TORCH is a feminist conference by Total Woman Victory that aims to bring together women committed to rebuilding radical feminism as an independent, anti-imperialist political force. Held on October 9 - 11 in Worcester, Massachusetts—the site of the first National Woman’s Rights Convention of 1850—this gathering situates itself in a long tradition of feminist organizing outside state, NGO, academic, and empire-aligned institutions.
TORCH calls on women who recognize the decisive break between anti-imperialist feminism and feminism that serves empire to begin organizing independently. Through theory-building, getting organized, consciousness-raising, and historicizing contradictions, the conference aims to revive the foundational practices that once forged durable feminist movements. This is a space to form real political connections, clarify lines of struggle, and continue the unfinished revolutionary project of women’s liberation—because feminist revolution cannot be built alone, and the torches of our foremothers demand to be carried forward.
What does TORCH mean?
Cohesive frameworks for liberating women requires THEORY that analyzes the contradictions of the female sex class condition.
The future of female liberation rests in the assembly of feminist theorists who can ORGANIZE and lead a formal feminist political party.
There must be communication between feminists and members of the public who have not yet become radicalized by RAISING CONSCIOUSNESS.
By studying our HISTORY, feminists can discern what has not served our movement and what will sustain it.
TORCH 2026 INFO
Workshops & Panels
Coming Soon!
Consciousness Raising
1968
2026
The Freedom Trash Can
Saturday October 10, 8:00PM at Implacable Books
189 Washington Street in Worcester, MA
On September 7, 1968, New York Radical Women protested the Miss America pageant. Along with unfurling a large banner that stated “Women’s Liberation” inside the contest hall, they placed a “Freedom Trash Can” on the Atlantic City boardwalk where women could throw in “instruments of female torture,” including bras, high heels, hairspray, pantyhose, makeup, girdles, hair curlers, false eyelashes, corsets, garter belts, dish rags, mops, Playboy and Good Housekeeping magazines, and more.
The idea for the protest came out of a collective recognition at a consciousness raising meeting that all women are hurt by beauty competitions—both the participants and women at large. They rejected these events and the cultural ideas surrounding women and beauty. Some women might claim that they find these beauty rituals empowering, but women need real, collective power, not individual empowerment. To achieve this, we must look further into these daily routines we’ve accepted as our norm. Who actually benefits and who is harmed when women spend hours primping in front of the mirror? There is the issue of comfort; women's bodies are squeezed and contorted to fit an unrealistic ideal. There is also the issue of how beauty divides women; we are in constant competition with one another. But above all, feminists of the 60s came to understand that women were not merely donning uncomfortable, unnatural clothing and beauty standards, but donning the uniform of women’s inferior class status. They understood that this ideal was not just about sexual attractiveness, but about power—when women acquiesce to these standards, we are marking ourselves as the “other.” As Carol Hanisch states, “That ‘who wears the pants’ has long been synonymous with ‘who has the power’ is not an accident of language.”
Total Woman Victory thanks you for joining us!
In 1968, feminists threw girdles, pantyhose, garter belts, and Playboy magazines into their Freedom Trash Can—what do articles of female torture look like today? If your items are too large or abstract, you may also draw them or write them on a piece of paper. We will have space available in the Student Center at Worcester State University for you to store your items. After the conference ends at 6PM, we will transport any remaining items to Implacable Books.
What is Consciousness Raising?
A Tool for Feminists
The Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s inspired women to gather and share their struggles with sexuality, domestic life, work, and more. Through these conversations, they realized that their “personal problems” were, in fact, shared experiences in a system of male dominance—in other words, they were manifestations of systemic problems. These women then worked to develop a way of analyzing political problems that is relevant to women and based on information they could trust is true, adopting and adapting similar techniques from the Civil Rights Movement and Chinese Revolution to ultimately create the tool that they called “consciousness raising” (CR).
CR taught women that our own experiences are the most reliable source of information we need to understand the sex contradiction and formulate theory. CR encouraged women to deeply analyze their own lives and identify the root causes of women’s oppression, and through this they understood that the system of patriarchy was not an abstract force, but one that manifested daily in the most intimate spheres.
At TORCH, we will host multiple Consciousness Raising sessions each day!
Further reading:
“Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon” by Kathie Sarachild (1973)
“Resistances to Consciousness” by Irene Peslikis (1969)
“About my Consciousness Raising” by Barbara Susan (1969)
“How to Start a Group” by Judith Brown of Gainesville Women’s Liberation (1969)
How does Consciousness Raising work?
In a group of women, each woman answers a question or set of questions as honestly and completely as possible. They are given an allotted amount of time so that each person can speak.
Participants answer from their personal experience, not what they read in a book or what they think are problems in general. It’s important to hear from women with a variety of different backgrounds.
Listen, learn, go off on tangents!
A note-taker records testimonies anonymously. Testimonies and conclusions should be shared so that other women can learn from your group’s observations!
After everyone has testified, there is time set aside for coming to conclusions.
All participants work together to pool and compare the experiences they heard about, paying special attention to contradictions between testimonies, trying to find the common root problem.
Identify actions to create change! Avoid individual solutions or merely offering advice.
Example CR questions:
“How have you felt most oppressed as a woman recently?”
“What has it meant for women in the group to earn their own money? What has it meant to your mother and her friends?”
“Discuss feminist issues that cut across racial and class lines, touching the lives of all women. Which of all these issues have you worked on or considered a priority?”
“Have you ever lived with a man? What did you like about it? What did you not like?”
“When did you begin to make the connection between your own experiences and the experiences of other women?”