"You Are Your Own Alternative": Performance, Pleasure, and the American Counterculture, 1965-1975

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dc.contributor.advisorStein, Marc Robert
dc.creatorAbraham, Mark
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-26T14:10:03Z
dc.date.available2015-01-26T14:10:03Z
dc.date.copyright2014-05-09
dc.date.issued2015-01-26
dc.date.updated2015-01-26T14:10:02Z
dc.degree.disciplineHistory
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstract“You Are Your Own Alternative” examines influential countercultural groups in the 1960s and 1970s. In opposition to historians who dismiss the politics of the counterculture and blame the counterculture for contributing to the collapse of social movement activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, this dissertation highlights the intensely political and productive aspects of the counterculture. With case studies that focus on the Los Angeles Freaks, the San Francisco Diggers, the New York Yippies, and the lesbian feminists of Olivia Records, “You Are Your Own Alternative” demonstrates that the counterculture offered powerful political and performative challenges in this period. Countercultural activists valorized free expressions of sexuality; outlandishly adorned bodies; complex music; theatrical celebrations of community; and free access to collective resources like food, clothing, and health care. They staged participatory performance-based protests intended to seduce passersby into experiencing new paradigms of human interaction and expression. In joining in to act out, countercultural activists argued, new converts would discover, through performance and pleasure, their authentic selves. But while “You are Your Own Alternative” emphatically argues that each of the four countercultural groups it examines was radical, progressive, political, and thoughtful about the way it conceptualized the dominant order and the performance-based methods of activism that could be used to resist that order, it also critiques these countercultural groups for the limitations of their vision; for their problematic politics of race, class, gender, and sexuality; and for their failure to move beyond narrowly advocating for what I call “alternative norms,” which countercultural leaders suggested were simultaneously authentic and universal. The result is a set of arguments that casts new light on the counterculture and the changing nature of political protest and cultural resistance in the post-1960s era.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/28168
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectAmerican history
dc.subjectAmerican studies
dc.subjectHistory
dc.subject.keywordsRadicalismen_US
dc.subject.keywordsHistoryen_US
dc.subject.keywordsUnited Statesen_US
dc.subject.keywordsCultureen_US
dc.subject.keywordsCountercultureen_US
dc.subject.keywordsPerformanceen_US
dc.subject.keywordsLesbian feminismen_US
dc.subject.keywordsLesbianen_US
dc.subject.keywordsFeminismen_US
dc.subject.keywordsLesbianen_US
dc.subject.keywordsFeminismen_US
dc.subject.keywordsMasculinitiesen_US
dc.subject.keywordsGenderen_US
dc.subject.keywordsSexualitiesen_US
dc.subject.keywordsBodyen_US
dc.subject.keywordsPleasureen_US
dc.subject.keywordsMusicen_US
dc.subject.keywordsWomen's musicen_US
dc.subject.keywordsCollageen_US
dc.subject.keywordsAvant-gardeen_US
dc.subject.keywordsTheateren_US
dc.subject.keywordsFashionen_US
dc.subject.keywordsDanceen_US
dc.subject.keywordsSan Franciscoen_US
dc.subject.keywordsLos angelesen_US
dc.subject.keywordsNew Yorken_US
dc.subject.keywordsChicagoen_US
dc.subject.keywordsFreaksen_US
dc.subject.keywordsDiggersen_US
dc.subject.keywordsYippiesen_US
dc.subject.keywordsOlivia recordsen_US
dc.subject.keywordsOlivia collectiveen_US
dc.subject.keywordsWitchen_US
dc.subject.keywordsSzouen_US
dc.subject.keywordsVito paulekasen_US
dc.subject.keywordsFrank Zappaen_US
dc.subject.keywordsMothers of inventionen_US
dc.subject.keywordsCarl Franzonien_US
dc.subject.keywordsPamela des Barresen_US
dc.subject.keywordsGto'sen_US
dc.subject.keywordsEmmett Groganen_US
dc.subject.keywordsPeter Bergen_US
dc.subject.keywordsPeter Coyoteen_US
dc.subject.keywordsBilly Murcotten_US
dc.subject.keywordsBilly Fritschen_US
dc.subject.keywordsLenore Kandelen_US
dc.subject.keywordsJudy Goldhaften_US
dc.subject.keywordsAbbie Hoffmanen_US
dc.subject.keywordsAnita Hoffmanen_US
dc.subject.keywordsJerry Rubinen_US
dc.subject.keywordsNancy Kurshanen_US
dc.subject.keywordsStew Alberten_US
dc.subject.keywordsJudy Alberten_US
dc.subject.keywordsPaul Krassneren_US
dc.subject.keywordsKeith Lampeen_US
dc.subject.keywordsRobin Morganen_US
dc.subject.keywordsJim Fouratten_US
dc.subject.keywordsGinny Bersonen_US
dc.subject.keywordsCris Williamsonen_US
dc.subject.keywordsMeg Christianen_US
dc.subject.keywordsJennifer Woodulen_US
dc.subject.keywordsKate Winteren_US
dc.subject.keywordsJudy Dlugaczen_US
dc.subject.keywordsSandy Stoneen_US
dc.subject.keywordsTeresa Trullen_US
dc.subject.keywordsLinda Tilleryen_US
dc.subject.keywordsNew leften_US
dc.subject.keywords1960sen_US
dc.subject.keywords1970sen_US
dc.title"You Are Your Own Alternative": Performance, Pleasure, and the American Counterculture, 1965-1975
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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