Preface On the Dialectics of Sexism, Issue 3 - Betsey Warrior
From 1968 to 1973, a group of radical women called Cell 16 published a journal of feminist theory entitled No More Fun And Games. It was one of the most radical feminist publications of its era and in many ways started radical left feminism, proposing violent self defense, celibacy, separatism, and a Maoist inspired internationalism.
This blog is an attempt on my part to archive some of the writings in No More Fun And Games. Some of these articles were originally posted elsewhere and have been credited as such; others I've transcribed from my copies.
I'm in no way a copyright holder of anything posted here, just some kid who wants to spread articles she thinks are important. If you're a copyright holder or original author who wants an article taken down, feel free to contact me. • Contact Me
No More Fun and Games Unofficial Archive
This blog is an attempt on my part to archive some of the writings in No More Fun And Games. Some of these articles were originally posted elsewhere and have been credited as such; others I've transcribed from my copies.
I'm in no way a copyright holder of anything posted here, just some kid who wants to spread articles she thinks are important. If you're a copyright holder or original author who wants an article taken down, feel free to contact me. • Contact Me
No More Fun and Games Unofficial Archive
A Historical and Critical Essay for Black Women of the Cities (excerpts) - Patricia Murphy Robinson
Originally posted at Duke University’s Documents from the Women’s Liberation Movement Collection
[Originally published in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation. Cambridge, Mass: Cell 16. vol. 1, no. 3 (Nov 1969)]
Myths galvanize people and direct their form of culture. They are the fullness and depth of the people. They are the projections of their learned fears, anxiety, frustrations, hopes and the deepest unconscious contradictions of a civilization. In them is found not rational, linear thought but the inner contradictory reality of the human being. The American Dream is the end of a long, circuituous route away from the animal-body, the land, woman and black to condensed wealth (money, machines and property), cities, man and white. It is time now to break out of these deathly myths and this culture built on the oppression of women and blacks.
The western world was built on much more than colonialism and imperialism. It was built on the long-standing mythical split of male and female, as well as the split of body and mind. All things having to do with the animal body were repressed unconsciously. The repressed reality of life, like oppressed peoples, never stays repressed. It always threatens to rise and cause trouble to those who need to control others and themselves.
Thoughts On Celibacy - Ellen O’Donnell
[Originally published in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation. Cambridge, Mass: Cell 16. vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct 1968)]
Some people were born with the secret of loving. As children they abhorred the violence of playmates with their toy soldiers, guns and battles. They preferred the beauty in music, nature’s collage and the playmates in books at home. They were content to observe these things rather than reach out, trying to mold these things to their will. If they were lucky they were allowed to enter cloisters. I think they joined these orders because the orders existed rather than from strict religious expression. It does seem that celibacy would be worthwhile in order to preserve the quietness (“be still and know that I am God”) needed for graceful loving. In reaching out in physical love there is still the desire to mold the other person’s energy under the guise of togetherness.
The Psychological Commune - Marilyn Terry
[Originally published in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation. Cambridge, Mass: Cell 16. vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct 1968)]
Organizing for liberation is a uniquely difficult problem for women. They are lacking the common religious consciousness of the persecuted Jews, the conspicuous “racial” characteristics of the oppressed Blacks, and the common skills and trades of the working class. Unlike other oppressed groups, women are dispersed throughout society in capsule colonies where, with their men, they simulate a microcosm of the master-slave relation: the women are culturally conditioned to accept marriage, childbearing, mindless and cyclic labor while the men are mobilized to develop their intellect and talents in a male competitive society of their own creation. The task of organization, then, is two-fold: first, women must be brought to a consciousness of their common plight as women and, second, they must be linked to action to alter their oppressive condition.
From No More Fun and Games, Issue 1 (Oct, 1968)
On Celibacy - Dana Densmore
Originally posted at Duke University’s Documents from the Women’s Liberation Movement Collection
[Originally published in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation. Cambridge, Mass: Cell 16. vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct 1968)]
One hangup to liberation is a supposed “need” for sex. It is something that must be refuted, coped with, demythified, or the cause of female liberation is doomed.
Already we see girls, thoroughly liberated in their own heads, understanding their oppression with terrible clarity trying, deliberately and a trace hysterically, to make themselves attractive to men, men for whom they have no respect, men they may even hate, because of “a basic sexual-emotional need.”
Sex is not essential to life, as eating is. Some people go through their whole lives without engaging in it at all, including fine, warm, happy people. It is a myth that this makes one bitter, shriveled up, twisted.
An Argument For Black Women’s Liberation As a Revolutionary Force - Mary Ann Weathers
Originally posted at Duke University’s Documents from the Women’s Liberation Movement Collection
[Originally published in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation. Cambridge, Mass: Cell 16. vol. 1, no. 2 (Feb 1969)]
“Nobody can fight your battles for you; you have to do it yourself.” This will be the premise used for the time being for stating the case for Black women’s liberation, although certainly it is the least significant. Black women, at least the Black women I have come in contact with in the movement have been expounding all their energies in “liberating” Black men (if you yourself are not free, how can you “liberate” someone else?). Consequently, the movement has practically come to a standstill. Not entirely due however to wasted energies but, adhering to basic false concepts rather than revolutionary principles ant at this stage of the game we should understand that if if is not revolutionary it is false.
We have found that Women’s Liberation is an extremely emotional issue, as well as an explosive one. Black men are still parroting the master’s prattle about male superiority. This now brings us to a very pertinent question: How can we seriously discuss reclaiming our African Heritage — cultural living modes which clearly refute not only patriarcy and matriarchy, but our entire family structure as we know it. African tribes live communally where households let alone heads of households are non-existant.
It is really disgusting to hear Black women talk about giving Black men their manhood — or allowing them to get it. This is degrading to other Black women and thoroughly insulting to Black men (or at least it should be). How can someone “give” one something as personal as one’s adulthood? That’s precisely like asking the beast for your freedom. We also chew the fat about standing behind our men. This forces me to the question: Are we women or leaning posts and props? It sounds as if we are saying if we come our from behind him, he’ll fall down. To me, these are clearly maternal statements and should be closely examined.
Who is the Enemy? - Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Originally posted at Signalfire
[Originally published in No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation. Cambridge, Mass.: Cell 16. vol. 1, no. 2 (Feb 1969)]
In the past few years a cynicism has set in among our radical thinkers which has set the tone for all anti-establishment action. Under the guise of toughening our line, we have hardened our minds, and frozen our ideas. There is a great deal of ego satisfaction in defying the enemy, in baiting and teasing and attacking. One feels ones power to disarm. The only problem is that one is rarely attacking the enemy — rather a potential ally, one of the people, or a crowd of people.
I am tired of hearing the invective of self-pity from Black “radicals”, students, women, including myself. For a long time I went along with the line that “Of course, we ultimately want a humane and socialist society of peace and good will and brother/sister-hood but for the time being, we must not criticize anything an oppressed person does; any gain is commendable; any action forgiveable; for after all we have suffered and deserve some reward now.” That is a logical statement and cries for justice. But it calls for a child’s justice — that the world be as one wishes it for oneself. The American worker made that argument three times, and the third time his movement died, perhaps forever. Now he sits, all puffed up with a pocketfull of credit cards and his Playboy magazine watching his new colored TV. He sold out for jobs by going into three capitalist wars, because they were in his economic ‘interest’. We have learned to avoid the same errors, but not how to analyse short-term and long-term interests.
