From Town Bloody Hall to 2023: A Tale of Two Debates on Women’s Liberation

“Avoiding these truly current, red hot issues, the women speak past each other.”

In April of 1971, a large crowd gathered in New York City’s Town Hall for a panel on the women’s liberation movement. The footage from that night, released in the documentary Town Bloody Hall, struck me as foreign, raised as I was in the age of Twitter (sorry, X), in which hot takes are fired only from behind the anonymity of the screen. It is full of what might now be labeled “hate speech”—witty zingers flying from all sides, ad hominem galore, and plenty of audience heckling. There is little doubt in my mind that journalist Bari Weiss hoped to emulate that evening over half a century later during The Free Press’ recent live debate titled “Has The Sexual Revolution Failed?”

Tale One: Town Bloody Hall

Town Bloody Hall is a fun watch, but for those who do not have the two hours to spare, this is how it went down.

First, Jacqueline Ceballos, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), takes the stand. She comes across as straightforward with her neatly bobbed hair and conservative suit, and her statement matches her outfit. She makes a plug for NOW, calls for compensation for housewives, and demands better work opportunities for women.

Germaine Greer, bestselling author of the recently published The Female Eunuch, uses her time to paint a sly portrait of the male artist, clearly intended to cut at the panel’s moderator, Norman Mailer, who had recently drawn fire from prominent feminist Kate Millett for glamorizing violence against women. She then critiques the culture for expecting a woman to be both the goddess of love and of menial drudge. Standing six feet tall, her slender form sheathed in a black dress and fox fur, it is clear she knows which feminine trope she has chosen to embody. Around her neck, framed by the white triangle of skin above her decollete, hangs a heavy pendant in the shape of the Venus symbol.