Posted for Yingxue Annie Hui

Precis

               “The Death of a Revolutionary: Shulamith Firestone helped to create a new society. But she couldn’t live in it” by Susan Faludi provides an account of Shulamith Firestone and her devotion to bringing about social change and equality for women. However, in her article, Faludi cannot understand the poor conditions Firestone was subjected to prior to her demise. The government together with the women rights movement seemed to have forgotten about Firestone’s contributions in the 1960s towards the liberation of women. Faludi brings out the irony in Firestone’s death as her memorial service was filled to capacity attracting influential leaders in government and society, yet she might have died of starvation as no one care to look after her during her late age. This article provides a brief account of the forgotten heroine and the ignorance of people, particularly women who enjoy Firestone’s effort without appreciating her. Firestone helped create many feminist movements including the Redstockings and New York Radical Feminists which were instrumental in the fights for women rights.

            The words of Firestone in her last article published in 1998 give a summary of the roles of women before the 1970s radical feminist movements. She elaborates how she could neither write nor read; at the time, the illiteracy rates were high among women as they were not given equal opportunities as men to pursue education. As such, the majority of women settled for menial work as well as housekeeping. This created a significant dependence on men for livelihood which made women susceptible to mistreatment and domestic violence. According to Faludi, the demise of Firestone marked the end of the feminists’ movements since the majority of active participant had passed away and the remaining ones were in their late age.

             Faludi narrates about the pre-feminist era of the 1960s and the sufferings that women endured including rape and domestic violence. Education was reserved for the male counterparts and leadership positions were unattainable for women. The 1960s was the second wave of feminism whose central theme was equality at the workplace; the first wave feminism took place in the 1920s and helped secure the voting rights of women in America (Faludi n.p). Firestone using street theatrics to protest against gender discrimination, she was one of the most active leaders of the 1960s feminist movement. In her work “the Dialectic of Sex” Firestone advocated for radical measures such as abortion and use of cybernetics; she argued that the physical characteristics of women, particularly the reproduction puts them at a disadvantage compared to men (Faludi n.p). Firestone disliked pregnancy and advocate widespread use of contraceptives to control birth. Her argument was that artificial reproduction would set women free from the physical and psychological pain of childbirth. The literary works of Firestone attracted both praises and criticisms in equal measures depending on the particular factions (Faludi n,p). For women, Firestone was regarded as a heroine and a revolutionary who helped change the prevailing social order.

              Faludi describes the Firestone’s childhood that compelled her to fight for women rights. Having being born in a family of six with three boys, Firestone recognized gender discrimination from an early age. In her family, her father was always proud of the boys, particularly their performance in school while anger was directed at the girls. Firestone was always opposing her father’s viewpoints and regularly wrestled her brothers.  Firestone was one of the most active feminists in the 1960s, but she did not receive the necessary recognition that she deserved during her late age. She was abandoned to grapple with economic constraints since she was even unable to settle her rent. To many, she remained an unsung heroine who helped create a new society but was denied the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of her efforts.