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= Shulamith Firestone = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shulamith "Shulie" Firestone (January 7, 1945 – August 28, 2012) was a Canadian-American radical feminist. A central figure in the early development of radical feminism and second-wave feminism, Firestone was a founding member of three radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists. Within these radical movements, Firestone became known as "the firebrand" and "the fireball" for the fervor and passion she expressed towards the cause.

In 1970, Firestone authored The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. Published in September of that year, the book became an influential feminist text. Naomi Wolf said of the book in 2012: "No one can understand how feminism has evolved without reading this radical, inflammatory, second-wave landmark."

Early life
Firestone was born Shulamith Bath Shmuel Ben Ari Feuerstein in Ottawa, Canada. She was born on January 7, 1945 and was the second of six children and the first daughter of Orthodox Jewish parents Kate Weiss, a German Jew who fled the Holocaust, and Sol Feuerstein, a Brooklyn salesman. In April 1945, when Firestone was four months old, her father took part in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

When she was a child, the family Anglicized their surname to Firestone and moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Her father had converted to Orthodox Judaism when he was a teenager and, according to Susan Faludi, he exercised tight control over his children, with the zeal of a convert. One of her sisters, Tirzah Firestone, told Faludi: "My father threw his rage at Shulie." She railed against the family's sexism; Firestone was expected to make her brother's bed, "[b]ecause you're a girl", her father told her. Laya Firestone Seghi, another sister, remembers father and daughter threatening to kill one another.

Firestone's mother was described by her sister, Tirzah, as having a "passive view of femininity that was governed by what she regarded as "what Jewish women do."

Education and 'Shulie'
Firestone attended Yavneh Teacher's Seminary in Cleveland (sister institution of Telshe Yeshiva), received a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and, in 1967, a BFA degree in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

That same year, during her studies at SAIC, Firestone was the subject of a student documentary film. Never released, the film was rediscovered in the 1990s by experimental filmmaker Elisabeth Subrin, who did a frame-by-frame re-shoot of the original documentary, with Kim Soss playing the 22-year-old Firestone. Soss also served as the costume designer and property master for the film. It was released in 1997 as Shulie, winning two awards, including the 1998 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award. The film depicts Firestone as a young student and her journey into becoming one of the most notable second-wave feminists and feminist authors of the 20th century. In 1998, the film was honored with the Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award by the Los Angeles Film-Critics Association, receiving acknowledgement alongside films like "Saving Private Ryan", A Bug's Life, and Rushmore. Two years later, the documentary received the "Experimental Award" from the New England Film and Video Festival. The documentary was praised by The New Yorker for its use of dialectical thought (a concept derived from Firestone's work) in the production of a film set decades prior to its filming.

Radical Feminism
''Firestone was considered a radical feminist because she believed that the oppression of women is directly related to patriarchal gender roles. One of her radical beliefs was that she believed that women's oppression was acted out through control over women's bodies. In The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970), she argues that we should invest in advanced technology in order to free women from childbirth. '' This can be seen as a precursor to cyberfeminism.

Westside
In 1967, at twenty-two, Firestone, along with nearly two thousand other young activists, attended the National Conference for New Politics in Chicago. Here, Firestone met Jo Freeman and the two bonded over their shared outrage in response to the dismissal of women’s issues at the conference. The two women put forth a resolution that called for equitable marital and property laws and “complete control by women of their own bodies.” The women were told their resolution was not important enough for a floor discussion. They eventually managed to have their statement added to the end of the agenda, but it was not discussed. The director, Willam F. Pepper, refused to recognize any of the women waiting to speak and instead called on someone to speak about "the forgotten American, the American Indian". When five women, including Firestone, ran to the podium to protest, Pepper patted Firestone on the head and said, "Cool down, little girl; we have more important things to talk about than women's problems." Shortly afterwards, Firestone and Freeman called a meeting which spawned into the first Chicago women's liberation group. It was known as the Westside group because it met weekly in Freeman's apartment on Chicago's west side.

After a few months Freeman started a newsletter, Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement. It circulated nationwide (and in a few foreign countries), giving the new movement its name. Many of the women in the Westside group went on to start other feminist organizations, including the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.

