Dora Marsden

There is something to be said for a “death as a spectacle,” but there is nothing to be...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:00:59 -0400

There is something to be said for a “death as a spectacle,” but there is nothing to be said for “dying long drawn out” as an argument. There is no virtue in suffering: To be relying on pity as a main argument is the tactic of the weak.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

“Causes” are the diversion of the feeble - of those who have lost the power of acting...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:01:08 -0400

“Causes” are the diversion of the feeble - of those who have lost the power of acting strongly from their own nature. They are for the titillation of the senses of the herd, and a person who can act strongly should shun all Cause-ites and their works. Strong natures, who act out their beliefs in their own person, not realizing that such grounds for actions as Causes proffer are in place only among those who having lost the instinct for action amuse themselves by words, occasionally are fascinated by the jargon, with consequences disastrous in the highest degree to themselves.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

A virile people turns to thought, creates a culture which promptly turns upon it to encompass its...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:00:59 -0400

A virile people turns to thought, creates a culture which promptly turns upon it to encompass its destruction. There has been as yet no exception in the history of mankind.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Unity, Justice, Truth, Humanity, Law, Mumbo-Jumbo, Mesopotamia,...

Wed, 29 May 2013 00:01:12 -0400

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Unity, Justice, Truth, Humanity, Law, Mumbo-Jumbo, Mesopotamia, Abracadabra, Om-Tat-Sat. Intellectual concepts all - futile products of men who pursue their own shadow.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

Oh Freedom, subtle deceiver, what chains are forged and riveted in thy Name. The Freewoman, Volume...

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:01:16 -0400

Oh Freedom, subtle deceiver, what chains are forged and riveted in thy Name.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

So the patient advocates of “free states,” “free speech,” “free...

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:49 -0400

So the patient advocates of “free states,” “free speech,” “free assemblage,” what are they but deluded children in the vicinity of forces they do not comprehend? If they want to assemble and speak without let or hindrance, let them increase their own power, their strength of arm until they can speak and meet as they will. But to ask for free speech and free meeting, what is it but an acknowledgement of tutelage, inferiority.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

“Freedom” presumes a state and there is no state of being free; there is an activity of...

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:55 -0400

“Freedom” presumes a state and there is no state of being free; there is an activity of free-ing but the activity is limited by time to the duration of the act itself; the act completed, the free-ing is ended. To advance the concept of freedom as a reality is to attempt to give to that which has no meaning apart from expansion of a force, the laid-out, static quality of the objective world; it seeks to establish in space - in the static - that which has an existence only in time; of which the termination is the motive which engenders the beginning. There is no freedom and hence there can be no fight for it.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

There is only one person concerned in the freeing of individuals: and that is the person who wears...

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:55 -0400

There is only one person concerned in the freeing of individuals: and that is the person who wears and feels and resents the shackles. Shackles must be burst off: if they are cut away from outside, they will immediately reform, as those whose cause is “our poor sisters” and “poor brothers” will find.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

There is only one thing the down-trodden with retained dignity can do, and that is to Get Up. The...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:47 -0400

There is only one thing the down-trodden with retained dignity can do, and that is to Get Up.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

The law is not for those who make it. It is for the dispossessed only. The Freewoman, Volume 1...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:51 -0400

The law is not for those who make it. It is for the dispossessed only.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

The law of honesty is the first precept written out on the Iron Mask. Honesty is a rule of...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:40 -0400

The law of honesty is the first precept written out on the Iron Mask. Honesty is a rule of convenience whose purpose is to keep back the crowd from the excellent game of the select few.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

High finance - a game of sport best played like cricket, with limited numbers. The Freewoman,...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:01:03 -0400

High finance - a game of sport best played like cricket, with limited numbers.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

The fat man is just as likely to endow the lean scolders as is the Almighty - none at all. He is...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:52 -0500

The fat man is just as likely to endow the lean scolders as is the Almighty - none at all. He is satisfied in the knowledge that they can achieve their own endowment as he and his achieved theirs, by taking from yielding hands.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

Hence, the popularity of the “Cause” which provides the Ideal to which the...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:37 -0500

Hence, the popularity of the “Cause” which provides the Ideal to which the “desired self-sacrifice can be offered.” The greater the sacrifice the Idol can accept the greater is it as a “Cause,” whether it be liberty, equality, fraternity, honesty or what not. If ten thousand starving men, with their tens of thousands of dependents, starve in the Cause of Honesty, how great is Honesty. If a woman throws away her life for freedom, how great is freedom. And no mistake.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

This is the epoch of the gadding mind. The mind “not at home” but given to something...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:49 -0500

This is the epoch of the gadding mind. The mind “not at home” but given to something else, occupied with alien “causes” is of the normal order, and as such must be held accountable for that condemning of the lonely occupant of the home - the Self - which is the characteristic of the common mind.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, June 15th 1913

It is from a full recognition of the fact that feminist doctrine is a hard one for women, that the...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:52 -0500

It is from a full recognition of the fact that feminist doctrine is a hard one for women, that the path of the Freewoman will be beset with difficulties, with temptations both from within and without, that we are led to the further recognition of the futility of preaching it to the women who are essentially ordinary women, who do not already bear in themselves the stamp of the individual.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, November 23rd 1911

Imagine the circumstances! The man would be compelled by law to pay a portion of his salary to a...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:01:02 -0500

Imagine the circumstances! The man would be compelled by law to pay a portion of his salary to a person whom he is prevented by law from dismissing, and who is prevented by law from securing release. The paid person may be satisfactory or not. If unsatisfactory, what redress is there for the employer? No redress! but a possible remedy in corporal punishment, such as is administered to soldiers in barracks in similar circumstances. And the employee against a tyrannical employer? No power to refuse to sell her labor! power only to form a trade union of paid wives! The entire theory is ludicrous in its absurdity. No! Personal relationships between equals must be entered into on terms of equality.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, November 23rd 1911

What are the responsibilities of the father? Well, that is his business. Perhaps the State will have...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:52 -0500

What are the responsibilities of the father? Well, that is his business. Perhaps the State will have something to say to him, but the Freewoman’s concern is to see to it that she shall be in a position to bear children if she wants them without soliciting maintenance from any man, whoever he may be; and this she can only do if she is earning money for herself, or is provided for out of some common fund for a limited time.

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, November 23rd 1911

The cult of the Suffragist takes its stand upon the weakness and dejectedness of the conditions of...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:00:55 -0500

The cult of the Suffragist takes its stand upon the weakness and dejectedness of the conditions of women. The cult of the Suffragist would say, “Are women not weak? Are women not crushed down? Are women not in need of protection? Therefore, give them the means wherewith they may be protected.” Those of the cult of the Freewoman, however, while granting this in part, would go on to say, “In spite of our position, we feel within us the stirrings of new powers and growing strength. If we can secure scope, opportunity, and responsibility, we feel we can make realizable to the world a new revelation of spiritual consciousness. We feel we can produce new evidence of creative force, which, when allowed its course, will encompass developments sufficiently great to constitute a higher development in the evolution of the human race and of human achievement.”

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, November 23rd 1911

How women have fallen into this position is a moot point. It is yet to be decided whether they ever...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:44 -0500

How women have fallen into this position is a moot point. It is yet to be decided whether they ever did fall - where man and women have not been, from their creation, master and servant. If otherwise, and if woman did “fall,” the reason why is yet to be assigned. It is quite beside the point to say women were “crushed” down. If they were not “down” in themselves - i.e., weaker in mind - no equal force could have crushed them “down.”

The Freewoman, Volume 1 Number 1, November 23rd 1911