Conference turris::womannotes-v2

[These notes are my impressions of the lecture. Rereading some notes, I
suddenly am not sure of the point. I include those anyway. I had to leave the
lecture early, so the level of detail varies. I have almost no notes on the
part of the lecture on Class. All of my personal comments are enclosed in [].
I'm trying to hold back on personal commentary inside of the lecture notes.]

From the handout: 

Interstices of Race & Class: Creating Intimacy
Anna Lee & Lee Evans

Anna Lee says her community is not geographically based. Instead, it is the
connections with other Dykes living in many places. This among other
contradictions are what her writing and living seek to resolve and understand.
She has published, under the pseudonym Anna Lee, articles such as "A Black
Separatist" and "The Tired Old Question of Male Children" in _For_Lesbians_Only:
_A_Separatist_Anthology_; "Therapy: The Evil Within" in _Trivia_9_; and is
working on "New Age Spirituality is the Invention of Heteropatriarchy", to be
published in _Sinister_Wisdom_37_.

Lee Evans organized the Radical Thought for Women Conference in Cleveland in
1987. She was involved in exploring and creating the ethical community
responses to lesbian battering. She has recently completed an article based on
a talk which she gave at The National Women's Studies Association. It involves
the effect of consumer values on the Lesbian community and will appear in the
next _Sinister_Wisdom_.

Notes:

Anna spoke first.

This is an experiment - having two speakers on the same topic [I assume she
meant cooperatively, or each from their own viewpoint, but each not trying to
'win'.]

She wanted to look at some of the ways that women different and similar, and
where they intersect.

Intimacy - look at, what it means to lesbians. When thinking of intimacy, we
don't think of how _differences_ might contribute to it. She covered how race
contributes to intimacy, and hoped Lee would cover how class differences does
the same. For example, as a black lesbian, she is never invisible. But class
differences often are.

The lesbian community is often quite diverse. Fro example, the black community
does not try to include whites. But the lesbian community takes pride in trying
to, and sometimes succeeding in, being inclusive.

Diversity didn't just happen. Radical lesbians loving lesbians [a phrase used
several times, contrasting it with lesbians loving women] wanted it, and
worked at it. They looked at the structures which excludes lesbians, and which
include lesbians, and chose the latter.

Anna emphasized the need to see the political implications of women loving
women. Not just stay on the personal.

"Communities of Origin"  Each member of the lesbian community has one or more.
Two communities of origin were discussed: race and class. She was
not suggesting that other communities are not useful. This was just a place to
start. Other communities do need to be looked at.

Anna says we have to shift through the values from those communities the
enhance us. In particular, each one of us has a values that enhances 
female primacy to discover.

Race and class are man-made trips. "Ways out don't necessarily transfer to the 
community". We've been thinking that oppressions are limiting and debilitating,
but that is not true.

Some groups ask "Why aren't black lesbians here?". These groups are usually
centered in all-white areas, so the answer is obvious. The question of race
should change from a stumbling block to a question of joy and pleasure.

Anna talked about her astrology chart. There are many square angles in it [my
personal apologies to any astrologers out there if I really butcher the terms.]
One interpretation of these angles is - you'll have a hard time. But, if you
work through the difficulties, you can use the strength of the square. It
contains a lot of energy. You will be a much stronger person if you can figure
a way out.

Race is usually defined as a stumbling block. Racism as an oppressive
structure. What have black women learned under that pressure? Strength of
endurance (enduring through slavery, etc.). Black women learned to make choices
in situations where they have little control. Cigarette and alcohol ads are
very visible in the black community, symbolizing the need for escape. Black
women started the civil rights movement. When it started, drug use increased.
The civil rights movement changed perceptions from victims to people who could
survive, and even thrive, under adversity. 

Anna can stand up (metaphorically) to authority figures, not believe them, and
believe in herself. This is Egoism, or strength to believe in self. 

Some black women do _not_ survive. Pressure is a very hard way to learn. Black
lesbians come from that tradition. Conflict may be unavoidable. You may not
chose the time and place. There may not be any place to run to. No matter how
pleasing you might try to be, you may have conflict. You can't blend in.

Egoism takes a bad rap in psychology, feminism. We must believe in ourselves to
believe in each other. In the black community, networks were established to
support and nurture. The connections are valued. It was a shock to Anna to
learn that some people visit places, not people. She was raised in a community
where people are more important than places, names, and buildings. The
networks are based on integrity and wholeness. Each participant does _not_ have
to act in good faith all the time. It was understood that the world is hostile.
Betrayal becomes meaningless, because it has less impact.

Anna called for a reality-based network, grounded in pleasure.

In her community, activities were not only economical, but enhanced skills.
Individual skills were valued - each member was an active contributor to the
community. She was raised as an actor, not a watcher. If she didn't
participate, it didn't happen.

The question to ask is what values can contribute to the community, not how to
get black lesbians to participate.



Lee spoke next, on class.

She first turned to Marx, but it was obvious he had never known any lesbians.

She brought statistics on what class people thought they were thought the 20th
century. There's been a large upsurge on the number of people who believe they
are middle class.

She had more questions than answers, and her presentation was structured around
a series of vignettes in her life.

