#sarah lucia hoagland

“If we perceive separatism as merely derivative of feminism, we would think of it as an extreme reaction because of what passes for feminism today. Early feminism of this wave (very late 60s, early 70s), in its focus on women, was deeply disturbing to the status quo. In changing their relationship to the world — nature and culture — women were removing themselves from the world men had taken/dominated for their own purposes. Early feminists were separating from patriarchy and its values.

“No, separatism does not come out of feminism, rather feminism has developed away from separatism. Reform feminists broke from early feminism by assimilating their goals to the goals patriarchy has for humans (males). That is, they fight to be humans in patriarchal terms. It is not that there was early radical feminism and then separatists broke off as more radical. Rather feminists broke off toward assimilation. Early feminist groups were separatist; there was no place for men.”

—Sarah Lucia Hoagland, from the introduction to For Lesbians Only: A Separatist Anthology(1988).