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, C o ^ dU'° TO THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF NEW ZEALAND IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED The Petition of Tocelyn Fish, Georgina Kirby, Marilyn Waring and______others

Respectfully submits: That • To date on International Women's Day 1993 there have been 1127 men and only 36 women on the roll of the New Zealand house of Representatives. • No political party in New Zealand has committed itself in its constitution of by-laws to equal representation of men and women. • No electoral system in New Zealand or any other country has delivered to women equal representation in parliament. • A government that is overwhelmingly male is not a 'representative democracy'. • A society governed overwhelmingly by men is a society half-governed. • To fulfill the full equality provisions of New Zealand as a signatory to the United Nations Civil and Political Covenant and Protocol. • To honour the full intent of the New Zealand Suffrage movement of 100 years ago. Your petitioners therefore request that the house amend the Electoral Act 1956 to ensure equality of, and parity in, gender representation in New Zealand’s elected representatives. To redress the imbalance of 1127 men and only 36 women on the roll of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and to establish a truly representative democracy, we request a change in the Electoral Act 1956 to ensure equality of and parity in, gender representation in New Zealand elected representatives.

Please return by February 1994, to: Women's Suffrage Petition, PO Box 669, Hamilton Mail Centre.

Name Address Signature ISSUEBROADSHEET 200 iJ E S S B Y X U C K L A N D SUMMER 1993 15 DEC 1993 FEATURES DOTATION 14 THE NEW PETITION The story behind the petition to parliament and Georgina Kirby on equal INTERVIEWS representation. 28 SANDRA CONEY 24 PADDING THE BOTTOM 34 ANNE ELSE ON LIN E Exposing health and environ­ WOMEN TOGETHER mental dangers. 46 HARRIET SPICER 50 LORAE PARRY 32 BUT YOU CAN VOTE 57 JENNIFER FULTON A pictorial essay of how far we have to go, 100 years after women won the vote.

36 SUICIDE OR SORROCIDE? Personal experience and opinions of SHORTS working for Spare Rib magazine. 17 MAKING SENSE OF 38 LETTER TO WHITE MEN MADONNA Fran Peavy writes controversially. 18 UNITED WOMEN’S CONVENTIONS 44 SEX AND PUNISHMENT 22 HUMAN RIGHTS BILL The politics of cervical cancer. 28 26 EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS ACT 48 RACISM IN THE IMMIGRATION 31 WE MADE IT POLITICAL DEPARTMENT REVIEWS One woman’s experience. 52 THE PIANO 54 STANDING IN THE REGULARS STORIES SUNSHINE 56 NAIAD NOVELS HERSPECTIVE 2 20 THE TUTORIAL 58 SCARLET RUNNERS YOUR WRITE 3 40 SURFACING THE SELF 59 SHONAGH KOEA BROADCAST 5 59 OUT FRONT SUBS SPECIAL 19 60 TETIMATANGA: NELSON NOTES 23 TATAU TATAU GRIPES OF ROTH 43 62 ME AND MARILYN CLASSIFIEDS 64 MUNROE 63 MARINA WARNER RESOURCE KITS 65 her spective

Broadsheet that the current structure was exclusive and asked why they wanted to include one woman from another culture, when it was clear that it would not address any issues or change the magazine in any significant way. One thing that has been learnt from our collective herstories is that participation in an existing structure does not create change - the structures themselves must be built to accommodate diversity. One option for Broadsheet is that it is a white woman's magazine and not attempt to have token women on the Collective. Another is to ensure that the Collective is representative of all women and that parity, once established, is maintained. What needs to happen right now is for Broadsheet to tap into networks that exist, through women like myself and indigenous women, and ask them, not only to con­ tribute, but to determine themselves what their contribution should be. There are many women, and groups of women, who was originally unsure about joining the This issue’s want to participate in this forum. But it is 8 Broadsheet Collective. As a woman of important that they feel safe about speak­ Icolour I was aware that Broadsheet Herspective is by ing out and to do that they must trust that had limitations and that problems might their voices will be heard and will not be arise. I was also excited at the prospect of Mandrika Rupa, silenced or marginalised. working with some wonderful women in an Broadsheet has a clear direction as a intellectually stimulating environment. I who is leaving the feminist magazine. But it must provide a have been on the collective for one year space where the theories of all women - and I have now decided to leave Broadsheet women of different races, classes and abili­ Broadsheet. While it was stimulating and Collective after ties - can evolve. Broadsheet cannot be exciting when we connected, at times the static - feminism is not static - and it must differences were too great. As the only eth­ one year. accommodate emerging and evolving theo­ nic woman on the Collective I did not share ries if it is to be relevant in the nineties. the experiences of the other women, which Mandrika explains Threads of theories must be woven togeth­ put me on the periphery of the Collective er and evolve together. This could take process. By the second issue I began to why she is leaving Broadsheet into a new and exciting way of feel that it was hard for me to have a voice, and discusses being and working, an entirely new para­ that when I spoke it was not just as myself digm. but that I had to represent the views of all some ideas of Rather than struggling to work within the ethnic women. basically Pakeha current structure of The material coming in to the magazine how Broadsheet B ro a d s h e e t, it is b e tte r th at w o m en of was also an issue. It was predominantly colour put our energies into our own com­ more specific to white women and did not needs to evolve. munities and issues, but be able to meet deal with the concerns of women of colour. with other women and share our political It was not pertinent to our way of being or thoughts through the pages of Broadsheet. our way of looking at issues. This con­ tributed to making me feel invisible and dis­ tanced from the collective process. I then discussed with the Collective the fact that Broadsheet was not working for me and that I was finding it harder and harder to have a voice. I explained to

2 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 y o u r write

DEAR BROADSHEET naires. Looking forward to the next | largely ignored by our politicians, and Especially since The Beauty Myth, issue with glee. we are angry! Angry with the MP’s much has been said about the negative Anne Ferrier-Watson who have ignored the call from ordi­ effect of the beauty industry on nary law abiding people for Harsher female self-esteem, and how women TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Penalties! Angry, frustrated and sick are manipulated into believing we I regret to inform you that we must to death of those who maraude among must all conform to an impossible cancel our subscription to Broadsheet. us, violating the privacy of our homes, ideal. We have taken a $9000 drop in our assaulting, raping and harming our But are we so easily led, so docile contract with Community Funding loved ones. that we have to accept that this need Agency and must restrict our spending Inadequate sentences and lenient be? I believe that it’s not enough just in many areas, subscriptions such as parole laws frequently see the perpe­ to castigate the men (and women) of this being one of them. trators of crime back on the streets, the beauty business; women must also We would like to thank you for the many re-offending, while victims and take some responsibility for them­ information you have provided us their families are still trying to re­ selves. We can and will see through with over the years. build shattered lives, many not even the hype and if we don’t, or choose Barbara Bowyer entitled to costs for counselling from not to, isn’t that partly our own fault? (Papakura Women’s Support Centre, PO ACC. And yet I’m quite aware that female Box 909, Papakura) Sadly someone must be the next of insecurity about one’s appearance is a Broadsheet encourages our readers to kin to a murder victim. DON’T WAIT deeply ingrained thing, and that it’s a donate gift subscriptions to women's until it happens to you. Get in touch rare woman who professes to be total­ organisations such as this. with us now and help in the fight to ly beyond all that, no matter what her make Degrees of Murder law and a politics. It can sometimes be very dif­ DEAR BROADSHEET true life sentence the penalty for a first I ficult to escape the fact that you’re no I enjoyed Lyn Barnes’ positive degree murder reality. longer youthful looking, and although Hetspective (B roadsheet W inter Donna Perrin you may work out regularly and be fit 1993) in which she briefly discussed (PO Box 36, Owaka, South Otago) and healthy, your body is that bit less the matter of using the family home resistant to gravity. In our society it as collateral for a small business DEAR EDITOR takes a special confidence to be satis­ which subsequently failed. Re: Broadcast, Broadsheet Spring i fied with your physical self. I recently heard an interview on 1993 But in a way, ordinary women are National Radio (I think!) with an I would like to comment on Carol lucky. We know we’ll never measure Australian who referred to this as Bartlett’s piece Listener Women’s up to the Elies and Rachels which “Sexually Transmitted Debt”, and had Book Festival undermines Auckland ! gives us a lot more freedom of choice some sound advice on how to limit Women’s Bookshop. Carol’s article ' than those women will ever have. liability for partners mistakes. He dis­ examines a specific case. This issue Eva Petro cussed several cases of (usually) has broader implications. women not only losing their relation­ The Listener Women’s Book DEAR BROADSHEET ship, house, and belongings, but start­ Festival is a community arts event, I love your real magazine about real ing “afresh” with a large parcel of which as Carol Beu suggests, has a people. Thank you! I’ve been mean­ debt. They typically had little or no number of purposes: to sell books j ing to write for years. control over the business decisions written by women, to give women j Here is my donation plus my sub­ and activity which led to the failure. writers, women and their issues a j scription. I’m 22, bisexual, pakeha, I believe it might be worth a feature higher profile in the community, to j feminist, middle class, studying poli­ article. provide a forum for the discussion of tics and women’s studies at Victoria. Tom Rae women’s concerns. For six years il i (For your reader stats.) has achieved these goals with increas- ! It’s such a shame you only publish TO THE EDITOR ing success. This success has had four times a year. If I was in I am one of three women who organ­ some unexpected effects, specifically Auckland I’d volunteer to help. 1 love ised the Petition for Harsher Penalties. the mainstreaming of a lot of the the Been Around For Quite A While We presented the Petition to Parliment books we work to promote, previously j book too. early this year with nearly 300,000 seen as marginal interest. In many Am keen to fill out any question­ signatures. This petition has been ways, this is an excellent achieve”-» Summer 1993 BROADSHEET/3 yourw rite

