The Future is Female

November 30, 2015 8:57 PM

The Internet is blowing up over this 70's "radical lesbian separatist" shirt. i-D has the story.

"The original T-shirt was created for Labyris Books, the first women's bookstore in New York City, which opened in 1972. In 1975, photographer Liza Cowan took a picture of her then girlfriend Alix Dobkin wearing it, which she published in the magazine, DYKE: A Quarterly. "I was just beginning to be a photographer, and asked five friends if I could do a before-and-after story on how a woman's look can change over the course of her life as she matures and comes out," Cowan told the NY Times."

posted by ourt (45 comments total)

Oh, also, fun fact: 25% of the proceeds from these shirts reportedly go to Planned Parenthood.
posted by ourt at 9:01 PM on November 30, 2015 [8 favorites]

That's some pretty distinctive typography on the original, it's a shame they didn't bother to recreate it.
posted by scrowdid at 9:02 PM on November 30, 2015 [28 favorites]

Appropriating the edgy stuff of the past is always a good bet in fashion, especially since it's devoid of context for a lot of people and so less risky.

Not putting down the shirt; it's pretty cool. Or the thought. If feminism becomes so mainstream that everyone puts bell hooks or the S.C.U.M. Manifesto on their shelves to prove their bona fides, I can probably live with that.

I do think that for a lot of feminists, there's a mixture of elation and deep unease whenever capitalism embraces some aspect of feminism. At least in this case PP benefits.
posted by emjaybee at 9:14 PM on November 30, 2015 [24 favorites]

That's a great point, emjaybee, and one that, as a younger person who's heavily interested in fashion, I also feel wary of. When stores like Forever 21 start selling shirts that say "FEMINISM," I can't help but feel like maybe capitalism is homogenizing feminism as a cultural phenomenon so as to curtail any substantial progression of the movement's ideologies.
posted by ourt at 9:19 PM on November 30, 2015 [6 favorites]

I like that the rediscovery of some of the earlier radical feminist theory and iconography is happening while many are still alive -- it's not ancient history and clearly still has relevance. But decontextualizing it, as with some commodification, seems more ambiguous.

Typographically, the new version is more to my taste (though overly close to the "keep calm" products), but totally loses the distinctiveness of the original.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:26 PM on November 30, 2015

looks at first picture: "OMG that is so cool I wonder if it's ok if I wear that"
reads: a radical 70s feminist t-shirt has become an instagram it-item:: "...oh"
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 9:30 PM on November 30, 2015 [3 favorites]

I mean, you should probably wear it if you want it? Don't let others buying blindly into a trend inhibit your own aesthetic intuitions and inclinations. The women who first wore it – namely, Cara Delivingne and St. Vincent – are the reason it's an "Instagram it-item." These women are highly respectable and notable LGBT activists.
posted by ourt at 9:43 PM on November 30, 2015 [7 favorites]

When stores like Forever 21 start selling shirts that say "FEMINISM," I can't help but feel like maybe capitalism is homogenizing feminism as a cultural phenomenon so as to curtail any substantial progression of the movement's ideologies.

While I feel that commodifying a slogan like this one can limit some of the potency by making the message ever-present, I think it also serves to spread the idea farther and get more people talking and thinking about it. At a very basic level, it feels a bit like kids latching on to the peace symbol at a young age - yes, peace sounds like a pretty good thing to support, but it generally takes a while to really sink in what that all entails, and still the peace symbol persists as a widely recognized (if often mocked) symbol for peace.

Partial loss of impact of the message (nothing says cultural phenomenon like "instagram sensation"), but the message is seen much more widely (DIY design made and photographed in the 1970s for a small run of magazines at that time, revived recently for a run of 24 shirts, then re-made, re-blogged, discussed at large(r), and so forth).
posted by filthy light thief at 9:47 PM on November 30, 2015 [9 favorites]

Typography changes are a loss its true. Less serious but amusing is the loss of the mock turtle under shirt look.

I like the idea of the photo essay... Showing how women alter their appearance as they come out.