She asked herself: What class am I? What class is her family? 

She asked her brother and sister. Her brother left high school in high school
and  makes 30K+ / year. He says the family is working class. Her sister  has a
bachelor's and possibly a  master's degree and makes <8k / year. She says the
family is middle class.

She's been poor. Her family had to rely on loans from friends to put food on
the table. Lee has worked in women's shelters where she's seen women much
poorer than she ever was.

Class may be based on values, not economics.

[As before, any personal comments are in []. Mez]

Alix Dobkin
Why We Need OOO - Only Space
	    +++
Tuesday March 14

From the flyer:

Alix Dobkin has been performing her own Lesbian Feminist songs around the world
since the early 1970's. She currently has five albums celebrating women's
lives, Jewish culture, and Lesbian community. At this event, Alix will be
speaking on an issue which she has courageously considered and analyzed for
many years. _Common_Ground_ says "she gathers the pieces of our women's
movement's struggle and knits them together, makes the connections, presents
the whole picture."

From the lecture:

Alix has been an entertainer for 30 years, and speaking 10 years. We can start
using our brains again. Our mouths never stopped. She has been associated with
women only space, idea and reality, for about 15 years. She finds it funny that
it's still an issue; even among lesbians and feminists. Feminists are ornery
people; they question everything.

She's traveled to Australia, visited Mauii, been to England, Scotland and
Ireland, and met lesbians in all these places. 

She met an old-time Australian pioneer-type who told her about a group of
women (12 - 13) who met a few years ago in different cities in Australia
throughout the year. Each time these women met, their energy would cause men in
the area to go nuts. She related two incidents:

At one meeting, some men came to do real damage, with chains, knives, etc. The
women heard about this, and went into a room, sat in a circle, and looked eyes.
The men came, but got awkward, and left. They didn't know how to react to women
paying attention to each other.

At another meeting, while kids were playing outside, men in a pickup truck
drove by and shot some rifles in the air to frighten the women. The women
proceeded to have a circle. Each one was asked to visualize the outcome for
those men. One women came late to the meeting, and said she had passed an
overturned truck on the way. The women effected that.

Alix said in England, they wrote the book on political action. The Greenham
Common was a fertile, chaotic time when women made their own tactics [I might
have the tense wrong; I don't know what's currently going on at Greenham.] Alix
met a trained observer in England, who testifies in courts professionally. The
trained observer related an incident at Greenham Common which she had
witnessed. Nine women went up to a chain-link fence and, barely touching
fingertips to the fence, began to sing a weird song. The fence began flopping
back and forth. The soldiers inside were freaked, and asked the police outside
to stop this. The police told the women they were forbidden to touch the fence.
The women then did the same thing 10 feet away. A 4 or 5 foot section of the
fence fell over. They sing that same song in a police car; it always breaks
down.

Women in Knottingham made posters that were a notice of curfew which said [I
couldn't get all the details]: 
   Notice of Curfew. Per order of the metropolitan police, under section [...]
   notice is hereby given [more legalese] all male persons are to be off the
   public highways by 8pm, on Tuesdays and Fridays, for a trial period of 2
   month. Violators will be liable to prosecution by the metropolitan police.
   Exemptions and information may be obtained by contacting [phone number of
   the police station]. This in an attempt to combat violent crimes against
   women.

The women in Knottingham divided the city into ten section with ten teams. They
checked out the scene, and decided to hang the posters at 10pm on night. That
was when the police changed shifts, and the streets were the quietest. They
covered the city, and not one woman was spotted. The police line was tied up
for days by men requesting exemptions and information.

What women can do together. We haven't even begun; women raise and create
power, as opposed to taking power. Women create scared women space. There are
certain Aboriginal ceremonies that are accessible only to women, and always have
been. We need this. We are not in touch with our indigenous customs. Conscious
woman space means taking ourselves seriously. I believe there is a song that
can move metal. This power is not the same as conventional political movement
power. We've got to get it together; there is a crisis on the planet.

It's so basic - women only space. Alix asked if anyone has a problem with women
only space, or has a friend who has a problem with it. We've got to get in
touch with the magic of women's power.

At some conference [National Women's Conference?], they asked; what is it that
makes _lesbians_ special? Alix's answer is Lesbian Magic. It cuts across
boundaries. As an organizing principle it's second only to softball. All women
are lesbians some time in their life, even if it's for a few seconds just
before they fall asleep. Being a lesbian is a state of grace. It is the best
and most independent state of woman. A woman is not always in her lesbian
state; not always acting in her own best interests.

Alix sees her lesbian identity reinforced by watching children's games. Boys
push each other around, draw mazes and planes. Girls exercise eye/hand
coordination (clapping, jumping, etc.), and play coordinating games.

We have energy alone, but especially together. Woman's isolation is what
permits women to be oppressed. When Alix was considering divorce, she couldn't
conceive of being alone. She worked, she supported both of them, but should
couldn't think about supporting herself alone. She remembered how she felt
when she heard about Hedda Nesbaum. Her head was not in the right place. There
is information that is not available when you're alone. Alix found that the
minute she hooked up with a consciousness raising group, she discovered she
could leave him. 

