In the second half of the XX century, American society was going through fundamental cultural and social transformations thanks to civil activists, progressive politicians and non-profit organizations. People wanted changes not only in terms of racial equality, but also there were other pressing issues such as gender inequality, students’ rights, rights of Native Americans, etc. One of the movements that I would like to focus on in this paper is the Radicalesbians. Representatives of this movement questioned the dominating role of males in the society. They thought that lesbians and women had to resist heterosexuality that made women totally dependent on men.
In the article The Woman Identified Woman, one may get familiar with the views of the Radicalesbians. It seems that this movement was especially revolutionary in the 1960s-1970s when LGBT was almost a taboo topic. Indeed, the role of a woman was very different from the one that we can see nowadays. Women were usually subordinate to men and being a lesbian meant being different and against the traditional societal values which made the lives of lesbians very difficult in many ways. Thus, appeal to the women to “find, reinforce, and validate authentic selves” in order “to achieve maximum autonomy in human expression” is of great significance and coincides with appeals of other civil rights movements (Radicalesbians 4-5). In conclusion, the Radicalesbians pursued goals that were similar to feminists. They strived for women’s liberation and lessening of discomfort that women felt in the USA. In their opinion, it could be possible if women stopped hating themselves and those women that already decided to live differently.
Works Cited
Radicalesbians. The Woman Identified Woman. 1970. Web. 02 September 2016
