| Abbreviation | NYRF |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1969 |
| Founders | |
| Founded at | New York City, U.S. |
| Dissolved | 1972; 53 years ago (1972) |
New York Radical Feminists (NYRF) was aradical feminist group founded byShulamith Firestone andAnne Koedt in 1969, after they had leftRedstockings andThe Feminists, respectively.[1] Firestone's and Koedt's desire to start this new group was aided byVivian Gornick's 1969Village Voice article, “The Next Great Moment in History Is Theirs”. The end of this essay announced the formation of the group and included a contact address and phone number, raising considerable national interest from prospective members.[2][3] NYRF was organized into small cells or "brigades" named after notable feminists of the past; Koedt and Firestone led theStanton-Anthony Brigade.
Central to NYRF's philosophy was the idea that men consciously maintained power over women in order to strengthen theiregos, and that women internalized their subordination by diminishing their egos.[4][5] This analysis represented a rejection of the two other prevailing theories of women's subordination current at the time – Redstockings' "Pro-Woman Line", which emphasized men's subordination of women and women's often deliberate adaptations to that reality, and The Feminists' theory that emphasized women's subordination as being rooted in the unconscious playing out of internalizedsex roles.[6][7] NYRF created a manifesto titled, “Politics of the Ego: A Manifesto for N.Y. Radical Feminists”, in 1970.[8] Acceptance of this manifesto was required to gain membership. The manifesto definedradical feminism as a political ideology that recognizes how society maintains men's power over women. Its primary thesis was that, in all societies, men's egos were the key reason for male supremacy over women. In essence, it declared, the main purpose of male chauvinism was to promote psychological ego.[8]
Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt left NYRF in 1970 over disagreements about organization and leadership with other factions of NYRF.[9] Nonetheless, the group continued to be active through the mid-1970s.[9] Its activities during that time included holding a monthlyconsciousness raising meeting, publishing a regular newsletter, and maintaining a speaker's bureau.[10] NYRF also organized a number of public conferences and speakouts through the early to mid-1970s on topics such as rape, sexual abuse, prostitution, marriage, lesbianism, motherhood, illegitimacy, class, and work.[11]Florence Rush introducedThe Freudian Coverup in her presentation "The Sexual Abuse of Children: A Feminist Point of View," about childhood sexual abuse andincest, at the April 1971 NYRF Rape Conference.[12] Rush's paper at the time was the first challenge toFreudian theories of children as the seducers of adults rather than the victims of adults' sexual/power exploitation.[13]
A 1971 speak-out led by the New York Radical Feminists is considered one of the first feminist efforts to bring rape to the public’s attention. The New York Radical Feminists framed rape as a tool to maintain patriarchal control and silence women in contrast to the popular conception of the time that rape was committed by a few bad men or was the victims' fault. Additionally, The New York Radical Feminists called out male-dominated institutions such aslaw enforcement andhospitals for failing to protect women and oftenre-victimizing them.[14]
In 1972 Lisa Orlando aided by Barbara Getz wroteThe Asexual Manifesto for the NYRFAsexual Caucus.[15]
In 1982, NYRF was listed among the signatories to a leaflet produced by the "Coalition for a Feminist Sexuality and AgainstSadomasochism", an ad hoc coalition put together byWomen Against Pornography to protest theBarnard Conference.[16]
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