At Berkeley in the Sixties by Jo Freeman

|a The train to Berkeley - Cal - Politics and the university - SLATE - Exploring the political bazaar - The young democrats - Student - Protest - Summer vacation in Washington, D.C. |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-343) and index. |a xxiii, 358 pages : |b illustrations |c 24 cm |a Bloomington : |b Indiana University Press, |c |a At Berkeley in the sixties : |b the education of an activist, 1961-1965 / |c Jo Freeman. And when it judged me worthless, I accepted that judgment.|a 0253216222 |q paperback |q alkaline paper I gave the movement the right to judge me because I trusted it. It was my very need for feminism and feminists that made me vulnerable. It claimed to provide a haven from the ravages of a sexist society a place where one would be understood. That right I had reserved to myself.īut the Movement seduced me by its sweet promise of sisterhood. I had survived my youth because I had never given anyone or any group the right to judge me. Eventually all your colleagues join in a chorus of condemnation which cannot be silenced, and you are reduced to a mere parody of your previous self. These feelings are reinforced when you are isolated from your friends as they become convinced that their association with you is similarly inimical to the Movement and to themselves. This attack is accomplished by making you feel that your very existence is inimical to the Movement and that nothing can change this short of ceasing to exist. It took me years to recover, and even today the wounds have not entirely healed. “I was one of the first in the country, perhaps the first in Chicago, to have my character, my commitment, and my very self attacked in such a way by Movement women that it left me torn in little pieces and unable to function.

At Berkeley in the Sixties by Jo Freeman