HIGH GEAR/APRIL 1978

MOTHERHOOD, LESBIANISM, AND CHILD CUSTODY

by BOO WATSON

BY Francie Wyland, 36 pages. Falling Wall Press. 1977. $1.20

Speaking as a childless lesbian woman, Motherhood, Lesbianism and Child Custody hits very close to home. However, had this reviewer been a "straight" woman with one child or six, she could have said the same thing, because that's what this pamphlet is all about. Francie Wyland shows how the welfare movement women's fight for money for raising their children without dependence on a man's wage or a second job is tied to the struggles of Black and Native women against forced sterilization, is tied to the rising number of divorces, "runaway" wives and illegitimate children, is tied to the lesbian movement. These are all parts of the fight all women are maing for control of our secuality, and every other part of our lives.

What came painfully close to home was Wyland's point that for too many of us lesbianism amounts to a form of forced

sterilization. Millions of us are trapped in marriages we hate because we can't afford to leave with our children. If we do leave we almost always lose the children (to husbands or the courts) or the possibilty of ever having any. We can't afford to raise them on our "women's wages" without a lot of scarifices. How can lesbianism be called a "choice" until that penalty of enforced childlessness is abolished?

Although it is not a manual on how-to-win-a-custody-battle, the pamphlet does outline the relevant laws, criteria and precedents concerning custody awards. And it shows the recent trends in Family Law reform, government policy and Children's Aid Society practices. These trends don't look good for us women; more and more of us lesbian and "straight" are being labelled "unfit" mothers due to our lack of money and our refusal to train our children

"properly" when we raise them on our own.

But where there is an attack on women's autonomy there is a struggle against that attack, as Wyland shows under the chapter headings "Fighting Back" and "Building Power." The pamphlet, whose subtitle is "The Case for Wages for Housework" puts it all together in the latter secton. Here you find out how the international Wages for Housework Campaign is fighting to build the power of all women so that we can all have the choice of whether or not to be lesbian, to be mothers. To choose without sacrificing our children or ourselves. In short, it's one pamphlet that says why and how WE ARE GOING TO WIN!

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CHIC

By Darrell Mansarde

The invitation is to "Dance, Dance, Dance" and that is what you'll do through the rest of the album. CHIC has presented us with most likable and danceable disco music album. Favorites of mine were "Sao Paolo" slower-paced discomusic but good to grab that woman of yours and hold on tight, while swaying around and across the floor. "Everybody Dance" could easily be the follow-up to their current hit. It moves, it beckons I found it hard to sit still and just listen to it!

But while side one gets you going and side two at first hastens the pace, as the album

revolves it seems to ebb in enthusiasm. After "Everybody. Dance," the album takes a noticeable downward slide. "Est-ce que c'est chic" is too repetitive in both the lyrics and the music. "Falling In Love With You" just doesn't fit this album. It's too slow! And "Strike Up the Band" sounds like a song that Earth, Wind and Fire might play if they're really pressed for an encore sometime.

I bought the album specifically for "Dance, Dance, Dance." Pleasantly surprised to find a few other good disco songs, I did perhaps get more than I bargained for in the end.