In our time: memoir of a revolution
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In our time: memoir of a revolution Susan Brownmiller; Aurum Press Ltd, London, 2000, d12.99 Pbk ISBN 1-85410-700-3, 368pp In Our Time brings alive the late 1960s and 1970s feminist activism within the United States. It is a historical and, at some stages, autobiographical story of the women’s second wave revolution. The book is more about the action than about the complex theory that was developed during this period. As is well known, Susan Brownmiller played an important role in this movement. She participated in some
Book reviews
feminist review 73 2003
179
of the radical activist organizations and consciousness raising groups such as the New York Radical Feminists and The Red Stockings. Her most famous contribution to the movement was as a feminist author. Brownmiller’s book Against Our Will (1975) was a groundbreaking analysis of rape. Her theories transformed the understanding of rape from a practice that an individual woman was responsible for, to a crime that men performed on women as a form of, and maintenance of, power. From the position of a feminist author and activist within the American second wave movement, Brownmiller is well placed to tell the story of the radical transformations made. The book places into over all context the writing of second wave feminist texts such as The Feminine Mystique (Friedan, 1963), The Dialectic of Sex (Firestone, 1970), Sexual Politics (Millet, 1970), The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm (Koedt, 1973) Against Our Will (Brownmiller, 1975) and The Hite Report (Hite, 1976). In Our Time describes how the women’s movement influenced the writing of these texts and the influence that these texts had on the movement. The book does not give commentary or analysis on the theories of these texts and would serve more as a complement or an introduction to American second wave feminist theory. In Our Time describes how the women’s movement was about more than a set of academic texts. Second wave feminism, we are told, was about large scale collective action and demonstration, women being angry and standing up to patriarchy at every level of society: from the bedrooms, the law courts and working environments to the government. In Our Time recounts the rise and fall of multiple women’s organizations, beginning with liberal feminism and Friedan’s founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966 (that focused upon equal opportunities in employment and pay) and contrasting with the later more radical feminist movements known collectively as Women’s Liberation in which Brownmiller herself performed a key role. Brownmiller spends more time describing the later organizations that were formed as non-hierarchical, decentralized, counter culture units based upon analysis, theory and radical activism. She recounts how she was converted to feminist action through such a unit at a New York Radical Feminist consciousness raising session. At this group meeting Brownmiller, as well as many others in the room, recounted their experiences of their life endangering illegal ab
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