Mi Casa Su Casa
Egalitarian living in 1970s Portland
Ann Mussey explains how community houses in 1971 Portland operated as collective groups. Egalitarian living, Mussey explains, played a big part in living in Red Emma, the community house she lived in with other women. Money, food, clothes, and sleeping space were all shared by the women living in Red Emma.
As Told By...
Ann Mussey
Assistant Professor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Portland State University
Ann Mussey is a tenure-line faculty in Women' Studies. She received her doctorate in U.S. History with a specialty in women's history from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2001. Her research has evolved from historical queries about the social construction of lesbian subjectivity in twentieth-century U.S. to questions about the complex relationships between sexuality, citizenship, and the nation state. She teaches topics related to feminist theory, queer studies, and the history of sexuality. She is currently working on a book entitled Perversion and Power: Lesbians and the Sciences of Sexuality, 1920-1970. In her free time, you will find her working in the garden, watching old movies, playing with the family pooches, and digging the sunset.