Reminds me of Lillian Faderman's (really excellent) history book Odd girls and twilight lovers about sending signals with clothes when homosexuality was illegal in the USA.
posted by chapps at 10:08 PM on November 30, 2015 [7 favorites]

I don't think we have to worry about the value of the word "feminism" running out quite yet. When Republican candidates for president start calling themselves feminists, then we'll know it's time to find a new word to rally behind.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 10:12 PM on November 30, 2015 [10 favorites]

I can't help but feel like maybe capitalism is homogenizing feminism as a cultural phenomenon so as to curtail any substantial progression of the movement's ideologies.

This sentence could be parsed two ways; one in which "so as to" reads as an inevitable consequence, and another where it reads as intent. To the latter, I don't think capitalism the economic practice has intentionality beyond self-perpetuation and the violent oppression of any markets which reject it: whatever sells, gets sold. To the former, I think economics of any variety ultimately corrodes every ideal and ideology it touches, and that's part of why every movement needs to periodically reboot. There's a good chance I'm being overly cynical (or just plain wrong), though.
posted by Ryvar at 10:15 PM on November 30, 2015 [5 favorites]

"There was a similar moment in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a film in which the cast is entirely male, the story about how men and nations mistreat other men and nations in their quest for power. At one particularly high-stress moment in the film, I remember one of the characters standing next to a brick wall that had been vandalized with the message "THE FUTURE IS FEMALE.”

http://katherinetolentino.com/page/7
posted by lazycomputerkids at 10:41 PM on November 30, 2015 [6 favorites]

I think some folks are grasping at the idea of 'recuperation' [Wikipedia]:

Recuperation, in the sociological sense, is the process by which politically radical ideas and images are twisted, co-opted, absorbed, defused, incorporated, annexed and commodified within media culture and bourgeois society, and thus become interpreted through a neutralized, innocuous or more socially conventional perspective. More broadly, it may refer to the cultural appropriation of any subversive works or ideas by mainstream culture. It is the opposite of détournement, in which images and other cultural artifacts are appropriated from mainstream sources and repurposed with radical intentions.

The concept in political philosophy of recuperation was first proposed by members of the Situationist International. The term conveys a negative connotation because recuperation generally bears the intentional consequence (whether perceived or not) of fundamentally altering the meanings behind radical ideas due to their appropriation or being co-opted into the dominant discourse.

posted by moink at 10:44 PM on November 30, 2015 [14 favorites]

I want to like this! But it is way too cissexist for 2K15 USA America.
posted by listen, lady at 11:02 PM on November 30, 2015 [7 favorites]

Call me a dreamer, but I believe that one day someone will put it on a mug.
posted by Segundus at 11:14 PM on November 30, 2015 [17 favorites]

I'm not so sure the meaning of this slogan is as easy to commoditize.

I like how there is immediately a lot to unpack when you read it -- a lot to disagree with (probably the meaning in the original context of lesbian separatists? -- but I don't know the history well) and lot to agree with (various interpretations less naive than separatism) all wrapped up into a pithy phrase.

I'm not sure I object to recuperation in this context because I'm not sure I agree with its original meaning. :-)

Also, I'm not sure how it's irretrievably cissexist, unless you're responding to the immediate interpretation of "female" as in a biological morphology.
posted by smidgen at 11:28 PM on November 30, 2015 [3 favorites]

Also, I'm not sure how it's irretrievably cissexist, unless you're responding to the immediate interpretation of "female" as in a biological morphology.

In terms of how we talk about sex and gender in contemporary life, that interpretation is both common and a particular rhetorical cudgel.

I also didn't say "irretrievable." As a shirt I'd wear tomorrow, no way. As a piece of '70s iconography I Get and even like? Sure.
posted by listen, lady at 11:36 PM on November 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ok, I see that, but given the phrase itself has a lot to unpack, why do we need to pander... to ourselves?
posted by smidgen at 11:42 PM on November 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ok, I see that, but given the phrase itself has a lot to unpack, why do we need to pander... to ourselves?

I'm cisgender, so I'm not sure how I'm pandering to anyone by not wearing a shirt that I think is exclusionary and disrespectful.

