Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising ) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or condition. Common issues include diseases (e.g. breast cancer , AIDS ), conflicts (e.g. the Darfur genocide , global warming ), movements (e.g. Greenpeace , PETA , Earth Hour ) and political parties or politicians. Since informing the populace of a public concern is often regarded as the first step to changing how the institutions handle it, raising awareness is often the first activity in which any advocacy group engages.
44-591: Outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meeting someone in need of an outreach service at the location where they are. Compared with traditional service providers, outreach services are provided closer to where people may reside, efforts are very often voluntary, and have fewer, if any, enforceable obligations. In addition to delivering services, outreach has an educational role, raising
88-475: A stencil duplicator or stencil machine ) was a low-cost duplicating machine that worked by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process was called mimeography , and a copy made by the process was a mimeograph . Mimeographs, along with spirit duplicators and hectographs , were common technologies for printing small quantities of a document, as in office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. For even smaller quantities, up to about five,
132-444: A typist would use carbon paper . Early fanzines were printed by mimeograph because the machines and supplies were widely available and inexpensive. Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, photocopying gradually displaced mimeographs, spirit duplicators, and hectographs. Use of stencils is an ancient art, but – through chemistry, papers, and presses – techniques advanced rapidly in
176-409: A consciousness-raising tactic by consciousness-raising groups. Activist and writer Audre Lorde was noted to have been one of many scholars who wrote of poetry as a means of communication for women of color activist and resistance groups. This focus has also been studied by other feminist scholars as a new approach to women's literary writing experience, and the usage of critical consciousness through
220-516: A darker, more legible image. Spirit duplicated images were usually tinted a light purple or lavender, which gradually became lighter over the course of some dozens of copies. Mimeography was often considered "the next step up" in quality, capable of producing hundreds of copies. Print runs beyond that level were usually produced by professional printers or, as the technology became available, xerographic copiers . Mimeographed images generally have much better durability than spirit-duplicated images, since
264-448: A dedicated site). [REDACTED] Media related to Outreach at Wikimedia Commons Consciousness raising However, in practice, raising awareness is often combined with other activities, such as fundraising , membership drives or advocacy , in order to harness and/or sustain the motivation of new supporters which may be at its highest just after they have learned and digested the new information. The term awareness raising
308-405: A different color. This was spot color for mastheads. Colors could not be mixed. The mimeograph became popular because it was much cheaper than traditional print – there was neither typesetting nor skilled labor involved. One individual with a typewriter and the necessary equipment became their own printing factory, allowing for greater circulation of printed material. The image transfer medium
352-410: A durable stencil master were used (e.g. a thin metal foil). In practice, most low-cost mimeo stencils gradually wear out over the course of producing several hundred copies. Typically the stencil deteriorates gradually, producing a characteristic degraded image quality until the stencil tears, abruptly ending the print run. If further copies are desired at this point, another stencil must be made. Often,
396-490: A form of therapy", but that it was, in fact, in its time and context, "the primary method of understanding women's condition" and constituted "the movement's most successful organizing tool." At the same time, she saw the lack of theory and emphasis on personal experience as concealing "prior political and philosophical assumptions". However, some in the feminist movement criticised consciousness raising groups as "trivial" and apolitical . Historically, poetry has been used as
440-511: A means of raising awareness in the wider society. In The God Delusion , anti-religion activist Richard Dawkins uses the term "consciousness raising" for several other things, explicitly describing these as analogous to the feminist case. These include replacing references to children as Catholic, Muslim, etc. with references to children of the adults who are members of these religions (which he compares to our using non-sexist terminology) and Darwin as "raising our consciousness" in biology to
484-410: A mimeograph, called a digital duplicator , or copyprinter , contains a scanner , a thermal head for stencil cutting, and a large roll of stencil material entirely inside the unit. The stencil material consists of a very thin polymer film laminated to a long-fiber non-woven tissue. It makes the stencils and mounts and unmounts them from the print drum automatically, making it almost as easy to operate as
