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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-10-30 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 2
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To Our Readers We have decided to start publishing the paper every three weeks instead of every 2nd and 4th Friday. It is the quickest collective decision we have ever come to. We all found a two-week publishing schedule grueling. It wore us out physically and left us functioning with limited spirit, creativity, not to mention our mental awareness. We are hoping that we can use the extra time to put out a better paper, to talk to and learn from each other with less pressure, and to be engaged in other Women's Liberation work beside publishing so that our relationship to the women's movement is not limited to only writing about it. Our apologies to the seven beautiful sisters who collectively wrote the article on the Panther Constitution Convention, which we reprinted on p. 4 of our last issue, for not listing their names as they had requested. The names that should have appeared are: Marlene Elkin Donna Gottschalk Lois Hart Brenda Howard Arlene Kisner Debbie Muldovan Shoshana From Our Readers October 7 Lansing, Mich. Dear Sisters, Just sending you some thoughts on homosexuality. Our red sisters have said that homosexual relationships have an oppressed and an oppressor. This is true. But the fault does not lie in homosexuality itself. Oppressed and oppressors are the conditions of feudalism, capitalism, and imperialism. Sex in and of itself has no politics. Only people have politics. Why men become "homosexuals" is unclear to me. What I'm trying to say is I don't have a material analysis for why men do and I don't care much. Why do women prefer trying their luck with other women? First of all men in general don't know the first thing about the anatomy of women. Second man after man after man has freaked out either because I was sexual - meaning I could have an orgasm - or because I didn't need their dick to have an orgasm. In either case men have employed subtle techniques to make me feel odd, strange, queer, psychologically fucked-up, inferior, or just plain dumb - just because I behave the way I do. Men are dull because "women couldn't possibly understand or have an equal interchange." Men are always aggressive or else they feel they've been castrated because a woman refuses them, initiates the sexual play, or is preoccupied by other thoughts or rhythms. In other words they are castrated by bitches. Hence you get the term bitchy women. And what good does the man do for a family besides bringing home an income that is denied women through discrimination. The more demanding and bastardly the man is the more upitty and castrating the woman is. Hence you get the term bitchy mother. So women of all kinds of politics and backgrounds become homosexuals. Mao Tse Tung has repeatedly said a good communist makes a material analysis and acts on that material analysis. It is obvious that the Red Women's Detachment has made an intellectual analysis and not a material analysis. Mao Tse Tung also said that the relationship of oppressor against oppressed, (white against black, man against woman, homosexual against homosexual, landlord against tenant, grocer against customer) is an economic condition of imperialist capitalism, and feudalism. Mao said oppression is not human nature and I'll say oppression is not sexual nature. In America there are female homosexuals who are heads of families. By definition a female head of the house in America is poor and oppressed, whether she is heterosexual, homosexual, asexual, actively homosexual, inactively homosexual, or doesn't have the time to give a damn about her sexuality. Mao Tse Tung said to find "the poor and the tired" and of them build people's associations. He didn't say to exclude homosexuals, hetersexuals, or asexuals. He didn't say a damn thing about sexuals. "It is dogmatism to approach Marxism from a metaphysical point of view and to regard it as something rigid. It is revisionism to negate the basic principles (one being materialism) of Marxism and to negate its universal truth. Both dogmatism and revisionism run counter to Marxism." GLF is revolutionary if it is a people's association built of the poor and the tired, led by the poor and the tired, and with a main goal of setting up a people's government that ends all oppression. As for myself I am a woman, I refuse to define myself as a sexual object. I let whomever meets, sees or hears me have whatever sexual fantasies about me they want. And I'm sure that some of the RWD women will have incredible anti-women fantasies about me. As for the RWD remember the word lesbian came from the white bourgeois male as well as the concept of homosexuality you use, as well as the concept of heterosexuality prevalent in America 1970. In struggle forever another Midwest sister Sally P.S. Day Care Centers will be the battle grounds of women's liberation and a certain part of the revolutions. Universities all over the country are going to take advantage of the WL movement to exploit more families and condition more children. The hottest thing in the Universities today is Behavioral Science named after