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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1971-04-02 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 10
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haNOi to HOBOKen, a ROUnd Trip ticKet. [written in magazine cut outs] Off Our Backs: Box 4859, Cleveland Park Station, Washington D.C. 20008. Why the persistent enthusiasm for far away places and distant struggles with imperialism? Why travel to Hanoi when you can go to Hoboken and see the same show? Granted the costumes are native, the accents, New Jersey, the exotic touch is missing and you won't get napalm for an encore but the plot is still the same: Oppression. There are a number of reasons why Hanoi fascinates so many women in our movement and why Hoboken is definitely a drag. Visiting Hanoi or Havana and writing articles on such a visit is one way to legitimatize our movement through participation in those areas that the white, middle class, male-left movement has designated as legitimate. It shows that we women are reaching out beyond what the male left defines as "Women's issues" to what they define as the "important" issues. Women's issues are not important. It is inconceivable to think of a male left heavy going to Hoboken to study how lack of children care facilities oppresses poor women. I am not for one minute announcing that U.S. imperialism is not a concern of the Women's Liberation Movement. The struggle of our Vietnamese sisters is anything but frivolous, but the way in which many American women approach that struggle is both imitative and frivolous. When our Vietnamese sisters throw out the invader they will have yet another way on their hands, the war against sexism in their own society. But right now those women are fighting for their lives. Here in Amerika many women are also fighting for their lives, there are no bombers but the struggle is just as relentless and deadly-- we are the poor, the Black, the Latin and the Lesbian. We aren't exotic and we aren't remotely glamorous. The male left is not concerned with us although it will make token statement for the benefit of Black males concerning racism (the Black woman is supposedly incorporated in the Black male.) By flying to Hanoi, you win the attention of the male left. By working in Hoboken you attract no attention at all and by working with Lesbians you are quickly dismissed as irrelevant and sick. Another reason why Hanoi is such a beacon for revolutionary moths: you can return to the U.S. and rip off the liberals with speaking tours, books, movies, etc. on your experiences there. That's not to say that all who go to Hanoi are rip offs, nor are all who go eager for male left approval, but enough are to make it a problem. Unfortunately, poverty and woman oppression are not so lucrative a profession despite recent attempts by the establishment media to cash in on these oppressions. If you worked in Hoboken, who would be grateful but he women in Hoboken--women who have no power to bestow prestige or money on anyone. What I am getting at is this: It's easier to worry about far away problems than our problems here at home. Not only is it easy, it's comfortable because the problems here at home might possible be cleared up if we worked at clearing them up. How far would Ho Chi Minh have gotten if he had run all over the globe to witness other forms of imperialism? By concentrating on imperialism abroad we use quatities of energy that could be used here, like setting up health clinics. In other words, the priorities of the anti-imperialist women are ass backwards. For example, [underline: off our backs], a feminist newspaper, ran a special issue on Women and Imperialism on December 31, 1970. Most issues of this paper (after the initial six issues) carry some article on the subject of women and imperialism. Has there been a special issue on Lesbianism? Articles in most issues? Plain, flat, ugly, No. What about Black women? Latin women? Poor women? It's not fair to single out [underline: off our backs], most of the other papers and magazines are the same. Our feminist media is young and wobbly and because of that many of the articles in the big city papers such as [underline: oob and Rat] have been in those areas that male politics have considered important. The other papers and magazines not contaminated by male left politics confined themselves to heterosexual interest. The media is simply a reflection of the white, middle class, straight bias of the Women's Liberation Movement itself. Imperialism begins at home. The best place to fight imperialism is at its center. Let's stab the monster in its heart rather than slapping its fingertips. Imperialism, racism and the attendant disregard for human life (change that to all forms of life) spring from sexism. Way back in the dim mists of prehistory when men beat down, degraded and enslaved women he clearly showed his career preferences. In degrading woman he degraded himself. Once the initial inhumanity was committed it was a simple matter to progress step by