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#1732851367265528-433: A moving optical head and burning through the blank stencil with an electric spark in the places where the optical head detected ink. It was slow and produced ozone . Text from electrostencils had lower resolution than that from typed stencils, although the process was good for reproducing illustrations. A skilled mimeo operator using an electrostencil and a very coarse halftone screen could make acceptable printed copies of
572-474: A photocopier. The Risograph is the best known of these machines. Although mimeographs remain more economical and energy-efficient in mid-range quantities, easier-to-use photocopying and offset printing have replaced mimeography almost entirely in developed countries . Mimeography continues to be used in some developing countries because it is a simple, cheap, and robust technology. Many mimeographs can be hand-cranked, requiring no electricity. Mimeographs and
616-416: A photograph. During the declining years of the mimeograph, some people made stencils with early computers and dot-matrix impact printers . Unlike spirit duplicators (where the only ink available is depleted from the master image), mimeograph technology works by forcing a replenishable supply of ink through the stencil master. In theory, the mimeography process could be continued indefinitely, especially if
660-440: A precursor to ASCII art . Because changing ink color in a mimeograph could be a laborious process, involving extensively cleaning the machine or, on newer models, replacing the drum or rollers, and then running the paper through the machine a second time, some fanzine publishers experimented with techniques for painting several colors on the pad. In addition, mimeographs were used by many resistance groups during World War Two as
704-551: A sheet of varnished paper with caustic ink, which ate through the varnish and paper fibers, leaving holes where the writing had been. This sheet – which had now become a stencil – was placed on a blank sheet of paper, and ink rolled over it so that the ink oozed through the holes, creating a duplicate on the second sheet. The process was commercialized and Zuccato applied for a patent in 1895 having stencils prepared by typewriting. Thomas Edison received US patent 180,857 for Autographic Printing on August 8, 1876. The patent covered
748-399: A stencil setting, to create a stencil. The operator loads a stencil assemblage into the typewriter like paper and uses a switch on the typewriter to put it in stencil mode. In this mode, the part of the mechanism which lifts the ribbon between the type element and the paper is disabled so that the bare, sharp type element strikes the stencil directly. The impact of the type element displaces
792-425: A time. By 1900, two primary types of mimeographs had come into use: a single-drum machine and a dual-drum machine. The single-drum machine used a single drum for ink transfer to the stencil, and the dual-drum machine used two drums and silk-screens to transfer the ink to the stencils. The single drum (example Roneo) machine could be easily used for multi-color work by changing the drum – each of which contained ink of
836-407: Is drawn between the rotating drum and a pressure roller, ink is forced through the holes on the stencil onto the paper. Early flatbed machines used a kind of squeegee . The ink originally had a lanolin base and later became an oil in water emulsion. This emulsion commonly uses turkey-red oil (sulfated castor oil ) which gives it a distinctive and heavy scent. One uses a regular typewriter, with
880-819: Is used in the Yogyakarta Principles against discriminatory attitudes and LGBT stereotypes as well as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to combat stereotypes , prejudices and harmful practices toward people with disabilities . Until the early-17th century, English speakers used the word "consciousness" in the sense of "moral knowledge of right or wrong"—a concept today referred to as " conscience ". Consciousness raising groups were formed by New York Radical Women , an early Women's Liberation group in New York City, and quickly spread throughout
924-610: The Old Left , they used to say that the workers don't know they're oppressed, so we have to raise their consciousness. One night at a meeting I said, 'Would everybody please give me an example from their own life on how they experienced oppression as a woman? I need to hear it to raise my own consciousness.' Kathie was sitting behind me and the words rang in her mind. From then on she sort of made it an institution and called it consciousness-raising. On Thanksgiving 1968, Kathie Sarachild presented A Program for Feminist Consciousness Raising , at
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#1732851367265968-424: The closet among welcoming, tolerant individuals and share personal stories about coming out. The idea of coming out as a tool of consciousness-raising had been preceded by even earlier opinions from German theorists such as Magnus Hirschfeld , Iwan Bloch and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs , all of whom saw self-disclosure as a means of self-emancipation, the raising of consciousness among fellow un-closeted individuals and
