she is the cause of her own problems and that the law is not responsible for settling domestic quarrels. The problem with this solution is that her domestic quarrels are in fact brutal beatings and threats on the lives of herself and her loved ones. This side of the story definitely needs to be told so that the public may be able to help stop the situation before it gets any further out of hand.

The need for a Women's Center and for interested people to become Involved is a great one. We need people who will be able to spend a little of their time helping those victims of brutality to escape their problems or to solve them.

Presently when a woman has reached the end of her rope, having nowhere to turn, and takes the mat. ter into her own hands, she is apprehended and put In a prison for punishment. Is she thus being punished for trying to save her life and for the law's lack of interest in her repeated requests for assistance? Who Is the real victim?

I am one of those victims mentioned above. I have gone through the steps of trying to work with the law enforcement officials, looking for help and not find-

A Snapshot

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ing it and finally taking steps on my own to prevent my children and myself from being killed.

Basically I was charged with soliciting. The act or actions of trying to hire someone to kill my husband. I was sentenced to 5 years in the State Penitentiary and since that time have been to hear the Parole Board. They set me 24 months. In consideration of the facts that my husband was still continually harassing me and the family. I received a two year set. Is it justice that I continue to be punished for my husband's abuse?

These are but a few of the things that my children and I have been forced to live with. I tried separations; I sought out friends for help; I tried asking the law for help; and I ended up in the penitentiary. Isn't there something we can do to help women in similar situations come to a better end? I truly believe there are solutions and I feel the beginnings may be found in a Women's Resource Center. We need your help; are you willing to give it?

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BOOS, BRAVOS

AND TIDBITS

TIDBIT: A local feminist has volunteered to make a plaque commemorating the names of all donors to the Ventilation Fund and the Three of Cups. She will write everyone's name in special ink that deteriorates under exposure to nicotine. That way donors can measure the effects of their contribution by how long their name stays legible.

BOO to Ohlo State University for failing to protect a coed on campus from harassment by male students who had learned she was a lesbian. The woman eventually was raped by a number of male students -and they are still free.

BRAVO to Angie Dickinson, star of the TV show "Police Woman", who threatened to quit the show unless producers cut back on the number of on-screen baths and showers. The actress stated that there ought to be more to a successful police series than the female taking showers.

TIDBIT: Quote from Charlotte Whitton, former Mayor of Ottawa: "Whatever women do, they must do it twice as well as men to be thought of as half as good. Fortunately, this is not difficult." (This quote contributed by a male reader. And who said the men's movement doesn't have a sense of humor?)

BOO to Finnair, the Finnish airline whose recent advertising campaign ineluded: "Vilho Vatanen, the Finn, created the world's first sauna when he locked his wife in the smokehouse, set it on fire, beat her soundly with birch leaves and discovered she loved it."

BRAVO to the 30 women who picketed Finnair's office in New York protesting the ad, which they said promotes violence against women. The ad is not scheduled to run again.

By the Bionic Bitches

BRAVO to Manhattan Family Court Judge Margaret Taylor, who refused to find a teenager guilty of prostitution, saying that the state's prostitution law is unconstitution and that male patrons are not prosecuted for their part in the "crime".

TIDBIT: According to the U.S. Department of Labor, females who were poor outnumbered poor males by more than 4 million in 1975. The 15 million females living in poverty accounted for 3 out of 5 (58%) persons who were poor in the U.S. BRAVO to Oven Productions and all the women who made The Variety Show happen. We needed something to look forward to between Christmas and spring besides more snow.

TIDBIT: In 1976 the median earnings of year-round full-time women workers ($8,312) were only 60 percent of men's ($13,859).

The Bionic Bitches recommend that women get out of the "service" professions and into technical field where the money is.

TIDBIT: In another earthshaking (how come we don't feel the tremor) position paper from the American Psychological Association, it has declared that sexual preference alone should not be a determining factor in child custody cases. Oh, well, better late than never.

BRAVO to Lisa Cronin Wohl, whose article "Are We 25 Votes Away From Losing the Bill of Rights ... and the Rest of the Constitution?", printed in the February issue of Ms. Magazine, points out not only how close we are to losing abortion as a right, but how close we are losing everything to the "no-think" whiplash segment of society. The Bitches recommend a more active interest in state government by feminists.

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON!

I remember sitting around with a bunch of cronies at school many years back thinking about and discussing whether it made any difference whether one wrote to her congressperson. The general consensus then was that it was a waste of time.

But I would like to bring that subject up again. That self-same tactic at which we stuck up our noses a few years back is being used quite effectively across the country by our old friends, the "nothink" minions of the "conservative wing', otherwise known as the anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-ERA movement. And because they have the additional financial backing of the Catholic Church and various business interests, they are doing their letter-writing on a very organized basis, using com. puterized mailing lists divided by congressional district.

We have already seen its effect on the issue of abortion, with poor women being the first victims. For an equally chilling possibility, check out the Feb. ruary Issue of Ms. Magazine. These same forces are working state by state to get requests for a constitutional convention, ostensibly to consider the ques tion of an amendment on abortion. But, because this route has never been used to amend the constitution, it could mean that everything in the constitution might be up for grabs. (Reminds me of preWWII Germany, where the country "democrati cally" turned itself into one of the most bloodthirsty dictatorships that has ever been known.)

If even a .5% possibility exists that this might happen, it gives me the creeps.! So I want to encour-

age all the pacifists, separatists, socialists, marxists, vegetarians and those of you who have just plain been lazy, to get off the couch and up to your writing desk and get to it!

And don't write just your state and national congresspeople. Write the local council and the newspaper and the editors of the magazines to which you subscribe and the ones you read in the dentist's office. Write about things you don't like: sexist advertising, sexist remarks, stupidity, racism and imperialism. I want them to think we are everywhere, watching every step that is taken and ready to stomp all over anyone (figuratively) that is in opposition to what feminists are struggling to attain. Once you get started, it might turn out to be fun. For instance, after receiving my 40th monthly issue of the AAA Magazine with its "cute" advertising of bathing beauties tossing beach balls on the Florida beaches, I decided I had had enough. I wrote a very refined but angry letter pointing out that they really didn't need those kinds of pictures. Well, my letter sparked off a four month exchange of opinions from other readers, generally running two to one against the sexist pictures. It was quite gratifying to discover there were a lot of people out there that agreed with me.

So I encourage you to take pen in hand and let the world know how you feel! And I guarantee that you will feel better for it. Just remember every letter you write neutralizes a right-to-lifer's or MCP's asinine opinion.

--Judy Rainbrook

February, 1978/What She Wants/page 3