Why The Woman Rebel?

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feminism, margaret sanger, Woman Rebel

Because I believe that deep down in woman’s nature lies slumbering the spirit of revolt.

Because I believe that woman is enslaved by the world machine, by sex conventions, by motherhood and its present necessary child-rearing, by wage-slavery, by middle-class morality, by customs, laws and superstitions.

Because I believe that woman’s freedom depends upon awakening that spirit of revolt within her against these things which enslave her.

Because I believe that these things which enslave woman must be fought openly, fearlessly, consciously.

Because I believe she must consciously disturb and destroy and be fearless in its accomplishment.

Because I believe in freedom, created through individual action.

Because I believe in the offspring of the immigrant, the great majority of whom make up the unorganized working class to-day.

Because I believe that this immigrant with a vision, an ideal of a new world where liberty, freedom, kindness, plenty hold sway, who had courage to leave the certain old for the uncertain new to face a strange new people, new habits, a strange language, for this vision, this ideal, certainly has brought to this country a wholesome spirit of unrest which this generation of Americans has lost through a few generations of prosperity and respectability.

Because I believe that on the courage, vision and idealism of the immigrant and the offspring does the industrial revolution depend.

Because I believe that through the efforts of the industrial revolution will woman’s freedom emerge.

Because I believe that not until wage slavery is abolished can either woman’s or man’s freedom be fully attained.

Because I have six months’ time to devote to arousing this slumbered spirit in the working woman, and if within this time I shall have succeeded in arousing my own laggard self I shall have succeeded sufficiently to continue this paper until all the slumbered spirits have awakened to its assistance or its destruction.

– Margaret Sanger, “Why The Woman Rebel?,” Mar 1914.

The Tentacles of Planned Parenthood

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Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Sometimes a line from a poorly researched, blatantly anti-Margaret Sanger article just strikes me as so funny I have to illustrate it. This is what prompted the creation of Sanger and Voldemort hanging out in a car. Installment two was inspired by a line from this ill-informed piece on Population Control.

– Jill Grimaldi, Web Outreach Intern

Margaret Sanger: Closeted Atheist Marxist? Probably Not.

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apologetics, atheist, birth control, history, marxist

“Sanger was in fact a Marxist, an atheist and a racist with some real enthusiasm for human eugenics.“

– UK Apologetics Margaret Sanger Page

This quote, part of a factually questionable “biography” of Sanger written by Robin A. Brace, makes some interesting claims… interesting, but untrue all the same. We’ve covered the charge of racism before on this blog, but we haven’t touched on Sanger’s supposed Marxism yet, mostly because this claim seems to have been pulled out of thin air.

In her 1922 book, Pivot of Civilization, Sanger makes her feelings about the incompatibility between Marxism and the Birch Control Movement crystal clear:

“No thorough understanding of Birth Control, its aims and purposes, is possible until this confusion has been cleared away and we come to a realization that Birth Control is not merely independent of, but even antagonistic to the Marxist dogma. “

“”Critics have often been puzzled by the tremendous vitality of [Marx’s] work. Its predictions have never, despite the claims of the faithful, been fulfilled. Instead of diminishing, the spirit of nationalism has been intensified tenfold.”

– From the Pivot of Civilization. Chapter VII: Is Revolution the Remedy?

[Full document here.]

Marxists don't wear mink! Margaret Sanger and J. Noah Slee in 1927. Image credit: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.

As for the claim that Sanger was an atheist, one who denies the existence of god, it too is untrue. Sanger herself identified as Episcopalian in a 1957 interview with Mike Wallace. She was raised Catholic, married a Jewish man, and eventually joined her second husband, J. Noah Slee, in the Episcopalian Church. She had both of her sons baptized in the Episcopalian faith, a choice that was obviously her own because their father, William Sanger, was Jewish and, thus, would not have advocated for baptism. While it is true that told her son, Grant, that she had “outgrown the need of Church” in a letter written in 1928, she also said in the same letter that she has “no objection to [Grant] joining the church & being confirmed.” [This letter can be found in The Selected Papers of Margraret Sanger: Volume I,  page 474]

When looking at all of this information together, it is certainly fair to assume that Sanger considered herself more spiritual than religious, having eschewed the need for a church. However, nothing that she has said – in early letters, or later interviews – indicates that she was an atheist.

