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Barbara O'Dair papers

 Collection
Identifier: 7936

Content Description

The Barbara O'Dair papers are comprised of the subject files and realia of writer and editor Barbara O’Dair and document the activist work and writings of key figures in the Feminist Sex Wars that defined feminist discourse and publishing in the 1980s and 1990s. The writings and activities of the Feminists Against Censorship Taskforce (FACT) and Caught Looking, Inc., both in which O’Dair was involved, are most represented, through organization files, meeting minutes, press releases, publications, and print ephemera. Also included are numerous clippings and photocopies of essays and articles—many written by O’Dair and other members of FACT—and reviews of books on gender, sex, sexuality, and feminist pornography. Original file names and order have been maintained. Realia series contains various leather sex accessories and restraints. Separated from the collection are 70 volumes and periodicals relating to gender, sex, and sexuality.

Major topics and events represented in the collection include the Pornography Victims’ Compensation Act, the 1982 Barnard Conference on Sexuality, the publication and reception of FACT’s book Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, & Censorship, and the incorporation of Caught Looking, Inc.

Dates

  • 1982 - 1993

Creator

Biographical / Historical

Barbara O’Dair is a writer, editor and executive functioning coach based in New Jersey, U.S. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College and a Master of Fine arts from Warren Wilson College. From 1986-2000, O’Dair served as writer and editor for the Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force (FACT), a pro-sex feminist task force founded by activist Ann Barr Snitow in 1984 for the purposes of challenging and resisting media censorship movements and legislation, particularly the censorship of pornography. FACT challenged several local Anti-pornography Civil Rights Ordinances in the United States, under the conviction that such legislation violated the United States Constitution’s First Amendment clause protecting freedom of speech and that sexual liberation is necessary for gender equality. Other notable FACT members included Ellen Willis, Nan D. Hunter, and Sylvia A. Law. In 1986, FACT published the book Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, & Censorship, a collection of essays about the dangers of censoring pornography. O’Dair served on the board of directors for Caught Looking, Inc., a business incorporated in 1986 for the purpose of publishing books and other literary works. She went on to work as a magazine writer and editor for many years, working for publications including United States magazine, Rolling Stone, Details Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Reader’s Digest, and Prevention magazine—of which she was editor-in-chief before transitioning to independent work.

Extent

.5 cubic feet.

70 volumes.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Separated Materials

Books

1. The Age Taboo: Gay Male Sexuality, Power and Consent, by Daniel Tsang

2. The Book of the Penis, by Maggie Paley

3. Burning Desires: Sex in America, a Report from the Field, by Steve Chapple and David Talbot

4. Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, & Censorship, 1988, third printing

5. Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography, & Censorship, signed copy, 1986 1st edition, 49 out of 100 copies

6. Constructing Masculinity by Maurice Berger, by Brian Wallis and Simon Watson

7. Differences, A Journal of Feminist Cultural studies: Queer Theory, Volume 3, Summer 1991

8. Female Sexual Slavery, by Kathleen Barry

9. For Adult Users Only: The Dilemma of Violent Pornography, by ed. Susan Gubar and Joan Hoff

10. Girls Lean Back Everywhere, by Edward de Grazia

11. Girls Who Do Stag Movies: Intimate interviews with Female Sex Stars

12. Hard Core, by Linda Williams

13. A History of Celibacy, by Elizabeth Abbott

14. The History of Torture, by Daniel P Mannix

15. Homosexuality: Sacrilege, Vision and Politics, by Salmagundi

16. I Once Had a Master, by John Preston

17. Incest Library: Seduction of the Family, by Frank Linger

18. Love Life: Scenes with Irene, by Roswitha Hecke

19. Masochism: A Jungian View, by Lyn Cowan

20. Naked is the Best Disguise: My Life as a Stripper, by Laurie Lewin

21. Overexposed, Treating Sexual Perversions in America, by Sylvere Lotringer

22. Prostitutes: Our Life, edited by Claude Jaget

23. Sapphistry: Book of Lesbian Sexuality, by Patrick Califia

24. Secret Collection, Japanese manga

25. The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture, by Walter Kendrick

26. Sex Changes, The Politics of Transgenderism, by Patrick Califia

27. Sex Exposed: Sexuality and the Pornography Debate, edited by Lynne Segal and Mary McIntosh

28. Sex in The Future: The Reproductive Revolution and How it will Change Us, by Robin Baker

29. Sex is Not an Actual Act and Other essays, by Leonore Tiefer

30. Sex Work, Writings by Women in the Sex Industry, by Frederique Delacoste and Priscilla Alexander

31. Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality, by Sherry B. Ortner and Harriet Whitehead

32. Sexual Variations: Fetishism, Sadomasochism, Transvestism, by Chris Gosselin and Glenn Wilson

33. Sisters, Sexperts, Queers: Beyond the Lesbian Nation, edited by Arlene Stein

34. SMUT: An S.T.H. Chap-Book, Volume 5, edited by The Reverend Boyd McDonald

35. States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, by Edmund White

36. Talk Dirty to Me, by Sallie Tisdale

37. Women: Sex and Sexuality, edited by Catharine R. Stimpson and Ethel Spector Person

38. Women’s Body, Women’s Right: Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon

Periodicals

1. Bad Attitude: A Lesbian Sex Magazine Vol. I Issue 3 Winter 1985

2. Bad Attitude: A Lesbian Sex Magazine Vol. I Issue 4 Spring 1985

3. Bad Attitude: A Lesbian Sex Magazine, Vol. I Issue 2 Fall 1984

4. Bad Attitude: A Lesbian Sex Magazine, Vol. I Number 1 Spring 1984

5. Bad Attitude: Lesbian Erotic Fiction, Vol. VII Number IV

6. Bizarre Classix, Volume 3 1978

7. EROS Summer 1962, Volume One, Number Two

8. EROS Winter 1962 Volume 1, Number 4

9. Erotica Magazine, No. 7 Spring 2000

10. Fag Rag, Issue 41

11. Fag Rag: Twelfth Anniversary Issue, Issue #30-39 1982

12. Gay Community News, June 23,1984

13. Gay Community News, May 5, 1984

14. Gay Community News, Sep 29, 1984

15. Gay Community News, Feb. 23, 1985

16. Glamour 6 International Numero 6 - Maggio 1986

17. I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities, by Audre Lorde, Freedom Organizing Series #3

18. Lesbian Contradiction Issue 8, Fall 1984

19. M: The Civilized Man: August 1986

20. Nerve June-July 2001

21. Obsession: seleccion de las mejores imagenes de sadomasoquismo, Volume 1

22. Obsession: seleccion de las mejores imagenes de sadomasoquismo, Volume 2

23. Off Our Backs: Volume XVII Number 1 January 87

24. On Our Backs Vol. 5, No. 2 Fall 1988

25. On Our Backs: January/February 1992

26. Outlook: National Lesbian & Gay Quarterly Issue 13 Summer 1991

27. Outlook: National Lesbian & Gay Quarterly Issue 15 Winter 1992

28. The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids by Paul Spinrad

29. Shocking Pink

30. Taking Control: The Magazine of Reproductive Rights National Network Vol 1, Issue 1 Spring 1984

31. Tapestry: The Journal for Persons Interested in Crossdressing & Transsexualism Issue 46 1985

32. Viva: The International Magazine for Women, August 75

General

Collecting program: Human Sexuality Collection.

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository

https://rare.library.cornell.edu/
Contact:
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)

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