Рита Мэй Браун: Феминистка, жазушы және белсендісі

American writer, activist, and feminist

Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944) is an American feminist writer, best known for her coming of age autobiographical novel, Rubyfruit Jungle. Brown was active in a number of civil rights campaigns and criticized the marginalization of lesbians within feminist groups. Brown received the Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement at the Lambda Literary Awards in 2015.

Brown was born in 1944 in Hanover, Pennsylvania, to an unmarried teenage mother and her mother's married boyfriend. Brown's birth mother left her at an orphanage. Her mother's cousin, Julia Brown, and her husband, Ralph, retrieved the newborn Brown from the orphanage, and raised her as their own in York, Pennsylvania, and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Julia and Ralph Brown were active Republicans in their local party.

Starting in late 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four year institution.

Brown hitchhiked to New York City and lived there between 1964 and 1969, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University, where she received a degree in classics and English. In 1968, she received a certificate in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts. Brown received a Ph. D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D. C.

Brown wrote for Rat, an alternative bi weekly that eventually became New York City's first women's liberation newspaper. She also contributed to Come Out!, the gay liberation newspaper in NYC, published by the Gay Liberation Front.

In 1982, Brown wrote a screenplay parodying the slasher genre titled Sleepless Nights; retitled The Slumber Party Massacre, the producers decided to play it seriously, and it was given a limited release theatrically. Brown is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.

In the spring of 1964, during her study at the University of Florida in Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti war movement, the feminist movement and the Lesbian Liberation movement. She was involved with the Student Homophile League at Columbia University in 1967 but left it because the men in the league were not interested in women's rights. She was involved in the Redstockings, but also left the group because of its lack of involvement in lesbian rights. Brown claimed that lesbian was "the one word that can cause the Executive Committee [of NOW] a collective heart attack." Brown played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement. Brown and other lesbians from the Gay Liberation Front created The Woman Identified Woman, which was distributed at the zap. The group that wrote the manifesto then went on to become the "Radicalesbians".</blockquote> Brown also does not consider herself a "lesbian writer" because she believes art is about connection and not about divisive labels.</blockquote>

"Dancing the shout to the true gospel or The song movement sisters don't want me to sing" was included in the 1970 anthology Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Morgan. The Hand That Cradles the Rock (1971). Songs to a Handsome Woman (1973).

Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual (1988). Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble Rouser (1997). Sneaky Pie's Cookbook For Mystery Lovers (1999). Animal Magnetism: My Life with Creatures Great and Small (2009).