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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1971-02-19 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 8

A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING THE LEFT-THE SPECTRE OF FEMINISM

   The only real threat to male supremacy is the independent Women's Movement. Therefore the male Left has done a great deal to impede the development of independent Women's Liberation and tried in numerous ways to co-opt the energies of women away from working independently with other women on women's issues. There have been numerous devices used by the Left to this end depending on the situation and the consciousness of the women involved. 
   The first tactic in reaction to WL was laughter. But that didn't stop some women - in fact it made some of them so furious they left and began "organizing" other women. The next tactic was anger. "You castrating bitches", "What do you women want anyway?" And that didn't work either- even more women left to join the newly emerging independent Women's Movement.
   Then the men began to get really nervous - after all women were leaving the Left in increasing numbers - and the men began to play guilt games. "So what makes you think you're oppressed, you white middle class chick?" (Notice the order of the defining words the male Left uses - "chick" is last) That tactic made some women even madder but it began to cut deep into many women. And this tactic began to work on some of the less strong women - those who were still full of white male imposed guilt and self-hatred. The Left males realized that they had struck a tender nerve. And they began to manipulate women's guilt and started becoming very liberal towards the Women's Liberation Movement - that is, when they weren't chuckling about those "frustrated bitches"  in male only company. And they had to be liberal anyway because that God-damned Women's Liberation Movement composed only of females was putting the heat on them and they might lose "their" women to it if they didn't play it cool. So they put up with the discomfort of women's caucuses rather than lose all "their" women to the independent Women's Movement. At first it was pretty rough and more than one male Left organization folded under the pressures of the women's caucuses.
  But then the Left males began to see the the women's caucuses could have some real value for their organizations. They could be used as important organizing tools for recruiting new members and for working with women associated with the males whose problems the Left organization was concerned with. Such as having the women work with GI wives while the men worked at organizing the GI's in the army. Women in the caucuses express best the male attitudes of the organization towards "women's issues" and women's struggle for liberation. We give only two examples out of many. One is a leaflet passed out by PAR (People Against Racism) women at a Women's Liberation Conference in Detroit in 1968. They list as one of their concerns something which reveals the manipulative way in which the Women's Movement is viewed. They wish to use "Women's Liberation as an organizing tactic for broader political movement". Bernadine Dohrn's equally blatant statement in the "New Left Notes" special issue on women is every bit as revealing. She says, "Everywhere around us there are concentrations of women: dorms, women's schools, education and home economics departments, high schools, jobs - women can be mobilized to fight against imperialism and racism". Maybe women's caucuses were really boon to the male Left and not the threat they had expected them to be and which there were - at first. 
   So a pattern was generally established throughout the male Left that women could stay in the caucuses and organize other women into the Left male dominated Movement as long at they concentrated on:
1) Raising women's issues mainly as they related to the structure of the male dominated organization whom the women remained working for
2) Raising women's issues on the periphery of the male defined "important" issues of the organization
3) Relating to the Women's Liberation Movement as caucus members only of the primary male organization to "raise" the issues of the male organization in the Women's Movement, and, if possible get its focus off independent women's struggle and onto how women can relate to male defined Left issues
   Women's collectives, unless they are truly autonomous women's collectives working from their own analysis on women's issues, can be and are used in much the same manner as the Left women's caucuses. Because they too relate primarily to the male Left Movement and only secondarily as females to to female liberation issues. They are one step ahead of the women's caucuses if only because they now they can no longer work with males in the organization - but they still remain working for them even though now working in women's collectives. Also "women's collectives" is now being used by a number of women as synonomous with caucus group - but a more "hip" term than caucus.
Reprinted from the Fourth World Manifesto (see pages six and seven)

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GAY CELL
This letter to AIAW is really a note of thanks to all the girls in the Gay Cell I have had the pleasure of meeting and to those I have not met. I think of all 11 of them as close friends who have done much more for me than I can ever hope to do for them.