Alix read a book on graffiti. There was a chapter on bathroom graffiti. In
the men's room, by and large, it was violent, racist and negative. In the
women's room there were long dialogs. One women would start, another respond,
and so on.

The reason women are isolated is not that they are wimps, but that they have
been brutalized for thousands of years. We're afraid of each other. Women only
space evokes dramatic negative responses, sometimes. It's revolutionary. We're
on the right track.

Alix has been called a middle of the road separatist. She's changed from her
wonderful man-hating days, which were in the 70's, for her. 
_The_Scum_Manifesto_ by Valerie Salaris [sp?] is required reading. Valerie
shot, but not killed, Andy Warhol. Valerie was lobotimized. Marilyn Murphy says
'man-hating lesbians' always goes together. They're not the same thing. It's
like people lumping together crack and marijuana. It isn't lesbians that hate
men, it's the women who live with them. She's heard straight friends say things
about the men they are living with she wouldn't say about any other living
things.

Alix discussed the attitude: I don't hate men, I hate their behavior. It sounds
like something from therapy: You're not a jerk, you act like a jerk. If you act
like a jerk enough times, you're a jerk. I hate all men. Sometimes I do.
Everybody hates men. Especially men. She wants to claim her man hating. She
would say to any man: If you had any sense, you would too.

She hopes to get back to the radical roots. Women said things that would
horrify the modern humanist feminist. Get back to being radical, because it's
so much more fun. In performance, she doesn't want any man to feel bad about
being there. She wants them to hear others say "I hate men" without being
threatened.

[Discussion followed and is below. All points are from various attendees,
unless I call out that they're from Alix.]

There was more direct confrontation in the past. It's important to do that.

Women have non-violent power, not power-over. It is a radical power; to create
change.

Alix has no idea _what_ the nature of women's power is. It could be very
violent. Loving women is more fun than hating men.

Instead of saying "2000 women were raped" say "2000 times men raped women".
Name the agent.

Alix notes how we sidle away from using words like "man" or "lesbian". 

When Alix came out, she thought she would agree with all lesbians. The lesbian
community is a world. No where is it written that you have to like everyone in
your community.

Alix, on the question of should non-lesbians lead lesbian groups: They should
just give us their money.

Alix poses a question she has been unable to answer: What _is_ a lesbian issue?
It needs to be one that is not a gay male or woman's issue.

It was pointed out that we spent more time talking about men than about us.

At a conference, a group of lesbians of color and a group of disabled lesbians
did a 'fishbowl'. The group in question forms a circle, and the rest of the
attendees form a circle around them. The inner circle discusses what it's like
for them to be part of the group. The outer circle just watches. In the former
case, the two circles then switched places.

"Temporarily able bodied" reminds us that physical and mental states change.

[As before, any personal comments are in []. I found myself not catching most
of Jackie solid names and references, perhaps because I am largely unfamiliar
with both Spanish and the Suggested Readings. Mez]

From the flyer:

March 21
Jackie Anderson
Truth, Freedom and Christopher Columbus

Jackie Anderson teaches philosophy and humanities in Chicago and she teaches
Aikido to women. She is on the editorial board of _Hypatia_. She has written
"Separation in Black: A Personal Journey" in _Lesbian_Ethics_. Her talk will
include the origin of misogyny, racism, classism, and the other divisive
institutions. She will also discuss the [males'] control over us and other life
forms to further their frontiers of power.

Suggested Readings:

- Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade
- Jan Carew, Fulcrums of Change
- Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman
- Carolyn Gage, "The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" Sinister Wisdom 35,
	(Summer-Fall, 1988), 95-116.
- _Omni_, (October 1988). For information on cloning and artificial life forms.


From the talk:

Jackie Anderson identifies herself politically as a black lesbian separatist.
She also studies Kung Fu with an Olympic gold medalist. Her talk consisted of
reading from a paper: Truth, Freedom and Christopher Columbus.

Why the topic? Because truth is necessary for Freedom. And Columbus day is a
prime example of how our society solicits unity. We now know more about our
oppression. There are other lies. Sometimes they divide. They threaten our
potential unity.

There are barriers in the feminist movement. Jackie has seen women walk out on
Mary Daly because she told the truth about religious organizations deliberately
oppressing women.  

Currently there is a political crisis in Chicago around the flag. An art
student going by the name of "Dred Scott" placed a flag on the ground, and
solicited written comments on the proper way to display a flag. Anyone wishing
to write a comment must either walk across or around the flag. Both the
protesters of the exhibit and the art student are dealing with the issue of
patriotism. The art student's statement made sense to Jackie. Black people have
no reason or obligation to respect the flag. They may chose to. Women are
similar. But many women might disagree.

Plato came up with the theory that people were originally made of precious
metals. If a tale like that is told often and long enough it becomes a constant
cultural myth. We are victims of lack of information and lies. Their status is
that of a metaphysic.

Researching Christopher Columbus. There is an introduction on Chris from a book
by an African scholar. Many legends he invented about himself [Chris]. He must
have been alive. Quoting from a biographer: Columbus was a colossal liar.