ment. We have succeeded in taking shops. Whether or not we like it, the women’s writing to a significantly commercial reality is that they are not FRONTING UP wider audience. The negative side of simply going to hand over all sales to POLICY Is made by the Womanfile this is that it can take business away a competitor. Collective: Claire-Louise McCurdy, Cathy from specialist bookshops. Some Festival groups choose to Hall, Lisa Howard-Smith, Juliet Jaques, Into the Mainstream, a Pandora share the running and proceeds of the Jacqui Fill, Rhiannon Caitlin, Mandrika Rupa, title, written by Nicci Gerrard docu­ bookshop on site, others allocate Helen Warren, Debbie Mann, Alex Bruce, ments how feminism has changed events amongst themselves with full Rachel Cooper and Debbie Hager. women’s writing. Gerrard maintains agreement of the booksellers in the EDITING was done by Annie Goslyn. that ‘Women’s writing, and feminist group so that the outcome is as fair as CO-ORDINATOR was Rhiannon Caitlin, writing, is entering the mainstream - possible. DESKTOP DESIGN by Desktop Diva. but that does not necessarily mean In Auckland this year, the decision THANKS TO Edith Gorringe and Jean that it is discarding radical impulses was made, as it has been every year Crieghton (subs), Anne Hunt (distribution), for caution, nor that it is selling out. since the Festival has run in Barbara Bennett (proofing), Amanda Robb The integration is welcome precisely Auckland, that the proceeds from the (keying in & waxing), Karen Ball (photo and paradoxically because it heralds a bookstall at the Aotea Centre would searching) and Kelly Rice (keying in), The more genuinely radical direction... go to the Auckland LWBF group. Fundraising Fairies-Dyan, Diane, Dorina, They (her examples are Angela Carter This decision was made with the Kim, Edwina, Jacqui, Von, Ruth, Claire, and Keri Hulme) have become main­ knowledge that there is never any Catherine Farmer and friends, stream novelists not because of any guarantee that ticket sales or grants NEXT ISSUE is Autumn 1994. Published and conformity to an established and cau­ will cover costs. They haven’t for four on sale March 1st. Editorial deadline is tious literary tradition, but because of the Festival’s six years in January 20th 1994, We encourage women to their bold and disruptive texts have Auckland. There is therefore a need to send articles, graphics, letters and cartoons, been widely read.’ The corollary of be sure of some income that will make If you have quoted people, please send their this is that the writers and their books up any shortfall, and, if possible, sub­ signatures on your article to show that they are taken on by mainstream publishers sidise tickets to enable more women have checked the piece. Send contributions and sold by mainstream booksellers. to attend events. Conservative man­ to PO Box 56-147, Auckland, But overall, isn’t this what we want? agement of Festival funds is absolute­ ADVERTISING is sold by Rhiannon Caitlin Do we wish to just preach to the con­ ly essential at both a national and a (09) 378 4105. We ask readers to let adver­ verted? Don’t we want to get as many local level. tisers know you saw their advert in women as possible thinking about The success of any business is Broadsheet. their lives and the social system in determined by a number of factors. If CONTRIBUTIONS Broadsheet welcomes which we all live? It’s arguably not the Listener Women’s Book Festival articles, illustrations and short news items, Material should be sent with a SAE to PO possible to achieve this macro effect threatens the Woman’s Book Shop in Box 56-147, Auckland, Editorial content is without some cost at the micro level. Auckland, it will be several factors decided on by the Womanfile Collective, The Festival itself is run by a wide that influence trading. Just as there are LETTERS The Womanfile Collective may not variety of women from many walks of many factors that influence the agree with views expressed in letters, Some life - mostly sharing a passion for Festival itself, some of which threaten letters may be edited in consultation with the books, reading, writing and an interest its existence. We hope that with a lit­ writer. We do not publish personal attacks. in women’s issues. Carol Bartlett tle lateral thinking we can all survive Letters from men are published at the discre­ wonders ‘why as this is a Women’s the difficult market that women and tion of the Collective. Letters addressed to Book Festival, the Women's books are working in today. the editor are assumed to be intended for Bookshop in every centre where there Penelope Hansen publication. Please indicate clearly if they are is one, is not simply given the oppor­ (National organiser, Listener not. tunity to sell books to festival goers.’ Women’s Book Festival) BROADSHEET is on file at the Women's The answer is simple. Women from We welcome your letters. Collection Special Department, Northwestern many different bookshops are Please write to: Letters, University Library, Evanston, Illinois 60201, involved with Festival organisation, BROADSHEET Magazine, USA, partly for commercial reasons, partly ISSN 01-10-8603, Registered at the GPO as for philosophical reasons. They are PO Box 56-147, Auckland, a magazine. Published by Womanfile Inc. PO working to improve sales in their New Zealand. Box 56-147, Auckland, NZ,

4 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 BROAD C O #

ven if you don't actually read the Listener you probably couldn't have helped noticing the rather arresting cover picture for the first week in November. Let me refresh your memory. It was a nubile young model with bare torso - gold lame clad lower half and hands encased in elbow length gloves of the samee - grasping her bare breasts firmly to her chest. 'Popular Front; what men don't under­ stand about breasts' was the by-line that went with this image - very up front eh? What I don't understand is why, in this article by Pamela Stirling, it was necessary to photographi­ cally enhance the size of the models breasts. Oh yes! Initially the old tape for lift 'n shape trick was tried, unsuccessfully. In doing this, once the tape had been peeled off, the young woman was left with angry, red marks on her skin. (No wonder she is looking so protective of her breasts on the cover shot.) The marks also had to be 'touched up', to obscure the signs of mammary manipula­ tion in the final prints. These pictures were done for an article that says of male achievements; "they don't rival the design-mark (!) perfection of the female breasts", and berates society for treating women's breasts as objects! The article itself is very good, worth reading in fact, and it's great to see something with this sort of analysis in a more mainstream publication. So I have to assume that Pamela Stirling had noth­ ing to do with the photo-shoot, such is the contra­ diction between what is written and the finished 'product'. Nor that she had involvement in the selection of breast images shown to flesh out the article. With the exception of one, a picture of two Black African women (spot the message there), no other images of 'real' women and their breasts were shown, only 'reel' breasts! So, how do I know of this little boob on the Listeners part? Well you could say that I like keeping abreast of things! Lisa Howard-Smith

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 5 BROAD Cast the night ather than opt for the stan­ dard tea party to mark Women’s Suffrage Year, the women of the Auckland University Women’s Collective organised a ReclaimR the Night March to highlight the fact that despite the gains which women have made, we still aren’t safe from male violence on the streets or in our homes. The march was held on September 17th, to coincide with the weekend of Suffrage Day and began with a rally in Albert Park - the site of some especially vicious attacks on women in the last year - where the crowd was enter­ tained by a fantastic line up of women speak­ ers and performers, including an a Capella SARAH ALLELY group from Massey High, “Out Rage Us Women” - a group of women of colour, Sue Lytollis and “Sister City” who had everyone up and dancing. More than a thousand women turned up to enjoy the guest speak­ ers and entertainment before the march, and I while the organisers had hoped for more, they were pleased with the turn out. Sydney holds a Reclaim the Night march on the last Friday of October every year and hopefully an annual Auckland march will hap­ pen too. If you are interested in being involved in organising another march in 1994, phone Rachel Cooper at the Women’s Bookshop 09 630 7162.

6 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 v 'J l YWCA end child prostitution EMPOWERING WOMEN

ith the combined growth of sexual tourism in Asia, and the rapid spread of the HIV virus Wand AIDS, more and more young children are Young Women - being forced into prostitution, as tourists believe that chil­ Being and Doing dren are less likely to carry disease. It is estimated that more than one million in Asia will be living in brothels this Lesley Hawkins, Youth year. Worker for the Auckland In 1991 several social work groups in Asia got together to YWCA, has set up a launch an international campaign to end this horrific form monthly open forum for of modern slavery. With active encouragement from many young women to meet international agencies including UNICEF and the Save The and discuss subjects Children Fund, EPCAT (Ending Child Prostitution In that are significant and Asia) now has a head office in Thailand, and offices and important to them, and supporters in more than twenty countries. An office was possibly find ways of opened in Aotearoa in 1993. If you would like to contact addressing them, either EPCAT NZ, write to PO Box 47 402, Ponsonby, Auckland 1. collectively or individu­ THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND ally. So far topics have included women's anger and election THE UNIVERSITY CERTIFICATE issues. Next year Lesley ; IN hopes to cover WOMEN’S STUDIES 1994 ecofeminism, the media and perhaps CAMPUS COURSES DISTANCE COURSES more politics. Women & Society «Women & Art •Women & Society «Women & Health I «Women & Social Policy «Women of Ideas •Women & Work «Women, Language & Image The forums are open to [No previous qualifications an neccesary. all women aged Women in the Auckland ana may combine Campus and Distance courses. between 15 and 30, ENROL BY 21 FEBRUARY 1994 and are held on the last For brochures return the slip below to: Helen Hagen Thursday of every ICentre lor Continuing Education (The University of Auckland month (except jPB 92109, Auckland December) at the iPhone (09) 373 7599 ext. 7423 Fax (09) 37.3 7419 YWCA, 10 Carlton Gore Rd, Grafton, Auckland. UNIVERSITY CERTIFICATE IN WOMENS STUDIES 1994 Please post broshure: Distance 0 Campus Q please tick For more information, i Nam e:...... phone Lesley on 09 377 j

A d d ress:...... 8763.

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 7 W O P P A BROAD Cast FESTIVAL

It's taking 100 years, but... WOPPA

Ē k Mot a bad result from the 1993 election, M % M th o u g h the final count isn’t in as I w rite Vivienne Plumb and M % M this - MMP and a record 21 women, Lorae Parry were at a M % M including the first Maori woman to be playwrights conference M W elected to a general roll seat (L14, N6, last year in Canberra, A1). The fact of female sex is not enough, as Titirangi and decided to set up a knows, but this puts us at the top of the international women's playwrights list for women elected in FFP countries. With MMP we should do well, if we keep up pressure on selection writing group. The two procedures. Labour did rather better in selecting gathered Wellington women candidates - 33 out of 99 - than it did on the women play.wrights policies affecting women. Labour’s Phillip Fields, together, and WOPPA Otara, is the first Pacific Islander elected in NZ and a was formed — Women's Maori man was put up for Rotorua, a general seat. Professional Playwrights National also put up one Pacific Island man and one Maori woman as general candidates, and 19 women in Association — with two all. With Mana Motuhake as a partner, the Alliance did aims: to get more wom­ better - 4 Maori women, one Maori and one Pacific en's plays written and Island man for general seats, with 30 candidates for staged, and to get more both rolls. In my neighbourhood we are just delighted women's plays pub­ with Sandra Lee. Even if special votes tip the balance to National, the lished. Six women who were writing plays at the gross disparity between the percentage of votes and time committed themselves to the WOPPA festival. seats won, in the light of success on MMP, should A year's planning with money from the Suffrage enable Alliance and Labour to stop National disman­ Fund has resulted in the six individual ventures tling or privatising what’s left of our social services and under the one umbrella. Help came from Circa state assets. Actual progress for women will take a lot Theatre and the Arts Council, so the plays were more pressure on policies while we get ready for 1996. Next goal, 50% women in Parliament - for starters! fully funded for costs, including paying the actors. Linda Hill 0 MAKING CHOICES BE WELL LOSE WEIGHT TAKING CHANCES NATURALLY WITHOUT DIETING Self-Reliance Strategies for A Complete Guide for Healing Your Relationship With New Zealand Women in the '90s New Zealand Women of Any Age Food and With Yourself by Christine Milicich & Una Ryan by Lynda Wharton by Jeanie Calder A practical approach to facing issues The means of maintaining or returning The real answer to achieving and challenges, including financial to full wellness are presented from a permanent weight loss and healing planning and dependence on drug-free, holistic perspective for eating problems lies in addressing your government support through to making women from puberty, through relationship with food and the under­ new commitments to male and female pregnancy and childbirth to post­ lying reasons causing an imbalance. friendships and strategies for being menopause. The A-Z Of Common This book outlines a comprehensive separate. Female Complaints is an invaluable seven step plan to guide you. reference for every woman. $19.95 . $34.95 $24.95 .0 1 TANDEM PRESS

