritual Dimension: Death and Resurrection of a Hallelujah Dyke," in Our Right to Love, ed. Ginny Vida (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1978), p. 192. See also Daly, Gyn-Ecology, p. xi, 387; Rich, Of Woman Born, pp. 76-77; Raymond, The Transsexual Empire, pp. 154-164. Raymond argues, "andro- gyny becomes a synonym for an easily accessible human liberation that turns out to be sexual liberation" (p. 162). 34. Ann Snitow, "The Front-Line: Notes on Sex in Novels by Women, 1969-1979," in Women: Sex and Sexuality, ed. Catharine Stimpson and Ethel Person (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980). p. 174. 35. T. Grace Atkinson, "Lesbianism and Feminism" from Amazon Odyssey (New York: Links Books, 1974), p. 86. 36. The conviction that feminism is conditional upon separation from men predated lesbian separatism. For instance, the radical feminist group, The Feminists, established a quota system to limit the number of members involved in relationships with men. 37. Rita Mae Brown, "The Shape of Things to Come," from Plain Browni Rapper (Baltimore: Diana Press, 1976), p. 114. 38. See Brown, ibid.; Bunch and Myron, eds. Lesbianism and the Women's Movement; Martha Shelley, "Notes of a Radical Lesbian," in Sisterhood is Powerful, ed. Robin Morgan (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 309. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 41 this assumption that re women are automatical lesbian sexuality. Furth commitment to feminis political," giving it a pres to judge a woman on the originate with lesbian sep Lesbian separatism's op remain a minority view. ism has been modified a audience. Whereas lesbia advocate separation from ists encourage woman-b With the rise of cultur have become more cordia suspicion and acrimony recognition has been ach cloaking it as female bon relationships conform to inists are still made to fe proximity to contamina Women Against Pornog miller a "cocksucker." B like a man."39 But, with the anti-pornography movement, cultural feminism has succeeded in mobiliz- ing feminists regardless of sexual preference-not an inconsiderable task. Unfortunately, anti-pornography activists have united feminists by manipulating women's traditional sexual conservatism and appealing to widely held assumptions about male and female sexuality. In advocating a return to a female sexual standard, cultural feminists ignore the extent to which femaleness functions as the complement to maleness and therefore reflects dominant cultural assumptions-assumptions which encourage political expediency. By further treating fe- maleness as an unalloyed force for good, cultural feminists have tried to accommodate feminism with capitalism and sexual repression. As its brief history demonstrates, cultural feminism can degenerate into the view, so succinctly articulated by cultural feminist entre- preneur, Laura Brown, "feminism is anything we say it is."'4 FEMINIST CAPITALISM: THE CASE OF FEN FEN was the brainchild of the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center (OFWHC) the Detroit Feminist Federal Credit Union (DFFCU)-two organizations whose leader favored hierarchy, centralized decision-making, and capitalist methods.41 Although 39. Susan Chute, "Backroom with the Feminist Heroes: Conference for Women Against Pornogr Sinister Wisdom (Fall 1980), p. 2. 40. Quoted in Belita Cowan and Cheryl Peck. "The Controversy at FEN," Her-Self (May 1976). 41. My account of FEN has been culled from the following sources: Cowan and Peck, op. cit.; Jackie S in Big Mama Rag (BMR), v. 4, no. 1; Martha Shelley, "What Is FEN?", circulated by author in fem communities; Janis Kelly, et al. in Off Our Backs (OOB) (March 1976); Kathy Barry et al. in OOB (January This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 42 Echols feminists h were "set u both group tions and h workers and for pragma from "impl they need r FEN grew o information sentatives f intention of financial lea nucleus of money from FEN. The pr two organiz FEN's first opulent but the building FEN leaders space" as the Feminist M However, c DFFCU mem union's solv hired to ren asked of th hiring arme 42. Florence favorable view New Woman's the tinder-boxe 43. In late 197 permission to the expansion 44. Shelley, i 45. See St. Joan in BMR, v. 4., no. 1. 46. FEN by-laws were reprinted in Cowan and Peck and St. Joan. 47. When the women of OFWHC, DFFCU, and Diana Press realized that their bylaws would be defeated unless drastically rewritten, they simply walked out of the conference. Two-thirds of the conference participants joined the Feminist Economic Association (FEA) whose vision was much less grandiose. See St. Joan in BMR. 48. Eight individual women applied for $31,250 each in loans from the DFFCU to circumvent the NCUA's regulation prohibiting federal credit unions from granting loans to businesses. The eight women then bought the City Club and assigned their interest in the Club to the FEN corporation. In return they received a promissory note from FEN. 49. Barry, et al., in 00B (January 1977). This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 43 violence erupted at the C grand opening. Mounting September of 1976. FEN should be seen as th tion of lesbian-separatis lesbian separatism's conc female principle-by def The theoretical ground