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

1970-07-24 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 10

I have a strange reaction when I travel from Iowa City to somewhere else -- especially supposedly more important places:  I want to brag. Or have our actions or our words show these Easterners how together Iowa City Women's Liberation is. Then I wonder if all this isn't elitist and I get all mixed up. 
But when we went to NYC a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that it wasn't elitist at all --just a reaction to being ignored. When the sisters go to a meeting or something in a big city, and tell where we're from, the reaction we get is: "My goodness, Iowa City! Isn't that wonderful."(meaning: Wow, I didn't think they had even heard about Women's Liberation in Iowa.) So no wonder I sit through the meeting trying to think of something heavy to say so everyone knows that we think about all this stuff too. 
I guess it was wrong to go to NYC looking for answers as I probably subconsciously did. They, however, would never think of coming to Iowa City for answers. Anyway, I went to NYC with two purposes in mind: to see what Gay Liberation Front is into and to observe how the RAT collective is having more trouble working collectively than we are, and are even wondering if they should continue to print. (You should. We all love RAT.) The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Days were nice but not very well organized and we could have learned a lot if there had been workshops planned. My reaction was that we should have a conference and show'em how it's done. But, of course, nobody from the East would come because they'd probably think all we'd do is pick corn. 

BIG CITY  LITTLE CITY
[3 photos]

People who are involved in WL in small cities seem to have some preconceived notions about people in WL in large cities and vice versa. Certainly the problems, methods of communication, organizing tactics, etc. vary depending on the size and character of the area. After having been involved in WLF in Iowa City for nearly a year and making a short visit to New York to see more of the people in WL there, some of the differences are very clear. 
In the first place, women from smaller cities can easily fall into feeling that they are less obvious than sisters and groups from big cities. Usually the national media features groups and actions which happening in places like New York, Washington, Chicago, etc. We sympathize with sisters from those places who have to put up with the pig press, Dick Cavett, and the rest of the gang. After having been through a few encounters with some people, we've seen that dealing with the straight press has been a real drag. 
Perhaps one of the most dangerous mind-fucks in this country is the notion that everything that's  "anything" happens on the coasts. It's the kind of myth that romanticizes those far away places and the people who live there. I think many sisters must feel that they are like imitations of what's happening in the big cities or following the lead of bigger or more well known places. Most often this isn't the case. Out of thus comes the idea that we may not be quite as politically together as sisters in other places.
For a long time, most of the literature that was around just reinforced this mythical regional elitism. Most publications came out of the big cities. I can see the possibility of sisters from more obscure places lacking the confidence or the facilities to begin circulating their ideas in the movement. The development of women's underground papers have helped quite a lot since we've had a chance to read what other women are into and see that in relation to our own groups. Papers like the liberated RAT, Off Our Backs, It Ain't Me Babe and now Ain't A Women? have been lifelines to isolated groups in small towns. In the past, there were times of not really seeing many signs of a mass movement or any support at all. 
The trip to N.Y. did a lot to clear up a lot of mistaken notions, both for us and for the sisters from N.Y. First of all, we were living proof that there is WL in Iowa City and all over the midwest and that we're into the same things that N.Y. is. And the trip was a high for us-- to know that we aren't running behind, trying to catch up with people, that we're struggling at pretty much the same levels as people from big cities. 

Most important to remember is the fact that we want to wage a revolution. Just how we do this is crucial. Those of us working in smaller communities often have more time and comfort to work out a lot of stuff that gets lost in the tensions and busyness of large cities. Our contribution in this was will be a valid one. I don't think that we should lose sight of the fact that walking to and from our business we do not see ghettos, that we have lots of white frame and green, and that we have more time to work out a lot of personal things uninterrupted by sisters or brothers being busted everyday, by political schisms, or difficult communication problems. This is a privilege we have. We can use it well by doing what has to be done that our sisters in large cities may find impossible or we can indulge ourselves in a privilege we have little right to. 