Columbus did not discover America. The Africans were here first. On October 12,
1492, Columbus landed on an island, and was discovered by the natives. For the
interlopers it was a glorious beginning. In less than 40 years, death and
destruction visited most of the inhabitants of the greater Antilles.

On January 2, 1492, Grenada fell. After 700 years of African power in Europe.
Thousands of manuscripts were burned. It is impossible to say that Africa was
civilized before whites were [?]. Facts have been changed by white culture. For
instance, the Moors were referred to as Semites.

In Columbus' recounting of his landing at the new world, he claims that the
natives rushed to the shores shouting, among other things, "Come and se the men
who have come from heaven." How did he understand their language, or they his?
It is impossible. In Indian legends, white beings are devil apparitions, not
humans.

Columbus is credited with introducing the slave trade to the new world, and the
ethnocide of 40 islands. He was the architect of institutionalized racism.

Jackie does not believe that Americans know about America. Women and men who
are not victims of particular 'isms' feel ennobled by helping others in their
struggles. Jackie believe the nation is rotten at the core. There is a cultural
division. Women of color distrust the white women's movement. Whites are
ignorant of who they are. The culture is never morally accountable. It steals
the achievements of others and defines itself as great based on those
achievements.

Jackie suggests we acknowledge Columbus Day, and know who it is honoring. He
was rewarded by being elevated to the Spanish aristocracy. In a letter he wrote
about the Indies, he talks about taking some natives by force, to do work and
give him information. Six young men were ordered to be kept. He also took
"seven head of women and three children". A husband and father, aged about 45,
asked to come along with his family.

The Renaissance glorified the white male. Jews, women, and people of color were
given anonymity.

Jackie considered colonialism. It is not generated by evangelism, philanthropy,
the greater glory of god, to extend the rule of law, or to push back disease.
It is for adventures and pirates, who use appetite and force. Indians, yellow
peoples, and Negroes have been the victims of Christianity and civilization.

Where you find racism you find misogyny. A husband had the legal right to kill
his wife. In fact, it was sometimes necessary to uphold his honor.

A monk named Las Casas [sp?] wrote about the new world. His history was
suppressed until recently. He found the Indians kind and generous to the
Spaniards. He tells of the governor of an area summoning about 300 native
lords, taking them to a stray house, and burning them alive in it. Those who
escaped the fire were pursued and killed. Many common people were killed. They
hung a princess to disgrace her name. Natives were burned alive, or had their
arms or legs cut off. Others were reserved as beasts of burden, and were not
given nourishing food.

A culture that is prepared to repress inter culturally will do so intra
culturally.

The world can continue while such oppressions happen. Technology progresses. The
number of Africans who died in the slave trade was about 200 million, yet only
women of color write about this statistic. Africans provided 400 years of free
labor, free women, free art. Each white could be superior to an entire
culture. Jackie wonders why America is not _greater_ than it is. 

We should stop telling lies.

More from Las Casas: Indians were more civil than the Spaniards. Their reward
was massacre. [Various numbers on the number of people killed; I missed the
majority of them as they were coming pretty thick and fast.] 30 islands around
San Juan completely depopulated. 12 million Indians perished. Ornaments torn
from necks and ears. Home had no sanctity. Wagers on cleaving a male native
from head to foot in one blow; many fell on losing wagers. Wagers on running an
Indian through at a designated spot. Children were dashed against rocks or
thrown into the water to drown, in front of their mothers. Spaniards would tear
an infant apart at the legs. The dead infants were given to the hounds, so they
would be eager to catch others as prey. 13 males would be hung in a row to
commemorate Christ and the apostles. 

Africans were said to make better slaves than Indians, because they were
hardier. Las Casas suggested that Africans be enslaved, to save the Indians. He
regretted than suggestion.

In 1503, a proclamation by theologians stated there was no penalty for
capturing and selling Indians. Doing so made them more easily converted to the
holy faith. Indians were said to have been born only to obey and serve, like
beasts. There were 4 reasons to make war on the natives: 1. the gravity of
their sins (idolatry), 2. the rudeness of the natives, 3. to spread the faith,
via prior subjugation, 4. to protect the weak among the natives from sacrifice
to false gods and cannibalism. It was for their own good.

A philosopher named Hospers [sp?] published an article within the last 10 years
saying that African Americans should be grateful for enslavement, because it
made them Americans. It saved them from the horrors of the African continent.
Jackie's reply to that article was rejected. She received the rejection letter
from Hospers himself. He tells his graduate students that they won't be able to
get jobs because blacks have them.

The cultures degraded and destroyed in the past were more civilized than the
conquerors. The conquerors appropriated what it wanted from the vanquished
culture. Goddess cultures were the first to be destroyed. Around 1300 BC [Did I
get the right number of zeros?], Indo-European culture was almost all Egyptian.
Unfortunately, Egyptian culture was xenophobic and a patriarchal hierarchy.

Victory validates the victor. The loser is assimilated if they are lucky, and
wiped out if they are not. The givers of culture and civilization are the most
degraded. The African heritage was stolen in the African holocaust. We still
are not willing to acknowledge the suffering of slavery.

Each person will have to give up the world as we know it. The revolution begins
in our heads and our hearts. The metaphysical foundation of the patriarchy is
woman and child hating.