step to today, History is man remembering the subsequent degradations of other men over time. He degraded us at such an early age that he has practically forgotten it and derives little satisfaction from it in a political sense although he gets a great deal out of it personally. The real glory is in shitting on other men. To fight The Man we don't need to go to Hanoi, we fight him right here. Let's be clear in our priorities ideologically (pragmatics will follow later in the paper) and focus our energies on the destruction of sexism rather than scatter our energies all over the globe on the later stages of sexism known as imperialism. By fighting here, which is the current international center of the latter stages of sexism known as imperialism, we help our Vietnamese sisters. Any attention we can draw away from our sisters gives them more time to breathe. In practical terms, we cannot do more. We cannot launch an [a mada?] to join them in combat. We can express solidarity, which we have done, and we can do our best to keep in communication with our Vietnamese sisters, relating their experiences and struggle to American women and vice versa. It does us and the Vietnamese women no good if we join the male left in desultory protest. Women have tried that for a number of years and the government's response is the dreary, well known, no response. Uncle Sam knows how to ward off anti-imperialists, after all he's had nearly 200 years experience. But he's got his arms up fighting the NLF abroad and protestors at home, let's grab him in the crotch and make him howl. Vietnamese women understand that howl. They told Charlotte Bunch when she visited Viet Nam in 1970 that Amerikan women must exercise power. The cruel irony is that the Vietnamese women take us more seriously than we take ourselves. An isn't that the key to woman oppression: We have internalized The Man's definition of women and do not take ourselves seriously. Neither do we take other women seriously so we shit on the Lesbian who in many cases does take other women seriously. We write a lot and talk a lot and we cry a lot. Unless I am complete,y without perception, i don't think writing, talking and crying have yet produced a mass movement of political power. I'd like to present what I believe are the first steps to political power. Since I am only one woman I can hardly present this as a comprehensive program in the first phase of our revolution If this remains my idea then it isn't even a first step, it's a retreat form responsibility. If the ideas spark further ideas in your head and you share it and build with other women, then we will all get somewhere. I: [underline: WORK PROJECTS] Women with economic privilege whether straight or lesbian, Black or white o Latin, should organize to meet the survival needs of women without economic privilege. This means food distribution centers, self-defense programs and halfway houses for women in transition or without adequate housing. If you have special skills such as editorial abilities, mechanical or medical knowledge, anything, set up a teaching program and share it. These projects will take time and work as well as patience and understanding with yourself. The women whose needs you will be meeting may have no feminist consciousness at all. Don't look down on them. It's hard to have consciousness of anything when you are hungry. You will need great deal of patience with yourself to really get in touch with this kind of oppression and why you have ignored it in the past. Together with these work projects foes structured, disciplined consciousness raising. This process helps women get in touch with their distinctive oppression. The Black woman learns to understand racism in a political sense rather than just in a personal sense. She can begin to see the intimate connection between racism and sexism through testimony with her sisters. The Lesbian recognizes Lesbian oppression from male culture and from heterosexual women. She begins to understand how this supposed individual trait, choice of sex partner and life style, is an attack on the Amerikan political structure. And so it goes, each woman learns from another woman how her particular life is a reflection of and a response to the dominant, white, rich, male culture and after that the sub-culture she herself lives in. Each woman learns that her life is a political life and by examining that life each woman learns the mechanics of oppression. Once you know how something works you can begin to fix it or fight it. II: [underline: RE-EDUCATION] This is partly done through consciousness-raising but it must be transmitted on a large scale through the feminist media. If we are serious in our work, we can only trust our own feminist media and we can relate only to that media. That media needs to be expanded. Each city needs its own newspaper. We also need other forms of media--films, slide shows, music, etc. If you start a paper, concentrate on your locality. Local news is immediate. Women can identify with what happens in their own city and in the lives of people like themselves. Page Ten VoL.1 No.14 Ain't I]
