Going Out Of Our Minds by Sonia Johnson

Going Out Of Our Minds

The Metaphysics of Liberation

Sonia Johnson

The Citizensstet Party candidate for president in 1984, Johnson here discusses the path that took her from Mormon housewife to outspoken proponent of radical feminism. After being excommunicated from the Mormon church in 1977 for supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, she became increasingly involved in the women’s movement (to the extent of participating in a 38-day fast with seven other women in Illinois while state legislators considered and rejected the ERA). After that and other failures, Johnson renounced working within the system and came to believe that women must be ‘out of their minds’ and should work outside the ‘patriarchy’ to effect societal change. To bolster her case, Johnson provides evidence of what she considers men’s crimes against women over the past 5000 years. Although her writing is repetitious, Johnson raises trenchant points about contemporary society and the directions it might take. Women fond of men will find her strict lesbian viewpoint a bit excessive.

Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

‘All bona fide revolutions are of necessity revolutions of the spirit,’ affirms Johnson in this sequel to From Housewife to Heretic. Here she traces her own intellectual and spiritual evolution past the women’s rights/post-divorce phase described in her first book, through her career as an activist (during which she campaigned for President on the Citizen’s Party Ticket), to a new level of radical feminist awareness. This is the state of mind referred to in the book’s title, in ‘which the values of patriarchy are permitted to slip away, leaving women free to make truly feminist choices without regard to what men in authority are thinking/doing.’ Johnson writes beautifully, but her message will not be welcomed by those who believe that working within the system will ultimately effect change. Recommended. Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib. , Id.

Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Check for it on:

• Amazon
• Goodreads
• Google Books

Details