Women are seen as vessels of reproductive use. Jackie sees projects in the
sciences threatening. The head of NASA sees Space as the only thing left; the
next frontier. He does not see the environment or hungry people as frontiers.
They can be left behind. 

Designer people will be legal. Genes can be manipulated to produce them.
Cloning will produce artificial life forms. External life can be more than a
dream. Artificial environments can be produced too. They will not produce
people who do not look like themselves.

More power is being concentrated in fewer hands.

Jackie is not without hope. The Chalice and the Blade produces a gender holistic
perspective. There are two models of society: 1. Domination - patriarchal or
matriarchal; 2. Partnership - diversity, not inferior or superior.

The problems we are experiencing are a result of the model, and can't be solved
within it. We have to break through, not break down. It must be better in
detail. 

Discussion followed:

More on Hospers: He was a big name in analytic philosophy. Jackie believes her
reply might not have gotten published because she was mad, and because she
stated in it she is black.

There was some discussion on where whites come from. We can trace, via
mitochondria, to the first human, who was an African woman. She had the gene
for language, and had daughters, who had daughters, and thus was able to
procreate. About 20,000 BC the first white appeared. It was in the Northern
cradle, the colder climates. The harsh conditions generated white culture.
African culture is open; it lets others in.

Jackie isn't bothered that they claim Columbus discovered America. She's
bothered because he's responsible the killing of "12 million darkies", and no
one talks about it.

Las Casas work has been suppressed 311 years. No one talks about the 13th
disciple being a girl (from The Chalice and the Blade). And women are kept out
of the Catholic priesthood based on that myth that all disciples were male
("Women can't be priests 'cause Jesus didn't chose no girls.").

We have to give up hard stuff.

Creators of artificial lifeforms of the future "won't make colored people or
girls".

Chris made an automatic assumption of superiority. He was full of a lot of lies
from our culture.

One of the great artists of the period was shocked at the beauty of captured
art from the new world. It's frightening when inferior people do better than
you.

The truth will pull us through. Tell the truth.

Being a separatist is an article of faith (when she's asked why she'd rather be
around white women than black men). Jackie believes women are willing to
confront the truth of the culture. You don't have to apologize for it, but
cannot forget you tried to wipe the Indians out.

Each contemporary movement is for one thing. No one wants to free all of her.
There are lots of scenarios where _someone_ is oppressed. We need to get rid of
all of it.

Talk of truths of the world instead of personal truths. In the white circle,
etiquette is important. You have to say things properly. Think first. In the
black circle, just say it and you are heard. Maybe disagreed with, but heard.
Etiquette covers up the lack of civilization. White culture is a close culture.
Isolation. Normative. Don't ask about self; ask about others.

We're living wealthy because we're ripping people off. It's a system we don't
want to be in.

Nobody has tried to seduce Jackie with power. She gets 100+ folks every week to
talk to.

I'm still working on typing up the March 28th notes. I missed the last one due
to illness, and I'm afraid I might miss the next one (though the title is
pretty tantalizing). If anyone took or will take minutes and doesn't care to
type them up, I'd be glad for a Xerox of them to type from. 
	Mez

[Any personal comments are in []. Mez]

From the flyer:

March 28th
Julia Penelope
Fourth and Long:
Feminism Stalled in Enemy Territory

Julia Penelope is the author of numerous articles on sexism in English and the
political uses of language structure. Her books include "For Lesbians Only: A
Separatist Anthology" co-edited with Sarah Hoagland, "Found Goddesses: From
Asphalta to Viscera" with Morgan Grey, and "The Coming Out Stories" co-edited
with Susan Wolfe (a second revised and expanded edition due out in Sprint
1989). She is currently completing a book on the patriarchal universe of
discourse (PUD) called "Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of the Fathers'
Tongue", to be published by Pergamon Press in 1990.

From the talk:

Mary Daly was present, and invited to talk briefly about her situation. She
read two definitions of rage: the one from Webster spoke of force and frenzy.
The one from the Wickedary spoke of a transformative passion. "I am still here,
and it has made me dangerous and wise." 

She then read from a letter she received in response to her request for an
explanation of the lack of a promotion. It said that they don't usually give
reasons for a negative promotion decision. [at Prime they used to talk about
positive salary actions. made me laugh.] A professor must have the highest
approbation in teaching, scholarship, and service. She was absent 9 of the last
14 years. 1975 was the last instance of her service to BC; she has not been on
any committees since. Her unreasonable unwillingness to carry the burden was
sited. She is on the periphery "as some of your writings suggest". Her service
has been undistinguished and unsatisfactory. Many students have had praise for
her teaching, but she does not have any graduate students. At that point Mary
interjected that she has students cross-registered from around the world. The
contrast between her works and more traditional works was cited, as was her
lack of publications in refereed journals. The comparative performance of
others aspiring to the rank was also noted. Mary pointed out she has been an
associated professor for 20 years.


The Julia spoke:

She considers herself a linguist at large. She wrote: "Found Goddesses", which
is an illustrated book on humor and spirituality; "For Lesbians Only", which
contains much difficult to find historical material; and "The Original Coming
Out Stories". That night she talked about football; they may take away her
secret decoder ring for that. 