8 /BROADSHEET Summer 1993 women in the front line

AMNESTY & INTEANIII10NHL Women’s Studies Association

N e w Z e a l a n d CONFERENCE 1994 Kia Ora, I’m Lyndsay McAteer and years fighting for land reforms and Friday 26 to Sunday 28 August this year I am coordinator of the civil rights in Guatemala. During that Amnesty International Women’s net­ time her family was persecuted and Victoria University of Wellington work, together with Francis Maplesden murdered. Her mother was kidnapped, He tono ki nga kaikorero of Rotorua. raped and tortured, and left to be eaten Call for papers The Women's network consists of by scavenging animals. One of her individual women, and women's organ­ brothers died from malnutrition, and The organisers of the 1994 WSA isations, who regularly help the work her family were sacked from their jobs Conference warmly invite all of A.I. by writing on behalf of women for taking the day off to bury him. women interested in giving a paper, throughout the world. The women we Another of her brothers died from pes­ presenting work in progress, run­ write for are prisioners of conscience, ticide poisoning after the field in which ning a workshop, or organising a victims of torture, or awaiting execu­ he was working was sprayed. Today panel discussion on any women’s tion in overseas jails. We are aware Rigoberta lives in exile in Mexico. studies topic to send a title and that the rights of women are not always Rigoberta is concerned with the. briek outline, with name(s), contact being addressed in Aotearoa, we know rights of indigenous peoples through­ address and phone, to: that discrimination and prejudice exist out the world. Before she left Conference papers 1994 here at home. However, we believe Guatemala she led a march of 100,000 WSA (Wellington) that we are living in a gobal communi­ people through the capital to force the PO Box 5043, Wellington Government to start negotiating with ty and that our sisters overseas also By: 31 March 1994 need our help. the Indian peasant population. At pre­ In September, Nobel peace prize sent she is developing the draft of a Or talk to: Anne Else, winner, Rigoberta Menchu visited New United Nations Declaration on the phone/fax (04) 475 9958 Zealand. She was awarded the prize in rights of indigenous peoples. Tania Rei, phone (day) (04) 495 5268 1992 for her outstanding human rights Women throughout the world are Please note: Free creche will be work in Guatemala. Guatemala is a risking their lives working for human available at the conference on developing country in Central America rights and social justice in countries Saturday/ Sunday. where most of the population are with oppressive regimes. Many of poverty stricken peasant workers earn­ these women are still unknown to us. I WSA (NZ) is a feminist organisa­ ing about $85.00 a year. Guatemala is ask you to join me in fighting for the tion formed to promote radical home to 23 groups of indigenous peo­ rights of women worldwide. Watch social change through the medium ples whose human rights are being nel- this space for appeal cases and further of women’s studies. Members gected. Since 1954 over 100,000 peo­ information on how you can help. believe that a feminist perspective ple have been executed or have 'disap­ Contact address: Lyndsay McAteer, necessarily acknowledges oppres­ peared'. 53 Rugby St, Mt Cook, Wellington sion on the grounds of race, sexual­ Rigoberta Menchu has spent 13 (PH: 04-385-1162) ity and class as well as gender. 4th Dec end of Vear 57/55 8pm Purple Rage Door price Ponsonby Community Centre, 20 Ponsonby Tee

V Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 9 BROAD Cast

orking Titles: books that shaped New Zealand is the title of an exhibition that opened in November at the National W Library in Wellington. Several hundred people were asked to contribute the titles of books or printed material which they felt had contributed to making New Zealand the country it is today. They included well-known fig­ ures such as Sandra Coney, Hirini Moko Mead, Patricia Barlett, Keri Hulme, Michael King, David Lange and Sir Keith Sinclair, as well as many whose names are not so familiar. Exhibition curators Jima and Mary Barr are keen to point out that this is not the definitive list of 'books that shaped New Zealand' - a few people will disagree with some of the selections, or feel that there are significant omissions. To keep the debate going, there will be provision for visitors to add their own choices during the course of the exhibition. A series of related events will be organ­ ised in conjunction with this exhibition, including ^ films, guided tours, readings and a panel dis­ cussion. Information about these will be avail­ able at a later date. Working Titles has been open since November 13th and will continue until March 19th 1994. drink wine and wear a skirt f Filipino women in upland North make rounds every night to check if their ban on liquor is being implemented, Indian women have a novel way too of preventing men from drinking wine. Men are forewarned to 'drink wine and wear skirt.' TheI Economist says that women in Haryana, India, hang a traditional village skirt outside the wine shop to remind buyers that any men who patronise it will be forced to wear a skirt. The idea works very well because men stay away from the wine store. This is only one of the many ways Indian women have devised to discourage men from spending too much money on wine, and becoming drunk after­ wards. It has become a women-led temperance movement that started last year. Indian women are winning the war as 240 wine shops in 200 villages have already been forced to close shop. Demonstrations by women are gaining ground, the Economist says. In Tamil Nadu, street sales of cheap alcohol have | been banned following women's protest. Reprinted from Women's News Watch - ISIS

10 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 ABENTEUER SCHWEIZ Suffrage in Switzerland in Suffrage A for Switzerland, the limited power of federal government is government federal of power limited problems the several are Switzerland, There for off. way long a still is sexes the the square is not big enough for all members of both both of members all for enough big not is square the elections, in 1971. But it was 1991 before all Swiss Swiss all before 1991 was it But 1971. in elections, one of them. of one of gossip and threats. Finally the federal government government federal means the by Finally isolated threats. and socially who gossip of were women out few speak very to The dared situation. the of gravity time. voting at square the near come for­ to to reason women Enough bid time. one at on stand to sexes Unfortunately square. village the in by hand done of still was show voting Ausserrhoden Appenzell In women could cast their votes in municipal elections. municipal in votes their cast could women against the will of the majority of local population. population. local of majority the of will the Ausserrhoden against Appenzell in suffrage women’s forced the undermine could women of babble the Moreover WORLD BUT IT HAS NO SOCIAL SECURITY” SOCIAL NO HAS IT BUT WORLD to go out to work. A good mother stays at home to to home at stays mother good A work. to have out doesn’t go she to means which wife his of to care hard takes very is state care The Child this. into organisations. come are not that does charitable do on can’t who People dependent that. dealt for are money ance matters how explains Berne, in teacher SIZRAD S H RCET ONR I THE IN COUNTRY RICHEST THE IS “SWITZERLAND contracts and work permits are allowed to expire. to allowed are permits work and contracts poor­ from contracted is labour situa­ times economic good countries. the In when changes. European tion buffer a Western provides other labour the Foreign of any than vices and Pregnancy every or reach. professions all of in available out not is are leave live maternity benefit Swiss ent all ploym of unem percent groups Ten Both women. of pensioners. age consist hit old mainly and mainly has families recession The parent security. one social no has it but or curricula have nationwide validity. As a consequence of consequence a As validity. exams No nationwide have institutions. curricula and or rules different has district Every is grandmother a Sometimes kids. the after look husband 'decent’ A work. women many Not get. insur­ have I concern. private a is care “Health with. old year forty-five a Probst, Dorothee Switzerland. er neighbouring countries. When times are not so good, good, so not are times When countries. neighbouring er district. so worked never have women Many line. poverty the below willing to help but that is an exception.” an is that but help to willing Women’s suffrage hasn’t brought swift change in change swift brought hasn’t suffrage Women’s Per capita Switzerland spends less money on social ser­ social on money less spends Switzerland capita Per The Swiss educational system is not a coherent whole. whole. coherent a not is system educational Swiss The Switzerland is the richest country in the world world the in country richest the is Switzerland Swiss women got the right to vote in parliamentary parliamentary in vote to right the got women Swiss hundred years ago a New Zealand governor governor Zealand New a ago years hundred swift revolution its opponents had feared. Equality between between Equality feared. had opponents its revolution swift Nowhere has women’s suffrage brought the the brought suffrage women’s has Nowhere the was Switzerland elections. national in vote signed the first bill to give women the right to right the women give to bill first the signed last western country to allow women to vote. vote. to women allow to country western last

Swiss women demonstrating for the vote in 1929, in vote the for demonstrating women Swiss supported by a petition containing 247,506 signatures 247,506 containing petition a by supported GOVERNMENT AND THE MILITARY THE AND GOVERNMENT the share not do but problems same the with dis­ struggle neighbouring tricts in teachers many coordination of lack this Probst it is; “The army of course and probably governing governing probably and course of country.” the army “The is; it Probst solutions. what then, is considered its area of responsibility? For For responsibility? of area its education, and considered services is social then, care, what health of areas the in branch. It is an unarmed unit offering nurses and clerical clerical and nurses offering unit unarmed an is It branch. The Swiss simply threw out the suggestion in a referendum. a in suggestion the out threw simply Swiss The of the districts or 'kantons’. One kanton can even offer offer even can anoth­ in far too kanton kanton. er gone have One who activists to asylum 'kantons’. political or independence of districts its because the amongst of power women limited has percent also ten members, counts which Parliament, mously backed more involvement in European economies. economies. European unani­ in involvement parliament more and backed government mously a year of test Last the to put be referendum. must important politically considered workers a job. So what about governing the country? country? the governing about what So job. a workers equality between the sexes will have to be small. be to have will sexes the between equality Swiss women. As yet it looks as if further steps towards towards steps further if as looks it yet As women. Swiss yAnk Hesp Anneke By If Switzerland as a state means so little to its population population its to little so means state a as Switzerland If Women can only join the army in the military women’s military the in army the join only can Women No other country knows so many referenda. Everything^ referenda. many so knows country other No fcus wmns ufae a mat ietn to milestone a meant has suffrage women’s course Of ■$fsm,» r . * • &,v . . I, Summer1993 BROADSHEET 1 1 /

he Broadsheet Collective reluctantly says farewell to Athina Tsoulis. Like many of Tus Athina started off as a volunteer and she became part of the collective in 1985. During her time on the Collective she was actively involved in various aspects of the magazine. This included her valued contribution as co-ordinator of the stuffing team (remember those fun Saturdays at Karangahape Road!), a paid worker in the office and the mainstay of the Collective when the decision was made to go voluntary. Regardless of how much time she committed as a paid worker her voluntary contribu­ tion was very high. From the early years Athina has made an important contribution both as Collective member and as a writer. Her analysis contributed a challenge to feminist ideas. Athina has always been committed to the survival of a feminist magazine in New Zealand. Her staunch support has seen the magazine through some of its toughest financial times. We thank Athina for her energy, her humour, her support (which has been backed up in concrete ways on many occasions) and for helping to ensure our survival. Athina is leaving us to pursue her career in film. We wish Athina well in the future and look forward to seeing more of her work on screen. 12 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 m m $ £ P / W M m HEALTH / FUN Pi HQ education o u t Lo p r e a c h A Challenge To White Male Decision Making

