Cell 16 was a progressive feminist organization active in the United States from 1968 to 1973, known for its program of celibacy, separation from men, and self-defense training (specifically karate).Echols, Alice. ''Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-75'', University of Minnesota Press, 1990, , p164 The organization had a journal: ''No More Fun and Games''. Considered too extreme by establishment media, the organization was painted as

hard left In the United Kingdom, the hard left are the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left.* * Term The term was first used in the context of debates within both the Labour Party and the broader left in the 1980 ...

vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

History

In the summer of 1968, Roxanne Dunbar placed an advertisement in a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, underground newspaper calling for a "Female Liberation Front". The original membership also included Hillary Langhorst, Sandy Bernard, Dana Densmore, the daughter of Donna Allen, Betsy Warrior, Ellen O'Donnell, Jayne West, Mary Anne Weathers, Maureen Maynes, Gail Murray, and Abby Rockefeller.Echols, Alice. ''Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-75'', University of Minnesota Press, 1990, The group's name was meant "to emphasize that they were only one cell of an organic movement" and referenced the address of their meetings – 16 Lexington Avenue. ''No More Fun and Games'' ceased publication in 1973. Cell 16 disbanded in 1973 as well.

Ideology

Founded in 1968 by Roxanne Dunbar, Cell 16 has been cited as the first organization to advance the concept of

separatist feminism Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men.Christine Skelton, Becky Francis, ''Feminism and the Schooling Scandal'', Taylor & Francis, 2009 ,p. 104 Because much o ...

. Cultural historian

Alice Echols Alice Echols is Professor of History, and the Barbra Streisand Chair of Contemporary Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. Retrieved March 17, 2013 Education Echols received her bachelor's degree from Macalester College, Minne ...

cites Cell 16 as an example of feminist ''heterosexual separatism'', as the group never advocated lesbianism as a political strategy. Echols credits Cell 16's work for "helping establishing the theoretical foundation for

lesbian separatism Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men.Christine Skelton, Becky Francis, ''Feminism and the Schooling Scandal'', Taylor & Francis, 2009 ,p. 104 Because much of ...

. In ''No More Fun and Games'', the organization's journal, Roxanne Dunbar and Lisa Leghorn advised women to "separate from men who are not consciously working for female liberation", and advised periods of celibacy, rather than lesbian relationships, which some lesbian groups labeled as "nothing more than a personal solution".Dunbar, Leghorn. ''The Man's Problem'', from ''No More Fun and Games'', November 1969, quoted in Echols, 165

References

External links

* Pearson, Kyra, ''Mapping rhetorical interventions in "national" feminist histories: Second wave feminism and Ain't I a Woman'' (1999)
abstract
* Duke University has digitize
vol. 1, no. 2
of the journal "No More Fun and Games"

History

Ideology

References

External links

Further reading