Dystopian Misogyny: Returning to 1970s Feminist Theory through Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Bitch Planet

Abstract

Although the Civil Rights Movement led the way for African American equality during the 1960s, activist women struggled to find a permanent place in the movement since key leaders, such as Stokely Carmichael, were openly discriminating against them and marginalizing their concerns. Women of color, radical women, working class women, and lesbians were ignored, and looked to “women’s liberation,” a branch of feminism which focused on consciousnessraising and social action, for answers. Women’s liberationists were also committed to theory making, and expressed their radical social and political ideas through countless essays and manifestos, such as Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto 1967 , Jo Freeman’s BITCH Manifesto 1968 , the Redstockings Manifesto 1969 , and the Radicalesbians’ The Woman-Identified Woman 1970