Feminist Manifesto

The feminist movement as at present instituted is
Inadequate

Women if you want to realize yourselves-you are on the
eve of a devastating psychological upheaval-all your pet illu-
sions must be unmaskedthe lies of centuries have got to go
are you prepared for the Wrench? There is no half-
measureNO scratching on the surface of the rubbish heap
of tradition, will bring about Reform, the only method is
Absolute Demolition

Cease to place your confidence in economic legislation, vice-
crusades & uniform education-you are glossing over
Reality.
Professional & commercial careers are opening up for you
Is that all you want ?

And if you honestly desire to find your level without preju-
dicebe Brave & deny at the outsetthat pa-
thetic clap-trap war cry Woman is the
equal of man

                                    for
She is NOT!

The man who lives a life in which his activities conform to a
social code which is protectorate of the feminine element
is no longer masculine
The women who adapt themselves to a theoretical valuation of
their sex as a relative impersonality, are not yet
Feminine
Leave off looking to men to find out what you are not seek
within yourselves to find out what you are
As conditions are at present constitutedyou have the choice
between Parasitism, & Prostitu-
tionor Negation

Men & women are enemies, with the enmity of the exploited
for the parasite, the parasite for the exploitedat present they
are at the mercy of the advantage that each can take of the
others sexual dependence. The only point at which the
interests of the sexes mergeis the sexual embrace.

The first illusion it is to your interest to demolish is the
division of women into two classes    the mistress,
& the mother every well-balanced & developed woman
knows that is not true, Nature has endowed the complete
functionsthere are no restrictions on the woman who is
so incompletely evolved as to be un-self-conscious in sex, will
prove a restrictive influence on the temperamental expansion
of the next generation; the woman who is a poor mistress will
be an incompetent motheran inferior mentality& will
enjoy an inadequate apprehension of Life.

To obtain results you must make sacrifices & the first &
greatest sacrifice you have to make is of your ”virtue”
The fictitious value of a woman as identified with her physical
purityis too easy to stand-by       rendering her lethargic in
the acquisition of intrinsic merits of character by which she
could obtain a concrete valuetherefore, the fist self-
enforced law for the female sex, as a protection against the
man made bogey of virtuewhich is the principal instrument
of her subjection, would be the unconditional surgical
destruction of virginity through-out the female population at
puberty.

The value of man is assessed entirely according to his use or
interest to the community, the value of woman depends
entirely on chance, her success or insuccess in maneouvering
a man into taking the life-long responsibility of her
The advantages of marriage are too ridiculously ample
compared to all other tradesfor under modern conditions a
woman can accept preposterously luxurious support from a
man (with-out the return of an sorteven offspring)as a thank
offering for her virginity
The woman who has not succeeded in striking that
advantageous bargainis prohibited from any but
surreptitious re-action to Life-stimuli& entirely
debarred maternity.
Every woman has a right to maternity
Every woman of superior intelligence should realize her race-
responsibility, in producing children in adequate proportion to
the unfit or degenerate members of her sex

Each child of a superior woman should be the result of a
definite period of psychic development in her life& and not
necessarily of a possible irksome & outworn continuance of an
alliancespontaneously adapted for vital creation in the
beginning but not necessarily harmoniously balanced as the
parties to itfollow their individual lines of personal
evolution
For the harmony of race, each individual should be the
expression of an easy & ample interpenetration of the male &
female temperamentsfree of stress
Woman must become more responsible for the child than
man
Woman must destroy in themselves, the desire to be loved
The feeling that it is a personal insult when a man transfers
his attention from her to another woman
The desire for comfortable protection instead of an intelligent
curiosity & courage in meeting & resisting the pressure of life
sex or so called love must be reduced to its initial element,
honour, grief, sentimentality, pride and & consequently jealousy
must be detached from it.
Woman for her happiness must retain her deceptive fragility of
appearance, combined with indomitable will, irreducible
courage, & abundant health the outcome of sound nerves
Another great illusion is that woman must use all her
introspective and clear-sightedness & unbiassed bravery to
destroyfor the sake of her self respect is the impurity of sex
the realization in defiance of superstition that there is nothing
impure in sexexcept in the mental attitude to itwill
constitute an incalculable & wider social regeneration than it
is possible for our generation to imagine.

Mina Loy (1914)