As always, we would like to implore authors like Robin A. Brace to do some research and consider the truth before publishing work like this.

Margaret Sanger Award 1966

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margaret sanger, martin luther king jr., Planned Parenthood Federation of America, reproductive rights, sanger award, Sanger Project

The Margaret Sanger Award is Planned Parenthood’s highest honor. It is presented annually to someone who demonstrates, “leadership, excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights movement.”

The award was established 44 years ago in 1966 and was awarded to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  in that year.  Dr. Carl G. Hartman,  General William H. Draper Jr.,  and President Lyndon B. Johnson were also honored in the award’s first year.

Coretta Scott King delivered her husband’s acceptance speech on May 10th 1966 because he could not attend the ceremony.

“There is no human circumstance more tragic than the persisting existence of a harmful condition for which a remedy is readily available. Family planning, to relate population to world resources, is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess.”

“There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger’s early efforts. She, like we, saw the horrifying conditions of ghetto life. Like we, she knew that all of society is poisoned by cancerous slums. Like we, she was a direct actionist — a nonviolent resister. She was willing to accept scorn and abuse until the truth she saw was revealed to the millions. At the turn of the century she went into the slums and set up a birth control clinic, and for this deed she went to jail because she was violating an unjust law. Yet the years have justified her actions. She launched a movement which is obeying a higher law to preserve human life under humane conditions. Margaret Sanger had to commit what was then called a crime in order to enrich humanity, and today we honor her courage and vision; for without them there would have been no beginning. Our sure beginning in the struggle for equality by nonviolent direct action may not have been so resolute without the tradition established by Margaret Sanger and people like her. “

Read the full speech here!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received his award for, “his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity.”

Check out the Planned Parenthood website for more information about other past recipients of the award.

The Voldemort – Sanger Connection

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funny, harry potter, margaret sanger, movies, photoshop, reproductive rights, the deathly hallows, voldemort

False comparisons of Margaret Sanger to Hitler are nothing new, in fact, we’ve written about them on this blog before. This recent comment about Sanger, in a review of the new Harry Potter movie published in the New American,  takes this common comparison one step further…

“Perhaps the most striking element in the film is the parallels to fascist and Marxist regimes. As the Ministry of Magic is infiltrated by demonic powers who intend to rid the wizarding world of “halfbloods” (half mortals/half wizards) and create the perfect race of wizarding creatures, one cannot help but draw connections to Adolf Hitler or American eugenicists such as Margaret Sanger. The powers that be are disgusted by the very idea of “halfbloods” breeding with “fullbloods,” believing “halfbloods” to be of far lesser stock.”

Apparently, photoshopping Sanger and Hitler together in a touring car is too 1990s. Now, the evil Lord Voldemort has  been added to the back seat!

Photoshopped image of Margaret Sanger and Voldemort in a flying car above Hogwarts.

Just for the record, pictures like the one above are fake. We have no evidence that Sanger and Voldemort were ever friendly. In fact, Voldemort hexed her books when he first rose to power in an effort to keep people from reading them because he disagreed so strongly with her views. Oh and also, Sanger never actually met Voldemort… probably because he’s fictional.

On a more serious note, characterizations like this are troubling. Sanger’s message was one of choice, giving women the power to decide whether and when to have children. This is the idea that the Birth Control Movement was founded on. The clinics that Sanger fostered were voluntary and either free or inexpensive; they were places that a woman chose to visit, and they offered methods of contraception that required the woman’s participation. In short, they were empowering not facist, Marxist, or filled with Death Eaters.

The internet is a wonderful tool for sharing information, but there are also dangers attached to it. The internet has given rise to ahistorical treatments of historical figures, including a number of early twentieth century leaders, like Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Margaret Sanger. We cannot confront every instance of misinformation, but we will continue to publish historically accurate, carefully annotated and accessible texts on this blog, elsewhere on the internet, and in print.