She's Beautiful When She's Angry

"We didn't want a piece of the pie; we wanted to change the pie" was one of the mantras of second wave feminism during 1966-1971, which emerged from the formation of the National Organization for Women, which is recounted with archival footage and current interviews in Mary Dore's comprehensive 90-minute documentary "She's Beautiful When She's Angry."

With a women's right to choose in question yet again in a majority of states, this reminder of recent history is apt and timely. Millennial women could be considered lucky to suffer fewer consequences of societal sexism, yet should never forget that a generation ago marriages were considered "the big success" (as well as unpaid labor), a woman couldn't decide NOT to have a child, and if a female was raped or battered, no one would believe her.

In 1963, Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" posited that women had never been considered in human terms as individuals, so N.O.W., with its "Uppity Women Unite" slogan, started by addressing employment discrimination and exploitation by picketing The New York Times. Chauvinists shouted rejoinders like "I'll fuck you in a dark alley."

Other, more radical, women's liberation factions emerged to tackle other issues like abortion, including Magic Quilt, Redstockings, The Furies, and WITCH (Women's International Conspiracy from Hell!), whose members ogled and cat-called Wall Street men as they had seen them do to women. Female University of Chicago students challenged the white male canon, and burned their Master's and Ph.D. degrees to demand women's history, literature and art curriculum.

Atlantic City's Miss America pageant was protested in 1968 as a "cattle auction," and a "Freedom Trash Can" outside the venue was used to burn men's draft cards alongside women's bras. San Franciscan protesters followed the Beat philosophy and utilized poetry, songs and t-shirts ("Stare at Your Own Damn Tits") to promote their agenda, and self-proclaimed "shameless hussy" Alta started her own feminist press to publish George Sand and Ntozake Shange.

Representatives of the African-American aspect of the movement, including Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rita Mae Brown, recall their challenges (many revolutionaries thought that black abortion was genocide). Lesbian activists, "The Women-Identified Women" labeled as "The Lavender Menace," decried their initial ostracization from the cause.

In 1969, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective researched all aspects of female body topics, including anatomy, birth control, nutrition, masturbation and pleasure ("how did we know to fake orgasms?"), producing the classic "Our Bodies, Ourselves," which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011.

The "Jane" group facilitated safe abortions in a time when the act was considered "conspiracy to commit felony murder," and termed rape as "a political crime against women." Most feminist factions considered childcare as crucial for women's emancipation, but President Nixon vetoed a childcare bill, which has long-lasting repercussions today.

Feminists challenged Congress in 1970 to regulate the side effects of the huge amounts of estrogen in birth control pills, and the involuntary sterilization of Puerto Rican women was brought to public attention as well. That year culminated with a national strike and march on August 26, the 50th anniversary of American women's right to vote, under the banner "Don't iron while the strike is hot."

The women's liberation movement of the 60s and 70s named "sexual harassment" and "domestic violence," then made them illegal. These warrior women remind the new generation, still living within a rape culture under a glass ceiling, that "no victories are permanent. We must maintain them."

"If you are angry, take action. Our rights are a moving target." As Roe vs. Wade is being battered today, women should watch this film to remember history and not repeat it.

For screening information, visit www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com or follow #SBWSA