He tau pai te tau and extremely uncomfortable. We Equal representation of women He tau ora te tau He tau ngehe te tau haven’t honoured the suffragettes in Parliament is not an abstract He tau mo te Wahine until we are uncomfortable politi­ or potential concept, but a con­ Rapua te purapura e ora ai te Iwi cally and it hasn’t been politically crete idea challenging the bas­ The year is good uncomfortable this year. Until you tions of white male decision mak­ The year is peaceful put yourself in the position of receiving the ing. The year is full of promise jeers of the cynical male public which is what The patronising virulence with which it will It is the year of Women the women did 100 years ago, then you be fought becomes immediately apparent in a time of peace and growth haven’t honoured them.” these quotes from the New Zealand Herald Marilyn cites the failure of the women’s editorial of 11 March 1993, movement to establish international links this “The centennial year of women’s suffrage, uring the 1980s, women with year. These include the lack of involvement a quarter nearly gone, could do with a shake. vision began talking about with the Year of Indigenous People and the That is probably the thought that prompted a 1993, the first world cente­ United Nations Conference on Human Rights. petition, inaugurated this week, praying for nary of national suffrage for Women have allowed themselves to be half the seats in Parliament to be filled by women. Most of us carried co-opted by the Government and the $5 mil­ women. Were the proposition more serious, it on blithely unaware it was going lionto happen given for - this year's celebrations, she D might dare to define how that might be done. and even this year many women have given says. In its simplicity it is intended to assert the view very little thought to what the year meant in “It’s like famine relief - you give people of some that equal voting rights are not terms of the radical actions of the suffragettes, enough to keep them alive but not enough to enough; that equal representation is as impor­ the inspiration they provided to other women have the energy to revolt. These little pack­ tant. in the world, and the profound changes which ages of money have been given out which are But women have had equal representation achieving the vote has lead to in the lives of just enough to hold a luncheon or one event ever since they won the vote. The fact that for Maori and Pakeha women. but not enough to hold anything ongoing in all of that century the vast majority of women Georgina Kirby, Marilyn Waring and any active capacity. That's driven me crazy have voted for men has not left them unrepre­ Jocelyn Fish worked together on the suffrage and the fact that we women weren’t awake to sented. Often enough they voted for men year committee which was set up to establish that has driven me crazy.” when female candidates were offering... funds, activities and a trust to administer Out of this dissatisfaction - the funds for the Suffrage Celebrations. The constitutional barrier to parliamentary Initially the women suggested thirty million mutterings about sabotage... the opportunity was breached in 1919; social and economic inhibitions abated slowly thereafter. dollars be the amount set aside for the year. system... white men and power... This was a very controversial figure chal­ The acceptance of women in all activities is lenged by, among others, the Country lack of Maori representation... improving remorselessly. They may well have more opportunities now than they are taking... Women’s Institute who felt the celebrations lack of women’s voice... - out of were unnecessary - a party would suffice. Quotas, by definition, favour mostly those who From this committee, another was estab­ all these things came the idea of a could not foot it otherwise. They would be lished to oversee the allocation of grants. petition. more a hindrance than a help to the credibility Georgina, Marilyn and Jocelyn were not on of those favoured. Competent women have This petition, which is printed inside the much to celebrate." this committee cover of this issue for you to copy and distrib­ The amount allocated to the celebration by The editorial misses the point of the peti­ ute, calls for numerically equal representation tion entirely, either deliberately or from igno­ Jenny Shipley, Minister for Women’s Affairs, of women in Parliament. was five million dollars. This amount has rance. It fails to balance the comments with Georgina Kirby introduced the petition to any analysis of power differences between been sufficient to fund only the very safest of New Zealand women on March 8 1993 - suffrage year activities - the garden parties, men and women, and also the biases of those International Women’s Day, at a suffrage gar­ who select which candidates will stand - camellias and statues. Marilyn Waring is den party held at Government House, quoted in the Waikato Times, 18 September among all the other issues! Auckland. She said there were mixed reac­ Georgina Kirby sees the petition as a 1993, tions to her announcement from joy and “Women have failed to truly honour the beginning - a way to challenge white male excitement to anger and fear. privilege and power. She sees the undermin­ suffragettes with the ‘tea and cucumber sand­ Equality is becoming an increasingly politi­ wiches’ approach to this year’s suffrage cele­ ing of this power of being of particular benefit cal concept. All over the world it is being to Maori women. brations. Women have made the defined not just as potential equality of oppor­ She talks here, through her speech, of year too comfortable politically. tunity but as a concrete concept which Maori women getting the vote and the poten­ embraces premises such as equal pay for tial importance to them of this petition. B It was not comfortable to be a complimentary work of equal value, positive Debbie Hager feminist in 1893, it was hard work recruiting policies, non discrimatory money lending policies. 14 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 she writes “the Hon. Tama. and it is estimated that approxi­ Parata of Southern Maori did mately 4000 Maori women voted not support voting rights for in the elections of 20 Maori and Pakeha women, and December, 1893. The Maori popu­ asked why the Government lation of the time was 41,993. A was considering an experiment total of 11269 Maori men and of putting the the administra­ women voted. tion of the country into the Don’t you think these are inter­ esting figures? Of those who voted one-third were Maori women and THE NEW approximately one - quarter of the Maori population voted. The Maori popula­ PETITION tion was at its low­ est ebb, and in 1993 hands of women.” Did he this population has increased foretell our Petition and did he 1100%. In 1893 the Maori popu­ foretell that women were to lation was not going to affect the become politicians forty years1 control of political power or the later... but weren’t they sup­ control of political status. pose to be talking about giving It was also pointed out that the vote to women. Pakeha women voted on the 28th The Hon. Ropata November 1983, one month Georgina Kirby on Wahawaha for Eastern Maori was before Maori women. 1 wonder equal representation . unsure about Maori women get­ why that was? ting the vote. He was critical of Maori voting was restricted those voices of fanatical women with a one person one roll princi­ “The four Maori seats came on the streets of Wellington and ple. Persons who were half-castes with the 1867 Maori Gisborne. or Maori even, and owned a free­ ■Representative Act. Maori mean­ hold estate valued at twenty-five The member for Northern ing male, aboriginal, native inhab­ Maori Eparaima Kapa did support pounds or more, could demand itant of New Zealand, aged 21 Maori women having the vote, and registration oh the roll of electors years upwards, and went on to say, as a consequence the women in his for Pakeha representation. No shall include half-castes. electorate block voted for him at such person could vote at elections So it would seem Maori women the 1983 elections. One must for a Maori representative. Nor did not exist politically for 26 smile, he knew which side his could they become a candidate for years, between 1867 and 1893. bread was buttered on. a Maori electorate as long as his or If it had not been for the 1893 Let me say, here we are nearly her name remains on the Pakeha Women’s Suffrage Electoral Bill, 100 years later, in 1993, and I roll. What is this saying to me? Maori women would probably be applaud and commend the stead­ Only if you are half-caste or a wandering around among the fast action of the Women’s Maori landed gentry, you could Kumara plants still. Suffrage Movement, and whether opt to be on either roll, or we are Even at the introduction of the they were fanatical women or not, willing to have you on our roll. Bill, the politicians, all men, this was an action of liberation for Strange don’t you think? But this Maori men too, did not want Maori women, wasn’t it? has to be where all our electoral women to have the right to vote. The Women’s Suffrage Bill of problems of then and today lay. Researched by Tania Rci for her 1983 enabled all women of Forty-four years were to pass book on the history of Maori Aotcaroa, over 21 years, to vole before Maori people were granted women, in one of those snippets,

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /1 5 the same privileges in the exercise about women’s lives that were not I have heard it said that the power of the vote as Pakeha electors. being done, and it is from this lies with the electors, partially The Electoral Amendment Act of standpoint, that we wanted some­ true, but it is not good enough to 1937 finally made provision for a thing that would give women be politically influential, but to secret ballot for Maori voters. political teeth. think about being politically pow­ ‘Hmm we could vote on the same We believe this petition paral­ erful too. day but secretly.’ Of course today lels the 1893 Women’s Suffrage A power balance can exist we all vote on the same day, but Electoral Bill. between two or more entities. So for Maori voters to exercise a true The petition is a challenge. It is power can be shared. Power is not Maori vote, has to be at those a challenge to the Electoral sys­ the premise of the male, it is the polling booths designated as hav­ tem. It is a challenge to the politi­ premise of the female too. It has ing Maori rolls, if inaccessible a cal power base. The system is nothing to do with operating in a ‘special vote’ is exercised. Voting male Pakeha devised, it is a male male world, nor do we wish to add equality is nowhere in sight yet. instrument, it is male Pakeha con- • a special feminine role. The The exact number of Maori trolled. It is also a system of illu­ Petition is about sharing power. women who signed the suffrage sion which cannot cope with the I want to see Maori women and petitions is unknown, but signed it realities of the time. Pakeha Pakeha women move together and they did, and are part of the most women may have a chance to base this cohesiveness on the prin­ significant advances politically affect this system but there is no ciples of partnership explicit in the made by New Zealand women. chance at all for Maori women to Treaty of Wailangi, with no condi­ This action was a historical leap make any effect at all. So it is tions, absolutely unconditional, into perpetuity, and into the annals necessary to amend the Electoral but for the expressed purposes of of this country’s history, while the Act 1956, with both a Pakeha Maori gender representation and rest of the world looked on in women and Maori women per­ Pakeha gender representation, to amazement, admiration and even spective, to ensure equality of and govern this country. envy. As you well know, to parity in gender representation. Not a hundred years away, ‘ma achieve this Bill, was not without That is 50% women, 50% men in te wa pea’ and when its time is opposition, that took three read­ Parliament to govern this country. right. ings and stormy debate through Politics is all about power, the I put this challenge before you, Committee before finally being control of power and the control of tena koutou katoa.” passed by two votes. status, though time and time again It is my belief that since this Bill was passed, we have not yet debated among ourselves the polit­ JVWV Milne Ireland Walker ical possibilities, nor have we BARRISTERS AND SOLICITORS challenged the implications of the right to vote. Suffrage got the vote, but it did not gain political parity for women. We aim to provide quality advice at competitive rates • Buying and Selling Property • Refinancing I and my contemporaries, • Business Purchases and Sales • Company incorporations Jocelyn Fish and Marilyn Waring, • Defending Criminal Charges • Civil litigation presented a petition on • Family Law • Planning Applications International Women’s Day, 1993, • Liquor licensing • Wills and Estates • Legal Aid Applications as a wero, a challenge for all women of Aotearoa, to go forward into the future. We are aware that Level 10, Guildford House there would be some exciting pro­ 2 Emily Place, AUCKLAND grammes undertaken to commem­ Telephone (09) 796 937 Fax 778 014 orate 1893 to 1993, but we were also aware of some conditions Deidre Milne, George Ireland, Tony Walker MW 16 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 in $5.5 million for sexually explicit pho­ Her videos and songs reveal a lot. Our making sense of tographs whose production she con­ first glimpse of her in The Virgin Tour trolled completely. The real lives of video, she is giggling like a five-year-old women in the real world of pornography and sexualising herself at the same time. MADONNA are not like that. She made a big hit out of a song that “There are women in abusive relation­ sounded cryptic but perhaps isn’t. What’s ships who are trapped,” she writes, “but I the secret she wants to Live To Tell? And have friends who have money and are why does she say in Truth Or Dare that educated and they stay, so they must be her father fucked her - “Just kidding,” getting something out of it.” she giggles. Who’s they? The key here is that Applying what we know about sexual Madonna herself is one of those women. abuse helps clarify. There’s her sexual Why did Sean Penn - whom she still calls’ precocity. She appears to have begun the love of her life - “patrol her posing nude when she was a barely post- wardrobe,” and why did her manipula­ pubescent young girl. (Penthouse and tion at the hands of Warren Beatty even­ Playboy published such photos without tually become an embarrassingly public her permission in 1984). There’s the pat­ spectacle? Why does one of the most tern of being attracted to controlling men. powerful women in the entertainment There’s her tendency to infantalize her­ business - a control freak, they call her - self sexually. There’s her inability to sus­ keep going back into controlling relation­ tain a professional connection without ships? having a sexual relationship with her col­ laborator. And out of her latest caper, the ‘...choosing sexuality S & M-laden Sex book, emerges a ’m one of those who has felt deep as a means to woman who can’t imagine a sexual conflict about this extraordinary moment without somebody getting hurt. woman. I’ve admired her safe sex power is not How did this happen? stance, when she turned a live exactly a new This question goes right to the heart of version of Papa Don’t Preach feminist analysis - which is women’s into I a lesson in safe sex and hosted a female strategy...’ experience. And looking for the answers ground-breaking AIDS benefit at frees us from the narrow limits of the Madison Square Gardens. Understand that it’s not that she has current debate, the one that embraces the I know enough that choosing sexuality the “wrong line” on sex and violence that tiresome good girl/bad girl dichotomy. I as a means to power is not exactly a new bothers me, although I think her com­ want to know why she does what she female strategy. But there was something ments are anti-women and trivialise does. fresh about her. She had bad taste and decades of agonising feminist activism. Looking at Madonna as a survivor didn’t care, and she had a street smart What upsets me is that she has no empa­ enables us to be for her, not against her. thing that was brash and appealing. thy for experiences that seem her own. This perspective does not dismiss her as But then I looked at the cover of This icon, celebrated for being ultra- a victim. It celebrates her strength, her November’s Vanity Fair - Madonna as a revealing, refuses to speak in the first audacity in making survival her own pigtailed child, naked in water wings. I person. And when she does, the tell-all stunning power trip and the ultimate vic­ didn’t cry out in dismay, “How could Truth or Dare documentary and the brag­ tory she’s gained by turning sex, some­ she?” I could only think “Something hap­ gadocio claim that she exposes every­ thing that was used against her, into pened to her.” thing is pretencse only. She hasn’t told us something she can exploit for her own I’ve harboured suspicions for some yet who she really is. ends. time - but I couldn’t satisfy my ethical Her mother died when she was six and Instead of seeing only the sexual qualms about claiming to know someone she grew up the only female in a house­ object, we can see someone heroic. We else’s story, and having the arrogance to hold with her father and five brothers. can understand that Madonna may have write about it. What was that like? Why is she so taken off all her clothes but she has not But I grew impatient when I looked at obsessed with her father? From Papa yet begun to strip back the emotional lay­ her Sex book. No matter how compas­ Don’t Preach to This Used to be My ers. sionate I could feel about Madonna’s Playground to the latest Deeper and When she does, when she reaches motivation for doing what she does, she Deeper, she just can’t seem to ditch him. back and finds that memory, who knows? was deploying her influence in disturbing And who is that creepy brother in the My guess is she’ll be a remarkable ways. documentary Truth or Dare, the one who artist. B “Generally,” she writes in Sex, “I keeps disappointing the star by not turn­ By Susan G. Cole don’t think pornography degrades ing up, and when he finally does, he has Abridged reprint from Herizons, Spring women. The women who are doing it five male friends in tow? “Tell him I really want to do it.” Really? Which want my privacy,” she says to the camera 1993. women is she talking about? She’s taking as she slams the door. Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 17 t h e United Women’s Conventions 1973-1979