B.F. Skinner. Skinner's thing was feeding a dog after ringing a bell - it got so all he had to do was ring the bell without food and the dog would salivate a physical chemical reaction besides a mental reaction. Behavioral Science in Day Care means fruit-loops to hungry, poor kinds if they're good. And up to solitary confinement for those that are bad. Done well enough it will condition 3 and 4 year olds not only mentally but also physically and chemically. Dear Sisters, We first saw your right-on paper, not in the midwest but in New York City, where we had gone to see what the women of the revolution were up to there. It was the issue that talked about your trip to NYC and your experiences and alienations there, and we felt instant love and solidarity. We too felt that the revolution is as much here as "there" and we need a stronger self-confidence in our own perceptions. We also got great energy from the community work of the Young Lords, and trips are certainly a good way to learn, but the real work is here at home. I am studying to be a nurse at Lansing Community College because I feel that health care is revolutionary and crucial. I would like to get in touch with other women who are either hospital workers, nursing students and in any area of the health services to talk about the kind of experiences they've had and what they have learned. Also any free clinics that have been set up in the midwest. I am trying to compile an article on Revolutionary Health Care and thought I can go on for HOURS about what's fucked-up about capitalist health care. I need more info. about what's been tried in other directions. Last year at LCC a friend and I publicized a Women's Liberation meeting and four women came. This year we tried again and over twenty came. We are still very shy but we are gaining strength by knowing we are not alone. ...we are not alone. MacGregor Eddy 907 West Shaiwassee Lansing, Michigan 48933 Dear Sisters, I've just finished Vol. 1, No. 5, the 2nd issue of Ain't I A Woman? that I've come across and had to write - tell you it's outa-site - and wanna get a subscription starting from Vol. 1, No. 1. The paper reads so much together, & the articles are really so stimulating (God, it all sounds so cliche-d!) but true. We publish The Pedestal here in Vancouver. I don't know if you know about, but suspect we have an exchange sub, because one issue I read of AIAW was down at the office. We'd love to hear any comments, criticisms, suggestions etc. -- and in the meantime, keep on truckin. Sisterly, Patty Hoffer To our readers: The Pedestal is put out by Vancouver Women's Liberation, 307 W. Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. AIAW 2 Vol. 1 No. 8 Ain't I
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To Our Readers We have decided to start publishing the paper every three weeks instead of every 2nd and 4th Friday. It is the quickest collective decision we have ever come to. We all found a two-week publishing schedule grueling. It wore us out physically and left us functioning with limited spirit, creativity, not to mention our mental awareness. We are hoping that we can use the extra time to put out a better paper, to talk to and learn from each other with less pressure, and to be engaged in other Women's Liberation work beside publishing so that our relationship to the women's movement is not limited to only writing about it. Our apologies to the seven beautiful sisters who collectively wrote the article on the Panther Constitution Convention, which we reprinted on p. 4 of our last issue, for not listing their names as they had requested. The names that should have appeared are: Marlene Elkin Donna Gottschalk Lois Hart Brenda Howard Arlene Kisner Debbie Muldovan Shoshana From Our Readers October 7 Lansing, Mich. Dear Sisters, Just sending you some thoughts on homosexuality. Our red sisters have said that homosexual relationships have an oppressed and an oppressor. This is true. But the fault does not lie in homosexuality itself. Oppressed and oppressors are the conditions of feudalism, capitalism, and imperialism. Sex in and of itself has no politics. Only people have politics. Why men become "homosexuals" is unclear to me. What I'm trying to say is I don't have a material analysis for why men do and I don't care much. Why do women prefer trying their luck with other women? First of all men in general don't know the first thing about the anatomy of women. Second man after man after man has freaked out either because I was sexual - meaning I could have an orgasm - or because I didn't need their dick to have an orgasm. In either case men have employed subtle techniques to make me feel odd, strange, queer, psychologically fucked-up, inferior, or just plain dumb - just because I behave the way I do. Men are dull because "women couldn't possibly understand or have an equal interchange." Men are always aggressive or else they feel they've been castrated because a woman refuses them, initiates the sexual play, or is preoccupied by other thoughts or rhythms. In other words they are castrated by bitches. Hence you get the term bitchy women. And what good does the man do for a family besides bringing home an income that is denied women through discrimination. The more demanding and bastardly the man