The Furies Collective
Collective sounds ten times better than "group house"
Happy Wednesday, friends! Inspiration strikes in the oddest places. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love to take walks in my Capitol Hill neighborhood. Little did I know the inspiration for this week’s newsletter would come from one of my walks! This week we are learning about The Furies Collective, a 1970’s lesbian feminist collective in Washington, DC.
The Furies Collective
Before I even start writing this, the 1970’s love affair with the color orange is something I just can’t get behind. It just needed to be said. Okay, moving on.
This week we’re jumping in our time machine, sans anything orange, to Capitol Hill in the 1970s. Think bell bottoms, Watergate, and Mary Tyler Moore. This is when The Furies Collective was born. But first, a bit of history. The second wave of feminism started in the 1960s when Betty Freidan wrote The Feminine Mystique and later founded the National Organization for Women. The problem with Freidan? Girlfriend wasn’t a feminist. I mean, she thought she was a feminist but she didn’t like lesbians. She literally coined the phrase “Lavender Menace” in reference to lesbians because she thought they would take over the movement and divert from her mission. Spoiler: this was unequivocally false and Friedan was problematic AF. She finally admitted her mistake in 1977 but too little too late, Bets. It’s helpful for you to understand that the second wave wasn’t exactly supportive of lesbians leaving many to feel left out of the movement. Kind of awkward to say you’re for sisterhood without including many of your “sisters”… but I digress.
Because many lesbians felt left out of feminism, they started to fracture into their own groups. This hit especially hard in DC. Hence, The Furies were born! In spring 1971, twelve women in DC created a separatist collective (basically a group house) designed to be completely free from the influence of men and heterosexuals. They were inspired by a group in New York called “Radicalesbians.” They had a few houses but mainly lived in Capitol Hill at 219 11th Street Southeast. They also published a monthly zine in their basement called The Furies: A Lesbian/Feminist Monthly. It had to be driven to Atlanta for printing because local printers wouldn’t publish their radical content. The zine was a mix of articles about the movement, political/social commentary, humor, and free-verse poetry. They also published a Methodist youth magazine called motive.
You might be asking yourself where did the name “Furies” come from? According to Ginny Berson, a member of the Collective, it came from anger. Literal fury. She said “we call our paper The Furies because we are also angry… We have been fucked over all our lives by a system which is based on the domination of men over women, which defines male as good and female as only good as the man you are with.” Their name was also inspired by the Furies of Greek Mythology, who had been done wrong by the Gods and wanted vengeance.
The Furies were a radical group. They thought heterosexuality was a key to male supremacy and having male children prevented women from experiencing true liberation. This didn’t go over well with some folks for obvious reasons. That said, they were also a group of all-white lesbians, which takes away some of their radical legitimacy for me. The Collective eventually dissolved after a few years based on conflicting ideologies and busy schedules. But, several of the Collective members went on to start record companies, become photographers, and write professionally. You may have heard of Rita Mae Brown? She was a member of the Collective!
So, next time your uber Republican fam is in town, bring them to this little gem! Off the beaten path and sure to have Uncle Fred angrily mumbling to himself for the rest of the trip.
Bits and Bobs from the Past Few Weeks
30 under 30 is cool, but what about joining the Peace Corps at 58? This article on Cup of Jo features three women with later-in-life accomplishments. It includes a woman who got her Ph.D. at 51 and a woman who became a professional triathlete at 60.
A New York Times article about Black superheroes written in part by comic book author Eve L. Ewing. Ewing created Ironheart, a comic about a Black teen girl from Chicago named Riri Williams. I personally love anyone who gives Jon Hughes a run for his money with Chicago-based content.
This ADORABLE short from Nick, Jr.’s Little Lens featuring three Black kids telling the story of how they got their name. How are kids so eloquent and sweet at the same time?
Citations
‘The Furies’ sought a society free of male & hetero influence
The waves of feminism, and why people keep fighting over them, explained
Inside the H.Q. of DC’s Short-Lived but Influential Lesbian Separatist Collective