his year we celebrated the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in this country T- if indeed “celebrate” is the right word. I think it is also important to remem­ ber that it is twenty years since the first United Women’s Convention was held in Auckland. I don’t feel that I could ever state that the Conventions changed my life. Because for me the gaining of a feminist conscious­ ness was a more gradual thing. My mother, had brought me up with feminist ideas. Thus, when the Women’s Liberation movement came along, I joined readily. I went to all four United Women’s Conventions not to be converted but to reinforce already deeply held views. Women’s Liberationists used to ago­ nise about why the feminist message was ferences since 1978. believe this was the only reason why the not getting across to the mainstream. We Artists and Entertainers -A great many Act was passed, but it is interesting to note used to worry about being elitest and intel­ positive things came out of the United that one of the direct results of this legisla­ lectual and not really relating to the aver­ Women’s Conventions. The organisers tion is that female pay rates in relation to age woman. Yet those women who organ­ went to enormous lengths to foster those of men have lowered significantly ised the Convention hit upon a solution. women’s culture and encourage partici­ since then. The Pay Equity Bill, passed The Convention brought many women pants to go to see women artists, musi­ very late in Labour’s term of office, was together from all walks of life: Maori cians, performers and art displays. A good repealed by the incoming National women, Pacific women, trade union number of women artists and performers Government in 1990. Perhaps it’s late pas­ women, Christian women, business were encouraged by them and went on to sage was in itself significant. It did not | women, socialists, students, parents, les­ bigger and better things. Artists like have time to become embedded in the | bians, liberationists, teachers, etc. All Claudia Pond-Eyley were associated with political structure. The so called “Health came to talk, to listen and to debate - and a the Conventions, as were the Topp Twins Reforms” will serve to negate women’s few of the more conservative to walk out and Kate Jason-Smith. The writer Renee hard won gains in the area of health. when things got a little too radical. facilitated a workshop at the Waikato Already implementation of the recommen­ The Four Conventions • I vividly Convention on Creative Writing - this was dations of the Cartwright Report have been remember the First United Women’s to continue as the Womenspirit group, put on the back burner by a government Convention. My sister and I walking to the which met regularly to read their latest only too willing to appease the conserva­ YMCA stadium from our flat in Grey writings to each other, to criticise and to tive, male, medical hierarchy. Lynn, that fine, spring day. The Second encourage. So what in retrospect, do I think of the Convention hosted by Wellington two Political Outcomes • Changes have hap­ United Women’s Conventions? I believe years later on the 13th-15th June 1975 was pened. Looking at the workshop report they were a catalyst for change. I believe cold and windswept by contrast. Over from the 1973 United Women’s too, that they brought a diverse group of ; 2,000 of us huddled together in the Convention, one can see that many of the New Zealand women together and gave Wellington Show Building. Despite the wishes have since become reality: the lib­ them a focus and the means to work out weather our spirits remained undampened. eralising of the laws on sex education, con­ together a vision for the future. But per­ The 1977 Christchurch Convention of traception, the passage of the Homosexual haps the most important thing of all, it June 3rd-6th was a much more up-market Law Reform Bill and subsequent Human brought us together and it gave us hope. 15 affair, with a number of events held in the Rights Amendment and the establishment / am planning to initiate a panel discus- \ Christchurch Town Hall. About 3,000 of Kohanga Reo has increased the opportu­ sion on the United Women's Conventions 1 women attended. And lastly, about 2,500 nities for the preservation of the Maori lan­ for the next Women's Studies Association attended the Waikato Convention in Easter guage. Conference in Wellington, August 1994. If 1979, perhaps best remembered for its This does not mean the end is in sight. anyone is interested in contributing or j divisiveness from which few of us escaped As we all know the basic male power offering suggestions regarding the formal, unscathed. While no further Conventions structure has not altered. They still retain please write to me cl- Women's Studies \ were held a number of smaller groups, off­ ultimate right to change the rules. Thus, Association, P.O. Box 5067, Auckland. shoots of the Conventions, continued to when women began to gain power within By Sylvia Baynes exist. The Women’s Studies Association trade unions, we got the Employment This is a slightly abbreviated version of a speech has successfully held its own smaller con­ Contracts Act. I am not so naive that I given at the W.E.A on the 15th September 1993.

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Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /1 9 The TUTORIAL

sit in the tutorial room like what I said was totally out of other colours you may camouflage it. momentum. Sometimes you wear it and it glows. and feel all eyes on me. It will always be there, in my lifetime The walls are starting to •* Out of moment, urn, maybe I was, anyway. It is heavy, for me. I yet who are they to judge? shrink as I grow bigger. I 'What do you think, those of you feel black and blue, like My turn to judge, thanks to the who have not spoken?’ Ms Seminar democratic process the administra­ Presenter aims at me. one gigantic slap in the tion have sought. I pull out the per­ face. I am hit. I vow to formance assessment form given to So they weren’t listening, to me, us to assess the seminar presenter’s when I tentatively raised my hand, myself never to speak, offer performance. The tutor stays clear, summoned all my courage, lowered my opinion, answer another adding only a few flavouring com­ my voice and spoke, for what seemed ments. I resent her for not taking con­ like a lifetime, but was only a few question, again. trol of this tutorial, then there would moments ago. I am THOSE and I be some formal mechanism for allo­ have SPOKEN. Damn you! For it is better to remain silent cating us all the same status. Left to Silence. and be thought an idiot, than to the class, I the brown woman, have speak and remove all doubt. nothing to add. I felt it in my first minutes of the lecture and the first moments of the That, from a depository in my Somehow I thought taking a tutorial. It is not the administration, head of proverbs, quotes and equa­ Women’s Studies paper at University in fact I applaud them for aligning tions, not unlike the bible, and simi­ would be a liberating experience, themselves with truth, liberty and larly its function is to ensure some especially for a minority such as justice in the Institutional way. It’s kind of philosophical guide to my myself. After all are we not in the the class, the women. Like they are life. Have I mistakenly armed the same boat, powerless? Perhaps the bursting at the seams with opinion, critic? God knows it’s a jungle in Powerful have not allocated enough perspective, interpretation, and with here. life jackets. That we must fight this auditorium of women’s space, The class gives me a pause of amongst ourselves for survival. they will speak. THEY HAVE SPO­ grace, not a gracious pause mind you, KEN. Is this feminism? If so why do 1 like a teacher’s pause during a lesson We take our colour everywhere they make me feel so alienated, I when a noisy plane flics overhead. we go. Sometimes it is heavy. have tits, and guts. We don’t want to They continue talking over my head, Sometimes when you have access to put the hangi down, we still wish to i

2 0 /BROADSHEET Summer 1993 make our kite. Our fight for equal­ now only feel, anger. I really feel like She probably is expecting unfloun­ ity is not with each other. punching her face. Yes! I have some­ dering encouragement, a little of thing to add, about a room of one’s what she could have given me. My body is now in semi foetal- own. Give me a room of my own and position, my eyes lowered, my hands I can easily fill it for you, yet not one Class over the old lady smiles, feverishly occupied, my guts busting, single person will feel truly at ease in flaccid and obligatory, at the class, I must be angry. Oh why do I have to that room if it was not built or including me. I hesitate to move, be so ethnocentric!? blessed by their fore-fathers, fore­ Hope, in the form of a flaccid smile, mothers, fore-persons. festers in me. I feel black. Listen to me. I feel blue. Lady Seminar Presenter is still talking. I find myself ferociously Listen to what people are saying, I tear up the form, put it in the writing it all down on her assessment their opinions are valid, I scribble garbage, and leave. sheet. Negative, critical, analysing ... down under section ANALYSIS. I What do I know about a room of should wish to see her face when she By E.P.P. Rassmussen one’s own? I’ve never had a room of sees this, Goddess Seminar Presenter. my own. My people don’t think about rooms of their own. It is not an issue as is room for you. Space is not an option. Is that what Virginia The Choice is Yours Woolf meant about space? I do not It’s not just our amazing know about such space Princess range of ethnic craft that Seminar Presenter. I only know about makes Trade Aid the a room filled with people, family. place to shop. The warmth bodies give to each It’s our commitment to pay while together. Close knitting, inter­ craftspeople a fair price for weaving. Am I wrong in my knowl­ their work. edge? Trade Aid Shops specialise in ethnic jewellery and accessories, home furnishings, I cannot say this. It would not go tableware, teas, coffees and down well and will be met by a bar­ traditional works of art from Africa, Asia, Latin America rage of eurocentric ideology. and the Pacific. Feministic eurocentric ideology. We work in partnership with hundreds of communities in the Give me a break. third world to help them to help themselves. Nothing in our shops has been Now the tutor looks directly at me, made in a sweatshop. she knows I have said nothing, but No one is suffering so you can get a bargain. Which explains that which only served to haemor­ why our crafts and commodities rhage my self-confidence. She knows are sometimes more expensive I’ve said nothing and she knows I than look alikes down the road. have a lot to say. I want to say: (hurt This Christmas people, hurt others) You women choose your gifts from make me feel like shit. Sure the Trade Aid... world owes you for your sufferings, you’ll enjoy the experience! I’ve suffered too. And you’ve been abused, oppressed, victimised, I loo 36 Shops Nationwide. There’s one near you - look under Trade Aid in your phone book am a survivor. So don’t you dare NORTH ISLAND • Whangarei • Takapuna • Auckland City -177 K Rd & Broadway Plaza • look at me with pity, threat, or anger, Howick - 58 Picton St • Papatoetoe • Raglan • Hamilton • Te Awamutu • Tauranga • Rotorua - 405 Tutanekai St • Taupo • Gisborne • Napier • Havelock North - 11 Napier Rd • because I the poor black woman am Dannevirke • New Plymouth • Opunake • Wanganui • Feilding • Palmerston North • Levin • the angriest. I don’t want to be equal Masterton • Upper Hutt • Lower Hutt - Station Village • Petone • Wellington to man, I want to be equal to you! SOUTH ISLAND • Nelson «Picton^Blenheim • Christchurch - The Shades & Riccarton • Ashburton • Timaru • Oamaru • Dunedin Blah, blah, blah drones on Queen • Invercargill • Enquiries P O Box 18-620 Trade Aid Shops Seminar Presenter. I hear nothing Christchurch Ph (03) 388-7016 Trading fairly f(tr a just world

