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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971

1970-07-10 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 8

Muckin/ with the Media

The two articles below are reprinted from the June 5-19 issue of RAT.

Some of us from the Women's Center, RAT, and the Women's House of Detention Bail Fund became aware only a few hours before the taping, of the appearance of two of our sisters from the Radical Feminists on the Dick Cavett Show with Hugh Hefner. At the time we were greatly concerned with bailing out Dionne Donghi before she would be extradicted to Buffalo the next morning. We questioned why the women wanted to appear on a show with Hugh Hefner. It seemed an obvious setup designed to turn debate into entertainment with total disregard for the gut issues of women's oppression and with total lack of seriousness for women's libertion as a political movement. Our contention was and is that there is no point to a discussion with a sexist system's symbol of rich man-pimp, hero-worshipped and successful for making his macho off the backs, tits, and asses of women. If at all, the only way to appear with Hefner, it seemed to me, is to treat him symbolically, as an enemy — to use the forum as a means of drawing out of him blatant remarks about his feelings towards women. In this way we could reach women in the immediate and remote audience. However, few of us are together enoug to be able to pull off such a confrontation. And there are understandable reasons why women are powerless in such situations.
The show, like every other institution, was male-structured, and run in such a fashion as to force the women on the panel into playing by men's rules to communicate about their own oppression. It is difficult enough for a woman to confront a single man in an intimate relationship with her own feelings, and even more difficult for a woman to see herself as strong, articulate and serious enough to speak before an audience. Furthermore the glamorous and frightening TV image depends on personality for the projection of ideas, and on the ability to talk and respond to two males well-prepared and versed in their roles. The odds are clearly against the woman.
We felt a solidarity with the women as our sisters and we went to the Cavett studio to support them, but also to ask for their support. What we wanted support for was our decision to use this opportunity to confront Hefner with a demand for reparations — reparations owed us for his abuse of women as sex objects, reparations to be used for the women's liberation movement, and specifically for the bail fund. This demand did not contradict our total disrespect for all Hugh Hefner is and represents nor our belief in the necessity of ultimately offing him and the state which encouraged his exploits. We felt that at least by makig this demand at the beginning of the show, an exposure of the gut issues would have to follow.
We telephoned and attempted to personally contact the two women scheduled for appearance. However, they were nervous and turned on to their TV appearance., felling quite cooperative with the show and its aims partly because of the "niceness" of the woman, a Cavett employee, who had helped them get on the show. The women listened to our plans but agreed only to think about what we were going to do. They did not offer any tangible support.
The women's liberation contingent was treated as prelabelled freak extremists, as we had feared and expected. We were seated in the balcony without access to the stage. We were zeroed in on by male ushers hired to keep us from making extreme remarks and spontaneous comments. "Please," the ushers pleaded, "don't make trouble for us."
Our strategy became to get onto the first floor and at appropriate moments direct our voices, criticisms, and demands to the stage. We hoped afterwards to be brought onto the stage with the help of the women panelists. A lone sister, among the bunnies and their escorts who filled the first floor, was right on target with her well-placed comment: "You have been exploiting women, and we demand reparations." Sisters in the balcony and other women on the first floor joined her in yelling at the stage. The two women on the panel said nothing.
Later three of us tried again to reach Hefner and make our demands. During a commercial we tried to get onto the stage. A rush of ushers tried to keep us off. Again there was no response from the panel women, although we were barely 15 feet from them. There were scattered women's voices shouting, "Let them speak! Let them speak!" This action contined as the show went back on the air. A pig was called in to force the lone woman in front off the stage while ushers dealt with the others. We had no intention of getting arrested. To call attention to what was being done to us, the woman shouted out to the audience and over the air: "They are using guards and pigs here to drag us off for speaking, for asserting ourselves. This is a fascist country."
Hours later, after we left the theatre, we heard of the repudiation of "those militants" by our sisters.
It is wrong to blame what went down simply on the media. The media helped set the conditions and was destructive in bringing out our own divisiveness. We must make clear however that there are differences between us, and that these differences are serious political ones. Once the need for revolution for change is accepted, debate with the enemy is seen for what it is — futile, liberal engagements that tend to confuse and lose sight of real issues.

