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.

The Sex Question

Jeanne Deroin, “To the members of the commission of the banquet of socialist priests” (1849)

August 1, 2012
To the members of the commission of the banquet of socialist priests. Citizens, I come to your banquet because women are also priests, and they must have a place in the temple, as in the State and in the family. I come to ask to speak to you, because women are also apostles. Jesus Christ himself called them to apostleship, saying of Mary, who listened to his teaching, to Martha, who criticized her: Mary has chosen the better part. And if Christ, who did not want the light to be hidden under a bushel, allowed women to listen to his […]
The Sex Question

Jenny P. d’Hericourt, “Morality According to the Sexes” (1869)

July 28, 2012
MORALITY ACCORDING TO THE SEXES BY JENNY P. D’HERICOURT Dear reader, let us for a moment listen to a conversation between wife and husband: Wife—“Men continue to be absurd, and to affirm the contrary of facts. The New York Nation writes thus:” (She reads.) Society refuses to treat men’s licentiousness with the same severity as women’s, because the consequences to the family, to children, and to property are less serious. Husband.—“But that is true, wife, and,” (He reads.) A woman must be taught to take care of her honor, and to bear unsupported the loss of it. Wife.—“Then, if I […]
The Sex Question

Jenny P. d’Hericourt to “The Agitator” (June 12, 1869)

July 28, 2012
  Madame d’Hericourt, having returned from New York, writes full of interest and enthusiasm concerning her plan for a “Universal League of Women.” She will have something to say of this in future numbers of the Agitator. In concluding her letter, she says: I hope my next journey to New York will not be like the last one. In going I was left on the way, losing part of my hand baggage, and in coming back I was pickpocketedat Crestline. Happily, I had only five dollars, a little key, and my ticket in the portmonaie which was in my pocket. […]
biography

La Femme, “Madame Jenny P. d’Hericourt” (1869)

July 28, 2012
MADAME JENNY P. d’HERICOURT Dear Agitator: You ask me the biography of Madame Jenny P. d’Hericourt! I consent only to draw the great lines of her eventful life, those which can be interesting to those identified with the holy cause to which she has devoted a part of her existence. She was born in Besancon, the capital of the ancient Franche-Comte, in 1819. She is therefore the compatriot of Victor Hugo, Charles Fourier, Proudhon, Bichat, Courbet, Rouget de l’Isle, the author of the Marseillaise, and the celebrated Georges Cuvier, to whom she is a relative through her grandmother. By hereditary […]
The Sex Question

Jenny d’Hericourt, “Woman’s Rights in France” (1869)

July 22, 2012
WOMAN’S RIGHTS IN FRANCE LETTER FROM MADAME JENNY P. D’HERICOURT Dear Agitator: I will give you a page of history as an answer to a translation on Women’s Rights in Europe, accepted in the Revolution. If the Journal des femmes, whence this article is taken, were a French paper, the author could not be excused. But this paper is not French, though written in French; which explains how a “Woman of Geneva” does not know anything about thousands of wide awake women who were preaching, writing and claiming their rights in France in 1848. Having been one of those women, […]
Proudhon Library

Society for the Mutual Education of Women, “Response to Satan on the Subject of Mr. Proudhon”

July 4, 2012
[When George Dairnvaell attacked Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1848, an anonymous member of the Society for the Mutual Education of Women, an organization founded by Jeanne Deroin and Désirée Gay Gay, came to his defense] [Note: In l’Opinion des Femmes, the author of this pamphlet is identified as Jeanne Deroin.] Society for the Mutual Education of Women. RESPONSE TO SATAN ON THE SUBJECT OF MR. PROUDHON BY THE ARCHANGEL SAINT-MICHEL How long, O Satan, do you hope to persecute with impunity the children of the true God? You have assumed every form in order to establish your empire on the earth; […]
The Sex Question

Joshua King Ingalls in “The Woman’s Tribune” (1888–1894)

June 28, 2012
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Joshua King Ingalls (1816 – 1898) [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] An Open Letter. Away out in Idaho a fellow-traveler asked the writer the meaning of her badge, and when told he replied: “Oh, I thought it meant that you belong to the party that want to put God in the Constitution.” This is but an illustration of a wide spread fear engendered by terms used by the W. C. T. U. at their conventions. And because this fear, or vague sentiment exaggerated and embodied by prejudice into a tangible danger, does exist, the Tribune […]
poetry

Eugène Pottier, “Already!” (dedicated to Paule Mink)

June 21, 2012
ALREADY! Eugène Pottier To the citizen Paule Mink. At the break of day, the snow falls, Swirled by the air; A sheet of dove’s feathers Covers the deserted cobblestones. I soon passed that way again, Where wheels and men’s feet floundered; No more snow, alas! but slush!             Already! Was she yet fifteen? Certainly not! Not yet, but at the same time old. With a great tint to her face, But nothing of youth or spring. The dazed look in her eyes Told what vulture gnawed at her; I could sense the corpse in her,             Already! She was filthy […]
The Sex Question

Jenny d’Héricourt, “Appeal to Women” and “Profession of Faith”

June 20, 2012
[I’ve been working on an anthology of Jenny P. d’Héricourt’s works, combining her two-volume Woman Affranchised with an assortment of other works of feminist philosophy. d’Héricourt was, of course, one of Proudhon’s opponents on the question of women’s rights, and her response to him makes up an important part of the first volume of Woman Affranchised, but the second volume (about two-thirds of which was not included in the existing English translation) shows her as an accomplished social thinker and activist. I’ve been revising and completing the translation of the first volume of that work, and hope to have at […]
Proudhon Library

Eugène Stourm, “God, Women and Proudhon”

June 20, 2012
[Slowly, but surely, I’m assembling the various feminist responses to Proudhon. The pages of L’Opinion des Femmes is rich with that sort of thing, since it was Jeanne Deroin’s primary forum at the time she proposed herself for political office, and drew fire from Proudhon and others. In the May, 1849 issue, the following essay, by Eugène Stourm, appeared. I think it’s an interesting mix of fairly accurate critique and misunderstanding. Certainly, the more details emerge, the more interesting the conflict looks. I think this project is going to be a lot of fun.] God, Women, and Proudhon. The enemies […]