LETTERS

Dear What She Wants:

I support the decision of the women who planned the Dinner Party Celebration (March 16) to invite women-born-women to this event. I respect the right of women to plan an event that reflects their politics. I do not think that any one group can deny the rights of others to plan events that may be based on different, or even opposing, politics. The diversity of women's events, both open to the public and womenonly, attests to that fact. Our need, as feminists, to establish women-only spaces is a vital component of our on-going fight for survival. Since the first consciousness-raising groups of the early 60's, we have recognized that women must have space that is

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free from male distractions, manipulation, and demands for attention. Men who choose to become women cannot assume the feminist community will provide the social context for their choices.

Women have much to learn and share about our history and culture. We have a special relationship to that heritage, as women struggling for change in an oppressive culture that belittles or at best co-opts our achievements. For us to choose to celebrate our

Community. Nonetheless, this could hardly deter from the energy, strength, time, and commitment of all the womyn involved. Oven's professionally written evaluation allowed for critique of the show and feedback.

I would hope in the future, as in the past, we can continue to be supportive of all womyn and look forward to more personal contacts via covered dish dinners, Kent's Tenth Muse Coffee House, benefits, talent shows, Womyn's Chorus, etc.

I know I speak for more than myself when I say the Womyn of Akron applaud WSW, Oven Productions and the Cleveland Woryn for your continuing efforts and accomplishments over the years!

Dear What She Wants,

-Karen L. Macdonald, et al.

Because of some things that have recently been published, and a great lack of information and misinformation on the subject, I would like to submit the following as an educational piece. I have been asked dozens of questions by dozens of women in the community. Many more, I'm sure, have gone unasked and unanswered and there seems to be a good bit of divided opinion and confusion surrounding transexuality, transexual lesbians, the relation of lesbian transexuals to feminism, what is truly "male" or "female", male privilege in this society, etc.

What is a transexual? Who knows? Believe it or not, this is a difficult question to answer and one upon which there is not yet even complete professional agreement..

The simplest explanation deals with a division between sex and gender. Sex has to do with certain specific primary and secondary physical charac“feristies (genitals, breast development, hair, and so forth), while gender occurs in the mind (psychological identification, emotions," desires, erotic and social interest, etc.). In some people sex and gender are not in active conflict. In others (especially, perhaps, homosexuals) there is some degree of conflict. In so-called true transexuals the conflict is fairly complete and absolute: one knows that one is male or female and one is acutely conscious that one's primary and secondary sexual characteristics do not match this identification. With medical help the problem can be eliminated and hopefully one can go

on to live a normal and healthy life.

It should be mentioned that even these lines are not entirely clear. Most "normals" like to believe that male and female arc clearly divided. This is simply untrue. One in every six thousand babies born cach year has anomalous genitalia, and the doctor decides at birth whether it is and will be raised male or female. It is surprising how many times doctors and parents have raised "physical" males who turned out to be XX chromosomally, or "physical" females who turned out to be XY. The dividing lines are simply not that clear.

Where do transexuals come from? This is fairly easy. Most of us come from just outside Poughkeepsie. Actually, at one time or another you just realize who and what you are. With the majority of transexuals this realization, somewhat similar to the realization of the direction of one's sexual preference, happens early in life, around age 3 or 4. With a significant minority, it occurs later in life, past puberty. Like homosexuality, no one really knows what causes

it.

It seems likely that gender may not be confined to two little chromosomes (X,Y) after all. Perhaps it occurs in a constellation of genes, so that while some determine primary and secondary sexual characteristics, others interact to determine gender identity, or perhaps a predisposition towards one gender or the other. If this is so, the terms "biological sex" or even "woman born woman" are inaccurate. It appears likely that transexuality has a firm biological base. Even so, like lesbianism, the question is not what causes it, but really that of removing the social stigma and oppression that makes it so difficult for the transexual to live a happy and productive life in today's society. The shrinks have spent years trying to find out what makes a homosexual; it is past time for them to start applying some of that effort toward educating the public. Exactly the same applies to transexuals.

What is a lesbian transexual? A lesbian transexual is a transexual whose primary erotic, psychological, emotional and social interest happens to be for other women. Gender identity and sexual preference do not happen in the same dimension. A gender identity conflict does not imply the direction of one's affectional preference. Just as some people will always be gay, some transexuals will always be gay. Lesbian at-

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triumphs among ourselves is a right we no longer After Dinner Thoughts: March 16, 1980

need to justify in the face of realities that daily deny our value.

-Susan Woodworth Grandview Rd., Cleveland His.

Dear Women of Oven Productions and WSW,

I was part of a group of womyn from Akron, Kent and the Canton area who attended Oven Productions' Variety Show and the open-house party on Berkshire Road following the performance.

In my opinion the womyn who made up the company for Oven Productions' Variety Show certainly deserve to be commended for a fine production! Once again, the Cleveland womyn produced a great evening of Womyn's entertainment, showing a wide variety of womyn's talents, creativity, music, comedy and drama (the soap).

With the Variety Show I experienced different types of talent; thus everyone could participate, allowing for a sense of accomplishment and Sisterhood, not often seen or experienced in our "closed" society. As I see it, the show is one means of venting Lesbian Culture in a safe, supportive atmosphere.

Even though parts of the show were directed at the Cleveland Womyn, I realize it was for Cleveland's

Page ZAWharske Walay XI, Déus

By Sally Tatnall

The formal "Dinner Party" celebration is over and the women gone home, but the celebration in my heart is surpassed only by the energy generated today, as 40 women came together to commemorate a history of women long since gone. They came to be nourished, to be enriched, to learn, to share, to feel (if for only a moment) our heritage. This is a heritage that has been passed down from generation to generation of women who only have the stories we tell each other. The story Judy Chicago has told us, which was repeated this evening, will be told again and again. As she researched all the stories to pass on, she created a glorious tribute to who and what women are.

We began our celebration of women's heritage by taking a short walk to the Food Project on Coventry. Jean and Lorraine (the owners) closed their store in honor of Women's History Week. We walked together for the joy of it and to see the big sign in the window of the Food Project describing the holiday and its meaning. Walking back to the house, we stopped to enjoy the crocuses. Once inside, we invited the 39 guests of the Dinner Party to be with us in spirit and introduced each of them with information from The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.

The food, prepared by all the celebrants, was grand. There were so many different kinds of salads, main dishes, breads, juices, desserts.... We added three leaves to the table, and still there was not enough room. Women do know how to nourish each other with food.

After our meal there were slides of the dinner party plates and runners, with corresponding stories read from The Dinner Party. One woman brought poetry to read, another shared a separation ritual, and still others brought books and cards and pictures by and about women that made the whole presentation rich beyond compare.

There was time for personal sharing and talking as small groupings of women were dotted here and there throughout the house. If I had been able to ask for exactly what I longed for, l'could not have thought up something this remarkable. I quote from Judy Chicago to help me express myself: "Working on the prototypes for the last plates on the table required that everyone involved identify with the yearning of these women of recent history to liberate themselves and their sex. Perhaps that was why only women were on the team by then, for there was an unspoken understanding among us of what I intended these last images to mean." And that was what Sunday was for me, a wonder created by what it is to be a woman..........