Women who lie down in dungheaps 
Get covered with shit. (arrow)
Paraphrase of old Chinese proverb
Good anywhere in Amerika.

On Tuesday night, May 26th, two sisters shared the stage with Super Pimp Hugh Hefner on the Dick Cavett Show while I sat there ag onizing for them and for the Women's Movement. This is the second time two of our sisters have dignified Hugh Hefner by appearing with him. A thoroughly bad move to begin with, it was compounded by the fact that the two spokeswomen, Holly and Diane, sat expressionless while their sisters called out from the audience and got dragged away by the pigs. When several of our sisters who had come to the studio called out to the stage, the only one on camera who responded was Dick Cavett—he threatened to throw them out and he did. Throughout this confrontation, Holly and Diane stared blankly off into the distance as if they'd been hypnotized by the bright lights. It looked like a parody of legendary female disloyalty. The all-too-familiar triangle—man on top, women divided below—was being glorified for the nation. It felt even more lousy than usual just sitting at home, watching it happen.
Holly and Diane ignored their sisters in favor of a word with their oppressor. The result of much conciousness-raising fell to pieces in the face of male oppression, and at the very least the image of female unity that we strive for was sacrificed. It just didn't do no good to ask sexist pigs to grant us their approval. We've got to think of better ways to get the word out.
I've heard some good arguments for abandoning the use of the male-dominated media altogether. We shouldn't see the kind of public confrontation that took place Tuesday night as a fair challenge when it always takes place on their terms and on their turf. But if circumstances were different—if we controlled the variables—we'd be reaching a lot of women who want to be reached. The interviewer, if not a woman, should at least be sympathetic and serious. We owe it to ourselves never to get defensive. We have a right to indignation. We have a right to be humorless—we're not entertainers. It's obvious we'll never argue our way to freedom on prime-time TV. Therefore, we've got to stop the male-dominated media from absorbing us. If we don't, we run the risk of remaining a dirty joke that elicits the uncertain laughter of defeated wives and girlfriends. As long as we continue to be intimidated nation-wide, women will continue to be dominated at home. Nights like Tuesday night fail women and set the struggle back.

[cartoon] Oink Oink Babe
D. Cavett
THE MEDIA

love & revolution to the RAT sisters & all sisters who forcibly prevented a video-tape "fuck-in" from being shown at the recent conference on alternative media.

[cartoon] Oink Oink 
Do it chick!!
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA?

Ain't I A Woman and many other publications by sisters around the country began as we felt a need for alternative media. We have to communicate without the constraints of the pig press where we've always had our page for recipes, fashions and advice on how to please a man.
Working conditions in the pig media demand that any woman who works there must accept a male definition of what women are and should be. Women who work as reporters work for the Man. Usually the man with the most contempt for women sits as their editor. Little wonder that the women survive by seeing themselves as exceptions.
The only thing that appears in the pig media for women is propaganda in its worst form, glorification of the social stereotypes that keep men happy and ridicule, vilification or pity for the women who don't live up (down) to those stereotypes.
Well, women in WL try not to live that way, but those reporters keep coming and we keep talking to them. Now we get women reporters but only because we refuse to talk to the male ones. We should learn from that. We don't need the pig media to sustain Women's Liberation because the pig media didn't create Women's Liberation.
Two ideas the media wouldn't know how to convey even if those ideas didn't so offend the values of the media pigs are that WL is made up of women who (1) are serious in a challenge to male authority and (2) like other women. Put those together and they're too much. And when WL women take part in media events they can make neither point. The constraints of the situation women have accepted won't allow those points to be made.
How can we believe any woman is serious who would sit to discuss her oppression with Dick Cavett and Hugh Hefner? The best that women can expect from such asituation is to come off as funny bunnies (or, more likely, strange pieces of ass).
So how do we get out of the Step-'N-Fetchit era with the media? (Because that's just where we are.) Surely not by working through the pig media. We work in other ways, through local WL groups, through our own media, until the pigs like Hefner and Cavett are afraid to enter the same room with WL women in the same way pig racists fear the very presence of Black Panthers.