New York Radical Women
In October of 1967, after establishing the Westside group, Firestone moved to New York to flee a physically abusive boyfriend. In an unpublished work, Firestone recalls the abuse she had been subjected to, including being hit so hard, one of her teeth was knocked out of place.

Once settled in the East Village, Firestone and an acquaintance of hers from Chicago, Pam Allen, co-founded the New York Radical Women. Here, women of the Lower East Side met weekly in their apartments or borrowed office space. Allen said, “that women choos[ing] to get together to talk about their lives without an males present was radical [at the time] and that it “freaked people out.” In a letter dated February 3, 1968, Firestone wrote “I think we’re really onto something new & good, that is radical feminism.”

''A manifesto was written for the group called the New York Radical Women's Principles. In the manifesto the group of participants were defined by their shared rejection of history based purely on a male perspective. It addressed how women's history had been oppressed and anyone who believed in feminism should work together to fight against that oppression. Also clearly stated within the principles was the group's belief that violence was not the appropriate action to attempt and create change.''

''The New York Radical Women's group instilled a psychology program that was considered radical. The program aimed to teach women to view themselves as more strong, independent and assertive. It was believed that by doing so women would not just be seen as subservient to men and it could combat the societal deprecation of women.''

''From the New York Radical Women's group broke off a smaller group into what became W.I.T.C.H (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). The group used witch based paraphernalia and history to guide their activist actions.''

Redstockings, New York Radical Feminists
When NYRW formed "consciousness raising groups", Firestone and Ellen Willis co-founded the radical feminist group Redstockings, named after the Blue Stockings Society, an 18th-century women's literary group. Redstocking members included Kathie Sarachild ("Sisterhood is Powerful") and Carol Hanisch ("the personal is political").

''The group supported history being portrayed by female perspectives, and believed that female writers could help protest the patriarchy .The women of the Redstockings thought that consciousness raising  was a way to reform history and it was their version of resistance. They chose to raise their own consciousness by studying the lives of women, and they focused on aspects such as their childhood, jobs, and motherhood . In their groups they discussed their own personal experiences, instead of just focusing on written material on a subject. The women also applied certain generalizations and theories to themselves and observed real feelings and experiences to further their understanding. It was-understood that consciousness raising actions could help address old ideas and present society with new ones. From mass awareness could come action on a larger scale. However, it was not in the interest of the group to make the Redstockings a service organization or large membership organization.''

The Redstockings group was frowned upon, because it was considered not proper to studying the lives of women without the presence of a man ''. Even specific discussion topics were considered off limits. Members of the group faced much belittlement and discrimination by the community. They became known as man haters and there was much resistance against the idea of men being the oppressors in society, even from other women. Members also had to suffer being called bitches, hens and their meetings were often called coffee klatches or bitch sessions. The radical action of the group was even degraded by other feminists such as militant feminists and politicos, because they regarded consciousness raising as passive and ineffective . These type of feminist groups also viewed the issues that the Redstockings discussed as minor, trivial and unimportant.''

''Similar to the New York Radical Women group, the Redstockings group believed it necessary to revolutionize society on a psychological level. They did this by getting women to explore their own individuality in order to resist male dominance. It was understood that if power could be taken back by individuals, then the process would expand to also affect society .''

''Other actions taken by the group included putting out a journal, and picketing a Miss America contest to address the theme of appearance that was affluent within society. The group threw out objects associated with pain towards women for the sake of "beauty" such as high heels and girdles. This action was one of importance as it helped to bring about the Women's Liberation Movement.''

Faludi writes that the Redstockings "fell apart" in 1970. Firestone then co-founded New York Radical Feminists (NYRF) with Anne Koedt.

The Dialectic of Sex
The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970) became a classic text of second-wave feminism. This was Firestone's first book and was published when she was just 25. In the book, Firestone sought to develop a materialist view of history based on sex: Also notable within the book is the ideal society Firestone creates, one void of the oppression of women. The Dialect of Sex was perceived to be a utopian manifesto dedicated to exploring some to the contradictions present in the United States at the time to an extreme.

