Whirlygigz of time and such
50 years eh? and some of these things are still having to be reiterated/rediscovered/restated, SIGH: The clitoris, pain and pap smears: how Our Bodies, Ourselves redefined women’s health. But what is great about it is that it did change, that it didn't fossilise, and that editions in other countries were adapted to their particular circumstances - I reviewed Kathy Davis's history of OBOS some whole since.
A couple of other links about the dear despised 70s came up this week: Grass Roots Babies: Lesbian Artificial Insemination in Manchester throughout the 1970s and 1980s: [I]n Manchester at least, most of the active donors were leftist men. To these men, sperm donation was a political act in support of feminism, their way of helping break down oppressive societal attitudes dictating only heterosexual, married women should be allowed to mother. To some, as Sue suggested, donating sperm for free was part of a wider commitment to radical leftist activism, a rejection of sperm as property and, by extension, capitalism.
Which sort of segues into this: Lucy Delap (who is working on the 1970s men's anti-sexism movement): What men’s roles in 1970s anti-sexism campaigns can teach us about consent: My research on the anti-sexist men’s movement has uncovered men who identified with feminist goals who established groups such as Men Against Violence Against Women, active in Cardiff in the 1980s. They picketed films that they felt glorified violence against women, daubed graffiti onto sexually objectifying adverts, and handed out stickers that declared “rape is violence not sex”. In discussion groups, anti-sexist men scrutinised their own behaviour and criticised their own relationships. In Bristol, London and Nottingham, men also worked with the MOVE (Men Overcoming Violence) network. MOVE offered counselling to violent men through probation and social work referrals, challenging both sexism and homophobia.
I feel this kind of thing has been somewhat overlooked compared to the macho male bonding in the woods stuff.
(For an example of toxic masculine behaviour: Man sentenced for shooting protected elephant seal dead on California coast: Gerbich told prosecutors that he shot the seal after being challenged to do so by an intoxicated friend, “as a kind of grotesque test”, court documents show. He also told investigators he had a history of substance abuse and had suffered physical abuse as a child, which is why he struggled with the need to seek approval from others. He has expressed regret for the incident, saying that he knew the act was wrong, court documents show. Gerbich’s attorney said his client viewed the act as “so unusual and troubling”, but prosecutors emphasized that it was premeditated and “did not happen by accident or on a whim”. Gerbich and the friend who told him to kill the seal drove out to the area where the mammals rest and give birth, to shoot the animal.
Presumably not being in the economic stratum which can fly to Africa and shoot elephants and pose for selfies...)
And to circle back to questions of translation: “Every Choice We Make Is Political”: Natasha Lehrer on Translating “Consent” and “I Hate Men”
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