8    Vol. 1 No. 2       [hand drawn arm]Ain't I

Saving...

Muckin/ with the Media The two articles below are reprinted from the June 5-19 issue of RAT. Some of us from the Women's Center, RAT, and the Women's House of Detention Bail Fund became aware only a few hours before the taping, of the appearance of two of our sisters from the Radical Feminists on the Dick Cavett Show with Hugh Hefner. At the time we were greatly concerned with bailing out Dionne Donghi before she would be extradicted to Buffalo the next morning. We questioned why the women wanted to appear on a show with Hugh Hefner. It seemed an obvious setup designed to turn debate into entertainment with total disregard for the gut issues of women's oppression and with total lack of seriousness for women's libertion as a political movement. Our contention was and is that there is no point to a discussion with a sexist system's symbol of rich man-pimp, hero-worshipped and successful for making his macho off the backs, tits, and asses of women. If at all, the only way to appear with Hefner, it seemed to me, is to treat him symbolically, as an enemy — to use the forum as a means of drawing out of him blatant remarks about his feelings towards women. In this way we could reach women in the immediate and remote audience. However, few of us are together enoug to be able to pull off such a confrontation. And there are understandable reasons why women are powerless in such situations. The show, like every other institution, was male-structured, and run in such a fashion as to force the women on the panel into playing by men's rules to communicate about their own oppression. It is difficult enough for a woman to confront a single man in an intimate relationship with her own feelings, and even more difficult for a woman to see herself as strong, articulate and serious enough to speak before an audience. Furthermore the glamorous and frightening TV image depends on personality for the projection of ideas, and on the ability to talk and respond to two males well-prepared and versed in their roles. The odds are clearly against the woman. We felt a solidarity with the women as our sisters and we went to the Cavett studio to support them, but also to ask for their support. What we wanted support for was our decision to use this opportunity to confront Hefner with a demand for reparations — reparations owed us for his abuse of women as sex objects, reparations to be used for the women's liberation movement, and specifically for the bail fund. This demand did not contradict our total disrespect for all Hugh Hefner is and represents nor our belief in the necessity of ultimately offing him and the state which encouraged his exploits. We felt that at least by makig this demand at the beginning of the show, an exposure of the gut issues would have to follow. We telephoned and attempted to personally contact the two women scheduled for appearance. However, they were nervous and turned on to their TV appearance., felling quite cooperative with the show and its aims partly because of the "niceness" of the woman, a Cavett employee, who had helped them get on the show. The women listened to our plans but agreed only to think about what we were going to do. They did not offer any tangible support. The women's liberation contingent was treated as prelabelled freak extremists, as we had feared and expected. We were seated in the balcony without access to the stage. We were zeroed in on by male ushers hired to keep us from making extreme remarks and spontaneous comments. "Please," the ushers pleaded, "don't make trouble for us." Our strategy became to get onto the first floor and at appropriate moments direct our voices, criticisms, and demands to the stage. We hoped afterwards to be brought onto the stage with the help of the women panelists. A lone sister, among the bunnies and their escorts who filled the first floor, was right on target with her well-placed comment: "You have been exploiting women, and we demand reparations." Sisters in the balcony and other women on the first floor joined her in yelling at the stage. The two women on the panel said nothing. Later three of us tried again to reach Hefner and make our demands. During a commercial we tried to get onto the stage. A rush of ushers tried to keep us off. Again there was no response from the panel women, although we were barely 15 feet from them. There were scattered women's voices shouting, "Let them speak! Let them speak!" This action contined as the show went back on the air. A pig was called in to force the lone woman in front off the stage while ushers dealt with the others. We had no intention of getting arrested. To call attention to what was being done to us, the woman shouted out to the audience and over the air: "They are using guards and pigs here to drag us off for speaking, for asserting ourselves. This is a fascist country." Hours later, after we left the theatre, we heard of the repudiation of "those militants" by our sisters. It is wrong to blame what went down simply on the media. The media helped set the conditions and was destructive in bringing out our own divisiveness. We must make clear however that there are differences between us, and that these