Sure, fine, unpack away. I just think it's shitty & blithe as a t-shirt slogan.
posted by listen, lady at 11:44 PM on November 30, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yeah, your choice. I was just responding to the general complaint.
posted by smidgen at 11:58 PM on November 30, 2015

I like the slogan and shirt out of context but want to mention for those less familiar with the history of radical feminism that several of the people associated with the shirt are major TERF figures and transphobes. Dobkin and Cowan at least have remained so to the present day. (See here for one example.)
posted by thetortoise at 12:04 AM on December 1, 2015 [25 favorites]

So is my THE FUTURE IS UNGENDERED T-shirt radical or regressive, liberating or repressive, celebratory or snarky, inclusive or appropriating?

I can't work it out.
posted by Devonian at 3:49 AM on December 1, 2015 [8 favorites]

Problematic to say the least, Devonian, though it is admittedly hard to come up with a pithy one-liner about gender that doesn't evoke TERFs because those hideous fuckers poison everything.
posted by Dysk at 3:50 AM on December 1, 2015 [9 favorites]

Capitalism wins.
posted by modernnomad at 4:04 AM on December 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

I feel like someone buried the lede a little here. Lesbian feminist haunted house? I want a photo essay about that!
posted by lollusc at 4:51 AM on December 1, 2015 [12 favorites]

$30 is kinda pricey. I mean, if I'm going to spend that kind of money on a t-shirt, there should be more sequins or whatever..

And it looks like only sweatshirt ($58) sales donate a percentage to Planned Parenthood.
posted by thivaia at 4:58 AM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I saw a shirt at least a decade ago in Toronto that I loved, but I have never seen a second copy of it. A woman walked past me on Yonge Street with a white T-shirt reading:

We haven't come a long way and don't call me "baby."

posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:39 AM on December 1, 2015 [20 favorites]

That's some pretty distinctive typography on the original, it's a shame they didn't bother to recreate it.

I can't help but feel that a lot of the difference between 1975 and 2015 is encapsulated in this comment.
posted by aught at 6:16 AM on December 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

debord died for you.
posted by ennui.bz at 6:39 AM on December 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

In 1992 I bought a tshirt with a giant eye in a pyramid & with George HW Bush looking out over burning oil fields & the slogan IF NOTHING IS TRUE EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED in red ink superimposed over the whole image & I double-freakin-dare Grimes (or someone) to try and make that shit cool.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:47 AM on December 1, 2015 [9 favorites]

I really need to not think too much about this T-shirt becoming a thing because I'll get all worked up. Though it doesn't sound from the article like the new shirt is as big a viral deal as the headline makes it sound like.

Back in the day, I had t-shirts that said, "How Dare you Assume I'm Straight" (still a good one!) and "100% Dyke" (turned out to be wrong about that one). I had the "We Are Everywhere" shirt and the lambda shirt, and a bumper sticker that said, "Come out now! Ask me how!" I had a labrys earring (just one!) and a crystal in a tiny crocheted pouch around my neck and a lot of girlfriends who wore flannel. I was the kind of lesbian who always had on a button or shirt that made it absolutely clear I was a lesbian, and in case that wasn't enough, I'd introduce myself by saying, "Hi, I'm not that girl, and I'm a lesbian." I lived in houses where men weren't allowed past the first floor, and for nearly a decade starting in about 1985 I never read a book by a man that wasn't assigned to me in grad school. That herstory instagram really takes me back.

I went looking for a specific picture a couple of years ago, and ended up doing a blog post about the changes in me before and after I came out—it was so striking, going through my old albums. It was not so much about fashion as about what you'd call "inhabiting my body" if you were being high-faluting. I called it The Awakening: A Coming-Out Story in Pictures.
posted by not that girl at 7:27 AM on December 1, 2015 [17 favorites]

I want to like this! But it is way too cissexist for 2K15 USA America

This (awesome) GENDER IS OVER (IF YOU WANT IT) shirt might be what you're looking for, then.

