Transcribe
Translate
Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-07-10 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 5
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
"FREEDOM" TO OPPRESS? Does censorship really "suck shit"? What exactly do we mean by "censorship?" Is it bad in any form and in every context? Is Free Speech one of our most important issues? "Censorship" of a newspaper usually implies one or two people at the top of the staffhierarchy - usually a male editor - making decisions as to the content, length and style of what goes into the paper. We need not go into why this kind of censorship is shitty. What is the alternative, though? Ptero's alternative was to allow every individual a certain amount of space to put in whatever she or he wanted to. No censorship, obviously. Why, then, did we and most other Ptero staff leave it to form another paper (High and Mighty)? Because what Ptero had become had completely negated anything good about its "open" and "uncensored" policy. Any staffer had the "right" to put in anything he wanted, no matter how sexist it might seem to the women on the staff, and no matter how contrary to the basic political beliefs of others on the staff. In other words, complete "individual rights" imply the right to screw other individuals. Isn't this one of the worst aspects of our capitalist society, where any one person has the "right" to exploit many other people? Because Ptero was busted so often for pornography - hardly an issue worth getting busted for - we were denied the opportunity of regularly presenting our political views. High and Mighty was conceived as a paper with a definite political goal- above and beyond simply "freedom of speech". It operates on the collective principle. This means that each staffer has an equal position on the paper - everyone types, lays out, writes, sells, makes coffee. Usually "censorship" as such has not been a problem; if there is any question of cutting out an article, or editing one, it is usually because of space problems. The cutting or editing is based on the relative importance and timeliness of the articles in question. There are qualitative judgements made about what goes into the paper, however, because we do have political standards - our politics are, after all, the basis of our paper. The reason we have gone into the Ptero - High and Mighty conflict is because we feel that the question of the individual versus the collective is an issue crucial to the Women's Movement. We are trying to destroy elitism and hierarchies; we are trying to create a truly egalitarian society. In order to do this, we must work through - we must live in - structures that are free from traditional roles, whose forms are in themselves non-hierarchical. The best way to guarantee true individual freedom - freedom that cannot be used to screw other individuals - is through the collective. Within a collective, it is necessary for every member to attain all the necessary skills to keep the collective functioning. Only in this way can we stop depending on a few elite leaders to make our decisions, to control our lives! This is especially important to us as women, since it is we who have always done the shit work, and have not been involved in making decisions because we lack the skills and confidence to do otherwise. POWER TO OUR FEMALE LIBERATION MOVEMENT! POWER TO ALL WOMEN! Sally Hamann Mim Desmond Former members of Ptero staff; presently working on High and Mighty; members of Grinnell Women's Liberation. sit out on the back porch and cry, cry bitter tears cause you've been screwed again cry because you don't have a choice left it happened again and it will happen forever you can't get around it, it will always happen cry because there's no way you can stop it cry, cry, cry, cry, then cry because you've been fucked again and you haven't a choice left it doesn't even hurt in the same way before it was you, only you that was messed up now it's not you, it's you and him you've been a fool, while he's been killing you you have to hate him, that's the problem you have to hate them and then you don't have a choice left you hate your mind cause it makes you see it if only it were possible to get fucked and not see it cause your world gets smaller when you don't have a choice left your only choice is to fight them, not trust them but it hurts to fight those you would like to be but don't cry now, you haven't a choice left it happened before, it will happen again but you're not the only one who has been fucked for ages so join with them, there's only one way to stop it now cry, cry, cry, cry! Then fight together you have to fight now cause you haven't a choice left --Sally Hamann Grinnell WLF Solidarity! We feel it necessary to make clear the fact that the statement of the Grinnell Women's Liberation group in support of the Playboy Ad was not necessarily in support of either Ptero or Nola Express. We don't consider the Nola Express to be the People's Press; thus, we think the ending slogan ("Support the Nola and Power to the People's Press!") of Krys' article to be misleading and contradictory. We as individuals are very much opposed to both papers as they presently stand. Both papers contain material that we consider degradingly and disgustingly sexist. - Debbie Boardman, Toni Brandmill, Terry Clifford, Mim Desmond, Sally Hamann, Ann Mussey, Susan Preston WLF CONFERENCE Grinnell College November 13, 14, 15 Please write any ideas you have for speakers, workshops, structure, non-structure to: Grinnell WLF, c/o Toni Brandmill Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa 50112 THIS PAGE IS FROM THE GRINNELL WOMEN'S LIBERATION FRONT a Woman? [hand drawn arm] July 10, 1970 5
Saving...