is the more upitty and castrating the woman is. Hence you get the term bitchy mother. So women of all kinds of politics and backgrounds become homosexuals. Mao Tse Tung has repeatedly said a good communist makes a material analysis and acts on that material analysis. It is obvious that the Red Women's Detachment has made an intellectual analysis and not a material analysis. Mao Tse Tung also said that the relationship of oppressor against oppressed, (white against black, man against woman, homosexual against homosexual, landlord against tenant, grocer against customer) is an economic condition of imperialist capitalism, and feudalism. Mao said oppression is not human nature and I'll say oppression is not sexual nature. In America there are female homosexuals who are heads of families. By definition a female head of the house in America is poor and oppressed, whether she is heterosexual, homosexual, asexual, actively homosexual, inactively homosexual, or doesn't have the time to give a damn about her sexuality. Mao Tse Tung said to find "the poor and the tired" and of them build people's associations. He didn't say to exclude homosexuals, hetersexuals, or asexuals. He didn't say a damn thing about sexuals. "It is dogmatism to approach Marxism from a metaphysical point of view and to regard it as something rigid. It is revisionism to negate the basic principles (one being materialism) of Marxism and to negate its universal truth. Both dogmatism and revisionism run counter to Marxism." GLF is revolutionary if it is a people's association built of the poor and the tired, led by the poor and the tired, and with a main goal of setting up a people's government that ends all oppression. As for myself I am a woman, I refuse to define myself as a sexual object. I let whomever meets, sees or hears me have whatever sexual fantasies about me they want. And I'm sure that some of the RWD women will have incredible anti-women fantasies about me. As for the RWD remember the word lesbian came from the white bourgeois male as well as the concept of homosexuality you use, as well as the concept of heterosexuality prevalent in America 1970. In struggle forever another Midwest sister Sally P.S. Day Care Centers will be the battle grounds of women's liberation and a certain part of the revolutions. Universities all over the country are going to take advantage of the WL movement to exploit more families and condition more children. The hottest thing in the Universities today is Behavioral Science named after B.F. Skinner. Skinner's thing was feeding a dog after ringing a bell - it got so all he had to do was ring the bell without food and the dog would salivate a physical chemical reaction besides a mental reaction. Behavioral Science in Day Care means fruit-loops to hungry, poor kinds if they're good. And up to solitary confinement for those that are bad. Done well enough it will condition 3 and 4 year olds not only mentally but also physically and chemically. Dear Sisters, We first saw your right-on paper, not in the midwest but in New York City, where we had gone to see what the women of the revolution were up to there. It was the issue that talked about your trip to NYC and your experiences and alienations there, and we felt instant love and solidarity. We too felt that the revolution is as much here as "there" and we need a stronger self-confidence in our own perceptions. We also got great energy from the community work of the Young Lords, and trips are certainly a good way to learn, but the real work is here at home. I am studying to be a nurse at Lansing Community College because I feel that health care is revolutionary and crucial. I would like to get in touch with other women who are either hospital workers, nursing students and in any area of the health services to talk about the kind of experiences they've had and what they have learned. Also any free clinics that have been set up in the midwest. I am trying to compile an article on Revolutionary Health Care and thought I can go on for HOURS about what's fucked-up about capitalist health care. I need more info. about what's been tried in other directions. Last year at LCC a friend and I publicized a Women's Liberation meeting and four women came. This year we tried again and over twenty came. We are still very shy but we are gaining strength by knowing we are not alone. ...we are not alone. MacGregor Eddy 907 West Shaiwassee Lansing, Michigan 48933 Dear Sisters, I've just finished Vol. 1, No. 5, the 2nd issue of Ain't I A Woman? that I've come across and had to write - tell you it's outa-site - and wanna get a subscription starting from Vol. 1, No. 1. The paper reads so much together, & the articles are really so stimulating (God, it all sounds so cliche-d!) but true. We publish The Pedestal here in Vancouver. I don't know if you know about, but suspect we have an exchange sub, because one issue I read of AIAW was down at the office. We'd love to hear any comments, criticisms, suggestions etc. -- and in the meantime, keep on truckin. Sisterly, Patty Hoffer To our readers: The Pedestal is put out by Vancouver Women's Liberation, 307 W. Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. AIAW 2 Vol. 1 No. 8 Ain't I
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