EDITORIAL
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by Marycatherine Krause
This is the second of two editorials devoted to the hows and whys of the production of WSW. The August, 1980 editorial focused on the role of organizational structure in the continuation of this paper. However, the survival of WSW is not an end in itself. Rather, the value in continuing lies in WSW's contribution to the growth and vigor of the movement for women's liberation.
Women, continue to suffer the consequences of sexism in every sphere of our everyday lives. Men continue to deny us our personhood socially, economically, politically and
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psychologically. Until "woman" means "autonomous person" to women and to men, publications such as this must fill the gap between our reality, male domination, and our goal, women's liberation.
Resources such as WSW provide a meeting ground; they are vehicles for the articulation of our shared experience as women daily confronted with devaluation. They are also bases from which we renew our collective commitment to challenge and change the powers that be.
The question of the content of WSW emerges against the backdrop of the women's movement. We too often speak of "The Movement" as if it were a thing, a threedimensional object measurable in terms of the length of given lines and a perception of finite depth. We too often forget the movement does not exist apart from the women who have united to shatter the male-made box that con-
CONTENTS
Vol 8,40.3
Take Back the Night..... Grassroots Coalition Forms..
3
.......3
National
Sexual Harassment in Virginia. .
4
Features
Anti-Gay Legislation...
4
Interview......
6
Clara Fraser Loses a Round.
5
Women and the Draft..
8,9
New Hope in Lesbian Custody.
5
Off My Breast..
10
.7
Classified Ads.
15
2
Find It Fastest...
...back cover
2
.2
What's Happening.
14-15
Local
Women at Work Exposition..
Bureau of Support...
Women Defend Clinics... Dinner Party in Akron.
Cover Photo by Nancy Gerard
What She Wants
What She Wants goes to production the third weekend of the month. Copy should be submitted by the 15th of each month so that we can discuss it and edit collectively at our editorial meetings. Contact us for specific deadlines. Please print or type articles. Mail material to WSW, P. O. Box 18465, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118.
WHAT SHE WANTS IS:
A MONTHLY NEWS JOURNAL-PRODUCED FOR ALL WOMEN. We always like input from our readers in the forin of articles, personal experiences, poetry, art, announcements, and letters. We welcome women who are willing to help us in specific areas of the paper (writing, lay-out, advertising, distribution, publicity, etc.) and/or who are interested in our collective.
WHAT SHE WANTS ADVOCATES:
...equal and civil rights
...the right to earnings based on our need, merit, and interest ...access to job training, salaries, and promotions we choose
...the right to organize in unions and coalitions to advance our cause ...the right to decent health care and health information
...the right to safe, effective birth control and to safe, legal abortions ...the right to accept or reject motherhood
...the right to choose and express sexual preference without harassment ...access to quality education and freedom from prejudice in learning materials
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
A one-year subscription to WSW includes
11 regular monthly issues
Individual
—
$6.00
Contributing $15.00
Sustaining $25.00
― -
Non-Profit Org. $10.00 $15.00
For Profit Org.
DISTRIBUTION OUTLETS:
East: Appletree Books, Coventry Books, CWRU Bookstore, Food Communities, Food Project, Genesis, Hemming & Hulbert Booksellers
Central: Barnes & Noble, Publix Book Mart, WomenSpace
West: CCC Bookstore, Plants Plus, Six Steps Down, Tish's Shoe Repair & Emporium Chagrin Falls: Little Professor Book-Center
Akron: Cooperative Market (formerly Nature's Way)
Kent: Kent Natural Foods Store
Columbus: Fan the Flames Bookstore Boston, MA: New Words Bookstore
Business Group
Marycatherine Krause/Coordinator Alana Clampitt
Dianne Fishman
Marcia Manwaring
Loriellen Bafferent tactics.
2
C
Editorial Group ..