prev
next
"FREEDOM" TO OPPRESS? Does censorship really "suck shit"? What exactly do we mean by "censorship?" Is it bad in any form and in every context? Is Free Speech one of our most important issues? "Censorship" of a newspaper usually implies one or two people at the top of the staffhierarchy - usually a male editor - making decisions as to the content, length and style of what goes into the paper. We need not go into why this kind of censorship is shitty. What is the alternative, though? Ptero's alternative was to allow every individual a certain amount of space to put in whatever she or he wanted to. No censorship, obviously. Why, then, did we and most other Ptero staff leave it to form another paper (High and Mighty)? Because what Ptero had become had completely negated anything good about its "open" and "uncensored" policy. Any staffer had the "right" to put in anything he wanted, no matter how sexist it might seem to the women on the staff, and no matter how contrary to the basic political beliefs of others on the staff. In other words, complete "individual rights" imply the right to screw other individuals. Isn't this one of the worst aspects of our capitalist society, where any one person has the "right" to exploit many other people? Because Ptero was busted so often for pornography - hardly an issue worth getting busted for - we were denied the opportunity of regularly presenting our political views. High and Mighty was conceived as a paper with a definite political goal- above and beyond simply "freedom of speech". It operates on the collective principle. This means that each staffer has an equal position on the paper - everyone types, lays out, writes, sells, makes coffee. Usually "censorship" as such has not been a problem; if there is any question of cutting out an article, or editing one, it is usually because of space problems. The cutting or editing is based on the relative importance and timeliness of the articles in question. There are qualitative judgements made about what goes into the paper, however, because we do have political standards - our politics are, after all, the basis of our paper. The reason we have gone into the Ptero - High and Mighty conflict is because we feel that the question of the individual versus the collective is an issue crucial to the Women's Movement. We are trying to destroy elitism and hierarchies; we are trying to create a truly egalitarian society. In order to do this, we must work through - we must live in - structures that are free from traditional roles, whose forms are in themselves non-hierarchical. The best way to guarantee true individual freedom - freedom that cannot be used to screw other individuals - is through the collective. Within a collective, it is necessary for every member to attain all the necessary skills to keep the collective functioning. Only in this way can we stop depending on a few elite leaders to make our decisions, to control our lives! This is especially important to us as women, since it is we who have always done the shit work, and have not been involved in making decisions because we lack the skills and confidence to do otherwise. POWER TO OUR FEMALE LIBERATION MOVEMENT! POWER TO ALL WOMEN! Sally Hamann Mim Desmond Former members of Ptero staff; presently working on High and Mighty; members of Grinnell Women's Liberation. sit out on the back porch and cry, cry bitter tears cause you've been screwed again cry because you don't have a choice left it happened again and it will happen forever you can't get around it, it will always happen cry because there's no way you can stop it cry, cry, cry, cry, then cry because you've been fucked again and you haven't a choice left it doesn't even hurt in the same way before it was you, only you that was messed up now it's not you, it's you and him you've been a fool, while he's been killing you you have to hate him, that's the problem you have to hate them and then you don't have a choice left you hate your mind cause it makes you see it if only it were possible to get fucked and not see it cause your world gets smaller when you don't have a choice left your only choice is to fight them, not trust them but it hurts to fight those you would like to be but don't cry now, you haven't a choice left it happened before, it will happen again but you're not the only one who has been fucked for ages so join with them, there's only one way to stop it now cry, cry, cry, cry! Then fight together you have to fight now cause you haven't a choice left --Sally Hamann Grinnell WLF Solidarity! We feel it necessary to make clear the fact that the statement of the Grinnell Women's Liberation group in support of the Playboy Ad was not necessarily in support of either Ptero or Nola Express. We don't consider the Nola Express to be the People's Press; thus, we think the ending slogan ("Support the Nola and Power to the People's Press!") of Krys' article to be misleading and contradictory. We as individuals are very much opposed to both papers as they presently stand. Both papers contain material that we consider degradingly and disgustingly sexist. - Debbie Boardman, Toni Brandmill, Terry Clifford, Mim Desmond, Sally Hamann, Ann Mussey, Susan Preston WLF CONFERENCE Grinnell College November 13, 14, 15 Please write any ideas you have for speakers, workshops, structure, non-structure to: Grinnell WLF, c/o Toni Brandmill Grinnell College Grinnell, Iowa 50112 THIS PAGE IS FROM THE GRINNELL WOMEN'S LIBERATION FRONT a Woman? [hand drawn arm] July 10, 1970 5
Campus Culture
sidebar
