Voltairine de Cleyre Quotes
That is rape, where a man forces himself sexually upon a woman whether he is licensed by the marriage law to do it or not. And that is the vilest of all tyranny where a man compels the woman he says he loves, to endure the agony of bearing children that she does not want, and for whom, as is the rule rather than the exception, they cannot properly provide. It is worse than any other human oppression …
Voltairine de Cleyre, 1866-1912, Philosopher, Political Scientist & Feminist, "Sex Slavery", address to the Unity Congregation, Philadelphia, 1890
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Sanger faced charges of obscenity for explaining birth control in a magazine she founded called the Woman Rebel. She got no political support from Wilson or the Democrats. The few politicians who did support her were Republican progressives and reformers.
Theological & Sharia Legal Expert. As a de facto matter, it was not until relatively recently that the American legal system would prosecute a marital rape case. Sharia (Islamic law) still does not recognize it
There were very few public figures of any kind who would even talk about the problem of marital rape. She was one of those and attracted huge audiences. Unfortunately, marital rape is much still with us although there have been some prosecutions beginning in the latter part of the 20th century.
The other Southern States had similar legal principles while still maintaining the hypocrisy that their legal system was grounded on Christian morality.
The American Catholic Bishops wanted the right of religious organizations who ran civil institutions like hospitals or universities to deny its female employees any insurance coverage for birth control while paying for Viagra for males. Artificial birth control methods were considered immoral by the Roman Catholic Church. The Bishops did not feel that their institutions should be required to follow the civil law if their religious precepts opposed it. Quinn observed that 99% of women in America use birth control and even 98% of Catholic women did. This is a wonderful example of how subtle a basic principle like separation of church and state can be. The churches themselves did not have to pay for birth control insurance, but other Catholic-related entities did. How far would the bishops take their view. If a spaghetti factory were owned by a Catholic Church, would it have to insure birth control like other spaghetti factories? What about if the factory were a public company and the church owned all the stock? Most of the stock? Part of the stock? There are no clear and simple answers to these questions.
This is one of Schlafy’s many grossly extreme quotations. According to her, marital rape is impossible. So a woman can never withdraw her consent once given regardless of what a man does—beats her, commits adultery. No court in America has ever accepted this view (Schlafy was actually trained as a lawyer) but Sharia, Islamic Law, is the only legal system that corresponds to Schlafy’s notion on this particular point.
Voltairine de Cleyre was an American anarchist known for being a prolific writer and speaker who opposed capitalism, marriage and the state as well as the domination of religion over sexuality and women's lives which she saw as all interconnected. She is often characterized as a major early feminist because of her views.