I guess in many ways I've used the cell for myself. The most important thing being that I am a woman, first and foremost. Many really feel down on men, i.e., get rid of them, take them or leave them, etc., etc. I've had enough dealing with men that at times they make me sick to my stomach. It would take time if all men were destroyed or put in their place for those women to discover that we as human beings would not survive for long and I guess you'd have to decide how long, long is.

Another thing which has amazed me is many feel as though this whole liberation movement is moving so slowly. I just wish I had had the guts to do what they were doing now, 20 years ago. My god, I sit back in amazement each day and can hardly believe that which has happened in the past two years has really come to pass. I must admit that my main interest has been with the Gay Cell and will remain with that phase of Liberation; I feel totally liberated with everything else except that. This group has made me feel as though I as a human being have so much to offer others I can go to those meetings and express myself. They may  not agree with me in all I say, but I feel they're interested in what I have to say. They well know I don't agree with them in many ways, but I am am still interested. We don't put each other down and that's what is so important to me. 

I could name names of those of you who have helped me so much more than they know, but names are so unimportant as they already know who they are and to those of you who don't, I thank you any way. I only hope I can in time repay all of you and if not you someone else who was given so much at a time when I thought life was pretty awful. I hope and look forward to the day when we can all find true happiness each in our own way.

In closing I have only this to say about everything: "It Goes On" and I can say this at a time when I am very uncertain about tomorrow, and only exception being that I know I am much loved and needed.

[hand drawing]
A Privilege, Not A Right
   Who is in Women's Liberation? Generally women who are young, white, from a middle-class background, and publicly heterosexual. And it is the problems of these women that are dealt with in the course put together by a women's health collective in Boston. There are consistent remarks about how medical care should be available to all and how sexuality should be more a matter of choice, but they are left as reminders. The course also contains many pictures of third world and working class women, but they will not find their needs addressed to in this book.
   Not only is health care a privilege, health itself is. Health is physical and emotional growing room, good food and protection against the elements. Too many of these needs left unfulfilled starts a vicious cycle (poor health - no work - no money - no physical necessities - poor health). I am not advocating ignoring our needs, but that we should put our effort where it's needed. Just as abortion reform means those of us who could pay for unsafe, unclean abortions can now get safe, clean ones, health courses for middle-class women means that those of us who could get acceptable medical care before can probably get better care now.
   Sex and sexuality can be an important part of our lives. But we have the education, confidence (and perhaps economic independence) to make demands in our sexual relationships with men. The course seems to assume that women already have some amount of individual sexual freedom.
   Lesbianism - or any love shared between women, is not dealt with in any real way in the course. It is not considered even as an alternative, let alone as an expression of love for women. The sections on orgasm and virginity specifically mention men as the sexual partner.
   While "why be pregnant" is handled pretty well, "why not" isn't. Zero Population Growth aside, there are children in adoption agencies (and some not in them) who need a home. Children also usually assume a nuclear family, which Women's Liberation often questions only in theory. And, if we look at children as people - with rights, we must consider the world in which they are going to live. It's not just question of establishing counter-cultures, but how little we know about sex-role socialization and thus how to not repeat the mistakes of all our parents. This is not after-the-revolution; saying that our children must be whole people does not make it so.
   But pregnancy can be cool - if you have the money and time for pre-natal check-ups, classes, etc. (let alone if you have the support of the father of the child). Perhaps doctors will listen to our demands for decent care during pregnancy (including control over childbirth - the method of delivery, type of anesthesia, presence of father, etc.). But any kind of a decent experience is a privilege, not a right.
   The inconvenience of clinics is dealt with in the last chapter. What isn't dealt with is the totally degrading way in which you are treated. The two clinics I've been in were very different, although both were in teaching hospitals. The one in a college town was really nice and the people seemed relatively human. The other was on the edge of a poor black neighborhood in Philadelphia. I was already panicked from bleeding heavily, and I got bloodier because I had to wait so long to get into the Ob-Gyn clinic. And then I was treated like shit. Next time I went to a private doctor (I had the money). Other women did not -do not - have that alternative.

   How can we, who probably can already get decent care, refrain from getting better care for ourselves and work for better care for those who need it? 
   The course can be ordered from NEFP, 791 Tremont, Boston, Mass.

