The Sex Question

In the writings of the 19th and early 20th century, the questions we associate with feminism were addressed under a variety of labels, one of the most economical of which was “the sex question,” which referred, in practice, to a wide range of question concerning sex, gender, sexuality, etc. The texts collected here cover a wide range of “women’s issues.” The current collection includes material previously contained in the following archives: La Frondeuse (Black and Red Feminist History), Anarchy and the Sex Question and A Beautiful Nihilist.

Blazing Star Library

William B. Greene on women’s suffrage

September 19, 2026 Shawn P. Wilbur
I maintain, first, that the people have a certain natural right, which, under special conditions of society, manifests itself in the form of a right to vote. I maintain, secondly, that the women of Massachusetts are people existing under those special conditions of society. I maintain, finally, and by necessary consequence, that the women of Massachusetts have a natural right to vote. I am but a recent convert to the doctrine of women’s rights, never having meditated upon the matter before the famous question was propounded by our good friend from Salem, (Mr. Lord,) “‘Who are the people?” I have been unable, therefore, to prepare myself with statistics. I know nothing of women’s wrongs, and, with the permission of the Committee, will argue the question solely upon abstract and general grounds.

[…]

The Sex Question

Jeanne Deroin, “A ceux qui nous méconnaissent / To Those Who Misunderstand Us” (1848)

September 16, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur
A ceux qui nous méconnaissent. On nous nuit par excès de zèle, on nous accuse parce qu’on nous méconnaît, et de tous parts ce ne sont que clameurs comme si nous voulions renverser le monde et détruire tout ce qui est. Nous l’avons dit pourtant et nos intentions sont assez généreuses pour que nous n’ayons point à les cacher, nous voulons l’égalité sans désordre, la justice sans récriminations, et ce n’est pas, comme l’affirme un bulletin de la République, le privilège de l’intelligence que nous réclamons, nous que les premières avons eu le courage d’élever la voix. Ce que nous […]
The Sex Question

Nelly Roussel, “La force physique et l’autorité / Physical Force and Authority” (1901)

September 16, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur
REPONSES La force physique et l’autorité Si la force musculaire constituait réellement une supériorité, ayant pour conséquence logique et nécessaire la domination, l’homme ne serait évidemment pas le roi de la création. Tant d’animaux la surpassant en vigueur physique! D’autre part — parmi les hommes — les chefs, les maîtres se recruteraient exclusivement dans le monde des « forts » de la halle ou des athlètes de la foire aux pains d’épices. J’ajouterai enfin que le « droit du plus fort » est un non sens et une infamie dans une société qui se prétend civilisée !…… D’ailleurs, cette faiblesse […]
The Sex Question

Nelly Roussel, “Quelques lances rompues pour nos libertés” (1910) (FR/EN)

August 14, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Transcription and translation in progress…] Quelques lances rompues pour nos libertés Nelly Roussel Some Lances Broken for Our Liberties Nelly Roussel   PRÉFACE Comment un inconnu très octogénaire a-t-il la témérité de présenter au grand public le recueil des articles écrits dans les journaux par une conférencière féministe, dont le nom, Nelly Roussel, a tout le prestige du non seulement à une merveilleuse éloquence, mais encore à l’élégance du physique, à la délicatesse des sentiments, à la loyauté du caractère, aux vertus d’épouse et de jeune mère ? Sans doute, ce vieillard, s’étant mis, depuis un quart de siècle, à étudier […]
The Sex Question

Works by Sophie Kropotkin (La Frondeuse #6)

March 19, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] LA FRONDEUSE unruly writing by radical women No. 6 FEATURING WORKS BY SOPHIE KROPOTKIN CORVUS EDITIONS MARCH 2013 It is an unfortunately common experience to find, while researching some one of the more-or-less well-known male figures in anarchist history, some glimpses of wives, daughters, sisters, lovers or female comrades who have barely left a mark in the historical record. In the case of Sophie Ananiev, the wife of Peter Kropotkin, we are fortunate to have a small, but diverse selection of works which have been translated into English. SOPHIE KROPOTKIN THE […]
The Sex Question

Lilian Freeman Clarke, “The Story of an Invisible Institution” (1906)

January 13, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
ABOUT the middle of the last century a little girl was growing up in North Carolina among slaves and slaveholders. Her mother was a Southerner, but her father came from New England. He had there had a position as master of a high school, and afterward taught a school for young men in North Carolina. Susan Dimock was accustomed to say in later life, “I am slow to take an idea; I was always slow: I was eight years old before I perceived the sin of slavery.”

[…]

The Sex Question

Jenny P. d’Héricourt, “Woman Emancipated” — Volume I (1860)

January 1, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur
[translation in progress] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] LA FEMME AFFRANCHIE RÉPONSE A MM. MICHELET, PROUDHON, É. DE GIRARDIN, A. COMTE ET AUX AUTRES NOVATEURS MODERNES PAR Mme. JENNY P. D’HÉRICOURT TOME 1 1860 [/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] WOMAN EMANCIPATED RESPONSE TO MICHELET, PROUDHON, É. DE GIRARDIN, A. COMTE AND OTHER MODERN INNOVATORS BY Mme. JENNY P. D’HÉRICOURT VOLUME 1 1860 [/one_half_last] [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] A MES LECTEURS, A MES ADVERSAIRES, A MES AMIS A MES LECTEURS Lectrices et lecteurs, le but de cet ouvrage et les motifs qui me l’ont fait entreprendre, je vais vous les […]
The Sex Question

Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros in “Liberty” (1895)

December 24, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros was the co-author, with Voltairine de Cleyre, of the dialogue “The Individualist and the Communist,” which appeared in the journal Twentieth Century in 1891. She also produced two dialogues for Liberty, where her husband, Victor Yarros, was a regular contributor. The second dialogue—and the continuation by Benjamin R. Tucker—are imagined responses to the events in Grant Allen’s 1895 novel, The Woman Who Did. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Another Case of Doubting Politician. To the Editor of Liberty: Mr. Labadie’s letter in Liberty a few months ago, in answer to a doubting […]
fiction

Lizzie M. Holmes, “To Poverty” (1902)

June 23, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] To Poverty. Poverty! Miserable curse of a plenteous earth, what horrors are conjured at your name! Shameful shadow falling like a pall over the bright glow civilization would boastfully send forth, you darken every dream of beauty and purity that mortal dares to dwell upon! You drive him to despair, you hound him to the prison door, you call forth the evil within to fight your encroachments, and you crush to earth his aspirations, his genius. Needless, hideous phantom that you are—thing created, not of nature but of men—what mystical words […]
anarchism without adjectives

Max Nettlau, “Woman’s Work for Human Freedom” (1908)

May 21, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] WOMAN’S WORK FOR HUMAN FREEDOM. Seen from a distance, the Suffragists’ movement evokes sympathies even among those who, as Anarchists, abhor their political aims. It is because we so seldom see people of all classes working together for a common purpose, leaving, the well-trodden paths of legality and conventionality, and to some extent, imposing sacrifices -upon themselves. All other movements—the women’s and the Anarchist movements excepted—are class movements, which, however ideal their beginnings may be, necessarily lead to class egoism of growing narrowness, and, as in the case of Social Democracy, do everything to perpetuate the class which they […]