Activism Comes in Waves

By Elaine Hutton, a lesbian feminist for many years and an active member of the Lesbian Rights Alliance. This article was adapted from the speech Elaine gave at #FiLiA2021 during the Not Dead Yet: Feminism, Passion and Women’s Liberation Panel.

In Not Dead Yet, I chose two areas to focus on in my chapter - fighting male violence against women, and working with and supporting young women.

Rape Crisis

Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre was set up by a collective of over 30 women in the late 1970s. The newly formed northern (UK) centres became a campaign group – Feminists against Sexual Terrorism. We used to meet regularly, and, for a time at least, changed attitudes to rape by challenging the myths, that women ask for it, lead men on, dress in ways which invite it. Sadly, in the intervening 45 years, we have gone backwards.

One of the reasons we got our message through was that the feminist movement was extremely powerful at the time. All over the UK, we had a shared vision – of overthrowing patriarchal rule and challenging heterosexuality. We were fuelled by anger and outrage as we uncovered the extent of male violence against women and girls. The Centres were run with a firm feminist perspective. We named male violence for what it was – ‘sexual terrorism’ -  and did not allow public bodies to get away with viewing rape as an irrelevance.  Also, the women in the Newcastle collective were a friendship group. We socialised together, and a lot of us became lesbians, which helped our cohesion.

Girlswork

‘Girlswork’ , as it became known, was a political term in the 1970/80s Youth Service. It meant reclaiming space and entitlement for young women. The youth service throughout the UK was funded by local councils, but it had had become 'boyswork'; soft policing of boys with young women disregarded or pushed aside. Women youth workers, predominantly lesbians, drew attention to this during second wave feminism, and fought for better provision for girls. They also unearthed the history of work with young women from the Suffragette movement, and showed how it had been wiped out, mainly by the fact that the Girls’ Club movement amalgamated with men.

I worked in one of the 12 Girls Projects established in London during the 1980s. We devised many programmes – making videos, Activities weeks, trips away. Girls worked in groups. Nothing was barred in discussions, so they could start to think about their futures, and what they wanted to do with their lives. Some girls disclosed abuse, and we were in a position to support them. As youth workers we didn’t hide our lesbianism and a number of projects, including ours, set up young lesbian groups.

Credit: Leah Thorn and Carola Adams

The series of photos (shown at Filia talk) illustrate various events that our Project undertook, which I write about in some detail in my chapter. The poster, ‘It’s really good being a girl,’ was the result of a project by Leah Thorn and Carola Adams and a group of young women in the West Midlands in 1981.  Such projects were common at the time.  The other photos showed girls canoeing, wind-surfing, learning self-defence, rope-climbing, chopping wood, horse-riding, absorbed in carpentry, and dancing together at the social we organised.  The young women are engrossed in what they’re doing, trying out new experiences, and enjoying each others’ company.  In these projects – 1970s-1980s – the underlying aim was to give girls a sustained experience of an all-women environment. So we always had women tutors, women bus drivers, women musicians.

Now, the youth service as it was has disappeared. Many so-called youth groups are GBT groups where ‘lesbian’ is a banned word, or they groom young women into transing. So our campaigning groups are constantly fighting against policy capture by education authorities and local councils.

But in First Wave feminism, the large number of women running girls’ clubs were volunteers, or as we’d say now, activists. Funding can give advantages, but also exert control.  Now, when women and girls are seen as dispensable and are under such attack, we are vulnerable.

And yet, to end on a note of hope, I termed my chapter,  Activism comes in Waves. As well as demonstrations, writing and theorising, we need to take up the mantle of practical hard work – the slog of influencing public bodies (which we’re doing), and/or setting up on our own, free of official restraints. And younger lesbians feminists are stepping up, to recreate lesbian feminist culture, which gives hope for renewing work with girls and young women in the future. We need to get the next generation of girls on their bikes, in their canoes, and on the route to sanity, independence, freedom and sisterhood! 

Elaine Hutton has been a lesbian feminist activist for many years. She is a founder of the Lesbian Rights Alliance with Lynne Harne, which aims to generate opposition to the disappearing of lesbians, especially young lesbians. She is one of the organisers of the Lesbian History Group, which reclaims our rich past, and many years ago edited a book about lesbian fiction and its relation to political ideology. Her chapter in Not Dead Yet describes the importance of 'Girlswork' in youth work in the 1980s - another piece of lost history reclaimed.