Burn It Down!

Description

“A must-read, an antidote to powerlessness, a literary companion for the ages.”
–Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir

“Editors’ Choice”
–New York Times Book Review

A comprehensive collection of feminist manifestos, chronicling rage and dreams from the nineteenth century to the present day

A landmark collection spanning two centuries and four waves of feminist activism and writing, Burn It Down! is a testament to what is possible when women are driven to the edge. The manifesto—raging, demanding, quarreling and provocative—has always been central to feminism, and it’s the angry, brash feminism we need now.

Collecting over seventy-five manifestos from around the world, Burn It Down! is a rallying cry and a call to action. Among this confrontational sisterhood, you’ll find the Dyke Manifesto by the Lesbian Avengers, The Ax Tampax Poem Feministo by the Bloodsisters Project, The Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Grey, Simone de Beauvoir’s pro-abortion Manifesto of the 343, Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances M. Beal, and many more.

Feminist academic and writer Breanne Fahs argues that we need manifestos in all their urgent rawness, for it is at the bleeding edge of rage and defiance that new ideas are born.Preface to the Paperback Edition

Introduction. The Bleeding Edge: On the Necessity of Feminist Manifestos
- Breanne Fahs
A Note on Source Material

I. QUEER/TRANS
Introduction to Queer/Trans
1. I Want a President (1992)
- Zoe Leonard
2. Queer Nation Manifesto: Queers Read This (1990)
- ACT UP
3. The Woman Identified Woman (1970)
- Radicalesbians
4. Dyke Manifesto (1992)
- Lesbian Avengers
5. Do Approach (excerpt) (1971)
- Jill Johnston
6. Gay Liberation Front Manifesto (excerpt) (1971)
– Gay Liberation Front
7. The Effeminist Manifesto (1973)
- Steven F. Dansky, John Knoebel and Kenneth Pitchford
8. Undoing Borders: A Queer Manifesto (excerpt) (2007)
- HAVOQ
9. The Transfeminist Manifesto (excerpt) (2001)
- Emi Koyama
10. Pajama Femme Manifesto (2011)
- Katie Tastrom
11. Lesbian Mafia Manifesto (2007)
- The Lesbian Mafia
12. Boyfunk Manifesto (2002)
- Boyfunk
13. Manifesto for a New Feminist Presence (2007)
- Eskalera Karakola

II. ANTICAPITALIST/ANARCHIST
Introduction to Anticapitalist/Anarchist
14. Anarchy and the Sex Question (1896)
- Emma Goldman
15. Call to Women’s International Strike (2017)
- Ni Una Menos (Not One Less)
16. Wages against Housework (1974)
- Silvia Federici
17. The Singles Manifesto (1974)
- Marie Edwards
18. Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation (excerpt) (2015)
- Laboria Cuboniks
19. Anarchafeminist Manifesto (1982)
- Anarchafeminist International
20. American Beasts (2017)
- D.M.D.
21. Radical Women Manifesto Platform (excerpt) (1967/2001)
- Radical Women
22. Refugia: Manifesto for Becoming Autonomous Zones (2002)
- subRosa
23. Altwoke Manifesto (2017)
- Anonymous
24. A Feminist Manifesto for the 21st Century (2010)
- Lindsey German and Nina Power

III. ANGRY/VIOLENT
Introduction to Angry/Violent
25. I Am as Strong as Any Man (1851)
- Sojourner Truth
26. Redstockings Manifesto (1969)
- Redstockings
27. The Feminist Manifesto (1914)
- Mina Loy
28. SCUM Manifesto (1967)
- Valerie Solanas
29. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (excerpt) (1970)
- Shulamith Firestone
30. Intercourse (excerpt) (1987)
- Andrea Dworkin
31. Nope (2016)
- E. Jane
32. Grand Canyon (2004)
- Ani DiFranco

IV. INDIGENOUS/WOMEN OF COLOR
Introduction to Indigenous/Women of Color
33. The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977)
- Combahee River Collective
34. Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female (1970)
- Frances M. Beal
35. The Sisters Reply (1968)
- Patricia Haden, Sue Rudolph, Joyce Hoyt, Rita Van Lew, Catherine Hoyt, and Patricia Robinson
36. The Feminist Manifesto (1907)
- He-Yin Zhen
37. Zapatista Women’s Revolutionary Laws (1994)
- Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Zapatistas)
38. The Black Movement and Women’s Liberation (1970)
- Linda La Rue
39. Not Murdered, Not Missing: Rebelling against Colonial Gender Violence (2014)
- Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
40. Manifesto of the Erased: Mujeres, Decolonize El Dios Americano (2015)
- Crystal Zaragoza
41. The Wild Poet’s Manifesto (2012)
- Susan Hawthorne
42. Black Lives Matter Platform (2016)
- Black Lives Matter

