WSW EDITORIAL

In her 1973 article, "Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon", Kathie Sarachild wrote: "Since 1967, consciousness-raising has become one of the prime educational,, organizing programs of the women's liberation movement. Feminist groups and individuals who at first didn't think they needed it are all doing it." If what is, or what is not, happening in Cleveland is any indication, feminist interest in consciousness-raising has waned. Talk about it is almost as hard to find as feminist consciousnessraising groups. It's curious that consciousnes-raising,

News

National

By Marycatherine Krause

used successfully to generate mass feminist awareness a decade or so ago, is no longer a major concern of the women's movement.

Perhaps we've become nostalgic about. consciousness-raising. Conversations about it are often personal reminiscences, probably because many activist women participated in small groups five or ten years ago. This may partially explain the popularity of the belief that consciousness-raising is merely an introduction to feminist activity, rather than, in addition, a method of evaluating our effec-

CONTENTS

Beyond Sexual Conditioning...

A Search for Common Ground.

Pornography and Violence...

Pregnancy Disability Protection....

Letters.

Gays Omitted in Police Brutality Regulations... 4

Poetry..

Local

Kay Gardner Concert and Workshop..

Classified Ads.

Find It Fastest..

back cover

Conversation on Lesbian/Straight Relations......9

What's Happening.

Cover Photo by Janet Century

Maggie Kuhn in Cleveland...

Features

What She Wants

14-15

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tiveness and a way of gauging sexism, old forms and

new,

In any case, consciousness-raising grounded the carly women's liberation movement in women's experience. Women met to talk about their everyday lives. They singled out problems as they shared their experiences at work, at home, and elsewhere. One woman may have spoken of the difficulties she faced at a low-paying, low-status, clerical job. Another may have relayed her frustration in shouldering the responsibility for the care and well-being of children while denied participation in family decision-making.

Through discussion, women recognized elements common to different situations. They found, for example, that office work and housework are just two variations of "women's work". Whether it's in the home or at the office, being overworked, under-(un-) paid, and overlooked feels the same.

As women catalogued these and other common "problems" like street harassment and rape, they asked who stood to benefit. The women's liberation movement grew out of their answer: men, who have and exercise power over women in every aspect of our lives, gain from the continued subjection of women.

The early retirement of consciousness-raising as an organizing technique raises a few questions. Where do women now go to talk about their interactions with men? Are men and the relations between women and men being discussed within the movement?

One possible measure of the political value of discussing men within the movement arises in the consideration of the theme of this issue, relationships between heterosexual and lesbian women. It is of course obvious that the ways and extent to which men figure into their personal lives, differentiate the lesbian from the heterosexual woman. In light of the discussions that preceded this issue and the material that came out of those talks, it is unfortunately also true that men are barely mentioned, certainly not exhaustively discussed in this context.

The avoidance of men by both the lesbian and heterosexual women in their explorations of the tensions and ties betweeen them is significant. It implies that women's liberation focuses on the interactions between them rather than on male domination and its effect on the lives of lesbian and heterosexual. It also obscures that fact that men still define women and relationships between women. Lesbian separatists write off heterosexual women because they cannot see that woman apart from the men in her personal life. Heterosexual women write off the lesbian because they fear the scorn men reserve for those women who deny men's importance in their personal lives and celebrate the primacy of relationships bet-

ween women.

It may also be a signal that Carol Hanisch's organizing insight "the personal is the political" has been replaced by its converse, "the political is the personal". It's no suprise that women have always had to decide how to manage their personal lives under patriarchy. That one woman chooses to live as a lesbian and another as a heterosexual woman are matters of personal history, not political statements. The more-political-than-thou rhetoric of the current movement, "you've got to be a lesbian to really be a feminist", is as absurd as the "you've got to be heterosexual to really be a feminist" sentiment popular ten years ago. There must be as many pseudo-feminists heterosexual feminists today as there were pseudo-feminist lesbian feminists then. Lesbian and heterosexual women built the women's movement; it will take both working together to sustain it.

If we can't, don't, or won't talk about men and male domination in discussions like these, are there other times when we do? There doesn't seem to be much talk about men and male domination within the movement. Maybe heterosexual feminists are too busy apologizing for their sexual preference or

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November, 1980/What She Wants/Page 1