Anarchists, Feminists and Free Love

The wonderful woman in the photograph above is Voltairine de Cleyre, and up until her death in 1912 she was a dedicated Feminist and Anarchist. She spent a huge portion of her life spreading ideas of emancipation and freedom and a crucial aspect of her Feminism was the belief in ‘free love’, a phrase which has lost some of its power in more modern times. Often I have found myself hearing the phrase free love being used to describe somebody who indulges in non monogamous relationships or simply casual sex (does anybody know what insurance advert I’m thinking of?) It’s not that the Free Love movement does not support both these things; it’s just that it is so much more than this and to think of it in this highly simplified sense does a disservice to great Feminists like Voltairine.



Free love is not just a slogan leftover from the 60’s; free love has its roots in the Anarchist movements which came to prominence in radical politics between 1870 and 1930 in the America’s and Europe. Anarchist feminists believed that neither the state, the church nor long held traditions should be allowed to oppress people by dictating or prescribing their relationships, and it was from this principle that the Free Love movement developed.


The Free Love movement rejected marriage. Marriage was seen as being highly patriarchal in that it was a way men could gain power over women. Marriage was also seen as an unnecessary intrusion of the state and/or the church into the private relationships of individuals, and a way in which these institutions could regulate and dictate these relationships. This is a struggle that can still be seen today with states and organized religion not accepting certain relationships as eligible for marriage.


The Free Love movement accepted all forms of consensual relationship. A key part of the free love movement was its rejection of the idea that women should only seek long term monogamous relationships with men. In this sense, participants in the Free Love movement promoted complete individual freedom. Polyamory, monogamy, long term, short term, lustful or ascetic and everything unmentioned and in-between, all are considered to be various ways of exploring and claiming individual sexuality. It’s worth considering that this particular aspect of the Free Love movement is controversial today let alone in the 1880’s, long before women succeeded in their fight for the vote in most countries.


As the Free Love movement developed, the Feminists and Anarchists involved also recognized the need for the emancipation of non-heterosexual individuals from the restrictions placed on them by the state, the church and bigotry. The feminists in the Free Love movement felt that there was a clear logical connection between the fight of men and women against patriarchy and the fight of non-heterosexual individuals against their oppression. A historical example of this can be seen in the support Oscar Wilde received from American Anarchists when he was charged by the British state for ‘sodomy and indecencies’ in the 1890’s.


The principles and actions of the Free Love movement remain ahead of their time and they are not simply parts of history but issues that Feminists must consider and accept as relevant to their struggle. Is marriage a clinging form of oppression and unnecessary? Many Anarchists who still follow the principles of the Free Love movement prefer unofficial ceremony’s or simply ignore marriage all together when involved in long term relationships. Do you accept true female sexual liberation or are words like slut, slag and whore still common in your vocabulary? Monogamy is still considered (either consciously or unconsciously) by most to be the acceptable form of relationship whereas polygamy is seen as abnormal in western society. Finally, do Feminists really believe that women can be truly liberated while workers, ethnic minorities, children, non-heterosexual individuals and others remain chained? Or do we recognize that as Peter Kropotkin argued “one can only be free when all are free”.



Jack MacBean