Furies, who were intere member Rita Mae Brown maintained: Big is bad. Feminists don't want anything to do with it because women will strangle in frozen hierarchies .... Perhaps what we don't acknowledge is that big means successful in America. Many feminists may die before they admit it but they are terrified of success. Failure, in patriarchal terms, defines women. Success means you're a ballbuster, acting like a man. .. . - The Furies believed that feminist businesses offered a solution to women's economic dependence upon men and could dissolve the material barriers to woman-identified con- sciousness. They argued that feminist businesses were the "wave of the future" which would both empower the movement and allow feminists to become "full-time revolutionar- ies."5' It should be noted that Furies' members helped establish Diana Press, Olivia Records, Quest/a feminist quarterly, and Women in Distribution. While the Furies had suggested that feminist businesses adhere to the feminist ideals of collectivity and accountability, the women of FEN openly repudiated these principles. For instance, Barbara Hoke of the OFWHC and FEN suggested that accountability would be best understood as a sexist concept rather than a feminist principle: "But think about the sexism of these kinds of questions that we're being asked. Again, when men set up a business nobody comes in and asks them, "Where did you get your money?" Why does some woman who comes to the building demand to know?''52 Of course, it wasn't only FEN's abandonment of collectivity and accountability that many feminists found distressing. Most critics of FEN questioned its premise that capitalism is a relatively benign system which could be enlisted in the struggle to defeat patriarchy. And, as Joanne Parrent's comments indicate, the leadership of FEN justified their actions by whitewashing capitalism: "I know that people have been saying that they feel that I shouldn't be on the board of directors [of FEN] and the credit union. I think that's our petty, small narrow minds as women .... If you look at the male corporate world, you'll see many men who are on the Board of directors of many corporations and the reason for this is so that those corporations can work together, so that there's liasons between those corporations. "53 The problem for Parrent was not capitalism, but rather the debilitating influence of female socialization which encouraged women to think small and remain powerless. The cultural feminists of FEN attempted to disarm their critics by suggesting that they were intimidated by the bold and visionary nature of the venture. They maintained the feminist commitment to 50. Rita Mae Brown, "The Lady's Not For Burning," from Plain Brown Rapper, p. 209. 51. Jennifer Woodul, "What's This About Feminist Businesses'?", 00B (June 1976). 52. Quoted in Cowan and Peck, op. cit. 53. Quoted in Cowan and Peck, op. cit. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 44 Echols the princip powerlessne since "the avoid the ch When the women, the arrived at participatio sounds like common sen small narro process wer In general, collectivity wise, we re our capitali immense ch created.'"6 politics" and feminism w FEN leaders attributed their failure to the infiltration of leftist ideas into the women's movement and its presses.57 How could FEN advocate retaining capitalism while dispensing with democracy? The cultural feminists of FEN negotiated this rather awesome contradiction by invoking the power of sisterhood. They maintained that all women share a commonality of interests which ensure, as Laura Brown stated, that "each time an individual woman gets power, we all have more power.'"" And Debra Law of the OFWHC and FEN argued that sisterhood is the foundation of feminism: "I see no arbitrary separation between myself working in a feminist institution and the community, because I see no separation between my best interests and any other woman's best interest . ... One of the basic principles of feminism is that there is a basic commonality between women. It's an extremely important assump- tion . . . and the only one I can work on."'9 Faith in sisterhood allowed these cultural feminists to maintain that women could disregard democratic practice and embrace capitalist methods without exploiting one another. FEN and WAP represent cultural feminism at different stages in its development. In 54. Barry, et al. in 00B (January 1977). According to Martha Shelley's "What Is FEN?" Nancy Stockwell of the Bay Area feminist newspaper, Plexus, discovered that although Barry has assumed sole authorship of this article, it had been a collaborative effort involving Hoke, Parrent, and Brown as well. When Stockwell questioned Barry about this she maintained that an article favorable to FEN had to "come from a community source" rather than from within FEN. Plexus refused to publish the piece. 55. Quoted in Cowan and Peck, op. cit. 56. Quoted in Shelley, op. cit., p. 19. 57. Barry et al. remark that "the influence of the Left on women who have been trashing FEN was apparent in two ... issues of Big Mama Rag," op. cit. 58. Quoted in Cowan and Peck, op. cit. 59. Quoted in St. Joan, op. cit. