Michelle Abalos
American People II
Redstockings Manifesto
“Redstockings was one of the radical feminist
movements that arose in the late 1960’s. Based in New York, it issued this
manifesto, which, in language typical of the era, illustrates how at its most
radical edge, feminism had evolved from demands for equal treatment for women
to a total critique of male power and a call for women’s “liberation.”
“Women are an oppressed class. Our oppression is
total, affecting every facet of our lives. We are exploited as sex objects,
breeders, domestic servants, and cheap labor. We are considered inferior
beings, whose only purpose is to enhance men's lives. Our humanity is denied.
Our prescribed behavior is enforced by the threat of physical violence.”
Among the political and cultural conflicts of
the 1960’s, women united to win their freedom and to no longer be “exploited as
sex objects, breeders, domestic servants, and cheap labor.” Women wanted to be
liberated. Liberation meant more than the right the vote. It meant equality in
economic, racial, education, and political rights. Other than the African
American population, the Redstockings was an organization demanding equal
rights and changes in American life for women.
“ ‘there seem to be many parallels that can be
drawn between the treatment of negroes and the treatment of women in our
society as a whole.’ What bothered them the most was the status of women within
the movement, where assumptions of male supremacy seemed as deeply rooted as in
society at large.” What one can conclude from this quote is that the status of
women in both the negro and white culture, was the same.
REDSTOCKINGS MANIFESTO
I After centuries of
individual and preliminary political struggle, women are uniting to achieve
their final liberation from male supremacy. Redstockings is dedicated to
building this unity and winning our freedom.
II Women are an
oppressed class. Our oppression is total, affecting every facet of our lives.
We are exploited as sex objects, breeders, domestic servants, and cheap labor.
We are considered inferior beings, whose only purpose is to enhance men's
lives. Our humanity is denied. Our prescribed behavior is enforced by the
threat of physical violence.
Because we have lived
so intimately with our oppressors, in isolation from each other, we have been
kept from seeing our personal suffering as a political condition. This creates
the illusion that a woman's relationship with her man is a matter of interplay
between two unique personalities, and can be worked out individually. In
reality, every such relationship is a class relationship, and the
conflicts between individual men and women are political conflicts that
can only be solved collectively.
III We identify the
agents of our oppression as men. Male supremacy is the oldest, most basic form
of domination. All other forms of exploitation and oppression (racism,
capitalism, imperialism, etc.) are extensions of male supremacy: men dominate
women, a few men dominate the rest. All power structures throughout history
have been male-dominated and male-oriented. Men have controlled all political,
economic and cultural institutions and backed up this control with physical
force. They have used their power to keep women in an inferior position. All
men receive economic, sexual, and psychological benefits from male
supremacy. All men have oppressed women.
IV Attempts have been
made to shift the burden of responsibility from men to institutions or to women
themselves. We condemn these arguments as evasions. Institutions alone do not
oppress; they are merely tools of the oppressor. To blame institutions implies
that men and women are equally victimized, obscures the fact that men benefit
from the subordination of women, and gives men the excuse that they are forced
to be oppressors. On the contrary, any man is free to renounce his superior
position, provided that he is willing to be treated like a woman by other men.
We also reject the idea
that women consent to or are to blame for their own oppression. Women's
submission is not the result of brain-washing, stupidity or mental illness but
of continual, daily pressure from men. We do not need to change ourselves, but
to change men.
The most slanderous
evasion of all is that women can oppress men. The basis for this illusion is
the isolation of individual relationships from their political context and the
tendency of men to see any legitimate challenge to their privileges as
persecution.
V We regard our
personal experience, and our feelings about that experience, as the basis for
an analysis of our common situation. We cannot rely on existing ideologies as
they are all products of male supremacist culture. We question every
generalization and accept none that are not confirmed by our experience.
Our chief task at
present is to develop female class consciousness through sharing experience and
publicly exposing the sexist foundation of all our institutions.
Consciousness-raising is not "therapy," which implies the existence
of individual solutions and falsely assumes that the male-female relationship
is purely personal, but the only method by which we can ensure that our program
for liberation is based on the concrete realities of our lives.
The first requirement
for raising class consciousness is honesty, in private and in public, with
ourselves and other women.
VI We identify with all
women. We define our best interest as that of the poorest, most brutally
exploited woman.
We repudiate all
economic, racial, educational or status privileges that divide us from other
women. We are determined to recognize and eliminate any prejudices we may hold
against other women.
We are committed to
achieving internal democracy. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that
every woman in our movement has an equal chance to participate, assume
responsibility, and develop her political potential.
VII We call on all our
sisters to unite with us in struggle.
We call on all men to
give up their male privilege and support women's liberation in the interest of
our humanity and their own.
In fighting for our
liberation we will always take the side of women against their oppressors. We
will not ask what is "revolutionary" or "reformist," only
what is good for women.
The time for individual
skirmishes has passed. This time we are going all the way.
July 7, 1969
Redstockings
P.O. Box 748*
Stuyvesant Station
New York, N.Y. 10009
