They Didn't See Us Coming
The Hidden History of Feminism in the Nineties
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
From an award-winning scholar, a vibrant portrait of a pivotal moment in the history of the feminist movement
From the declaration of the "Year of the Woman" to the televising of Anita Hill's testimony, from Bitch magazine to SisterSong's demands for reproductive justice: the 90s saw the birth of some of the most lasting aspects of contemporary feminism. Historian Lisa Levenstein tracks this time of intense and international coalition building, one that centered on the growing influence of lesbians, women of color, and activists from the global South. Their work laid the foundation for the feminist energy seen in today's movements, including the 2017 Women's March and #MeToo campaigns.
A revisionist history of the origins of contemporary feminism, They Didn't See Us Coming shows how women on the margins built a movement at the dawn of the Digital Age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this focused and persuasive study, UNC Greensboro history professor Levenstein (A Movement Without Marches) pinpoints the 1990s as a transitional decade when the feminist movement became decentered, intersectional, diverse, global, and coalition-driven. She chronicles the 1995 Non-Governmental Organization Forum in Beijing, where mainstream organizations such as the Ms. Foundation and NOW came under criticism for trying to legislate diversity from the top down, and U.S. activists discovered they had "far less to teach than to learn" from international groups. Levenstein discusses how new technologies created an alternative media landscape, fostering niche subcommunities around the world and necessitating new methods for navigating dissent. The biggest cultural change, according to Levenstein, was the broadening of feminism's objectives from equal pay and reproductive justice to include human rights issues, such as climate change, economic inequality, labor organizing, and disability rights. Levenstein concludes by profiling three U.S. organizations (SisterSong, SONG, and INCITE!) founded by women of color in the 1990s. Her sober-minded, revisionist history effectively counters stereotypes of the decade's feminism as being "obsessed with fashion, celebrity, and mindless sex talk.' " Contemporary feminists will be enlightened, while those who entered the movement in the '90s will feel vindicated.
