Caitlin Moran in the Guardian today

[RoyalCorgi]

I promise I'm not trying to start another argument about Caitlin Moran. It's just that I want to record my annoyance and despair at her rewriting of history. Apparently in the 1980s there were no female role models for girls apart from Mrs Thatcher and Miss Piggy. And no one ever wrote about female masturbation until Caitlin wrote about it in her 2011 book. Plus more in that vein.

I remember back in the 80s reading Dale Spender's marvellous book "Women of ideas and what men have done to them" where she painstakingly writes in detail at the lives of amazing historical women - scientists, philosophers, writers, campaigners - and looks at how they were simply forgotten about and written out of history. Thanks in part to Spender's work, female historians went about the business of researching more forgotten women and writing their biographies.

Now it seems as if all the work of feminists in the 70s and 80s on, for example, female sexuality or in political campaigning has just been forgotten about. Feminists hadn't achieved anything of note until Caitlin Moran wrote How to be a Woman.

Once again, women's achievements are being written out of history.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/29/caitlin-moran-reread-how-to-be-a-woman-marvel-what-i-got-wrong

Butterer - have you been to her grave? It is quite special. I was the only one on the tour who knew who she was!

In the 1980s and 1990s there were children's books - non-fiction as well as fiction - about famous women by mass-market publishers. They would presumably have been in school/public libraries when CM was young.

Here is just one example, published 1989, from a fairly long series called 'Women History Makers':
www.amazon.com/Women-History-Makers-Carole-Stott/dp/0531195139?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

For anyone interested in Scottish women's history, can I recommend this fascinating biographical dictionary: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-new-biographical-dictionary-of-scottish-women.html

How could she have missed Jo Brand and Kathy Burke ?

Ooh! Have we mentioned Jeanette Winterson and Oranges.. yet - both the book and the TV production?

Nope :) I have actually been desperately trying to remember the decade! The first TV production was lovely. it is so sad that the wonderful actress who played Jess dies so tragically.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was first published in 1985.

And Tipping the Velvet and other novels by Sarah Waters. Not feminist literature but brilliant explorations of historic alternative lifestyles led by women.

I saw the series before I read the book - hence my confusion. :)

Siouxsie Sioux
Joolz Denby

Cyndi Lauper sang about female masturbation in 1983 - 'She Bop' although not many people realised it at the time...............

She seems to not have noticed Cosmopolitan or Playgirl.

@Mashingthecompost me too! Deenie was one of the only times I've seen female sexuality covered in a realistic way from a female's perspective - no ounce of male gaze there. Judy Blume FTW!

Does anyone remember Ludus Magazine?

I'm sure the incident of the 14 year old members of the wank club running up to her on a train to tell her about their multiple daily masturbation sessions really happened and is not a work of bizarre fiction!

I remember the sex and masturbation part of the story in The Colour Purple which was written in 1982. She seems to think black women standing up for their rights and exploring their bodies was only possible when white feminists decided intersectionality was a thing.

Oh and reading Miz magazine in the late 80s was my sex education which taught me about masturbation, orgasms and other aspects of sexuality. More magazine had the position of the fortnight which I found really distasteful but still proof girls sexuality was talked about back then.

Haven’t read the whole thread but I read the Hite Report in the 80s which was all the education I needed to understand how to achieve satisfying sex. That put paid to the myth of orgasming through penetration .

Does anyone remember Ludus Magazine?
Don't know that one, but Spare Rib was published right through the 70s and 80s.

@Pelleas

JUDY BLOOM!!!!!!!!

Yes, Judy had millions of us 80s teenagers exploring our 'special place' after reading 'Deenie'.

Yes! Dropped in to make precisely that point. Glad others have. My friends and I devoured Deenie & Forever and discussed in detail!

Ludus was light porn for women. I had the whole set. Threw them a couple of house moves ago. I think they are quite rare so I'm regretting that now.

@Saucery

Siouxsie Sioux Joolz Denby

Joolz came to my uni and did a very interesting poetry reading and chat with the women’s society.

It may be that some present-day teenagers first encountered writing about female masturbation in Moran's 2011 book, and that's great, but that isn't at all the same thing as saying female masturbation was rarely written about before that date.

@Saucery

Siouxsie Sioux Joolz Denby

I l,oved Joolz - saw her perform twice and she was bloody fabulous.