 "Just as to ensure elimination of economic classes requires the revolt of the underclass (the proletariat) and, in a temporary dictatorship, their seizure of the means of production, so to assure the elimination of sexual classes requires the revolt of the underclass (women) and the seizure of control of reproduction: not only the full restoration to women of ownership of their own bodies, but also their [temporary] seizure of control of human fertility—the new population biology as well as all the social institutions of child-bearing and child-rearing. ... [T]he end goal of feminist revolution must be, unlike that of the first feminist movement, not just the elimination of male privilege but of the sex distinction itself: genital differences between human beings would no longer matter culturally."

Firestone synthesized the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, and Simone de Beauvoir into a radical feminist theory of politics. She also acknowledged the influence of Lincoln H. and Alice T. Day's Too Many Americans (1964) and the 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich.

Within her book, Firestone asserts that modern society could not achieve true gender equality until women’s biological traits are separated from their identity. The Dialect of Sex was largely influenced by the existing views of Simone de Beauvoir ''. Shulamith supported the belief that the women were limited by the need for them to have children, and by reproducing they could not be individualistic. She also connected the ideas in her book to de Beauvoir's view that motherhood oppressed women, and women became victims in a patriarchal based society.'' She also makes the claim that Freud and Marx had ignored what she called the “sex class”, the domination of women given their biological differences. Gender inequality stems from the patriarchal societal structures imposed upon women because of their bodies, she argued, particularly the physical, social, and psychological disadvantages caused by pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing. She expanded on Marx's views of class to include sex as a class, which she believed was created due to biological distinctions associated with reproduction. Just as Marx connected class differences to divisions in labour, Firestone associated the differences in the classes of sex to be caused by the division of labour and roles regarding procreation. Unlike many other feminists who argued the female existence is a superior one, Firestone only freely accepted that there are biological differences between men and women. However, she made it clear that these differences, though real, are not to be treated as a foundation for prejudice or superiority of one group over another. Firestone also insists that to be human is to outgrow nature, saying: "we can no longer justify the maintenance of a discriminatory sex class system on the grounds of its origin in Nature." The abolition of the sex class requires that women take control of the means of reproduction. She regarded pregnancy and childbirth as "barbaric" (a friend of hers compared labour to "shitting a pumpkin") and the nuclear family as a key source of women's oppression. Contraception, in-vitro fertilization and other medical advances meant that sex would one day be separated from pregnancy and child-rearing, and women could be free. However, Firestone hoped to take reproduction one step farther and completely separate it from the female body. She urged the emergence of a new type of artificial reproduction, referred to as the “bottled baby,” through which women could be freed of the hindrance of childbirth, just as men are. Although in-vitro is the closest option we have to such a phenomenon, we have not yet reached Firestone’s end goal.

Firestone also criticizes the dynamic that exists between heterosexual parenting and child development. She argued that children are hindered in their abilities to develop because of their education, predetermined positions in the social hierarchy, and "lesser importance" in comparison to the adult figures in their lives. This, in turn, has increased maternal expectations and obligations, which is something Firestone desired for society to outgrow. This dependency of maternal figures makes the child(ren) more susceptible to physical abuse, and deprives them of the opportunity to work towards being economically independent and possess or feed into sexual urges.

Airless Spaces
By the time The Dialectic of Sex was published in 1970, Firestone had largely ceased to be politically active. She withdrew from politics in the early seventies, moved to Saint Marks Place, and worked as a painter. In the late eighties she became mentally ill.

In 1998 she published Airless Spaces, a collection of fictional short stories based on her experiences being hospitalized for schizophrenia. Inspired by personal experience, this work highlights the lives and struggles of different characters in New York City battling with mental illness and poverty. Each narrative in the book addresses the difficulties of mental disorder, as well as the feelings of "shame, humiliation, fear, loneliness, and anxiety" that accompany it. There is a consistent presence of instability in the lives of each character in regards to economic and social status, along with mental state. "Airless Spaces" is said to be a reflection of the marginalization Firestone experienced resulting from her radical feminist ideals and lifestyle, as well as the hardships of individuals to escape from the dehumanizing aspects of the mental health field.

Struggle with mental illness
Although in her era of political activity, Firestone advocated for consciousness raising groups and the unity of women, she later suffered from schizophrenia, which has been found to be an effect on chronic isolation and loneliness.