Once when freaking out on having absorbed too many people's frustrations including my own, I started walking. Each building that stood so staunchly before me, appeared sterile. They seemed to compensate for something someone wanted and could not have. All the structures seemed stripped back to frustrations-- and the atmosphere made me feel I'd landed on another planet. 
Maybe those are the terrors of a city person, as I come from the east, N.Y., where you can't touch anything without considering first the shit that might cover it-- but it was something more basic. Survival in the city stems from largely different kinds of needs. Like nature, the city is unpredictably destructive. Some mugging at the corner. Yet that kind of survival depends on avoidance rather than nourishment. And to do that you must never let anyone know what your weaknesses are or they'll beat you more. Respect, your own and everyone else's, depends on holding yourself together and keeping enclosed. Pride becomes the name of the container--I can keep everything in and no one's finger will touch the cracks in my soul. That leads to a value of personality based on virile strength-- I am better than that which I conquer--myself. 
But hell, I don't like those types of people, or the parts of myself that are like that. More concerned finally in hiding the cracks than showing the positive side of self. But what of the country. A friend of mine from the west once said country people know there are things a person can't fight--when the ocean's rough you don't go against it, you follow it's lead. And that applies to people. They need to fight themselves and one another less because they are more directly concerned with their own and their friend's survival. The body and the mind's motion is directly attuned to the process and goal of the action. Calling this "real" connection or "wholeness" belittles it, and to some extent I have a tendency to romanticize the quality of self motion in cooperation with a process and an end that I see in country people. Besides, people look more together from the outside than they in fact feel--so for me to say they talk more with actions and their bodies than with words is not quite right. None of that's quite it, and I'm rather confused as is obvious, about the difference. 
Which leads to the knack both city and country people have of being intimidated by the other. City people often think country people are more together or else too dense to understand them and subtler things. Country people think city people are interested in abstractions that mean little or nothing or else that the city people see something they are missing--that they have imagination. At least I have watched such games be seriously played by city and country people. It finally becomes ridiculous each trying to justify their own life in what they consider to be the other person's terms. So I think it difficult for each to adapt to the other style of life, for each existence calls the value of the other into question. But I think people will become less uptight when they no longer think the other person's additional vision has led them to perceive the appropriate value system. For finally nobody has the foggiest idea, least of all city people who make up their rules with their fertile imagination. 

