VIR

7IRGIN IEWS by

VIRGINIA

LIBERATION · OF YOU

AND YOUR WIFE

Liberation is a term much in use these days, so much so that a lot of people don't give it much thought. Actually it is the theme of these times. Originally the word meant freeing somebody from captivity and slav- ery of some kind, then the army GIs used it to refer to looting of items from the enemy, the native population of whatever country they were in or even from the army supply dumps and PXs. Then it became a political word with Castro and other local rebellions and wars of “national lib- eration". Finally it took on the meaning of release from oppression, control and limitation. In this latter sense it was adopted by the wo- men's movement and after them by the gay community. So today wo- men's "lib” and gay “lib” are the two most common usages of it and they both use it to refer to release from those social factors which set them aside as different, isolate them from equal acceptance and oppor- tunities accorded to men and to "straights" and encapsulate them in stereotypes of behaviour and expectations which deny them the chance to do their own "thing" their own way.

Your wife is a female she is also a woman. As the latter she is the heir of 5000 years of civilization during almost all of which the male has dominated society, made up the laws both criminal, social and moral, and decided how people shall live, particularly women. From the begin- ning of man as a separate species the lesser size and strength of females and their obvious involvement in child birth and rearing has set them aside from men as being "different". The biological differences were incontestable but the social, psychological and moral expectations and requirements laid on women were set up by men.

The fact that males were not directly involved in the reproductive pro- cess except for a few moments in the beginning meant that they were left

84