sunflower-avenue:

historicallyace:

a-place-to-be-panace:

christopherokamoto:

lesbianherstorian:

activists at barnard college providing “labels”, photographed by susan rennie and published in off our backs: a women’s newsjournal vol. 3 no. 6, february 1973

Wow, David Jay really time traveled back to 1973 to start inventing asexuality. 😮

This makes my heart so happy

Just for the purposes of authentication…

Here’s a link to where you can view the image in-context (you must have a jstor account, which is free if you’re okay with only reading 6 papers a month, if you do not already have institutional access). It turns out that this image, along with another, was intended to be published in the previous issue of off our backs, but was not received in time.

Here’s the article that that image was supposed to accompany (apologies for the fact that this is another jstor link). It turns out this was from an event called “Lesbian/Feminist Dialogue” that those young women (from the Lesbian Activists at Barnard) were supporting. Now, before we get the hue and cry about “they weren’t really talking about asexuality in the sense that you mean it!!!!11! they were just spitballing label ideas,” here’s what the author of the article, Frances Chapman, had to say about it:

“I attended the workshop on asexuality lead by Barbara Getz. According to Barbara, asexuality is an orientation that regards a partner as nonessential to sex, and sex as nonessential to a satisfying relationship.”

Obviously not quite the definition we used today, but decently close to it. 

Here’s the text in case anyone can’t access it on jstor

“ YOUR-OWN-LABEL 

I can be honest without using the word “lesbian,” she said. Her advice about relating to women outside the women"s movement is worth repeating: Talk about lives, don’t talk about the issues of women’s liberation. She is a teacher in a public girls high school where “girls who come on butch, don’t stay in the school,” and there is little she can do to help them and yet keep her position. 

Topic workshops included workshops on age-ism, how men keep women apart, trust between women, dealing with anger, oppression within the women’s movement, women loving women, coming out, the revolutionary woman, a and black attitudes toward feminism. 

I attended the workshop on asexuality led by Barbara Getz. According to Barbara, asexuality is an orientation that regards a partner as nonessential to sex and sex as nonessential to a satisfying relationship. “The Asexual Manifesto” can be obtained from New York Radical Feminists, P.O. Box 621, Old Chelsea Station, New York 10011). 

The conference drew a whole constellation of women’s movement stars. In addition to Jill Johnston, in chevrons, and Gloria Steinem, Barbare Love, author of “Sappho Was A Right on Woman,” Grace Atkinson, who now calls Joe Columbo “Sister,” and Kate Millet were spotted. 

The New York straight press didn’t think the conference was a story. Maybe it wasn’t for the male everydailies, but for women who survived the sexuality splits within the movement, an attempt to unify with allowance for sexual variety was an herstoric occasion. Why didn’t someone think to rent a hall in Seneca Falls?

by frances chapman”

Also, the article mentions “The Asexual Manifesto” which it says can be obtained from New York Radical Feminists. I would love love love to be able to find that. Anyone know how I might be able to get my hands on it? (The group disbanded in the 1970s and I have no idea where their writings would have gone)