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 45 FEN, cultural feminism FEN promoted an Amaz And while FEN pursue ship, exercizes power i differences FEN and W feminism. SEXUAL REPRESSION: THE CASE OF WAP Take Back the Night, a recent cultural feminist anthology on pornography, opens with this excerpt of an 1853 letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Susan B. Anthony: Man in his lust has regulated long enough this whole question of sexual intercourse. Now let the mother of mankind, whose prerogative it is to set the bounds to his indulgence, rouse up and give this whole matter a thorough, fearless investigation."" One fears this citation is more appropriate than its anthologizer intended. For despite the fact that the circumstances confronting today's feminists differ significantly from those faced by 19th century women, the current cultural feminist view of sexuality bears a striking similar- ity to that articulated by activists a century earlier. For the most part, 19th century feminists, many of whom were active in the temperance movement, held conservative views on marriage, the family, and sexuality. They viewed men as dangerously over-sexed violators of the moral code and women as the chaste regulators of morality.6' Although radical feminists of the second wave sometimes spoke of sexuality as incom- patible with feminism, they were far more likely to identify women's subjugation with the repression of female sexuality."2 They understood that women's sexual inhibition was related to the lack of accessible and effective contraception which rendered women sexually vulnerable. They believed that women's attachment to traditional morality stemmed less from the immutability of female sexuality than from women's socialization and their economic dependence upon men. This consciousness was reflected in the radical feminist struggle for abortion and safe, effective contraception. Radical feminists understood, as does the New Right, that the fight for reproductive rights is the struggle for women's sexual freedom and self-determination. Of course, radical feminists were by no means uncritical of the sexual revolution. They acknowledged that the sexual revolution had been more success- ful in promoting sexual objectification than in validating women's right to sexual pleasure. However, they remained committed to reconciling sexual liberation with women's liber- ation. As we shall see, cultural feminists, by contrast, argue that sexual freedom and feminism are unalterably opposed. The cultural feminist perspective on sexuality has emerged and crystallized only recently 60. Laura Lederer, Take Back the Night (New York: William Morrow, 1980), p. 21. 61. The temperance movement was by far the more popular of these movements claiming a membership of 245,000 by 1911. Temperance women defined sexuality as a male pursuit and advocated virginity until marriage and infrequent sexual contact thereafter for both men and women. Women's Christian Temperance Union president, Frances Willard, was fond of referring to such a lifestyle as "the white life for two." (Barbara Epstein, paper presented at Organization of American Historians, Spring 1981). 62. For the minority view see Dana Densmore, "On Celibacy," in Voices from Women's Liberation, ed. Leslie Tanner (New York: New American Library, 1970). For the majority views see Anne Koedt, "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm," in Koedt, et al., op. cit. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 46 Echols in the dev pornograph well. The a about the d Brownmil some form is reason t confirmin alarmed by cautioned more on o Fantasy. W sexuality an phy is the domino th bly to viol women to have "no ch to Hitler, More rece fantasy wh the "social mind-body conflictual tic analysis their answ lives into o can and sho banish tho that fanta However, considerab women's m patriarcha 63. Quoted i 64. This slog reprinted in 65. Judith B 66. See Rich's phy and Silen see Robert C 67. Penelope This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 47 socialization rather than thei as confirmation of their fun Male and Female Sexuality though they were polar oppo and potentially lethal. Female crave power and orgasm, w claims: "Every woman here k that of any patriarchally tr sexuality, objectification, pr ity was the male style, and humor, tenderness, commit not "patriarchally trained." For cultural feminists, m described it, "the stuff of m inextricably linked and find so convinced that male sexual and violent expressions. Th murderousness of male sexu rape." Liberal and leftist me interest in pornography. An said to simply demonstrate m how contradictory, confirms hating. By contrast, women's sexuality is assumed to be more spiritual than sexual, and considerably less central to their lives than is sexuality to men's. For instance, Adrienne Rich describes female sexuality as an "energy which is unconfined to any single part of the body or solely to the body itself.''"' And Ethel Person maintains that "many women have the capacity to abstain from sex without negative psychological consequences"; women's more highly developed "capacity for abstinence, repression, or suppression Ihas] adaptive advantages" over male hypersexuality.73 Person fails to understand that women's apparent mental health in the face of anorgasmia or abstention testifies to women's conditioning to subordinate and repress sexual drive. Unfortunately, sexual repression may very well become adaptive for women once again if the Human Life Amendment and Family Protec- 68. Diana Russell, "Pornography and Violence: What Does the New Research Say?" in Lederer, p. 231. In Homosexuali,t in Perspective, Masters and Johnson report that in their sample heterosexual men's second most frequent fantasy was forced sex. And these men fantasized being forced slightly more frequently than they did forcing another. 