The international sex industry, the selling of women simply as containers for men’s penises worldwide, is huge and increasing incredibly rapidly as a part of globalisation. How could anyone not feel rage? What is the alternative?”What made the Revolutionary Feminists so revolutionary was that they decided exactly who was to blame for women’s subjugation: men. She has not changed a bit.”Rage is absolutely fundamental,” she says, cheerfully “Not anger. Anger is not strong enough.” Jeffreys now lectures in feminism, gender and sexuality at the University of Melbourne – she thinks she failed to find a similar position in the UK because her politics were seen as so controversial. Men are all wankers, said Christabel Pankhurt, ’cause women are a girl’s best friend.” She chuckles, a revolutionary glint in her eye.

The film opens with Sheila Jeffreys, a twinkly-eyed lady at a scrubbed wooden table. “Men grow bold, as they grow old,” she sings, to the tune of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend “They all lose their charms in the end. Those were the days!” But soon there is a boom of friendly voices.”I am happy to talk,” read the emails, from addresses all containing words like “consultancy” and “collective”. “I am delivering training/Giving a lecture on the sexual politics of the international HIV/Aids movement/At the high court.” Many of them conclude with the words “in sisterhood…” Evidently there is no such thing as a former feminist.It is a truth that is demonstrated by Vanessa Engle’s documentary, Angry Wimmin, which will be show on BBC4 on 15 February. I was not a Revolutionary Feminist; I was a Socialist Feminist with a lot of time for Radical Feminism If I had any enemies from those days, they were Rev Fems Oh my, how confusing.

Tentative email enquiries receive a wave of positive responses and offers of help. A few automated replies trickle in, such as one from a former Lesbian Separatist that says: “I am out of the office on maternity leave…” Another replies, crisply: “I may not be what you’re looking for at all. This marked a turn in the tide against the more extreme, organised wing of the feminist movement; and soon it was in a rapid, and irreversible, decline. But what of the women behind it? Where are they directing all of that anger and commitment in the 21st-century world of Blair’s babes, metrosexuals and post-feminist muddle? Have their views on the battle of the sexes changed in the intervening years?When I try to contact the women from that more militant era, it turns out they have not gone far. Others called themselves Angry Wimmin and flouted the law to deface advertisement hoardings and carry out arson attacks on sex shops. Their voices had never been louder.
But in April 1986, Margaret Thatcher disbanded the Greater London Council.