There are two words feminists confuse; they are not synonymous. They are:
strategy and tactics. Strategy is: overall planning and conduct of operations
of war, business, and politics. Tactics is: technique of security objectives
designated by strategy.

Feminists are losing on strategy and tactics. There are two necessities: 
1. Need a map of our oppression. It must include the enemy strategy.
2. Develop tactics as feminists. Designed to fight:
	a. a system of stasis
	b. on the enemy's territory

Tactical necessities:
1. Immediate holding actions - freeze, stalemate
2. Mount offensive to wipe out the imbalance of power between male and female
classes.

Understand the strategy of the oppressor.

The 1970's liberation movement did neither of the above. Women have lost ground
since the early 70s. No new gains in a decade.

1. Women's refusal to accept the idea that they are at war
2. Failure to recognize that the oppression is systemic
3. Failure to stay on the offensive against patriarchal systems

What do 22 men chasing a pointed oval ball around a rectangle of grass or
Astroturf have to do with us and success or failure of the women's liberation
movement? Other metaphors are available: "And now a feminist full court press"
(basketball); or baseball - men coring off women (1st base, home run). Liking
or not liking football as a sport isn't relevant. Are we willing to do what we
have to do to get what we want?

Football reveals men as they think and act in the world. It's more than a
sport; it's a world view. On "Everybody's All American" a male reviewer said
the following; "the moral of which should catch in my yuppie throat": Games are
what men play with themselves. 

Womanly women don't understand football; it wouldn't be proper. It is
unfeminine to show interest in politics or football. To the opponents, politics
is a football game. We were taught to treat the metaphors as incidental; the
external packaging of a message. The metaphor _is_ the message. A metaphor
highlights some and hides other experiences. 

Nixon said "I am a quarterback of the nation". Regan: "America is scoring
touchdowns." Men take games very seriously. We can learn by paying attention.
The "battle of the sexes" includes rape, beating, child abuse. Women ignore or
laugh about that. We have learned to avoid violence, although it is often
done to us. It is bad and unwomanly. We didn't declare war. 

Individuals fight back ineffectively; passive aggressive. Refusing to
acknowledge it does not make it go away. 

Football is like war:
1. Learn to develop strategy and tactics
2. Learn how to break the rules, and what tactics are not in the rule book
3. We can use the game for our own purposes
4. [? I missed it.]
5. Recognize what the game hides

Competition exists with opponents. 

At the foreground of the metaphor, aspects of the game are easily observed.
	communication
	identify short and long range goals
	study the enemy
	identify weak and strong points of the enemy
	make use of individual talents

Winning takes every member of the team. When Kate Millet presented her ideas,
other women ripped her to shreds.

Aspects from the background of the football metaphor:
	successfully manipulate time
	maneuver within spatial boundaries
	move quickly - make use of enemy's mistakes
	turn our own mistakes into advantages
	develop a game plan _before_ a confrontation
	know the rules
	purposefully and methodically deceive the enemy

Feminists are terrible liars. 

You have to have ball control. Consider what you're trying to grab hold of. A
football is not sand. You can spike it. Ball control is hard in football.

Limited space and time frame. It has a 50 yard line, and is divided in half.
The time is 60 minutes (sort of).

There's a half-time break with a band (we have no band).

There are two different teams - offense and defense. Specialization and
flexibility. The number confuses the other team. There are 11 on a team, and
everyone knows what to do. Our team doesn't, and that hurts us.

Football has special teams, and substitutes, when one does get injured. There
are lots of coaches, management, and Public Relations. Spies check out how the
other team practices.

Good field position is close to the opponents goal line. There are short range
goals; you get 4 downs _after_ getting the ball. You really only get 3 downs to
make the goal.

You can move on the ground or by passing. You move the ball making 1st downs,
and hold onto the ball. The 1st downs are sequenced; short range goals. Limit
the time the opponents have possession.

Each team has a play book. It's top secret. You watch films of the opponents
one week before the game. There is a game plan, but it's flexible. 

Winning consists of preparation, execution, and deception of referees and
opponents. You must rely on others. A missed assignment is a bungled play.
Mistakes are expected.

How women's liberation _isn't_ like football:
	we don't have a team
	very little support staff
	disorganized training
	can't agree on short or long range goals
	all of our games are away
	opponents have the home field advantage
	they wrote the rule book
	they change the rule book every year
	we're always playing defense
	they know what we're going to do because we broadcast it

Have practices where there will be mistakes. Try to keep them down. Talk to
each other about roles and game plans. Work together. 

There are going to be injuries. 

Use timing as a political factor. Learn to occupy space. Move quickly to take
the advantage.

Lie about who we are and what we're doing. Always have decoys.  Try not to
broadcast. 

Write the rules, and create plans not covered by the rules.

Julia's formula for a winning team:

1. identify long term goals
2. break long term goals into acceptable short term goals
3. identify the steps
4. identify tactics and strategy
5. capitalize on opportunities
6. [sorry. I missed it!]
7. infiltration - learn tactics and game plan
8. be able to predict every move
9. practice, practice, practice

I may not be able to make this Tuesday's lecture. I will definately not be
making the lecture after that. Note-takers are solicited.