1012-930: The First National Women's Liberation Conference near Chicago, Illinois, in which she explained the principles behind consciousness-raising and outlined a program for the process that the New York groups had developed over the past year. Groups founded by former members of New York Radical Women—in particular Redstockings , founded out of the breakup of the NYRW in 1969, and New York Radical Feminists —promoted consciousness raising and distributed mimeographed sheets of suggesting topics for consciousness raising group meetings. New York Radical Feminists organized neighborhood-based c.r. groups in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, involving as many as four hundred women in c.r. groups at its peak. Over
1056-526: The United States. In November 1967, a group including Shulamith Firestone , Anne Koedt , Kathie Sarachild (originally Kathie Amatniek), and Carol Hanisch began meeting in Koedt's apartment. Meetings often involved "going around the room and talking" about issues in their own lives. The phrase "consciousness raising" was coined to describe the process when Kathie Sarachild took up the phrase from Anne Forer: In
1100-799: The awareness of existing services. It includes identification of under-served populations and service referral and the use of outreach tools like leaflets, newsletters, advertising stalls and displays, and dedicated events. Outreach is often meant to fill in the gap in the services provided by mainstream (often governmental) services, and is often carried out by non-profit , nongovernmental organizations . There are many different types of outreach, but they can be categorized into these four groupings: domiciliary (undertaken at individual homes), detached (undertaken in public environments and targeting individuals), peripatetic (undertaken at public or private environments and targeting organizations rather than individuals), and satellite outreach (where services are provided at
1144-532: The closely related but distinctly different spirit duplicator process were both used extensively in schools to copy homework assignments and tests. They were also commonly used for low-budget amateur publishing , including club newsletters and church bulletins. They were especially popular with science fiction fans, who used them extensively in the production of fanzines in the middle 20th century, before photocopying became inexpensive. Letters and typographical symbols were sometimes used to create illustrations, in
1188-425: The coating, making the tissue paper permeable to the oil -based ink . This is called "cutting a stencil". A variety of specialized styluses were used on the stencil to render lettering, illustrations, or other artistic features by hand against a textured plastic backing plate. Mistakes were corrected by brushing them out with a specially formulated correction fluid , and retyping once it has dried. (Obliterine
1232-435: The creation of art as a liberatory praxis. Art as a liberatory praxis has also been explored through a radical queer lens through a number of publications and journals such as Sinister Wisdom and Conditions , online publications with an emphasis on lesbian writing. In the 1960s, consciousness-raising caught on with gay liberation activists, who formed the first "coming-out groups" which helped participants come out of
1276-400: The electric pen, used for making the stencil, and the flatbed duplicating press. In 1880, Edison obtained a further patent, US 224,665: "Method of Preparing Autographic Stencils for Printing," which covered the making of stencils using a file plate, a grooved metal plate on which the stencil was placed which perforated the stencil when written on with a blunt metal stylus. The word mimeograph
1320-560: The inks are more resistant to ultraviolet light . The primary preservation challenge is the low-quality paper often used, which would yellow and degrade due to residual acid in the treated pulp from which the paper was made. In the worst case, old copies can crumble into small particles when handled. Mimeographed copies have moderate durability when acid-free paper is used. Gestetner , Risograph , and other companies still make and sell highly automated mimeograph-like machines that are externally similar to photocopiers. The modern version of
1364-523: The late nineteenth century: A description of the Papyrograph method of duplication was published by David Owen: A major beneficiary of the invention of synthetic dyes was a document reproduction technique known as stencil duplicating. Its earliest form was invented in 1874 by Eugenio de Zuccato, a young Italian studying law in London, who called his device the Papyrograph. Zuccato's system involved writing on
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1408-439: The movement's most successful form of female bonding , and the source of most of its creative thinking. Some of the small groups stayed together for more than a decade". "In 1973, probably the height of CR, 100,000 women in the United States belonged to CR groups." Early mid-century feminists argued that women were isolated from each other, and as a result many problems in women's lives were misunderstood as "personal," or as
1452-668: The next few years, small-group consciousness raising spread rapidly in cities and suburbs throughout the United States. By 1971, the Chicago Women's Liberation Union , which had already organized several consciousness raising groups in Chicago, described small consciousness raising groups as "the backbone of the Women's Liberation Movement ". Susan Brownmiller , a member of the West Village would later write that small-group consciousness raising "was