8.    Vol. 1  No. 12

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A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING THE LEFT-THE SPECTRE OF FEMINISM The only real threat to male supremacy is the independent Women's Movement. Therefore the male Left has done a great deal to impede the development of independent Women's Liberation and tried in numerous ways to co-opt the energies of women away from working independently with other women on women's issues. There have been numerous devices used by the Left to this end depending on the situation and the consciousness of the women involved. The first tactic in reaction to WL was laughter. But that didn't stop some women - in fact it made some of them so furious they left and began "organizing" other women. The next tactic was anger. "You castrating bitches", "What do you women want anyway?" And that didn't work either- even more women left to join the newly emerging independent Women's Movement. Then the men began to get really nervous - after all women were leaving the Left in increasing numbers - and the men began to play guilt games. "So what makes you think you're oppressed, you white middle class chick?" (Notice the order of the defining words the male Left uses - "chick" is last) That tactic made some women even madder but it began to cut deep into many women. And this tactic began to work on some of the less strong women - those who were still full of white male imposed guilt and self-hatred. The Left males realized that they had struck a tender nerve. And they began to manipulate women's guilt and started becoming very liberal towards the Women's Liberation Movement - that is, when they weren't chuckling about those "frustrated bitches" in male only company. And they had to be liberal anyway because that God-damned Women's Liberation Movement composed only of females was putting the heat on them and they might lose "their" women to it if they didn't play it cool. So they put up with the discomfort of women's caucuses rather than lose all "their" women to the independent Women's Movement. At first it was pretty rough and more than one male Left organization folded under the pressures of the women's caucuses. But then the Left males began to see the the women's caucuses could have some real value for their organizations. They could be used as important organizing tools for recruiting new members and for working with women associated with the males whose problems the Left organization was concerned with. Such as having the women work with GI wives while the men worked at organizing the GI's in the army. Women in the caucuses express best the male attitudes of the organization towards "women's issues" and women's struggle for liberation. We give only two examples out of many. One is a leaflet passed out by PAR (People Against Racism) women at a Women's Liberation Conference in Detroit in 1968. They list as one of their concerns something which reveals the manipulative way in which the Women's Movement is viewed. They wish to use "Women's Liberation as an organizing tactic for broader political movement". Bernadine Dohrn's equally blatant statement in the "New Left Notes" special issue on women is every bit as revealing. She says, "Everywhere around us there are concentrations of women: dorms, women's schools, education and home economics departments, high schools, jobs - women can be mobilized to fight against imperialism and racism". Maybe women's caucuses were really boon to the male Left and not the threat they had expected them to be and which there were - at first. So a pattern was generally established throughout the male Left that women could stay in the caucuses and organize other women into the Left male dominated Movement as long at they concentrated on: 1) Raising women's issues mainly as they related to the structure of the male dominated organization whom the women remained working for 2) Raising women's issues on the periphery of the male defined "important" issues of the organization 3) Relating to the Women's Liberation Movement as caucus members only of the primary male organization to "raise" the issues of the male organization in the Women's Movement, and, if possible get its focus off independent women's struggle and onto how women can relate to male defined Left issues Women's collectives, unless they are truly autonomous women's collectives working from their own analysis on women's issues, can be and are used in much the same manner as the Left women's caucuses. Because they too relate primarily to the male Left Movement and only secondarily as females to to female liberation issues. They are one step ahead of the women's caucuses if only because they now they can no longer work with males in the organization - but they still remain working for them even though now working in women's collectives. Also "women's collectives" is now being used by a number of women as synonomous with caucus group - but a more "hip" term than caucus. Reprinted from the Fourth World Manifesto (see pages six and seven) AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GAY CELL This letter to AIAW is really a note of thanks to all the girls in the Gay Cell I have had the pleasure of meeting and to those I have not met. I think of all 11 of them as close friends who have done much more for me than I can ever hope to do for them. I guess in many ways I've used the cell for myself. The most important thing being that I am a woman, first and foremost. Many really feel down on men, i.e., get rid of