I'm working on the last two lectures, with help from a notetaker on the
pornography one. 
	Mez

[Many thanx to Ann Broomhead for providing this note. I had problems just
reading it; I can imagine what a draining experience it was for her to write
it. Mez]


From the flyer:

April 4
Gail Dines
The Male Lust For Violence

Gail Dines teaches sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College. She has
traveled extensively throughout the Northeast speaking on the transnational
pornographic imaging of women in the media. She has presented her slides and
analysis to groups such as the International Trafficking in Women Conference in
New York and will be speaking at the Northeast Women's Studies Conference in
Boston this month.

From the lecture:

Dines remarked on how frightened she had been to come to this country
after all she had learned about the male violence here.  (During the course
of her lecture, she revealed how na�ve and trusting she found she had
actually been, compared to the reality -- such as, every woman in a
course she taught had been raped.)  Then she began her talk.

Studies done on rapists have consistantly shown that there is nothing
special about the rapist's penis, his brain, or his mother (or his
upbringing in general).  In every way, he is not noticably different
from any other man.

After it was determined that the rapist could not be differentiated as
abnormal, the theory arose that the victim "initiates" and "precipitates"
the violence.  This conveniently places the blame on the woman, not on
the man, and not on the social environment.

Those who claim that pornography has no impact on rape also claim that
the media are unimportant factors in influencing our behavior.  If their
claim were true, $100B/year would not be spent on advertising -- yet it is.
If their claim were true, there would be no increase in propaganda in wartime.

Dines stated, as she began the slide portion of her talk, that she was
not going to use "Playboy" or "Penthouse" for her examples.  Those two
magazines are supported by advertising, and are subject to the preferences
of their advertisers.  Instead, she used pictures mostly from "Hustler".
She changed from the slide of a "Playboy" cover showing two women to a
slide of a "Hustler" cover showing a naked woman being put through a
meat grinder.  (It's a collage.)  For me, the most vivid of the image
shown was of a naked woman, bound upright, lightly smeared with blood,
with one of her nipples gripped by a pair of pliers.

She then showed a photo of a woman hanging limp from a tree.  She contrasted
this with a photo from "Life" showing actual hanged men.  She pointed out
that the former image is sexual, in its use of color, and in the coy
positioning of the woman's leg, whereas the latter picture (in black
and white) is not at all titilating.  She pointed out that a picture
showing a[n ostensibly] dead man is *NEVER* titilating.  Those showing
women frequently are.

The distinction between fake death in the media and death in reality is
now blurring.  Rapists and murderers of women are now photographing their
victims.  Where do you suppose they learned that?

Dines stated "Pornography is the father of media and reality."  She
pointed out that the pornography industry grosses $10B/year, and that
there are more adult bookstores in this country than McDonalds'.

She rejects the argument that everyone easily distinguishes between
pornography (and other forms of `entertainment'), and `the real world',
because we use the same eyes and the same brain to view both media and
reality.

She showed a photo spread from "Hustler", in which a naked woman has her
head hair shaved off, is strapped into an electric chair, and "Poof"
is the last picture.  There is nothing left.  She compared this to an
advertisement of the same vintage, showing a woman with her hair shaven,
and a dead-looking face.  She reminded us that people's hair has
traditionally been shaven off to remove their identity, to dehumanize
them.  She feels that each of these attempts to dehumanize one woman is
an attempt to dehumanize all women.

She made the claim that, as far as the pornography industry is concerned,
pornography is not something especially sexual, but is only what produces
an erection and ejaculation for a man.

She then showed another visual story from "Hustler".  This one showed
a waitress in a barroom being raped by a series of men on a pool table.
A few months later came that rape case in New Bedford.  A few months after
*that* came another picture in "Hustler", this one with a naked woman
leaning against a pool table, and cheerily waving at the viewer.  This
one was captioned:

    		"Greetings from New Bedford, Mass. 
    		The Portuguese Gang Rape Capital of America."

(It was not a real postcard, as someone else thought.)  Dines' conclusion
was that the people at "Hustler" knew and accepted the relationship between
the two events.

Dines asked if we were familiar with those psychological tests in which
the person being studied (A) is told that the person in the other room (B)
is being studied, and that A is to administer electrical shocks to B
as required by B's behavior.  We assured her we knew of them.  She explained
that one button was marked in red, and the A's were told that this button
produced a dangerously high level of shock, and that they should not even
consider using it until the B's behavior truly warranted it.  She then
stated that in these studies the A-men used the red button only for B-women,
never for B-men -- and that they could barely wait for an excuse to hit
the red button for women.  (She did not give any details beyond that.)

She pointed out what children are learning from Saturday morning cartoons
and their `games'.  By age ten, the girls, when asked to draw pictures
of themselves, draw themselves dead.  The boys' games are all about
killing and violence, and the bad guys are always the Other (not blond,
not white, not human).  What they learn from their new "interactive [with
the television] games" is to kill or be killed.  What sort of relationships
can these children form when they grow up?

