The Redstockings Womens Liberation Group

The Redstockings Women's Liberation Group The radical feminist group Redstockings was founded in New York in 1969. The name Redstockings was a play on the word bluestocking, adapted to include red, a color long associated with revolution and uprising. Bluestocking was an old term for a woman who had intellectual or literary interests, instead of the supposedly acceptable feminine interests. The word bluestocking had been applied with a negative connotation to 18th and 19th-century feminist women. Who Were the Redstockings? Redstockings formed when the 1960s group New York Radical Women (NYRW) dissolved. NYRW split up after disagreements about political action, feminist theory, and leadership structure. NYRW members began meeting in separate smaller groups, with some women choosing to follow the leader whose philosophy matched theirs. Redstockings was started by Shulamith Firestone and Ellen Willis. Other members included prominent feminist thinkers Corrine Grad Coleman, Carol Hanisch, and Kathie (Amatniek) Sarachild. Redstockings Manifesto and Beliefs The members of Redstockings firmly believed that women were oppressed as a class. They also asserted that the existing male-dominated society was inherently flawed, destructive, and oppressive. Redstockings wanted the feminist movement to reject the flaws in liberal activism and protest movements. Members said that the existing left perpetuated a society with men in positions power and women stuck in support positions or making coffee. The Redstockings Manifesto called for women to unite to achieve liberation from men as the agents of oppression. The Manifesto also insisted that women not be blamed for their own oppression. Redstockings rejected economic, racial, and class privileges and demanded an end to the exploitative structure of male-dominated society. The Work of Redstockings Redstockings members spread feminist ideas such as consciousness-raising and the slogan sisterhood is powerful. Early group protests included a 1969 abortion speak-out in New York. Redstockings members were appalled by a legislative hearing on abortion at which there were at least a dozen male speakers, and the only woman who spoke was a nun. To protest, they held their own hearing, where women testified about personal experiences with abortion. Redstockings Published a book called Feminist Revolution in 1975. It contained history and analysis of the feminist movement, with writings about what had been achieved and what the next steps would be. Redstockings now exists as a grassroots think tank working on Womens Liberation issues. Veteran members of Redstockings established an archive project in 1989 to collect and make available texts and other materials from the Womens Liberation movement.

Places Named After Old Country Geographic Locations

Places Named After Old Country Geographic Locations What is the geographic connection between the province Nova Scotia in Canada and French New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean? The connection is actually in their names. Have you ever wondered why in many of the worlds centers of immigration like the United States, Canada, and Australia there are plenty of settlements with names like New Denmark, New Sweden, New Norway, New Germany, etc.? Even one of the Australian states is named New South Wales. These many new geographical places - New York, New England, New Jersey and many others in the New World are actually named after the original ones in the Old World. After the discovery of the Americas a necessity for new names appeared. The blank map needed to be filled in. Very often the new places were named after European geographical locations by just adding new to the original name. There are possible explanations for this choice a desire for commemoration, a feeling of homesickness, for political reasons, or due to the presence of physical similarities. It often turns out that the namesakes are more famous than the original ones, yet there a few new places that have disappeared in history. Famous "New Places New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico are the four new states in the United States. New York City, which gave the name to the state, has an interesting story. The English city of York is the father of its more famous new version. Before becoming part of the British North American colonies, New York was the capital of the colony known as New Netherland and bore the thematic name New Amsterdam. The small county Hampshire in the south of England gave its name to New Hampshire, in New England. The British crown dependency Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, is the original of New Jersey. Only in the case of New Mexico, there is no transatlantic connection. Its name has an easily explained origin related to the history of the U.S. and Mexico relations. There is also the case of New Orleans, the largest city in Louisiana, which historically has French origins. Being part of New France (present-day Louisiana) the city was named after an important man - the Duke of Orleans, Orleans is a city in the Loire valley in Central France. Famous Old Places Speaking of Spain, we have to mention the idea of New Spain, another example of a former overseas territory named after a country. New Spain consisted of the present-day Central American countries, some Caribbean islands and southwestern parts of the U.S. Its existence lasted exactly 300 years. Officially, it was established immediately after the collapse of the Aztec Empire in 1521 and ended with Mexicos independence in 1821. Other "Old" and "New" Connections The Romans labeled Scotland as Caledonia so the present French New Caledonia island in the Pacific is the new version of Scotland. New Britain and New Ireland are islands in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. The name New Guinea itself is chosen because of the natural similarities between the island and the Guinea region in Africa. The outdated British colonial name of the Pacific nation Vanuatu is New Hebrides. The old Hebrides are an archipelago off the west coast of Great Britain. Zealand is the largest Danish island on which the capital city Copenhagen is located. However, the country of New Zealand is definitely a more famous place than the European original. New Granada (1717-1819) was a Spanish viceroyalty in Latin America encompassing the territories of modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Granada is a city and an important historical place in Andalusia, Spain. New Holland was Australias name for almost two centuries. The name was suggested by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1644. Holland is presently part of the Netherlands. New Australia is a utopian settlement established in Paraguay by Australian socialists at the end of the nineteenth century.