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haNOi to HOBOKen, a ROUnd Trip ticKet. [written in magazine cut outs] Off Our Backs: Box 4859, Cleveland Park Station, Washington D.C. 20008. Why the persistent enthusiasm for far away places and distant struggles with imperialism? Why travel to Hanoi when you can go to Hoboken and see the same show? Granted the costumes are native, the accents, New Jersey, the exotic touch is missing and you won't get napalm for an encore but the plot is still the same: Oppression. There are a number of reasons why Hanoi fascinates so many women in our movement and why Hoboken is definitely a drag. Visiting Hanoi or Havana and writing articles on such a visit is one way to legitimatize our movement through participation in those areas that the white, middle class, male-left movement has designated as legitimate. It shows that we women are reaching out beyond what the male left defines as "Women's issues" to what they define as the "important" issues. Women's issues are not important. It is inconceivable to think of a male left heavy going to Hoboken to study how lack of children care facilities oppresses poor women. I am not for one minute announcing that U.S. imperialism is not a concern of the Women's Liberation Movement. The struggle of our Vietnamese sisters is anything but frivolous, but the way in which many American women approach that struggle is both imitative and frivolous. When our Vietnamese sisters throw out the invader they will have yet another way on their hands, the war against sexism in their own society. But right now those women are fighting for their lives. Here in Amerika many women are also fighting for their lives, there are no bombers but the struggle is just as relentless and deadly-- we are the poor, the Black, the Latin and the Lesbian. We aren't exotic and we aren't remotely glamorous. The male left is not concerned with us although it will make token statement for the benefit of Black males concerning racism (the Black woman is supposedly incorporated in the Black male.) By flying to Hanoi, you win the attention of the male left. By working in Hoboken you attract no attention at all and by working with Lesbians you are quickly dismissed as irrelevant and sick. Another reason why Hanoi is such a beacon for revolutionary moths: you can return to the U.S. and rip off the liberals with speaking tours, books, movies, etc. on your experiences there. That's not to say that all who go to Hanoi are rip offs, nor are all who go eager for male left approval, but enough are to make it a problem. Unfortunately, poverty and woman oppression are not so lucrative a profession despite recent attempts by the establishment media to cash in on these oppressions. If you worked in Hoboken, who would be grateful but he women in Hoboken--women who have no power to bestow prestige or money on anyone. What I am getting at is this: It's easier to worry about far away problems than our problems here at home. Not only is it easy, it's comfortable because the problems here at home might possible be cleared up if we worked at clearing them up. How far would Ho Chi Minh have gotten if he had run all over the globe to witness other forms of imperialism? By concentrating on imperialism abroad we use quatities of energy that could be used here, like setting up health clinics. In other words, the priorities of the anti-imperialist women are ass backwards. For example, [underline: off our backs], a feminist newspaper, ran a special issue on Women and Imperialism on December 31, 1970. Most issues of this paper (after the initial six issues) carry some article on the subject of women and imperialism. Has there been a special issue on Lesbianism? Articles in most issues? Plain, flat, ugly, No. What about Black women? Latin women? Poor women? It's not fair to single out [underline: off our backs], most of the other papers and magazines are the same. Our feminist media is young and wobbly and because of that many of the articles in the big city papers such as [underline: oob and Rat] have been in those areas that male politics have considered important. The other papers and magazines not contaminated by male left politics confined themselves to heterosexual interest. The media is simply a reflection of the white, middle class, straight bias of the Women's Liberation Movement itself. Imperialism begins at home. The best place to fight imperialism is at its center. Let's stab the monster in its heart rather than slapping its fingertips. Imperialism, racism and the attendant disregard for human life (change that to all forms of life) spring from sexism. Way back in the dim mists of prehistory when men beat down, degraded and enslaved women he clearly showed his career preferences. In degrading woman he degraded himself. Once the initial inhumanity was committed it was a simple matter to progress step by step to today, History is man remembering the subsequent degradations of other men over time. He degraded us at