Beth Jackson When did you first call yourself a feminist?
Kathy Acker The feminists were not people that I identified with when I was growing up-in my late teenage years. That was during the first round of feminism. To be a feminist then, you had to toe the line in all sorts of ways. I had grown up in an all girls school and my parents had sent me away every summer to an all girls camp. I never, never thought there was anything the matter with me. To me, in those days of feminism, people were saying "there's something the matter with you, you're not as good as guys". I had no idea I wasn't as good as anybody in the world. I really think it took living in the world- especially living as a working person- to realise the sexism of the world. I had grown up in an all girl society, basically.
Do you think that was a positive?
Extremely positive. I think it was fabulous. But it didn't make me a raging feminist. lt really took many years in the world before I would even begin to call myself a feminist. But at the same time of course, among all of the women I know, everyone has been affected and affected very deeply by a so-called feminist revolution. lt's a little difficult now- we use the word 'feminist' to say certain things in certain contexts- so it's difficult to know when people call themselves feminists, and when they don't, what they mean by it. I would say now everybody's a feminist, and if... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline