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

Voltairine de Cleyre, “State, Nature and Art” (1888)

August 9, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
God ought to be a Protestant. I couldn’t help thinking so the day I visited the Philadelphia House of Correction; and if anyone has the patience to hear me out, I think he will agree with me before I conclude this narrativ. There is a perfect anomaly at the gate of this institution—a civil policeman (though that is not the reason God ought to be a Protestant. Civility is ordinarily incompatible with a blue coat trimmed with brass buttons). This gentleman—I am glad to giv him the title—displayed no unnecessary pomp or patronizing air, as he showed us the way […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “In a Marble Tomb” (1888)

August 8, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A bequest to the poor children of Philadelphia. That, they tell me, is the royal gift of Stephen Girard; and, by the way, friends, did it ever occur to you that while God is occupying himself in multiplying the families of the poor to the end that his mighty name be praised and glorified, he generally makes just some Quixotic choice of an Infidel of the Girard stamp for the purpose of doing what in all conscience he himself ought to hav done—or, as the Rev. Mr. Field would probably regard it, for the purpose of setting his own plan […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Quaker City” (1888)

August 8, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
It was nearing the close of that May-time which is the morning of summer, when one fair, bright day I was borne away to the southward, through long, shining levels of grassy sea, shot over with yellow dandelion gleams like little baby sunshines playing in the sink and swell of the emerald waves. Up from that silent, dreaming, hazy, green ocean came floating the songs of its toilers; and the light-bathed airs which rested above it grew redolent with perfume, purple and silver with the sheen of the wings floating through it. and night came down like the gathered brooding […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Pennsylvania Conventions and Ohio Workers” (1888)

August 7, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Pennsylvania Conventions and Ohio Workers After a long, tiresome jolt over that paragon of bad roads, the L. S. & M. S., your correspondent arrived at Girard station on the forenoon of the 24th of January. The day was cold, the station-house was cold, the baggage-master was cold, very cold, as I asked him, in my most persuasiv accents, when the Erie and Pittsburgh train left for Louisville. “Five hours, miss,” and he wiped the young and budding icicles from his mustache. Five hours! and only one weary, forlorn passenger with which to while away the time. It looked dubious, […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Secular Education” (1887)

August 7, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
There are four instruments which, wielded by dominant minds, bend and mold the sentiments of the masses to meet the form and spirit of the times: The force of early influence, the school, the platform, and the press. These are the four grand educators, and education is the strong right arm of progress, that arm which bares its mighty muscles and strikes upon the hewn rock of time the chisel-blows which carve the tablets of an advancing era, there to remain until the surges of the incoming ages shall hav swept them away, leaving a smooth face whereon shall be […]
poetry

V. de C., “A Poetic Swing Around the Circle” (1888)

August 6, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A Poetic Swing Around the Circle Now, all he truth seekers, attend my tale. I am not writing “no such word as dale” (Which, Truth Seeker observes, is common sense Beyond the average poem’s just pretense), But scribbling out a simple little story. For any fibs you’ll please giv God glory, For any merit please giv me the credit, And render all due thanks when you hav read it. There is a place that’s called the Smoky City; It has that reputation, more’s the pity That nicknames cling when we hav long outgrown them; In cases like thi people shouldn’t […]
The Sex Question

Sadakichi Hartmann, “Voltairine de Cleyre” (1915)

August 5, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE By Sadakichi Hartmann THE first and only time I heard Voltairine de Cleyre lecture was at Walker’s N. Y. Liberal Club, way back in 1894. The topic was “Mary Wollstonecraft, the Apostle of Equal Rights.” The even delivery, the subdued enthusiasm of her voice, the abundance of information, thought and argument, and the logical sequence of the same made a deep impression upon me. I was at that time a lecture fan, and able to make comparisons of her straightforward method with the performances of other public speakers. She had nothing of the pompous, climax-building elocutionary oratory […]
The Sex Question

Leonard D. Abbott, “Voltairine de Cleyre’s Posthumous Book” (1914)

August 5, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE’S POSTHUMOUS BOOK By Leonard D. Abbott. THERE is a famous painting which shows the Statue of Liberty looming up through the mists of New York Harbor. At the base of the statue ships are concealed by a fog. In the background, the sky-scrapers of the metropolis are stained by a heavy and unwholesome atmosphere. The only sunlight in the picture falls on the head and the uplifted torch of the womansymbol of Liberty. She is rising triumphant over commercialism, and her torch is strong and steadfast. It is in some such way as this that I think […]
reviews

Lilian Hiller Udell, “An American Anarchist” (1914)

August 3, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
An American Anarchist Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre. [Mother Earth Publishing Association, New York.] Into every generation are born certain personalities that have the gift of attracting vast multitudes within their orbit, dominating them, animating them with a single purpose, directing them to a common goal. There are other personalities more richly gifted, of more extended vision, who nevertheless live and die unknown to the greater number of their contemporaries. Aristocrats of the mind, these latter disdain to practice the arts by which popularity is gained and held. They attract, but do not seek to dominate. They persuade, but […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Cremation” (1890)

August 1, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
For the Boston Investigator. CREMATION. Mr. Editor:—An article in the Truth Seeker from the pen of A. B. Bradford upon the subject of cremation suggested to me the propriety of describing a visit to the Chelten Hills cemetery made by a friend and myself some months ago. Much of the prejudice prevailing among even Freethinkers against this method of disposing of the dead is owning to ignorance of the process of cremation, and the surrounding of the last home of the silent. One bitter winter evening, by a queer accident, the manager of the Cremation Society called upon my friend, […]