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 21 There was an enormous fuss by the ners. Recognition of our relationships as this is not going to win any special Banks mob against the lesbian and gay equal to straights is necessary before dis­ favours for lesbian couples hoping to aspects of the Hum an Rights Act. I crimination in law is eliminated. adopt. Because of the non-recognition of wondered why. Ju st what will the new The Human Rights Commission will be our relationships anyway it will also law do for my community? examining all legislation on the books mean parental rights to a Child of a les­ over the next seven years to advise on bian relationship will still not be exam­ Does it mean it’s illegal to discriminate amendments to comply with the new ined with both partners as potential against lesbians and gays? Act. The amendments to each Act or guardian. Have we finally been granted our equal Bill must be presented to the politicians Relatives from whom we are estranged place in the sun? to pass or reject like any other amend­ may challenge our wills .A partner has Perhaps, you could say, it’s let us come ment to a law. So we will have to go no better priority than a friend.The same out of the shadows with some legal through the Banks Mob every time. I applies to next-of-kin in medical deci­ protection. suspect they will be even more hysteri­ sions. \ So, why all the fuss by the Banks mob? cal and irrational than with this Act. There are many more cVses where inval­ The Human Rights Act allows us to; idation of our relationshipkis a problem. •exist legally • live without harassment • GETTING THE ACTS TOGETHER work • have or own a place to live ♦ join The Marriage Act is the key. If its defi­ OTHER IMPLICATIONS recreational clubs • have basic human nition of ‘between a man and a woman’ It is important not to let benefits be rights (but only as individuals). were widened all else should logically reduced for lesbian and gay couples There are other grounds we can use to follow. However it is unlikely to even unless we also get the rights of ‘mar­ challenge discrimination: get a proposer, (sic) There are areas riage’ or de facto in other areas. • Marital status (not new but sometimes which are more likely to succeed and However, at present our relationships are useful) have more impact on our lives anyway. defined by us...not the politicians.We • Disablement (expect considerable It is important for us to follow the make our own choices about financial improvements) progress and nature of the amendments responsibility for each other. We are • Race (not new either: which reminds as they come forward. We need to alert separate persons entitled to individual us that deg al protection doesn’t stop big­ our MPs to what we want. welfare or superannuation benefits. otry) The Act covering guardianship is When we split up we can retain our own unlikely to be changed but is worth property or make provisions for the less THE AMENDMENTS TO COME fighting for. The Banks mob believe wealthy one. The Act doesn’t change any other laws. lesbians and gays to be more dangerous Let’s think clearly and carefully about Existing legislation contains the most to children than heterosexuals. Evidence what we really want before we envy and significant discrimination. What makes proves in the overwhelming majority of try to imitate our straight sisters with lesbians and gays different from child abuse cases the offender is male their so called privileges. straights is our choice of sexual part- and usually heterosexual. Of course, B Juliet Jaques 22 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 COLUMNIST

Nelson Notes

eadlines are such that I camping at French Pass. I guess it's the combination of the time of can’t wait until after the my life (being 50+) and the beauty elections to write this, so D and magnificence of this thinly- I'm thinking it will be out of date populated South Island that gives before it's read. I always have the feeling just before an election that me this visceral response to the after it the world will be changed, physical environment here. I am different — better, even. It never moved to tears at times by the is. No matter how people vote. sheer wonder of it and have an urgent drive to see it all, to take it And so I will write as if there is not an election looming, keeping into myself; to feed my soul. my hope, which is faint these days, that there will be a change in the Exploration demands a certain direction of the ‘better world’ my level of fitness, so the rebounder parents believed in and sacrificed is in regular use and Glenda came and worked for, in a small corner home yesterday with a 24-session j of my mind. My hope grows concession card for a local gym j fainter as I see the decreasing (gulp!). We have enrolled for a j learn-to-sail weekend in a month ! power of government in the face donations to the food bank, regular or so and so, I tell myself, this is a | of international trade and business stints in the local ‘op shop’ putting good opportunity to develop belter led by faceless greed merchants. And her money in the till for items chil­ j arm strength. I'll go tomorrow, with hope glows a little stronger at the dren and young mothers wanted and j Glenda the first time I think, and at a j possibility of MMP coming out on didn’t have the few cents to pay for, time when there won't be many peo- ! top in the referendum; if those same ‘helping out’ the grandchildren (not pie there. greed merchants are so set against it always with the approval of their par­ that they will put money into an ents) and wondering what would hap­ It is a year since we moved here opposing campaign it must have the pen to the children who never j and the time has come I realised potential to make a government less seemed to get what she called ‘a fair recently, to create space for the writ­ easily co-opted. go’. ‘Old-fashioned’ and ‘too old and ing that was one of my reasons for i set in my ways to change’ she would moving. So I resigned from my very My parents hoped that they were say. While the stoicism of her life is good part-time job and am practising contributing to a world that would be not for me her ‘old-fashioned’ values j being firm about not taking on new j better for their children and grand­ have become part of mine and fuel (unpaid) projects no matter how children. They lived the ideology of my hope. interesting. I plan to leave the morn- ! the first Labour Government of 1935. ings free for writing and do paid My mother died recently (my father On Saturday Glenda and I drove to j work some afternoons and evenings, | died 18 years ago) and that has led Tapawera. You turn right about forty like teaching women’s studies at the me to think of their lives and dreams kilometres from Nelson down the Polytechnic. All those comments I j as I knew them. My mother died as road to Murchison. Tapawera is in have heard for years from writers | she had lived, in her own way, with­ one of the valleys between the hills about the need to be disciplined and out seeking help; a hard way to die it we can see from our place. It's com­ to write every day whether or not you i seems to me and a hard way to live. ing up summer and we are beginning feel like it arc right in front of my She had become cynical about poli­ to do more exploring of this beautiful eyes. It is time to do it. B tics and politicians and carried on her region; in a couple of weeks we are Pat Rosier own life as she believed was right; going with friends for a weekend

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /2 3 them, especially their environmental implications.

The Pantyliner Conspiracy Menstrual pads aren’t complicated products. There’s an absorbent, cot- ton-like core made from wood pulp, plastic, moist-proof liner on the bot­ tom to prevent accidental staining and a softer material, usually rayon with cotton, sheathing the product. Wet- strength agents that keep the pad from falling apart when holding menstrual fluid and surfactants to improve absorbency may also be part of the manufacturer’s formula. Glue holds all of these “ingredients” together. Slim ‘maxi’ products such as Johnson & Johnson’s Sure & Natural and the P & G ’s Always Ultra include another component. Both are impreg­ nated with synthetic gelling crystals that can absorb many times their weight in liquids. The safety of these SANITARY NAPKINS: super-absorbent polyacrylites was hotly debated when companies began Padding the Bottom Line using them in ultra-thin disposable diapers in 1986, but their presence in he following is an edit­ for sanitary protection. Bulky and I sanitary pads is almost unknown and uncomfortable, these homemade men­ ed excerpt from the is rarely questioned. strual pads weren’t much of an book Whitewash: Enter the panty liner. This thin pad improvement over the basic bandage Exposing the health with the non-biodegradable backing i used many centuries earlier by women and environmental dangers of has captured a third of all sanitary of the Roman Empire, or the grass and women's sanitary products and napkin sales. Initially designed to vegetable fibre contrivances made by disposable diapers - and what help women through the waning days women in Australia and Africa. After you can do about it. of their periods or to supplement a failed attempts by Johnson & Johnson As women, we’re big customers of tampon, panty liners are now being to market a disposable sanitary napkin one category in particular of pulp and advertised as an essential part of a in the late 1890s - the moral climate of i paper merchandise - the so-called san­ woman’s hygiene every day, all month | the day ruled out advertising - French itary protection or feminine hygiene long. “To keep you feeling clean and nurses during the First World War products. We are the market for tam­ fresh every day. As part of daily working with cellulose surgical gauze pons, sanitary napkins and panty lin­ hygiene,” says the package of Johnson discovered it made an efficient, com­ ers. We buy them by the billions & Johnson’s Carefree deodorant panty fortable menstrual pad. every year. shields. French nurses may have started the And talk about a captive market. And we’ve bought their ploy; hook, trend 75 years ago, but multinationals Our biological fate is to menstruate line and sinker. Sad to say, this sort of i control nearly all the action now. nearly a week per month for about half ‘information’ feeds the notion that About one billion sanitary pads of our lives. Add it all up and it’s no women are in a perpetual state of were landfilled or incinerated in wonder manufacturers are confident uncleanliness. Some vaginal dis­ Canada in 1990. In the United States, about the steady market for their mer­ charge is natural between periods, but the figure is even more staggering - chandise, even in recessionary times. unless a woman is suffering from an 11.3 billion. A woman throws away infection, she should never produce a ten thousand pads or tampons in her Sanitary Pads Throughout History discharge heavy enough to warrant a lifetime, quite a bundle if you had to Until the 1920s, women used wash­ panty liner, even when pregnant. dispose of them all in your own back­ able bandages or ‘diapers”made from The everyday panty liner ranks up yard. Women rarely talk about these materials with quaint-sounding names there with deodorized sanitary pads, disposable, single-use products, but such as 'bird’s-eye and 'outing flannel' vaginal sprays and douches as unnec- it’s past time we had a closer look at i