In May of 1974, Firestone was called home to St. Louis following the news of her brother Daniel’s passing. She was told he died in a car crash, but later came to know the true cause of death, a gunshot wound to the chest. Her brother’s apparent suicide shook the family’s Jewish Orthodox beliefs and sent Shulamith Firestone into a battle with mental illness. Firestone refused to attend her brother’s funeral and stated, “whether murder or suicide, afterlife or no, [his death] contributed to my own growing madness.” Following the death, Sol and Kate Firestone planned to move to Israel, prompting an argument that ultimately resulted in Shulamith’s disavowal of her parents. She stated in a certified letter that she had “dissolve[d] [her] tie of blood.”

In 1987, Shulamith’s sister Tirzah stated, “it was when our father died that Shulie went into psychosis. She lost that ballast he somehow provided.”

Firestone’s condition was officially diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia, following which, she was repeatedly hospitalized at Beth Israel Medical Center. Dr. Margaret Fraser, her psychiatrist stated that she suffered from a particularly heinous form of Capgras syndrome, which caused her to believe that the people in her life “were hiding behind masks of faces.”

Eventually, friends and acquaintances, under the guidance of Fraser, her psychiatrist, began a community effort to watch over and care for Firestone as her mental health deteriorated. When Fraser moved and her confidant Lourdes Cintron fell ill, the community of women disbanded, leaving Firestone to her inevitable psychosis and death.

Death
On August 28, 2012, Firestone was found dead in her New York apartment by the building's owner. Alerted by neighbours, who had smelled an odour from her apartment, her superintendent peered in through a window from the fire escape and saw her body on the floor. Her landlord, Bob Perl, said she had probably been dead about a week. According to her sister, Laya Firestone Seghi, she died of natural causes, but because of her family’s staunchly Orthodox views, an official autopsy was never done to confirm or deny starvation as the cause of death. According to reports, she lived in a reclusive fashion and had been in ill health.

In a commemorative essay by Susan Faludi published several months after Firestone's death, The New Yorker magazine further detailed the circumstances of her demise, citing her decades-long struggle with schizophrenia—along with speculation of self-induced starvation—as probable contributing factors. A memorial service was arranged in her memory.

Legacy
The Dialectic of Sex is still used in many women's studies programs. Its recommendations, such as raising children in a gender neutral fashion, mirror the ideals Firestone set out to achieve in her heyday. ''Many of the main ideas within her Dialect are still valid in the present, and are still prominent in the feminist debate on the use of technology advancements in reproduction. The work of Shulamith Firestone is even considered an origin to the combination of science and technology with critical thinking from a feminist lens. Her ideas are still shared and discussed including her belief of the necessity for more women to pursue careers in engineering and science. Firestone's topics can also be found in in scientific advancements such as the production of artificial sperm and eggs and how their production may lead to the elimination of differences between the sexes.''

''The Dialect of Sex also has a legacy in the branch of feminism known as cyberfeminism. The content within The Dialect of Sex became a precursor to contemporary activities lead by cyberfeminists . Specifically it was Firestone's argument that women needed technology in order to free themselves from the obligation of reproducing . Firestone was an important theoretician who connected gender inequities to the view of women as purely child bearers, and she pushed for the increase in technology to abolish gender oppression . She believed that advancements in reproductive technology would be beneficial to women, and the reality that they proceeded to make it easier for women to be viewed as as medical problems to treat, was contradictory to her aspirations . The ideas that Shulamith presented about technology differed to those of many other writers during her time, as she introduced technology as a tool to help ignite a feminist revolution, rather than act as a form of male violence . Firestone's work helped to spread a discourse on the general ideals of cyberfeminism .''

Themes in the Dialect of Sex have ties in xenofeminism as well ''. Shulamith's desire to free women from the burden of reproduction and eliminate the use of sex organs to define an individual's identity has connections to the ambition of xenofeminists to create a society in which all individuals are not assigned traits based on their supposed sex.''

Works

 * (1968). "The Women's Rights Movement in the U.S.: A New View". Notes from the First Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1968). "The Jeanette Rankin Brigade: Woman Power?". Notes from the First Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1968). "On Abortion", Notes from the First Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1968). "When Women Rap about Sex". Notes from the First Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1968), ed. Notes from the First Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1970), ed. Notes from the Second Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1970). The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: William Morrow and Company.
 * (1971), with Anne Koedt, eds. Notes from the Third Year. New York: New York Radical Women.
 * (1998). Airless Spaces. New York: Semiotext(e).