1496-423: The original sources, both historic and personal, going to people—women themselves, and going to experience for theory and strategy". However, most consciousness raising groups did follow a similar pattern for meeting and discussion. Meetings would usually be held about once a week, with a small group of women, often in the living room of one of the members. Meetings were women-only , and usually involved going around
1540-436: The possibility of explaining complexity naturalistically and, in principle, raising our consciousness to the possibility of doing such things elsewhere (especially in physics). Earlier in the book, he uses the term (without explicitly referring to feminism) to refer to making people aware that leaving their parents' faith is an option. Mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo , sometimes called
1584-439: The results of conflicts between the personalities of individual men and women, rather than systematic forms of oppression. Raising consciousness meant helping oneself and helping others to become politically conscious . Consciousness raising groups aimed to get a better understanding of women's oppression by bringing women together to discuss and analyze their lives, without interference from the presence of men. While explaining
1628-432: The room for each woman to talk about a predetermined subject—for example, "When you think about having a child, would you rather have a boy or a girl?" —speaking from her own experience, with no formal leader for the discussion and few rules for directing or limiting discussion. (Some c.r. groups did implement rules designed to give every woman a chance to speak, to prevent interruptions, etc.) Speaking from personal experience
1672-582: The stencil material covering the interiors of closed letterforms (e.g. a , b , d , e , g , etc.) would fall away during continued printing, causing ink-filled letters in the copies. The stencil would gradually stretch, starting near the top where the mechanical forces were greatest, causing a characteristic "mid-line sag" in the textual lines of the copies, that would progress until the stencil failed completely. The Gestetner Company (and others) devised various methods to make mimeo stencils more durable. Compared to spirit duplication, mimeography produced
1716-401: The theory behind consciousness raising in a 1973 talk, Kathie Sarachild remarked that "From the beginning of consciousness-raising ... there has been no one method of raising consciousness. What really counts in consciousness-raising are not methods, but results. The only 'methods' of consciousness raising are essentially principles. They are the basic radical political principles of going to
1760-528: Was a popular brand of correction fluid in Australia and the United Kingdom.) Stencils were also made with a thermal process, an infrared method similar to that used by early photocopiers. The common machine was a Thermofax . Another device, called an electrostencil machine, sometimes was used to make mimeo stencils from a typed or printed original. It worked by scanning the original on a rotating drum with
1804-443: Was another trademark used for mimeograph machines, the name being a contraction of Rotary Neostyle .) In 1891, David Gestetner patented his Automatic Cyclostyle. This was one of the first rotary machines that retained the flatbed, which passed back and forth under inked rollers. This invention provided for more automated, faster reproductions since the pages were produced and moved by rollers instead of pressing one single sheet at
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1848-486: Was first used by Albert Blake Dick when he licensed Edison's patents in 1887. Dick received Trademark Registration no. 0356815 for the term mimeograph in the US Patent Office. It is currently listed as a dead entry, but shows the A.B. Dick Company of Chicago as the owner of the name. Over time, the term became generic and is now an example of a genericized trademark . ( Roneograph , also Roneo machine ,
1892-406: Was originally a stencil made from waxed mulberry paper . Later this became an immersion-coated long-fiber paper, with the coating being a plasticized nitrocellulose . This flexible waxed or coated sheet is backed by a sheet of stiff card stock, with the two sheets bound at the top. Once prepared, the stencil is wrapped around the ink-filled drum of the rotary machine. When a blank sheet of paper
1936-1114: Was used as a basis for further discussion and analysis based on the first-hand knowledge that was shared. Some feminist advocates of consciousness raising argued that the process allowed women to analyze the conditions of their own lives, and to discover ways in which what had seemed like isolated, individual problems (such as needing an abortion , surviving rape , conflicts between husbands and wives over housework, etc.) actually reflected common conditions faced by all women. As Sarachild wrote in 1969, "We assume that our feelings are telling us something from which we can learn... that our feelings mean something worth analyzing... that our feelings are saying something political , something reflecting fear that something bad will happen to us or hope, desire, knowledge that something good will happen to us. ... In our groups, let's share our feelings and pool them. Let's let ourselves go and see where our feelings lead us. Our feelings will lead us to ideas and then to actions". Ellen Willis wrote in 1984 that consciousness raising has often been "misunderstood and disparaged as
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