She felt that a definite causal relationship could be drawn from pornography
to rape, because of several situations involving significant quantities
of people.  First, when pornography was made legal in Denmark, it was
recorded that sex crimes went down.  In fact, most sex crimes had been
taken off the books at the same time.  However, cases of rape skyrocketed.
Sweden also has a liberal attitude towards pornography, but will not even
publish its rape statistics.  She claimed that people who had tried to
find out these stats have been stonewalled, threatened, and even found
dead, floating in the river.

After the talk had ended, one woman asked about violence in male homosexual
pornography.  The answer was given by another woman in the audience.  A
friend of hers, it turns out, is a gay man who runs an adult bookstore
for other gay men.  She sometimes helps him out, and, one time after
closing for the evening, she went through all forty of the magazines he
had in stock, looking for examples of male violence there.  She did
NOT find it.

re: .7:

> She felt that a definite causal relationship could be drawn from pornography
> to rape, because of several situations involving significant quantities
> of people.  First, when pornography was made legal in Denmark, it was
> recorded that sex crimes went down.  In fact, most sex crimes had been
> taken off the books at the same time.  However, cases of rape skyrocketed.
> Sweden also has a liberal attitude towards pornography, but will not even
> publish its rape statistics.  She claimed that people who had tried to
> find out these stats have been stonewalled, threatened, and even found
> dead, floating in the river.

Having lived in Sweden during the time that the pornography and
rape laws were changed, I find this a bit hard to take.  My
memory is that the frequency of rape was essentially unchanged;
it certainly didn't "skyrocket."  The primary change to the rape
laws was to institute what might be called "2nd-degree rape" which
allowed a prosecutor to differentiate between date rape and physically
violent rape.

Also, Swedish crime statistics are public documents and should be
very easy to obtain.  Information about specific individuals who
have been convicted of crimes are, on the other hand, considered
non-public.

I would be very interested to get a reference for "people who had tried
to find out these stats" having been "stonewalled, threatened, and even
found dead, floating in the river."

You should be able to get these statistics from the Swedish Embassy
in Washington.  You can also write to the Central Bureau for Statistics
in Stockholm for this information.  You might be able to get more
information from the Consulate in Boston.

Martin.

		1990 Feminist Lecture Series
			WITCH
		Wild Independent Thinking Crones and Hags

March 20th  Lesbian Center - Global Lesbianism. Anna Lee. Anna Lee has
contributed to _For Lesbians Only_, including "A Black Separatist." She has
also written articles in "Trivia" and "Sinister Wisdom."

March 27th  Building Community Through Access/Building Accessible Communities.
Catherine Odette Lohr and Sara Karon. Catherine and Sara have worked on "Dykes,
Disability & Stuff" since its inception and have been faithful activists in
changing society's oppression of the disabled.

April 3rd  Do we Mean What We Say? Horizontal Hostility and the World We Would
Create. Julia Penelope. Julia is the co-editor of _The Original Coming Out
Stories_ and _For Lesbian Only_. This spring will see two more of her works in
print: _Finding the Lesbians_, co-edited with Sarah Valentine and _Speaking
Freely: Unlearning the Lies of the Fathers' Tongues_.

April 10th  Spirits: Passions in the Gardens of Delight. Jeffner Allen.
Jeffner is the author of _Lesbian Philosophies: An Explanation_ and co-editor of
_The Thinking Muse_. She has also contributed to "Woman of Power," "Trivia,"
and other lesbian feminist publications.

April 17th  Rituals of Writing. Nicole Brossard. The _Aerial Letter_ is the
most recent work of this radical feminist from Montreal. Among her others are
_Picture Theory_ and _L'Am�r ou Le Chapitre effrit�_.

April 24th  Myths Not To Live By: Escaping Patriarchal Mythology. Georgia
Stathopoulou. Georgia is a radical feminist from Greece who is studying as
well as dismembering traditional mythology.

May 1st  Lesbian Healing: The Creation of a New Paradigm. Billie Potts. B. L.
Potts is the author of _Witches Heal: Lesbian Herbal Self-Sufficiency_, _A New
Women's Tarot_ and the forthcoming _Ergonomics: A Problem-Solver's Handbook_.

May 8th  Freeing Animals, Women, and the Earth. Joyce Contrucci. Joyce
Contrucci teaches psychology and interdisciplinary Women's Studies at a local
college and collaborated with Andr�e Collard on _Rape of the Wild_.

May 15th  Dorothy Meets the "Wicked" Witch of the West: Tales of Medieval
Madness and the Mass Media. Eileen Kennedy. Eileen is a longtime feminist
activist. Most recently she was a featured presenter at the NEWSA conference on
"Women Confronting Violence: Action and Analysis." She is a fonder of 
W. U. R. M. and is a collective member of Mujeres Unidas en Accion.

May 22nd  Jubilation: A Expose of Cockaludicrous Shenanigans! Melissa D.
Fletcher. Melissa is a Fury Fanatically devoted to Female Freedom. She is
currently at work on a book about her personal odyssey from fragmentation to
Wicked integrity.

Crones' Harvest, 761 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
For Information call 617-643-7453
Donation $5    Wheelchair accessible

For Women Only

>Crones' Harvest, 761 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain

Can anybody give me directions? Or tell me if there's anyplace within walking
distance to eat?
	Mez