Skip to main content Accessibility help
Internet Explorer 11 is being discontinued by Microsoft in August 2021. If you have difficulties viewing the site on Internet Explorer 11 we recommend using a different browser such as Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Apple Safari or Mozilla Firefox.

Update 22/08/2024: Due to technical disruption, we are experiencing some delays to publication. We are working to restore services and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website

Home
> Goodbye to all that…

Chapter 12: Goodbye to all that …

Chapter 12: Goodbye to all that …

pp. 226-229

Authors

, University of Essex
  • Add bookmark
  • Cite
  • Share

Summary

To pre-empt disappointment, I should say now that I really have very little idea what is to be done, and I don't intend to pull some stillborn rabbit out of a hat here. But I suppose I have to say something, by means of a parting shot. These final comments are the best I can do, for now.

In January 1970, during a temporary women's takeover of the magazine Rat, Robin Morgan published a statement under the heading ‘Goodbye to all that’ – a sustained railing against ‘the friends, brothers, lovers in the counterfeit male-dominated Left’:

Let's run it down. White males are most responsible for the destruction of human life and environment on the planet today. Yet who is controlling the supposed revolution to change all that? White males (yes, yes, even with their pasty fingers back in black and brown pies again). It could just make one a bit uneasy. It seems obvious that a legitimate revolution must be led by, made by those who have been most oppressed: black, brown, yellow, red, and white women – with men relating to that the best they can. A genuine Left doesn't consider anyone's suffering irrelevant or titillating; nor does it function as a microcosm of capitalist economy, with men competing for power and status at the top, and women doing all the work at the bottom (and functioning as objectified prizes or coin as well). Goodbye to all that…

Goodbye, goodbye forever, counterfeit Left, counterleft, male-dominated cracked-glass mirror reflection of the Amerikan Nightmare. Women are the real Left. We are rising, powerful in our unclean bodies; bright glowing mad in our inferior brains; wild hair flying, wild eyes staring, wild voices keening; undaunted by blood we who hemorrhage every twenty-eight days; laughing at our own beauty we who have lost our sense of humor; mourning for all each precious one of us might have been in this one living time-place had she not been born a woman; stuffing fingers into our mouths to stop the screams of fear and hate and pity for men we have loved and love still; tears in our eyes and bitterness in our mouths for children we couldn't have, or couldn't not have, or didn't want, or didn't want yet, or wanted and had in this place and this time of horror. […]

About the book

Access options

Review the options below to login to check your access.

Purchase options

eTextbook
US$38.99
Hardback
US$116.00
Paperback
US$38.99

Have an access code?

To redeem an access code, please log in with your personal login.

If you believe you should have access to this content, please contact your institutional librarian or consult our FAQ page for further information about accessing our content.

Also available to purchase from these educational ebook suppliers