Essay #15: Lauren Golder, 'Voltarine de Cleyre and the Stakes of Anarchist Free Love'
06/14/21 • 15 min
In this essay, Lauren Golder looks at gendered interpretations of free love and sex radicalism through the life of American anarchist-feminist Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912). During the Gilded Age, anarchist men often interpreted free love as a path to personal fulfillment and sexual liberation, while anarchist women saw it as a way to achieve reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. De Cleyre believed that anarchist free love was women's best hope for freedom from patriarchal oppression, a position which was reinforced by her experience of unwanted pregnancy and encounters with misogyny both within and outside of the anarchist movement.
Lauren Golder teaches History and Gender Studies at Santa Monica College and Victor Valley College in California. Her research explores the intersections of American anarchism, gender, and intimate life, and she is working on a book tentatively titled Intimate Experiments: Free Love, Domesticity, and Feminism in the American Anarchist Movement, 1880-1920. For more information, see https://laurengolder.com/
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
In this essay, Lauren Golder looks at gendered interpretations of free love and sex radicalism through the life of American anarchist-feminist Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912). During the Gilded Age, anarchist men often interpreted free love as a path to personal fulfillment and sexual liberation, while anarchist women saw it as a way to achieve reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. De Cleyre believed that anarchist free love was women's best hope for freedom from patriarchal oppression, a position which was reinforced by her experience of unwanted pregnancy and encounters with misogyny both within and outside of the anarchist movement.
Lauren Golder teaches History and Gender Studies at Santa Monica College and Victor Valley College in California. Her research explores the intersections of American anarchism, gender, and intimate life, and she is working on a book tentatively titled Intimate Experiments: Free Love, Domesticity, and Feminism in the American Anarchist Movement, 1880-1920. For more information, see https://laurengolder.com/
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Previous Episode
Essay #14: Alexander Aston, 'Flame of the Red Flag: Reflections on ecology, social cognition and the Paris Commune'
In this essay, Alexander Aston investigates the relationship between urban ecology, social cognition and the emergence of the Paris Commune of 1871. He considers how an anti-cartesian process-anarchism might inform strategies for social transformation by examining self-organising dynamics of people, artefacts, and institutions during the Commune.
Alexander lectures on Anthropology and Archaeology at Keble College, Oxford. His research explores how material culture shapes the evolution and development of human social cognition. His most recent publications are, How the Cycladic Islanders Found Their Marbles: Material Engagement, Social Cognition and the Emergence of Keros and Metaplasticity and the boundaries of social cognition: exploring scalar transformations in social interaction and intersubjectivity.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Next Episode
Essay #16: Sky Croeser, 'Anarchist Teaching Online'
In this essay, Sky Croeser reflects on her experience attempting to make anarchist interventions into university teaching, including teaching online. She suggests some ways in which university teachers might work to undermine hierarchies, rethink assessment, encourage collaboration, and help students to imagine radical change.
Sky Croeser lives and works on Noongar Boodja, and is Senior Lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University. Sky’s research focuses on understanding how people use and change the technologies of everyday life. You can find out more about her research and teaching at skycroeser.net
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/. You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
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