Podcast 47 – The Radical Feminism of Shulamith Firestone: A Live Interview with Victoria Margree

When Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex was published in 1970 it caused controversy. Arguing that the oppression of women lay in women’s biological capacity to reproduce, Firestone saw nature as a central barrier to woman’s liberation. Her solution was a fundamental transformation of nature itself, through the creation of artificial wombs, to free women’s bodies from the process of reproduction. Integrating the work of Marx, Freud, De Beauvoir and Engels, Firestone created a radical vision of gender liberation and utopian cybernetic feminism. Alongside influencing feminism, The Dialectic of Sex was also influential on Science Fiction literature, especially Marge Piercy’s 1976 novel, Woman on the Edge of Time.

In this session, Bradley Tuck is joined by Victoria Margree, Principle Lecturer at the University of Brighton and Author of Neglected or Misunderstood: The Radical Feminism of Shulamith Firestone. In her book, Margree argues for the continued importance of Firestone’s work. In this session we will discuss her book and Firestone’s, exploring its pertinence today.

Listen now on YouYube