I have both and I appreciate the tension between them.
posted by wemayfreeze at 8:59 AM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I mean, it's no Fido Dido shirt.
posted by SassHat at 9:06 AM on December 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

"though it is admittedly hard to come up with a pithy one-liner about gender that doesn't evoke TERFs because those hideous fuckers poison everything."

THE FUTURE WILL BE VERY MUCH LIKE THE PRESENT AND PAST, WHAT WITH GENDER BEING EITHER PERFORMATIVE OR PERSCRIPTIVE, AND ALWAYS COMPLICATED BY ISSUES SURROUNDING SOCIAL MORES, PRIVILEGE, AND CONSENT, BUT ULTIMATELY MEANINGLESS BECAUSE, I MEAN, WE'RE ALL PEOPLE, AND HOW A PERSON CHOOSES TO EXPRESS THEIR GENDER REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE A RELATIONSHIP TO THEIR PHYSICAL OR EMOTIONAL SAFETY.

...maybe that's more of a bumper sticker than a t-shirt
posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:33 AM on December 1, 2015 [7 favorites]

In 1992 I bought a tshirt with a giant eye in a pyramid & with George HW Bush looking out over burning oil fields & the slogan IF NOTHING IS TRUE EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED in red ink superimposed over the whole image & I double-freakin-dare Grimes (or someone) to try and make that shit cool.

You forgot the pics link.
posted by emjaybee at 10:13 AM on December 1, 2015

I feel like someone buried the lede a little here. Lesbian feminist haunted house? I want a photo essay about that!

Here you go!
posted by maxsparber at 10:26 AM on December 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

Lesbian feminist haunted house? I want a photo essay about that!

it's a bunch of guys in MENINIST shirts demanding sandwiches
posted by poffin boffin at 10:27 AM on December 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

So ... it's Twitter.
posted by maxsparber at 10:29 AM on December 1, 2015 [7 favorites]

The women who first wore it – namely, Cara Delivingne and St. Vincent – are the reason it's an "Instagram it-item." These women are highly respectable and notable LGBT activists.

I have a weird feeling I'm about to open a can of worms here, but Annie "St. Vincent" Clark has shied away from identifying as a lesbian (Ctrl+f "gay") and seems to gravitate towards a NB identification. She hasn't taken on any activism related to LGBTQIA issues to the best of my knowledge. (Not familiar enough with Cara to know about her involvement.) Is just being an out-ish person who's not only attracted to other cishet people enough to make someone a "highly respectable and notable LGBT activist"?
posted by pxe2000 at 11:32 AM on December 1, 2015

Next they should bring back the "Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society" shirts.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:23 PM on December 1, 2015 [5 favorites]

When Republican candidates for president start calling themselves feminists, then we'll know it's time to find a new word to rally behind.

Good luck with that. We're still looking for a workable replacement for "libertarian."
posted by Jacqueline at 2:27 PM on December 1, 2015

I called it The Awakening: A Coming-Out Story in Pictures.

Fantastic post, thank you!
posted by triggerfinger at 3:40 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seriously everyone should check out that haunted house link because it's amazing. thanks maxsparber
posted by chapps at 10:28 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh my. I had that T-shirt and bought it at Labyris. In jr high. My MOTHER liked it, the same mother who would tell me my lifestyle was disgusting a few years later.

I still can't stand Alix Dobkin, who not only is a TERF now, but trashed butch-femme while exclusively dating women who wore skirts, and publicly excoriated BDSM as violent abuse while secretly attending dungeon parties (with same femme-type partners).

2nd-wave lesbian herstory is more challenging than gay male liberation history in some ways, because many of our early leaders are still alive and not necessarily to current sociopolitical tastes.They're often quite difficult people (I dated one while in college), because if they weren't, they wouldn't have had the strength to survive their radical-for-the-time and sometimes-radical-now activism.

And now to buy a T-shirt for my butchy trans self.
posted by Dreidl at 11:57 PM on December 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

Apparently there's a new controversy over this shirt because Cara Delevingne is selling it and others are accusing her of ripping off the small business that (re-)created the shirt, Otherwild.
posted by matildaben at 2:48 PM on December 7, 2015