69. Morgan, in Going Too Far, p. 181. 70. Dworkin, "Why So-Called Radical Men Love and Need Pornography," in Lederer, p. 152. 71. Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," p. 73. Rich praises Catharine MacKinnon, author of Sexual Harassment of Working Women for criticizing Brownmiller's "unexamined premise that 'rape is violence, intercourse is sexuality.'" 72. Rich, ibid., p. 81. 73. Ethel Person, "Sexuality as the Mainstay of Identity: Psychoanalytic Perspectives," in Stimpson and Person, p. 50; p. 57. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 48 Echols tion Act bec "our society and its equa sexual encounters.75 Heterosexuality. It follows from this that cultural feminists would see heterosexuality as a metaphor for male rapaciousness and female victimization. In contrast to lesbian feminists for whom heterosexuality generally represented collaboration with the enemy, cultural feminists appear to take a more sympathetic position towards heterosexual women. They typically regard female heterosexuality as more apparent than real and maintain that women are coerced into compliance with heterosexual norms. Adrienne Rich, for instance, cites Barry's Female Sexual Slavery as evidence that "for women heterosexuality may not be a 'preference' at all but something that has to be imposed, managed, organized, propagan- dized, and maintained by force."'76Whether female heterosexuality is explained as the result of coercion, heterosexual privilege, or what Rich terms, women's "double life," the assumption is that, for women, heterosexuality is neither fully chosen nor really pleasur- able.77 Concomitantly, cultural feminists believe that any expression of tenderness and affection between women demonstrates the real tenuousness of heterosexuality for women. They define lesbianism as identification and bonding with women rather than sexual attraction to or involvement with women. Thus Rich urges us to view lesbianism as a continuum because such a model can accommodate "many more forms of primary intensity between and among women," including the "intimate girl-friendships of eight- or nine-year olds. "7" Rich's expansive definition of lesbianism completely disregards the attraction of heterosexuality. Shouldn't any affectional continuum embrace the full range of erotic and sexual tendencies? Transsexualism. Nowhere is the cultural feminist reduction of male behavior to rapa- ciousness more inappropriate than when applied to male-to-female transsexuals. The contra- diction of transsexualism is that it both reinforces and undermines gender as a significant category. The way in which the medical profession has defined transsexualism has, of course, contributed to the former development. In The Transsexual Empire, Janice Ray- mond, without any apparent sense of contradiction, finds transsexualism dangerous because of both its countervailing tendencies: because it reinforces sex roles and because it destroys the boundaries between maleness and femaleness. As the book degenerates into an attack on transsexuals for their "usurpation of female biology" it becomes clear that it is the latter which she finds most disturbing.79 For cultural feminists who lean towards biological determinism, transsexuals are indeed very troubling because, on one level, they do under- mine the salience of gender, and erase the boundaries between the genders. Raymond argues that "all transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves."so But cultural feminists' real 74. See Larry Bush and Richard Goldstein, "The Anti-Gray Backlash," Village Voice (April 8-14, 1981); Deidre English, "The War Against Choice," Mother Jones (February/March 1981). 75. Snitow, ibid., in Stimpson and Person, p. 165. 76. Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality," in Stimpson and Person, p. 79. 77. Ibid., p. 85. 78. Ibid., p. 79, p. 82. 79. Raymond, ibid., p. 31. 80. Ibid., p. 104. This content downloaded from 87.80.55.112 on Mon, 08 May 2023 17:08:24 +00:00 All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cultural Feminism 49 contempt is reserved fo presence," according t dividing us once more f identify themselves as l relationships with women the women's community to that community bec play our parts. .. apparen very often pass as femal ences" between the be example of this is the w around two women, one cally masculine."84 But, according to Raym because "he" can seduce suggests that they could thus shortcircuit the rev an extreme example of t possible to all men rega Gay Male Sexuality. For to sexual liberation, the freedom has simply con centrality of public and sexual callousness. They generational sex demonst s/m among gay men and "testimony to the fixed source of sexual pleasure cross-generational sex am Morgan contends that "b victim seems to invite i Cultural feminists' host extensive e