10     Vol.1 No.3  [hand drawn arm] Ain't I

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I have a strange reaction when I travel from Iowa City to somewhere else -- especially supposedly more important places: I want to brag. Or have our actions or our words show these Easterners how together Iowa City Women's Liberation is. Then I wonder if all this isn't elitist and I get all mixed up. But when we went to NYC a couple of weeks ago, I discovered that it wasn't elitist at all --just a reaction to being ignored. When the sisters go to a meeting or something in a big city, and tell where we're from, the reaction we get is: "My goodness, Iowa City! Isn't that wonderful."(meaning: Wow, I didn't think they had even heard about Women's Liberation in Iowa.) So no wonder I sit through the meeting trying to think of something heavy to say so everyone knows that we think about all this stuff too. I guess it was wrong to go to NYC looking for answers as I probably subconsciously did. They, however, would never think of coming to Iowa City for answers. Anyway, I went to NYC with two purposes in mind: to see what Gay Liberation Front is into and to observe how the RAT collective is having more trouble working collectively than we are, and are even wondering if they should continue to print. (You should. We all love RAT.) The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Days were nice but not very well organized and we could have learned a lot if there had been workshops planned. My reaction was that we should have a conference and show'em how it's done. But, of course, nobody from the East would come because they'd probably think all we'd do is pick corn. BIG CITY LITTLE CITY [3 photos] People who are involved in WL in small cities seem to have some preconceived notions about people in WL in large cities and vice versa. Certainly the problems, methods of communication, organizing tactics, etc. vary depending on the size and character of the area. After having been involved in WLF in Iowa City for nearly a year and making a short visit to New York to see more of the people in WL there, some of the differences are very clear. In the first place, women from smaller cities can easily fall into feeling that they are less obvious than sisters and groups from big cities. Usually the national media features groups and actions which happening in places like New York, Washington, Chicago, etc. We sympathize with sisters from those places who have to put up with the pig press, Dick Cavett, and the rest of the gang. After having been through a few encounters with some people, we've seen that dealing with the straight press has been a real drag. Perhaps one of the most dangerous mind-fucks in this country is the notion that everything that's "anything" happens on the coasts. It's the kind of myth that romanticizes those far away places and the people who live there. I think many sisters must feel that they are like imitations of what's happening in the big cities or following the lead of bigger or more well known places. Most often this isn't the case. Out of thus comes the idea that we may not be quite as politically together as sisters in other places. For a long time, most of the literature that was around just reinforced this mythical regional elitism. Most publications came out of the big cities. I can see the possibility of sisters from more obscure places lacking the confidence or the facilities to begin circulating their ideas in the movement. The development of women's underground papers have helped quite a lot since we've had a chance to read what other women are into and see that in relation to our own groups. Papers like the liberated RAT, Off Our Backs, It Ain't Me Babe and now Ain't A Women? have been lifelines to isolated groups in small towns. In the past, there were times of not really seeing many signs of a mass movement or any support at all. The trip to N.Y. did a lot to clear up a lot of mistaken notions, both for us and for the sisters from N.Y. First of all, we were living proof that there is WL in Iowa City and all over the midwest and that we're into the same things that N.Y. is. And the trip was a high for us-- to know that we aren't running behind, trying to catch up with people, that we're struggling at pretty much the same levels as people from big cities. Most important to remember is the fact that we want to wage a revolution. Just how we do this is crucial. Those of us working in smaller communities often have more time and comfort to work out a lot of stuff that gets lost in the tensions and busyness of large cities. Our contribution in this was will be a valid one. I don't think that we should lose sight of the fact that walking to and from our business we do not see ghettos, that we have lots of white frame and green, and that we have more time to work out a lot of personal things uninterrupted by sisters or brothers being busted everyday, by political schisms, or difficult communication problems. This is a privilege we have. We can use it well by doing what has to be done that our sisters in large cities may find impossible or we can indulge ourselves in a privilege we have little right to. Once when freaking out on having absorbed too many people's frustrations including my own, I started walking. Each building that stood so staunchly before me, appeared sterile. They seemed to compensate for something someone wanted and could not have. All the structures seemed stripped back to frustrations-- and the atmosphere made me feel I'd landed on another planet. Maybe those are the terrors of a city person, as I come from the east, N.Y., where you can't touch anything without considering first the shit that might cover it-- but it was something more basic. Survival in the city stems from largely different kinds of needs. Like nature, the city is unpredictably destructive. Some mugging at the corner. Yet that kind of survival depends on avoidance rather than nourishment. And to do that you must never let anyone know what your weaknesses are or they'll beat you more. Respect, your own and everyone else's, depends on holding yourself together and keeping enclosed. Pride becomes the name of the container--I can keep everything in and no one's finger will touch the cracks in my soul. That leads to a value of personality based on virile strength-- I am better than that which I conquer--myself. But hell, I don't like those types of people, or the parts of myself that are like that. More concerned finally in hiding the cracks than showing the positive side of self. But what of the country. A friend of mine from the west once said country people know there are things a person can't fight--when the ocean's rough you don't go against it, you follow it's lead. And that applies to people. They need to fight themselves and one another less because they are more directly concerned with their own and their friend's survival. The body and the mind's motion is directly attuned to the process and goal of the action. Calling this "real" connection or "wholeness" belittles it, and to some extent I have a tendency to romanticize the quality of self motion in cooperation with a process and an end that I see in country people. Besides, people look more together from the outside than they in fact feel--so for me to say they talk more with actions and their bodies than with words is not quite right. None of that's quite it, and I'm rather confused as is obvious, about the difference. Which leads to the knack both city and country people have of being intimidated by the other. City people often think country people are more together or else too dense to understand them and subtler things. Country people think city people are interested in abstractions that mean little or nothing or else that the city people see something they are missing--that they have imagination. At least I have watched such games be seriously played by city and country people. It finally becomes ridiculous each trying to justify their own life in what they consider to be the other person's terms. So I think it difficult for each to adapt to the other style of life, for each existence calls the value of the other into question. But I think people will become less uptight when they no longer think the other person's additional vision has led them to perceive the appropriate value system. For finally nobody has the foggiest idea, least of all city people who make up their rules with their fertile imagination. 10 Vol.1 No.3 [hand drawn arm] Ain't I