such an early age that he has practically forgotten it and derives little satisfaction from it in a political sense although he gets a great deal out of it personally. The real glory is in shitting on other men. To fight The Man we don't need to go to Hanoi, we fight him right here. Let's be clear in our priorities ideologically (pragmatics will follow later in the paper) and focus our energies on the destruction of sexism rather than scatter our energies all over the globe on the later stages of sexism known as imperialism. By fighting here, which is the current international center of the latter stages of sexism known as imperialism, we help our Vietnamese sisters. Any attention we can draw away from our sisters gives them more time to breathe. In practical terms, we cannot do more. We cannot launch an [a mada?] to join them in combat. We can express solidarity, which we have done, and we can do our best to keep in communication with our Vietnamese sisters, relating their experiences and struggle to American women and vice versa. It does us and the Vietnamese women no good if we join the male left in desultory protest. Women have tried that for a number of years and the government's response is the dreary, well known, no response. Uncle Sam knows how to ward off anti-imperialists, after all he's had nearly 200 years experience. But he's got his arms up fighting the NLF abroad and protestors at home, let's grab him in the crotch and make him howl. Vietnamese women understand that howl. They told Charlotte Bunch when she visited Viet Nam in 1970 that Amerikan women must exercise power. The cruel irony is that the Vietnamese women take us more seriously than we take ourselves. An isn't that the key to woman oppression: We have internalized The Man's definition of women and do not take ourselves seriously. Neither do we take other women seriously so we shit on the Lesbian who in many cases does take other women seriously. We write a lot and talk a lot and we cry a lot. Unless I am complete,y without perception, i don't think writing, talking and crying have yet produced a mass movement of political power. I'd like to present what I believe are the first steps to political power. Since I am only one woman I can hardly present this as a comprehensive program in the first phase of our revolution If this remains my idea then it isn't even a first step, it's a retreat form responsibility. If the ideas spark further ideas in your head and you share it and build with other women, then we will all get somewhere. I: [underline: WORK PROJECTS] Women with economic privilege whether straight or lesbian, Black or white o Latin, should organize to meet the survival needs of women without economic privilege. This means food distribution centers, self-defense programs and halfway houses for women in transition or without adequate housing. If you have special skills such as editorial abilities, mechanical or medical knowledge, anything, set up a teaching program and share it. These projects will take time and work as well as patience and understanding with yourself. The women whose needs you will be meeting may have no feminist consciousness at all. Don't look down on them. It's hard to have consciousness of anything when you are hungry. You will need great deal of patience with yourself to really get in touch with this kind of oppression and why you have ignored it in the past. Together with these work projects foes structured, disciplined consciousness raising. This process helps women get in touch with their distinctive oppression. The Black woman learns to understand racism in a political sense rather than just in a personal sense. She can begin to see the intimate connection between racism and sexism through testimony with her sisters. The Lesbian recognizes Lesbian oppression from male culture and from heterosexual women. She begins to understand how this supposed individual trait, choice of sex partner and life style, is an attack on the Amerikan political structure. And so it goes, each woman learns from another woman how her particular life is a reflection of and a response to the dominant, white, rich, male culture and after that the sub-culture she herself lives in. Each woman learns that her life is a political life and by examining that life each woman learns the mechanics of oppression. Once you know how something works you can begin to fix it or fight it. II: [underline: RE-EDUCATION] This is partly done through consciousness-raising but it must be transmitted on a large scale through the feminist media. If we are serious in our work, we can only trust our own feminist media and we can relate only to that media. That media needs to be expanded. Each city needs its own newspaper. We also need other forms of media--films, slide shows, music, etc. If you start a paper, concentrate on your locality. Local news is immediate. Women can identify with what happens in their own city and in the lives of people like themselves. Page Ten VoL.1 No.14 Ain't I]
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