them, take them or leave them, etc., etc. I've had enough dealing with men that at times they make me sick to my stomach. It would take time if all men were destroyed or put in their place for those women to discover that we as human beings would not survive for long and I guess you'd have to decide how long, long is. Another thing which has amazed me is many feel as though this whole liberation movement is moving so slowly. I just wish I had had the guts to do what they were doing now, 20 years ago. My god, I sit back in amazement each day and can hardly believe that which has happened in the past two years has really come to pass. I must admit that my main interest has been with the Gay Cell and will remain with that phase of Liberation; I feel totally liberated with everything else except that. This group has made me feel as though I as a human being have so much to offer others I can go to those meetings and express myself. They may not agree with me in all I say, but I feel they're interested in what I have to say. They well know I don't agree with them in many ways, but I am am still interested. We don't put each other down and that's what is so important to me. I could name names of those of you who have helped me so much more than they know, but names are so unimportant as they already know who they are and to those of you who don't, I thank you any way. I only hope I can in time repay all of you and if not you someone else who was given so much at a time when I thought life was pretty awful. I hope and look forward to the day when we can all find true happiness each in our own way. In closing I have only this to say about everything: "It Goes On" and I can say this at a time when I am very uncertain about tomorrow, and only exception being that I know I am much loved and needed. [hand drawing] A Privilege, Not A Right Who is in Women's Liberation? Generally women who are young, white, from a middle-class background, and publicly heterosexual. And it is the problems of these women that are dealt with in the course put together by a women's health collective in Boston. There are consistent remarks about how medical care should be available to all and how sexuality should be more a matter of choice, but they are left as reminders. The course also contains many pictures of third world and working class women, but they will not find their needs addressed to in this book. Not only is health care a privilege, health itself is. Health is physical and emotional growing room, good food and protection against the elements. Too many of these needs left unfulfilled starts a vicious cycle (poor health - no work - no money - no physical necessities - poor health). I am not advocating ignoring our needs, but that we should put our effort where it's needed. Just as abortion reform means those of us who could pay for unsafe, unclean abortions can now get safe, clean ones, health courses for middle-class women means that those of us who could get acceptable medical care before can probably get better care now. Sex and sexuality can be an important part of our lives. But we have the education, confidence (and perhaps economic independence) to make demands in our sexual relationships with men. The course seems to assume that women already have some amount of individual sexual freedom. Lesbianism - or any love shared between women, is not dealt with in any real way in the course. It is not considered even as an alternative, let alone as an expression of love for women. The sections on orgasm and virginity specifically mention men as the sexual partner. While "why be pregnant" is handled pretty well, "why not" isn't. Zero Population Growth aside, there are children in adoption agencies (and some not in them) who need a home. Children also usually assume a nuclear family, which Women's Liberation often questions only in theory. And, if we look at children as people - with rights, we must consider the world in which they are going to live. It's not just question of establishing counter-cultures, but how little we know about sex-role socialization and thus how to not repeat the mistakes of all our parents. This is not after-the-revolution; saying that our children must be whole people does not make it so. But pregnancy can be cool - if you have the money and time for pre-natal check-ups, classes, etc. (let alone if you have the support of the father of the child). Perhaps doctors will listen to our demands for decent care during pregnancy (including control over childbirth - the method of delivery, type of anesthesia, presence of father, etc.). But any kind of a decent experience is a privilege, not a right. The inconvenience of clinics is dealt with in the last chapter. What isn't dealt with is the totally degrading way in which you are treated. The two clinics I've been in were very different, although both were in teaching hospitals. The one in a college town was really nice and the people seemed relatively human. The other was on the edge of a poor black neighborhood in Philadelphia. I was already panicked from bleeding heavily, and I got bloodier because I had to wait so long to get into the Ob-Gyn clinic. And then I was treated like shit. Next time I went to a private doctor (I had the money). Other women did not -do not - have that alternative. How can we, who probably can already get decent care, refrain from getting better care for ourselves and work for better care for those who need it? The course can be ordered from NEFP, 791 Tremont, Boston, Mass. 8. Vol. 1 No. 12