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, “The Commune is Risen” (1912)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE COMMUNE IS RISEN By VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. “They say ‘She is dead; the Commune is dead’; That ‘If she were living her earthquake tread Would scatter the honeyless hornets’ hive.’ I am not dead, nor yet asleep; Nor tardy, though my steps seem slow; Nor feeble from the centuries’ sweep; Nor cold, though chill the north winds blow. My legions muster in all lands, From field, from factory, from mine, The workers of the world join hands Across the centuries and brine.” NEVER since those lines were sung by the great unknown poet, whose heart shone red through his […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “C. L. James” (1911)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
It is nearly eighteen years ago, back in the fall of 1893, that for the brief space of a half an hour I sat in the company of C. L. James. It happened so: it was the year of the world’s fair at Chicago, and everybody with an “ism,” orthodox or heterodox, was foregathering with his fellows in belief, in convention assembled. We the Anarchists also wanted a convention, and prepared to hold one; but the Chief of Police, hearing thereof, notified Will Holmes that no convention would be allowed unless his men were present at all our proceedings; as […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Discussion at Meetings” (1911)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
I HAVE read, in the last issue of Mother Earth, Bolton Hall’s opinion on the mixed blessing of discussion after meetings with interest, and—disagreement; mixed also. I agree that a meeting of fifty with a good discussion is better than one of two hundred and fifty with none; but with a bad discussion—nine times in ten it is a bad discussion—meeting of two hundred and fifty and silence is preferable. For I do not agree that “almost anything is better than silence”; sometimes silence is better than almost anything; particularly the silence of a “buffoon.” Nor do I consider newspaper […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Mexican Revolt” (1911)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE MEXICAN REVOLT BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. AT last we see a genuine awakening of a people, not to political demands alone, but to economic ones,—fundamentally economic ones. And in the brief period of a few months, some millions of human beings have sprung to a full consciousness of a system of wrong, beginning where all slaveries begin, in the sources of life. They have struck for Land And Liberty. And even if their revolt shall be crushed by the mailed hand of the United States Government (for I do not believe the present nondescript thing calling itself a government, […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Mexican Revolution” (1911)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION A lecture delivered in Chicago October 29, 1911. By VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. THAT a nation of people considering themselves enlightened, informed, alert to the interests of the hour, should be so generally and so profoundly ignorant of a revolution taking place in their backyard, so to speak, as the people of the United States are ignorant of the present revolution in Mexico, can be due only to profoundly and generally acting causes. That people of revolutionary principles and sympathies should be so, is inexcusable. It is as one of such principles and sympathies that I address you, […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Note” (October 1910)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
NOTE. So far the following dates have been engaged for lectures: New York October 7—8 Albany October 9 Rochester October 12 Buffalo October 13—16 Cleveland October 20—23 Toledo October 26 Detroit October 30 Chicago November 11 VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. Voltairine de Cleyre, “Note,” Mother Earth 5, no. 8 (October 1910): 272.  
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Note” (August 1910)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
NOTE About October 15th I intend starting on a lecture tour which will extend as far as Chicago, or perhaps farther west. Organizations and Comrades wishing to arrange lectures should kindly communicate with me at once. VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE 531 N. Marshall Street Philadelphia, Pa. Voltairine de Cleyre, “Note,” Mother Earth 5, no. 6 (August 1910): 191.
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Dominant Idea” (1910)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
On everything that lives, if one looks searchingly, is limned the shadow line of an idea — an idea, dead or living, sometimes stronger when dead, with rigid, unswerving lines that mark the living embodiment with the stern immobile cast of the non-living. Daily we move among these unyielding shadows, less pierceable, more enduring than granite, with the blackness of ages in them, dominating living, changing bodies, with dead, unchanging souls. And we meet, also, living souls dominating dying bodies-living ideas regnant over decay and death. Do not imagine that I speak of human life alone. The stamp of persistent […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “A Study of the General Strike in Philadelphia” (1910)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
A “CONDITION” is always more interesting than a “theory.” The general strike of organized labor in Philadelphia has been the most interesting and instructive phenomenon in the economic struggle which any American city has offered since Chicago in 1885-6. It has revealed many things, both to its friends and its enemies, which no amount of theorizing could have foreseen. Its direct consequences, while considerable, have been insignificant compared with indirect results. As I wrote in my last month’s article, it was called some ten days later than it should have been; it was fixed for Saturday morning, March 5th,—Saturday being […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Philadelphia Strike” (1910)

July 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE PHILADELPHIA STRIKE BY VOLTAIRINE DE CLEYRE. EVER since the trolley strike of last June, when the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company was forced into the semblance of an agreement with its men, it has made systematic efforts to undermine, crush, and utterly destroy their union. The ink was scarcely dry before it began violating this agreement, and at last, feeling that it had acquired sufficient strength through the introduction of a rival union, an organization of scabs, it began forcing the situation, by discharging its old men, men who had been in the service from ten to twenty years, “for […]