Ti-Grace Atkinson Calls Feminists 'Jackals'

Radical feminist Ti-Grace Atkinson blasted the women's movement last night as she spoke to a crowd of about 500 people in the Ames courtroom at the Harvard Law School.

"Tonight the women's' movement stands accused by me," she began. "There is a false and dangerous rumor that a feminist movement exists. It is false because it is not moving. You've got 20,000 women moving no place."

Atkinson accused the women in the movement of self-complacency and lack of substantive analysis. "People who have been shat on for hundreds of years tend to stink after a while," she said. "They're like jackals. They've only got their rhetoric,"

Atkinson went on to explain her view that the women's movement could not progress any further until it was ready to commit itself to active resistance to all forces now oppressing women. She praised the Weathermen for their actions and cited them as "one of the few respectable [groups of] people around."

Are you going to move, are you willing to kill if you have to-at least be willing to blow up some property for Christ's sake," Atkinson shouted at her audience.

She went on to describe her own experiences in the Women's Liberation movement, stating that she felt her real enemies were those women who claimed to be sympathetic with the movement and yet would not give her any support. "I haven't seen a gutsy feminist in front of a pig yet," she said. "There's a lot in me that's dead now that only women could have killed."

After she had finished her speech, Atkinson confronted her audience. "I'm tired of giving the answers," she said. "I've paid my dues. Now I'm going to ask the questions." She then asked any woman who "considered herself a feminist" to come to the microphone and state her name.

About 18 women did so, several of them explaining to the audience their own positions on the women's liberation movement. The floor erupted into a series of heated discussions.

Slip Away

Atkinson slipped away quietly during the ensuing discussion. The meeting broke up soon afterwards.

Atkison's appearance was sponsored by the Harvard Women's Law Association, an organization of women law students attempting to improve the position of women at the Law School.