Mina Loy "Feminist Manifesto" pg 1502

Upon my reading of Mina Loy’s ‘Feminist Manifesto’, I was struck with a sense of bitterness from her. One of my first impressions was that she was either a women scorned from a cheating, and demanding husband, or she was a mistress herself and her lover would not leave his wife for her. Another impression was that she sounded, at times, to be gay or bisexual. (DISCLAIMER: To each his/her own, I don’t give a hoot!)

Though I don’t think this last observation is completely true simply because she states, “The only point at which the interests of the sexes merge--is the sexual embrace.” Basically, to me, she was saying that men pretty much are only good for sex toys.

With that being said, Loy talks a lot about the sexual freedoms that women of the time did not have but felt should be granted. Sex is sex, there should be no restrictions. What’s good for the man should be good for the woman, “…there is nothing impure in sex-- except in the mental attitude to it--” So, my jury is still out on whether she may or may not have been gay or bisexual. (Please see DICLAIMER above).

I do believe completely however, that Loy was a definite feminist radical! To even suggest “surgical destruction of virginity…at puberty” is way beyond radicalism! To do this, does not mean that a girl loses her virginity; this only suggests that a young girl loses a sense of herself. By under going surgery, this is saying she is not good enough to fit into the man’s world as she is; a world, at that time, she was being kept out of. This would only bring her down even further.

Loy herself say’s that “…the value of woman depends entirely on chance, her success or insuccess in manoeuvering a man into taking the life-long responsibility of her--”. To have the ‘veil of virginity’ (to put it delicately) taken by surgery, in this time period, would be a sure fire way to condemn a girl to a lifetime of struggle. For no man would take her as a wife, in turn leaving her to struggle even harder to survive, and quite possibly making her turn to prostitution.

Then again, this seemed to be Loy’s wish; to make the women completely free of anything doing with a man. Including giving up love and virtue. In her eyes, a woman should love only herself and do as she pleases. If this meant turning to prostitution, then so be it.

These sentiments was hard to get past to see what she was saying. Yes, I do believe a that a woman should not have to depend on a man financially if she so chooses. I also believe that a woman should have a child because it is a MUTUAL agreement between partners, or if she is single, between herself and the sperm bank,(whether it is an institutional sperm bank or a ‘friend with benefits’).

I do not believe however, that a woman should be more responsible for the child than the man. Nor do I believe that a woman should only think of herself and be deceitful in doing the things she chooses to do. No one, man nor women, should destroy themselves or others for personal satisfaction . It takes away the very respect that a person should be trying to gain.

I think that for her time period, during the oppression of women, Loy’s thoughts were too radical to be said out loud. Maybe this is why this letter did not get published until after her death. Then again, it is too radical for the present time as well.

Mina Loy would have enjoyed living in our time period. A period where women go to school, hold jobs and put their kids in daycare. She would also enjoy the fact that prostitution is legal in some states, gays and lesbians have ‘come out of the closet’ (please see DISCLAIMER above), and there are ‘adult’ stores for all the ‘toys’ she would want, hence, leaving the man out of the equation all together.

To each his own. I personally think Loy was too much of a weird radical feminist. I am sure that there are some that would cherish and agree with everything she said in this letter. I, for one, do not. Chivalry in a man is refreshing, an occasional complement is nice and a bouquet of flowers are beautiful. This does not make me submissive. It makes me a woman. Being a woman, IS being a feminist.