This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

BCRW @ 50

1982 Conference on Sexuality

Of all of Barnard’s Scholar and Feminist Conferences, perhaps the most controversial and well-known is the Scholar and Feminist IX: Towards a Politics of Sexuality, hosted in 1982. The conference focused on sex as a site of pleasure and choice as well as oppression and danger, exposing the foggy duality which had been the basis for rifts and heated disagreements within the feminist movement. Since topics around unfeminist or exploitative sex practices dominated the discourse in the mainstream feminist movement at the time, the 9th S&F conference decided to focus on exploring ideas which positioned sexuality as a site of pleasure in spite of, or in face of danger. The group Women Against Pornography (WAP) picketed outside Barnard Hall with leaflets, T-Shirts, and signs, as they felt the conference catered to misogynistic, violent portrayals of sexuality that perpetuated harm against women, and for feeling that their positions were not represented in the conference. This picket, a feminist organization protesting a feminist conference, symbolically and literally depicted the clashing ideologies and fracturing within the mainstream feminist movement of what would eventually come to be known as the Feminist Sex Wars.

Years before the Scholar and Feminist hosted the Conference on Sexuality, questions around sex and its potential for harm and pleasure were unfolding within the second wave feminist movement. Since much of second wave feminism dealt with analyzing power relations between the sexes, sex came to naturally fall under the feminist critique. Radical feminists analyzed the ways in which sex had been weaponized against the female body in order to enforce women’s subordination. The porn industry came under fire for celebrating, normalizing, and profiting off of sexual violence against women, and for its statistical correlation to real-world instances of sexual violence. Feminists sought to analyze sex and stamp out sexual practices deemed exploitative and oppressive so that a new, feminist sexuality offering the promise of true sexual liberation might replace it. However, their efforts to push towards an ideal sexuality were coupled with slandering, shaming, and vilifying women who fell beyond this ideal. Women who engaged in butch-femme relationships, S/M sexual practices, and lesbian or feminist-created pornography, were labeled “unfeminist,” “politically incorrect,” and “oppressive.” Many women were ridiculed, excommunicated, and silenced from feminist publications, groups, and other mediums within the movement. At the height of feminist critique and analysis of sexual violence and exploitation, another faction of the feminist movement struggled to claim the right to sexual expression and exploration. Thus set the tone for the tumultuous and controversial Conference on Sexuality.

The blurred lines between sex and violence were noted throughout the conference as well as in the conference’s Diary, a supplemental booklet full of the conference planning notes. The Diary acknowledged both the WAP and the pro-sex perspectives, noting, “This dual focus is important, we think, for to speak only of pleasure and gratification ignores the patriarchal structure in which women act, yet to talk only of sexual violence and oppression ignores women’s experiences with sexual agency and choice and unwittingly increases the sexual terror and despair in which women live.” In addition to exploring the meaning and effects of pornography, sex safety vs. sex adventure, butch-femme relationships, male and female sexual nature, and politically correct /politically incorrect sexual practices, the conference and corresponding diary touched on many other controversial and unconventional topics such female spectatorship in film, language, psychoanalysis, prostitution, and childhood. Speakers and feminists at the conference included prominent figures such as Hortense Spillers, Kate Millett, Esther Newton, Gayle Rubin, Joan Nestle, Dorothy Allison, and Barbara Kruger.

The controversial conference not only got the attention of WAP, but of Barnard College and the conference’s donors. The President’s office and Barnard administration confiscated and censored the Diary, and only agreed to its publication on the condition that it remove all mentions of Barnard College and its affiliation with the conference in all official capacity. The Helena Rubinstein Foundation, the Scholar and Feminist Conferences’ major donor responsible for over half of its funding, threatened to pull out financial support. Many thought the 9th Scholar and Feminist conference would be the last, and the Center’s leadership seriously prepared for 1982 as the final year. Nevertheless, forty years later, the S&F conferences still hold strong. Yet the controversial nature of the conference, the political infighting that insued, and near demise hold important messages and insights for the modern feminist movement in its quest for liberation.

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

This page is referenced by:

Jane Gould as Director: The Center Grows In 1972, Jane Gould ‘40 was appointed as the first permanent Director of the Center after having served on the Task Force and Executive Committee. Under her direction, the Center had strong connections with the Office of Career Development, prioritizing Barnard Alumnae in their efforts to return to work or school after time away from Barnard.

Gould’s work in the first decade of the Women’s Center helped to shape it into a space of feminist scholarship, inquiry, and activism. In 1973, the Center hosted its first conference, Women Learn from Women, which raised the questions: “How far will legal solutions take us? What are emancipated lifestyles? Do women have a separate experience of education? Should they?” The purpose of the conference was to break down barriers between women from different schools and economic backgrounds, showing that women learn from all different types of women. Gould estimated that between 800 and 1000 women attended.