24 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 essary products devised by companies The continued use of chlorine- hungry to boost their sales. bleached pulp is a sign that environ­ mental concerns are not high on the Sanitary Safety Issues for Women and list of priorities of sanitary protection the Environment companies. In our opinion, industry risk assess­ Nor has disposability made much of ments aren’t necessarily reassuring. an impression. Walk down the aisle of Their conclusions are based more on any supermarket or drugstore and sur­ assumptions and speculation than on vey the sizable sanitary products sec­ concrete data. 'Safe levels’ of dioxin tion for a moment. You’d never know (and its toxic equivalents) have been we have a serious solid waste disposal calculated to be 2.5 times higher in problem on our hands. sanitary napkins than in toilet paper. Synthetics and plastics are part and This is a puzzling result. Women who parcel of the napkins themselves, vir­ use pads are exposed to the products tually nullifying their already slim for hours and even days, compared to chances of breaking down in a landfill But consumers an exposure time measured in seconds site. The bottom liner is made of non- for toilet paper. An additional note: biodegradable polypropylene, and the should know that calculations for disposable diapers soft, non-woven coverings may also included a special correction factor for be plastic - Procter & Gamble’s white does not babies’ sensitive skin. No such con­ Always Pad, for example, uses a sideration for women! 'breathable’ polyethylene. Other pro­ equal sterility - Nowhere in any of these product ducers have opted for materials such risk assessments, of course, is there as woven rayon, polyester and cotton, neither sanitary any mention of the impact of manufac­ each having its own environmental turing these chlorine-bleached prod­ drawbacks. pads nor tamponsI ucts on the environment around pulp Let’s not forget there’s still more ! mills. And nowhere is there any men­ plastic on the outside. It’s called ‘poly­ are sterile products. tion of all those other organochlorines bagging,’ the latest trend in product about which science still knows so packaging, which has overtaken card­ very little. board. Not one of these thick outer Bright white products, of course, wraps mentions any recycled content. create the impression of hygiene and The advent of individually wrapped cleanliness. But consumers should sanitary pads is another product ‘inno­ know that white does not equal sterili­ vation’ that thumbs its nose at the ty - neither sanitary pads nor tampons solid waste crisis, a case of overpack­ are sterile products. Nor is “white­ aging gone mad.An industrial trade ness” or “brightness” usually necesar- journal says individual wrapping - ry for the paper product to function even though the product is not sterile - better. Removing some of the ligans has been a boon to the major brands and resins is required if the pulp is and the private label manufacturers being used for sanitary products like who claim that ‘today’s consumer is facial tissue, toilet paper and menstru­ more active and therefore more con­ al pads - the pulp becomes more cerned about discretion.’ absorbent. It is not essential, however, How about meeting our needs and The monthly answer to bleach pulp to a very high bright­ striving to satisfy environmental con­ to your menstrual protection needs ness to achieve adequate absorbency. cents? 1$ *safe *economic ^comfortable And treating pulp with chlorine-based Copies of Whitewash can be ordered *environmentally sound chemicals isn’t the only answer. directly form WEED (Women and Reusable menstrual pads and panty liners Renate Kroesa of Greenpeace says Environmental Education and Made from 100% unbleached cotton fleece the pads fasten with velcro to hydrogen peroxide effectively Development Foundation) 736 Bathurst underwear. With a waterproof nylon removes the resin acids without the Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2R4, (416) backing the pads last for years. negative side effects of chlorine 516-2600, $12.95 (plus postage and han­ Full range of products and price list available. bleaching. She points out that fluffing dling). Try our introductory kit: (one pad, one panty liner, one underwear) and special drying techniques can also By Liz Armstrong and Adrienne Scott for $22.50 plus $4 p&p increase the pulp absorbtion potential Abridged reprint from Healthsharing Send to: Y ’s Eyes, Women’s Environmental of pulp. Summer/Fall, 1992. Network, YWCA, PO Box 5146, Dunedin (state size of underwearS, M, L, XL)

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 25 MARK ADAMS

26 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 27 BROADSHEET / Summer 1993 Some women (20%) had received an The survey results debunked the myth that (48%). And in an industry in which there have allowances, these had been even further shift allowances - a payment for working out­ increase in their overall take-home pay.longer hours explained A this increase in nearly been few extra reduced. payments, A third of the women suffered cuts to bonuses side ofnormal or hours such as atnight. closer examination, however, revealed that women choose to work reduced hours to suit halfof those cases (40%). AT LEAST WE HAVE FLEXIBLE HOURS family responsibilities. As Annie pointed out,

A lucky 10% of the women surveyed received an increase

the hours they work. would work extra Most hours if of they were theoffered them. women (60%) said they “This assumes that they are in a position to select and control accept, the majority indicated that they would work an addi­ By Alex Bruce Of those who specified how much extra worktional two hours they per day - up wouldto an extra ten hours per week!” AND THE GOOD NEWS UNDER THE EMPLOYMENT CON­ TRACTS ACT? in their basic rate of pay and overtime were payments.unaffected by As changesRaymond to Harbridge wryly observed, “probably because they firsthad place!” never B worked overtime in the Employment Shortly before the Union members new law would do to Contracts Act came into effect on May 14th 1991, public hospital workers took march up Auckland’s Here Service Workers Queen Street. to the streets warning of the damage the their living standards.

out of five workers wagehave sufferedfreeze a or wage cut since the paid service jobs has found that four survey of women employed in low-

The Service Workers Union surveyed its Of the 3627 ques­ Annie Newman says Most of the workers Of the third who reported an increase in their hourly pay Looking at what’s happened to hourly pay rates only tells Nearly half of those surveyed had experienced a reduction ‘92. assistants andbar staff.” and allowances. This included receptionists, about their employment contracts, wages and women members to find out how they were far­ ing under the Employment Contracts Act. A conditions of work, such as sick pay, holidays “Our survey asked ordinary working women Employment Contracts Act was introduced in cleaners, clerical workers, waitresses, home Union spokeswoman Annie Newman says tionnaires posted out, the results are shock­ing. “Although 962 (27%) were women’s wages, the Government statisticsshow early indications of a widening gap returned. As university researcher RaymondHarbridge observed, “a very response rate for a sur­ vey of this kind.” acceptable between men’s and the same rate ofpay for two years. Onlythird one- had received an CUTS...CUTS plight of much women bleaker than this is surveyed had been on increase in their hourly picture reveals.” their hours or allowances. rate. Others (10%) had actually hadpay cut. their basic hourly rate of ...AND MORE CUTS the last two years. The reduction inabout pay, in mostfrom cases, camecuts to allowances, overtime pay and weekend rate, most did not have a fatter pay packet due to changes in part of the story.reported that their overall take-home Many pay had gone ofdown over the women surveyed (30%) or abolition of overtime pay rates (40%) or weekend rates rates.

ROBIN ARTHUR ow was Standing in the Sunshine people were involved. I wanted Maori We spent a lot of time looking for hconceived? women to research and write about their the title. Once again, it was reminiscent In 1985, I was working with Liz own history. As far as the editorial of Broadsheet because when we chose Greenslade on a history of the YWCA advisers were concerned, I wanted the the name ‘Broadsheet’ it was after dis­ for its centenary. I wrote a history of book to be as scholarly as possible. covering that just about everything you the organisation and I investigated who Before 1992,1 was virtually working on came up do with women had some the women were that started the my own. Then, the nature of the work awful sexual connotation. We spent YWCA. A lot of them were suffragists changed when other women were ages trying to find a title for the maga­ and, like feminists now, they were brought on board. It did remind me at zine and it was the same for this book. involved in a number of organisations. times of what it was like editing We were looking for an apt quotation They were leading lights in the suffrage Broadsheet because I ended up with all from one of the suffragists. By the end movement as well as other groups such these people I was coordinating. A cou­ of the project, there were other possible as The Door of Hope for unmarried ple of people helped me on a part-time quotes that came up during the course mothers and the Women’s Christian basis but, at the end of the day, it came of the work which would have done just Temperance Union. Discovering this back to me to keep control of it. as well. However, I’m entirely happy made us think about the fact that in Anyone who knew me at Broadsheet with ‘Standing in the Sunshine’. We eight years time there was going to be would know that I like to work like that actually came across it in one of the another centenary for women - 100 editorially. I’m actually best working in Herstory diaries by the Dunedin years of women’s suffrage. We started a solitary way so it was a bit of a shock Collective for women. Those diaries are developing a book outline at that stage, to the system to have to go back to a really valuable source of historical which we had done by 1987. From working in a collaborative way. It was material about women. I’ve since seen there we started trying to raise the definitely a hierarchical structure: the speeches in which Margaret money to finance the project. We went everything stopped with me and I was Sievwright used that image of men to every possible government body and ultimately responsible. The coordina­ standing in our sunshine. It’s actually tried to get corporate sponsorship. At tion and management became a huge taken from Diogenes. He was asked that time, there wasn’t very much inter­ part of the project, which I hadn’t antic­ what freedom was and he said it was est, partly because Suffrage Year ipated. It took a lot of my time away the right to stand in the sunshine with seemed so far away and it was hard to from researching and writing. Many no-one overshadowing you. Women get across its significance, and also times, I wouldn’t be able to write until respond really well to it. We didn’t because 1987 was the year of the share four or six o’clock because I had spent want anything denoting victimisation. market crash which meant that the com­ all day on organisational details. There We’re not saying that we’ve actually mercial sponsors, who didn’t sponsor were a lot of very long hours. I think it got there yet, but we wanted to say women’s projects anyway, found it was necessary to have all those people something positive. I’ve done a lot of even less attractive. In 1990, I received involved. Most people who were writ­ travelling around New Zealand with an two grants, one from the historical ing were given most or all of the author tour for Penguin and then the branch of the Internal Affairs research material. Others were an Listener Women’s Book Festival and Department and the other from the expert on their topic, like Ngahuia Te women have said they really like the Literary Fund. This kept the project Awekotuku. If I came across something title. going until we were accepted for I thought might interest her, I gave it to Penguin published Standing in the Suffrage Trust funding and major spon­ her but basically she sourced her contri­ Sunshine. What was your relationship sorship from Postbank in 1992. We bution herself. That applies to some of like with them while you were research­ then had eighteen months to complete the other women involved as well. ing and writing the book? the book. How did you come across Margaret I’ve published all my books with Tell me about the process of produc­ Sievwright’s words - ‘The question is Penguin. They’ve always been good to ing the book. It seems to have involved often asked, “What do women want” We me which is why I’ve continued to pub­ many women from all over New Zealand. want men to stand out of our sunshine, lish with them. Standing in the It would not have been possible to that is all” (1896) - from which you Sunshine was completely beyond the have completed the book unless other derived the title of the book? resources of a feminist press and was a shade of Sandra 28 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 GILHANLY raiig oiial i te 1890s. the in politically organising political figures who were outspoken outspoken were who figures political an eye-opener to find that they were were they that find to was eye-opener it but an 1930s the in League Health ising as far back as the W om en’s en’s om W the as back far as organ­ ising were women Maori that knew I aspects. rewarding most the of one was oe’ hsoy ht o dsoee In discovered you that history women’s hi w utr. rnig htt light to that Bringing culture. within own their powerful and issues land about strong as women Maori of given is idea been has it material, historical existing What was the most Interesting aspect of aspectInteresting most the was What to be very domestic or decorative. No No decorative. or domestic very be to view. of point male very a from written the at look you If neglected. quite been the woman behind woman the researchingbook?this operative. vn h iae o ar wmn tend women Maori of images the Even oy fhw h ia pgsloe. So looked. pages final the how of copy An interview with interview An Sunshine the in Standing h wy ht e okd a qie co­ quite was worked we that way the hie sz, n psto o h pho­ the of position and size, choice, rt pee fr h bo wr sn a sent who were book women the for The pieces wrote time. long very for a her known I’ve So 1980s. early the actually the designer for for designer the actually was designer, the Hollis-McLeod, looks. Sally page each the way the on and tographs decision every in involved I consultative. very was everything never been any interference from from interference any been never e ee on pg y ae S I was I So page. by page doing were what we through go and week a designer the twice with or once down sit would Penguin on anything I ’ve done with with done ’ve With I them. anything on Penguin has there pho­ me, of For images. level and tographs that in with produced Zealand big New that books few very commitment for them because of the the of because them for commitment ie f h poet Tee ae been have There project. the of size big a was It time. long a for board on d pnosi fr h ata produc­ actual the for sponsorship ed to the book in 1987. So they had been been had they So 1987. in book the to committed Penguin had We work. tion alm ost beyond the resources of of resources the beyond ost alm Penguin, which is partly why we need­ we why partly is which Penguin, Historically, Maori women have have women Maori Historically, tnig n h Sunshine the in Standing Broadsheet , Sandra , in

events. Whatever you say will be much be will say you Whatever events. is reason other The about. know didn’t it is very difficult to evaluate recent recent evaluate to difficult very is it published been have books Many years. and 1 was interested in what people' people' what in interested was 1 and history women’s contemporary with famil­ iar more are People pipeline. the in and 1 knew that there were other books books other were there that 1 twenty knew and last the in especially issues contemporary more lot a on existence in yourreasons forthat? ethcenturyafterWorldII.War wereWhat there is actually quite a lot of material material of lot a quite actually is there lightly upon the later part of the twenti­ the of part later the uponlightly necessarily give you authority and a saya and authority you give necessarily o sas n or nrdcin o the very touched to deliberately you that book Introduction your In stats You Maori a whereas matters, important on They were born with authority. In the the In authority. with born were They woman who had a rank did have a say.a have did arank had who woman because chiefly women did have rank. rank. have did women chiefly because communities their in roles more easily easily more British tradition, having a title didn’t didn’t title a having tradition, British active really take leading leading take to able were me, to seems Maori but h suffrag­ The it. research ei to begin you when up hold doesn’t women, it it women, ists were were ists actually n it and centred view view centred players. f history of a male- very hat’s T major only men Maori w eren’t the the eren’t w hr wr toraos Oe s that is One reasons. two were There