differences are serious political ones. Once the need for revolution for change is accepted, debate with the enemy is seen for what it is — futile, liberal engagements that tend to confuse and lose sight of real issues. Women who lie down in dungheaps Get covered with shit. (arrow) Paraphrase of old Chinese proverb Good anywhere in Amerika. On Tuesday night, May 26th, two sisters shared the stage with Super Pimp Hugh Hefner on the Dick Cavett Show while I sat there ag onizing for them and for the Women's Movement. This is the second time two of our sisters have dignified Hugh Hefner by appearing with him. A thoroughly bad move to begin with, it was compounded by the fact that the two spokeswomen, Holly and Diane, sat expressionless while their sisters called out from the audience and got dragged away by the pigs. When several of our sisters who had come to the studio called out to the stage, the only one on camera who responded was Dick Cavett—he threatened to throw them out and he did. Throughout this confrontation, Holly and Diane stared blankly off into the distance as if they'd been hypnotized by the bright lights. It looked like a parody of legendary female disloyalty. The all-too-familiar triangle—man on top, women divided below—was being glorified for the nation. It felt even more lousy than usual just sitting at home, watching it happen. Holly and Diane ignored their sisters in favor of a word with their oppressor. The result of much conciousness-raising fell to pieces in the face of male oppression, and at the very least the image of female unity that we strive for was sacrificed. It just didn't do no good to ask sexist pigs to grant us their approval. We've got to think of better ways to get the word out. I've heard some good arguments for abandoning the use of the male-dominated media altogether. We shouldn't see the kind of public confrontation that took place Tuesday night as a fair challenge when it always takes place on their terms and on their turf. But if circumstances were different—if we controlled the variables—we'd be reaching a lot of women who want to be reached. The interviewer, if not a woman, should at least be sympathetic and serious. We owe it to ourselves never to get defensive. We have a right to indignation. We have a right to be humorless—we're not entertainers. It's obvious we'll never argue our way to freedom on prime-time TV. Therefore, we've got to stop the male-dominated media from absorbing us. If we don't, we run the risk of remaining a dirty joke that elicits the uncertain laughter of defeated wives and girlfriends. As long as we continue to be intimidated nation-wide, women will continue to be dominated at home. Nights like Tuesday night fail women and set the struggle back. [cartoon] Oink Oink Babe D. Cavett THE MEDIA love & revolution to the RAT sisters & all sisters who forcibly prevented a video-tape "fuck-in" from being shown at the recent conference on alternative media. [cartoon] Oink Oink Do it chick!! ALTERNATIVE MEDIA? Ain't I A Woman and many other publications by sisters around the country began as we felt a need for alternative media. We have to communicate without the constraints of the pig press where we've always had our page for recipes, fashions and advice on how to please a man. Working conditions in the pig media demand that any woman who works there must accept a male definition of what women are and should be. Women who work as reporters work for the Man. Usually the man with the most contempt for women sits as their editor. Little wonder that the women survive by seeing themselves as exceptions. The only thing that appears in the pig media for women is propaganda in its worst form, glorification of the social stereotypes that keep men happy and ridicule, vilification or pity for the women who don't live up (down) to those stereotypes. Well, women in WL try not to live that way, but those reporters keep coming and we keep talking to them. Now we get women reporters but only because we refuse to talk to the male ones. We should learn from that. We don't need the pig media to sustain Women's Liberation because the pig media didn't create Women's Liberation. Two ideas the media wouldn't know how to convey even if those ideas didn't so offend the values of the media pigs are that WL is made up of women who (1) are serious in a challenge to male authority and (2) like other women. Put those together and they're too much. And when WL women take part in media events they can make neither point. The constraints of the situation women have accepted won't allow those points to be made. How can we believe any woman is serious who would sit to discuss her oppression with Dick Cavett and Hugh Hefner? The best that women can expect from such asituation is to come off as funny bunnies (or, more likely, strange pieces of ass). So how do we get out of the Step-'N-Fetchit era with the media? (Because that's just where we are.) Surely not by working through the pig media. We work in other ways, through local WL groups, through our own media, until the pigs like Hefner and Cavett are afraid to enter the same room with WL women in the same way pig racists fear the very presence of Black Panthers. 8 Vol. 1 No. 2 [hand drawn arm]Ain't I