V. SEX/BODY
Introduction to Sex/Body
43. Vaginal Orgasm as a Mass Hysterical Survival Response (1968)
- Ti-Grace Atkinson
44. Fat Liberation Manifesto (1973)
- Judy Freespirit and Aldebaran
45. Manifesto of the 343 (1971)
- Simone de Beauvoir
46. Ax Tampax Poem Feministo (1996)
- adee (The Bloodsisters Project)
47. Occupy Menstruation (2018)
- Susan Stenson
48. A Letter to the Man Who Tried to Rape Me (2016)
- Sara Roebuck
49. Why I Am Pro-Abortion, Not Just Pro-Choice (2015)
- Valerie Tarico
50. The Countersexual Manifesto (excerpt) (2000)
- Paul B. Preciado
51. Feminist Manifesto to Support the Rights of Sex Workers (n.d.)
- Feminists for Sex Workers
52. Masturbation Manifesto (1997)
- Betty Dodson
53. The GINK Manifesto (2010)
- Lisa Hymas
54. Futurist Manifesto of Lust (1913)
- Valentine de Saint-Point

VI. HACKER/CYBORG
Introduction to Hacker/Cyborg
55. A Cyborg Manifesto (excerpt) (1991)
- Donna Haraway
56. Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century (1991)
- VNS Matrix
57. cybertwee manifesto (2014)
- Gabriella Hileman, Violet Forest, and May Waver
58. Waging Peace on the Internet (2001)
- Oxblood Ruffin (Hacktivismo)
59. A Hacker Manifesto (Version 4.0) (2004)
- McKenzie Wark
60. Yes Manifesto (2004)
- Mette Ingvartsen
61. Radical Psychiatry Manifesto (1969)
- Claude Steiner

VII. TRASHY/PULP
Introduction to Trashy/Punk
62. RIOT GRRRL Manifesto (1991)
- Bikini Kill
63. To Tramps, the Unemployed, the Disinherited, and Miserable (1884)
- Lucy E. Parsons
64. TRASHGiRRRRLLLZZZ: A Manifesto for Misfit ToYZ (2016)
- Elizabeth Broeder
65. Women’s Art: A Manifesto (1973)
- VALIE EXPORT
66. The Why Cheap Art? Manifesto (1984)
- Bread and Puppet Theater
67. Pussy Manifesto (1999)
- Bitch and Animal
68. I Don’t Want to Have to Compromise My Morals in Order to Make a Living (2013)
- Grimes
69. The People Behind the Mop Buckets (2015)
- Elizabeth Wallace
70. The Undercommons (2013)
- Stefano Harney and Fred Moten
71. Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto (excerpt) (2017)
- Jessa Crispin

VIII. WITCHY/BITCHY
Introduction to Witchy/Bitchy
72. W.I.T.C.H. Manifesto (1968)
– W.I.T.C.H.
73. BITCH Manifesto (1968)
- Joreen
74. Manifesto of Apocalyptic Witchcraft (2013)
- Peter Grey
75. Funeral Oration for the Burial of Traditional Womanhood (1968)
– Kathie Amatniek Sarachild
76. Truisms (excerpt) (1978–1987)
- Jenny Holzer
77. A Manifesto (1970)
- Agnes Denes

Acknowledgments
About the Contributors
Sources“An invaluable reminder of feminism’s radical and revolutionary visions. It’s also, to those least inclined to read it but most in need of doing so, a powerful threat.”
—Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her

“This exhilarating work of love and scholarship is a radiant gift to all who value liberation and justice. Reading it filled me with hope, inspiration and an electric connection to the angry, dissatisfied comrades who have come before me – as well my outraged contemporaries. A must-read, an antidote to powerlessness, a literary companion for the ages.”
—Michelle Tea, author of Against Memoir

“In an age of platitudes and etsy-fied feminist empowerment products, Breanne Fahs gives us the uncompromising, the unruly, the ungovernable, the unpalatable. This book is a fiery reminder that the world does not change, we change the world.”
—Jessa Crispin, author of The Dead Ladies Project

“This text is important historically and as a handbook for understanding and organizing today. Fahs has put together a collection that runs from the immediate and practical to the futuristic and abstract. In doing so, she reminds us that radical feminism is both utopian vision and practical argument.”
—Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch

“Learned and impassioned … irreverent, scabrous and enraged, these manifestos also happen to be full of contradictions, written in the heat of the moment and without a cool eye to posterity. But it’s this rough-hewn immediacy that makes some of them so bracing to read, especially now.”
—Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Book Review

“Editors’ Choice“
—The New York Times Book Review

“Powerful and inspiring”
—Nina Burleigh, Air Mail

“Magnificently cathartic…a reminder of the power and importance of taking a position, asserting your rights and expressing them forcefully – and that we can take strength from these positions, appreciate them, disagree, and argue the nuances with equal force and passion.”
—Hettie Judah, i newspaper

“Burn It Down! sweeps through time and across the globe.”
—Frankie Miren, New Socialist

“Any Gender Studies professor who isn’t teaching Burn It Down! is missing something important in their curriculum.”
—Megan Volpert, Best Books of 2020, PopMatters

“An essential text for any time, but especially this one.”
—Jane Caputi, Journal of American Culture

Breanne Fahs is Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University. She has published widely in feminist, social science, and humanities journals and has authored five books: Performing Sex; Valerie Solanas; Out for Blood; Firebrand Feminism; and Women, Sex, and Madness. She has also coedited two volumes: The Moral Panics of Sexuality and Transforming Contagion. She is the Founder and Director of the Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality Group at Arizona State University, and she also works as a clinical psychologist in private practice.

GB

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