Following their first successful conference, the Center began planning their next big project in June of 1973: the first Scholar and Feminist Conference. They had received a $5000 grant from the Rubinstein Foundation for a 3-year program that examined research in women’s studies. Gould and the rest of the Executive Committee decided to use these funds towards the Scholar and the Feminist, which was first held on May 11th, 1974, with the subtitle “Conflict, Compromise, Creativity.” In their first planning meeting, they asked the guiding questions, “What are the questions that women’s studies as a new interdisciplinary field is peculiarly qualified to ask or to answer? What will be the impact of women’s studies on specific disciplines? What changes have taken place as a result of women’s studies? What are the new assumptions? What have we learned about women? Where do we go from here?” At their second planning meeting, they raised questions about the legitimacy of male academia, and wondered whether they should try to break out of the traditional form of the academic conference. More guiding questions came up: “What have been the effects of women’s studies on the various disciplines? On teaching? On research? What is the relationship of women’s studies to feminism? What are the defining parameters of women’s studies as a discipline? To what extent has women’s studies become interdisciplinary?”

During this time, the Center was beginning to form its identity as a place for students to conduct research for class and engage with the new ideas and questions raised by women’s studies. In 1973, the Center opened its research collection with the help of Myra Josephs '28. Named for Josephs’s mother, the Birdie Goldsmith Ast Special Library Collection contained both scholarly literature and ephemeral materials relating to the women's movement and was open to all. It quickly became an integral part of the Center, and was advertised in many Center pamphlets. On one informational pamphlet, the Center was described as a place for students to find research materials and information on women’s issues, or simply a place to relax and meet people – “The door is always open and coffee is provided.” The pamphlet also espoused the Center’s weekly Women’s Poetry Readings that happened on Wednesdays at noon. The Women’s Center was dedicated to providing spaces for women at Barnard and the surrounding area to come engage with feminist scholarship, poetry, and to have access to resources they might need, like health care and legal aid information.

With their first few years behind them and their reputation growing, the Women’s Center began to thrive. They continued their Scholar and Feminist conference, which became a nationally recognized affair. Feeling the momentum building, the conference organizers frequently invited big-name speakers to campus—in 1975, S&F’s second year, they invited Margaret Mead ‘23 to speak, but she was unavailable the day of the conference. In 1976, at the third Scholar and Feminist: the Search for Origins, they considered possible sources for the patriarchy, and women’s subordination to men. For the fifth Scholar and Feminist, Creating Feminist Works, they published a book of papers from the conference.

In addition to the Scholar and Feminist, the Reid lectureship, founded in 1975, sought to bring notable women to lecture and speak with students over lunch. The inaugural Reid lectureships were June Jordan ‘57 and Alice Walker, which was well received by students; many had expressed feeling represented by the lectureship in a way that Barnard’s curriculum and the Center’s other programming failed to. In an An Overview of the Barnard Women’s Center, 1971-1982, the Center acknowledged the impact of these lectures: “One of our most important programs, the annual day and a half Reid Lectureship has had a minority woman as the Lecturer more than 50% of the time. We have found this to be important not only for minority women at Barnard who tell us they have too few role models but for all of us who need to hear the experiences of many different kinds of women.”

Criticisms of the Center’s structure and diversity were not uncommon throughout its history. From the beginning, students and community members alike pushed the Center to highlight the voices of women of color. In a Barnard-produced booklet celebrating the Center in 1993, Catharine Stimpson writes:
Not surprisingly, some turmoil accompanied the bustle within 101 [Barnard Hall]. Not everyone found the Center either necessary or a place of absolute reason, reitute, and justice. [...] In addition, not everyone approved of our first brochure and logo (striking though the graphics were, they had been designed by a man) or thought that the Center should have a permanent director (people feared that a permanent director would violate democratic principles). In the spring of 1972, some students got angry about their role in the Center’s governing structure and, with great legitimacy, about the role of women of color in the Center’s activities.
Additionally, in her memoir, Jane Gould recognizes that many of the first workshops and panels held featured little to no women of color. In 1979, in the midst of planning for the seventh Scholar and Feminist conference, Gould was confronted with the fact that many Black women were angry that they were not included in the planning for many of the conference they were invited to attend. “We considered this a valid and serious criticism and successfully recruited women representing racial minorities as well as lesbian activists for our own conference. By 1980, therefore, we had a truly diverse committee of twenty-four planning the seventh conference, ‘Class, Race and Sex—Exploring Contradictions, Affirming Connections.’” These criticisms and the responses to them show that while not always perfect, the Women’s Center made concentrated efforts to listen to students, and to follow through on challenges to promote better representation in their events. The founding of the Reid Lectureship, with two women of color in its first cohort, was one such instance.

As it continued on, the Center maintained a dedication to Barnard students and the larger women’s movement. An article in the Columbia Spectator from October 9th, 1979 titled “BC Center Blends Feminist Theory with Action” profiles the Center and its connection to feminism at Barnard and beyond. Jane Gould is quoted saying, “The women’s movement will never go away.” In this statement, Gould recognizes the continuing relevance of the Center, implying that it will grow as the women’s movement does. Indeed, the article notes, “The growth and popularity of the center closely parallel the birth and development of the women’s movement.”

This close relationship between the Center and the larger women’s movement continued into the 1980s. In 1982, the Scholar and Feminist was an epicenter of a large feminist controversy. Titled “Toward a Politics of Sexuality,” the conference engaged the intersections of pleasure and danger, focusing on sexuality, butch-femme relationships, pornography, and S/M, and addressing issues such as psychoanalysis as a device used against women’s sexuality, female spectatorship in appropriating the male gaze, child liberation, and prostitution.

This page has paths:

This page is referenced by:

This page references: