Patriarchy Study Group
1979
A
Patriarchy Study Group was set up, which met for the weekend in Leeds,
London or Birmingham. “They were always vegetarian except in Birmingham
when Stacey would cook and we’d have chops or a chicken. I remember her
sticking her hand up a chicken and dancing around at Al Garthwaite’s
house (in Leeds) which went down incredibly well!”(said with irony). It
was about saying ‘we’re different’; there was quite a strong feeling
that we were different from the Leeds and London versions, that we were
up for the ideas and interested in being involved, but we thought it
was silly not to talk to male taxi drivers to tell them where we wanted
to go, we saw ourselves as a bit more sensible really but no less
committed to the ideas”.
The Patriarchy Study group wrote
‘Love your enemy’ and other articles by Sandra McNeill and others. “As
a set of ideas revolutionary feminism was very interesting and it
produced an analysis of heterosexism that I don’t think has been
improved on. We just got a bit up our own arses, it was all a bit
narrow, there wasn’t really any point in defining ourselves in
opposition to other women but it seemed like a good idea at the time”.
Contributed by: Trisha McCabe, 51