Carol Epstein/Coordinator
Gail Powers/Coordinator
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t
Marycatherine Krause/Coordinator Loretta Feller/Coordinator
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Production Group
Linda Jane/Coordinator Mary Walsh/Coordinator Willow Bentley Jean Loria Pat O'Malley Randi Powers Barbara Silverberg Michelle Vanderlip
strains us.
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This, the second wave of the women's struggle in the U.S., began when women, loudly and publicly, began to question the injustices dealt us by the men around us in our everyday lives: our fathers, brothers, lovers, husbands, sons, friends, employers, teachers.... Women carried the insights gained from recognizing "the man in my bed, the man in my head, and the Man" into social, economic and political thought and action.
Some women began to concentrate on the analysis of male domination and female subjugation; others started to demand the inclusion of women's issues in the agendas of traditional political parties. Others brought these perceptions to the attention of leftist and progressive parties and groups. Still other women chose to reveal the cultural devaluation of women in history, literature, art, music, science, philosophy, and religion.
The essential insight that men, individually and as a group, do not value women as independent, conscious people, individually and as a group, compelled women to issue these challenges. The insight remains. The challenges have become strategies for change. Tactics differ. One major tactical question is frequently answered very differently: What is the role of men in this women's movement for liberation? Should we work with men, or against men, or with some men against other men? Can we work with men within the current imbalance of the relations between the sexes? If so, how and to what extent? Should we? Is it possible to change the imbalance in the relations between women and men while in contact with men? On the other hand, is it possible to change this imbalance if we choose to ignore men, if we do not demand that men recognize their role in perpetuating the imbalance?
More than ten years later, still riding the crest of the second wave, here we all are-women who identify ourselves as part of the movement for women's liberation. As our perceptions at times have changed, at other times have been reinforced, we've gravitated to different strategies and employed different tactics. In many cases, we call ourselves not just feminists, but feminists of a particular sort, to emphasize our perspectives.
The following is an attempt to present the most visible approaches pursued by women within the movement. It is fleshless, because the intent is to present what is unique to each, rather than discuss the points of convergence and divergence among them.
Cultural feminism-the recognition that women have been excluded from dominant cultural forms and that women's cultural contributions have in most cases been ignored or belittled. This has led to efforts both to rediscover those women who have contributed and to create a women's subculture. The latter includes new forms of expression in, for example, religion and the arts. At times, this has meant the exaltation of traditionally assigned roles, e.g., the childbearing capacity as a basis for a special relation between women and nature. Positive aspects of cultural feminism include women's growing expertise in art forms and technical skills traditionally closed to women's participation, such as women's music, and the reevaluation of traditionally female art forms, e.g., The Dinner Party. Feminist socialism-the identification of class differences as the fundamental contradiction in society. Women who identify themselves as such may perceive women as a subclass, a special group not accommodated within the working class/ruling class model or a pseudogroup due to insurmountable class stratifications or other varations between and beyond these two extreme positions. In any case, the oppression of women is understood in terms of class struggle within capitalist systems and in solidarity with other oppressed groups against imperialism. There are also women who identify themselves as "socialist feminists" and recognize the interaction between capitalism and patriarchy.
Lesbian feminism-the rejection of heterosexualism as the institutionalization of the imbalance in the relations between women and men. First articulated in 1970 by the Radicalesbians, the phenomenon of "women-identifiedwomen"-looking to women as the primary source of friendship and identification-applies to straight women as well. While "women-loving women" is an alternative route to parity in relationships, lesbian feminists do not perceive their struggle as separate from that of straight women. Lesbian feminist separatism-the rejection of heterosexualism as the institutionalization of the imbalance in the relations between women and men. This perspective is differentiated from lesbian 'feminism by its emphasis on withdrawing all support from men, the oppressors. The goal is a women-centered community and cultural identification which excludes men.
Radical feminism-the identification of male domination as the fundamental problem in societies throughout history, despite differences in race, culture, national tradition, political and economic system. The goal is a feminist (continued on page 13)
September, 1980/What She Wants/Page 1
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