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m , ae eiin aot ht ’ pt in put I’d what about decisions make n wa I int I tre fo the from started I didn’t. I what and ae en rig o rt smtig [ something write to trying been have oe’ Afis As, js hd o 1 to had of just I Also, Ministry the Affairs. at Women’s ! 1 looking reasons the of avoided one It’s viewpoint. a ae apnd s eety s h last the as recently as happened have 1 would recent. too It’s book. historical ain it to justify difficult very It’s ments. ten years and that could only have been have only could that and years ten might which events about historical t aheeet o lc o achieve­ of lack or achievements its and movement women’s the about opin­ ions expressing for forum the is book in ae en rtn ta fo wa is what from much that very writing been have which has just come out. That kind of of kind That out. come just has which into its development, because I would would I because development, its into bu is rgn ad eie nt o get to not decided and origins its about writ­ started I When contentious. more ntne I u i ofvr ery 1 talked early. very off it cut I instance, n aot h wmns oeet for movement, women’s the about ing f Id Sum m er er m Sum , -i a id'. * m on ohr i a ay le Suit Blue Navy a in Nowhere Going di-d *V/di-d & s' - s' . wfr 'SO 1993 1993 my Vs»* *v t L pno. ’ witn that written I’d opinion. Aj

BROADSHEET BROADSHEET A A V . d •*» ' V ■ K*. / / 29

j beginning with 320 pages and that was at what’s been happening with women was the home. She represents a whole the most I was ever going to have for as a whole. One of the things- that has generation of women who put aside the book. It was never going to expand. been brought home to me through things that they might have been very So, every time I put something in I had media coverage of Suffrage Year is just good at in favour of their men. So it to take something out. how far we have to go and how was acknowledgement of the fact that You are quoted from your days as entrenched male power is. To answer my mother hasn’t had the opportunities. editor of Broadsheet on the last pages of your question about power. I don’t My father went on to be president of the the book. It’s a quote from 1983, when know what kind of power women want. New Zealand Rugby Union, an you say that “until the women’s peace I’m very ambivalent about it and I think Auckland city councillor and chairman movement faces the issue of power, and a lot of women are. We often see it of the Auckland Regional Authority. how to challenge power, women will being misused. We see a lot of women My mother might have done all those wear their pushchairs out to no real who get power and don’t seem to sup­ things too but she never had the oppor­ effect”. Are women, in your mind, facing port women or support women in ways tunity. the issues of power today? that we don’t agree with. So basically What projects would you like to work I just don’t think that there is one what I come back to is the need for a on in the future? unified voice from women, and there women’s movement because you can’t Unfortunately, I’ve been so never has been, about how we achieve rely on individual people to push things immersed in Standing in the Sunshine change or even whether change is nec­ forward for women. It really requires a that I haven’t got something lined up as essary. It’s been interesting doing a his­ movement and I don’t think we’ve got I usually do. I haven’t been thinking in torical survey because it has made me one at the moment. There’s nothing that way. I’ve got a number of ideas, think about things in the modern going on and I think it’s very sad. but nothing as big as this book and women’s movement too. There always Standing in the Sunshine is dedicated nothing definite. Something about the has been a feminist movement in New to your mother. Would you like to say 1950s would really interest me because Zealand, but there has been a tendency something about her? it really is nauseating to see it presented to think of the two waves of the 19th I’ve actually got both my grand­ as a sort of golden era where everything century and the 1970s onwards. In fact, mothers in the book too, in pho­ was perfect. That generation of women there have always been women who tographs. 1 got a lot of things from my in the fifties was the first generation of have fought for women’s causes. The father that have been important to me in women to run their own houses without other thing I gained was a lot of respect my political life. He was a public figure servants. It was the first time that mid­ for more conservative women. and in some ways he had a very tradi­ dle class women were trapped in the Feminism from the early years of the tional view of what women should be home. I think that what happened to century up until World War II was quite doing. Yet, he groomed both my sister them as a group of women was quite conservative, although there were and me for a very public kind of life. unique. In the 1960s, there was recogni­ groups of more radical women, for My sister is very involved in teachers’ tion that a lot of these women were tak­ instance the group including Elsie unions. Both of us do a lot of public ing valium and filling up the psychiatric Locke who started the Family Planning speaking and have quite political lives. hospitals. Then along came the Association and the feminist magazine I’ve written about that and I suppose I women’s movement. Another project Women Today. What I could see was wanted to acknowledge my mother might be a book on the women’s move­ that what women have always tried to who’s in her eighties. Doing a history ment and its achievements and the do is improve the status of women. That book, I became aware of what women amount of change in women’s lives has always been the goal. Women have have put in over the years for women. I now. If I compare my life in 1970 with sought different ways to do that. We saw also how women’s lives have been an equivalent person now, there was no might disagree with what women did constricted in an uniquely New Zealand DPB, no abortion, no day care and no then; for example, their attempts to ele­ way because of the emphasis on manli­ Matrimonial Property Act. And yet I vate women’s traditional roles by say­ ness and ruggedness and being profi­ think it’s very easy for women, espe­ ing that what women did in the home cient at sport which is like a national cially young women, to think that was a profession. Yet, what they were religion. Women have always lived in there’s nothing more left to change trying to achieve was more status and the shadow of all that and still do. I was when there is. It’s very easy to believe more power for women. That has paral­ aware that historically, in women’s that some of the trappings of life are lels in the modem women’s movement lives in New Zealand, opportunities real life, such as being a well dressed with^what we call the ‘baby wage’ or have just not been there. My mother young woman with a decent income. ‘mother’s wage’ with which women was one of those women. She was an Men haven’t changed as much as i might be paid for what they do in the extremely able person when my father women have changed. Women partici- i home. I have mixed feelings about cele­ married her. She was intellectually pate in the world on men’s terms still, j brating the first woman judge or woman bright and a good musician and sports­ So I think that there is an enormous j in parliament or heading businesses. I woman. My father brought it all to a amount of work still to be done. 11 know it provides a good role model, but grinding halt and from then on her role Interviewer; Annie Goslyn at the same time it’s not a measure of was to look after him. My father sold For more on Standing in the Sunshine, how well the whole sex is doing. I’ve her hockey boots the minute they got see page 54 for a critique. ' always been more interested in looking married and mum’s life from then on 30 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 -W E MADE IT------political

what were we pronged slogan of Suffrage Year 20, one day after the official supposed to ('Celebrate the past, assess the unveiling ceremony. be celebrat­ present, challenge the future’) ing in might as well have had only one We held a different kind of Suffrage part, Funding went overwhelm­ unveiling ceremony - the unveil­ Year? The biggest political ingly to history projects or ing of the Jenny Shipley innovation in New Zealand arts/crafts projects with an histor­ Memorial Soup Pot. The battered history? Or motherhood ical dimension. Areas of desper­ pot contained Camellia Soup - a and apple pie, Postbank ate present and future need large­ thin broth consisting of cold and Bell Tea? ly missed out. water and camellia petals, sym­ bolic of the sustenance women The casual observer would be As I helped Jennifer analyse working to better the lot of forgiven for thinking it was the the funding distribution I came to women have received from the latter. The careful observer, who share her concern that once again Minister of Women’s Affairs in made a systematic study of where women’s political business, the recent years. The cartoon drawn the $5 million dollars doled out take of the suffragists, had been especially for the protest by the Suffrage Centennial Year downplayed and devalued. We expressed just how much we Trust Fund went, would come to wondered whether the think women have to 'celebrate’ much the same conclusion. Christchurch groups which had • in Suffrage Year - wages down, missed out on funding felt the unemployment up, a crisis in Jennifer Margaret, an Honours same way, and whether they health care, education fees rising, student at Canterbury University, would support a protest against and so on. What’s more, by the decided to follow up a hunch that their relegation to the ranks of 19th of September 1993 only the feminist action groups in 'also-ran’. We called a meeting 16% of the New Zealand parlia­ Christchurch which applied for and rang around the groups, ment was female - the same as suffrage year funding had had lit­ which included The Health the Swiss parliament. But women tle success. She wondered Alternatives for Women, the in Switzerland have only been whether it was the same all round Housing for Women Trust, voting for 22 years! New Zealand New Zealand - were the women Women Against Pornography, the does not have a lot of laurels to who are the true descendants of Women’s Learning Centre, the rest on when it comes to the suffragists failing to receive Women with Eating Disorders women’s political, social and the money being dished out in Resource Centre, the Battered economic progress - what a pity - honour of their political fore­ W om en’s T rust, a N uiean or is it a scandal? - that the mothers? women’s group, and Women’s Suffrage Centennial Trust didn’t Refuge. They all missed out on see fit to follow its brief properly, j As she worked through the list urgently needed funds, and they and challenge the future by fund­ of funded and unfunded projects were all happy to join under the ing the women working for supplied to her by the Ministry of 'Today’s Suffragists’ banner in change, ft Women’s Affairs, it became front of the Kate Sheppard1, By Christine Dann increasingly clear that the three­ National Memorial on September Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /3 1 But You Can Vote

POLITICS

‘ Although women won the right to vote in 1893, they could not stand for Parliament until 1919, and it was not until 1933 that the first woman, Elizabeth McCombs, entered Parliament. ‘ By October 1993, there had been 1127 male MPs and only 36 women. ‘ After the November 1993 elec­ tion there are 21 women MPs, which is a world record propor­ you h a d n ’t tion of women under a first past noticed, marks the post system, but still does not reflect the make up of soci­ the one hun­ ety. Hopefully under MMP the dredth anniver­ number will rise. sary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, and everywhere we look are reminders of how VIOLENCE far we’ve come. ‘Sexual violations against women which lead But how far have to convictions are conservatively estimated to we really come, represent only 5% of all violent sex offences. In 1990 there were 209 convictions which and how far do means that at least 4180 sexual violations took we have to go? place. ‘ Estimates of the number of children who are Here’s a very sexually abused vary but a study in Dunedin in brief look at 1990 of 1660 women found that 32% had had some areas of key unwanted sexual contact before the age of six­ teen. The figure of 'one in four’ is continually importance to challenged - this study puts it closer to one in women, and what three. ‘ Women are still not safe from male aggres­ the real picture sion either in their homes or on the streets. is...

3 2 /BROADSHEET Summer 1993 £qualpai} Has been law since 1972. and l still onlu ^rn EMPLOYMENT 81* 1% nrteorflu averageav m an's voa^e H Women make up 43% of the New Zealand labour force, which includes both those in paid employment and those who are unemployed and seeking work. *The unemployment rate for Pakeha women is 6.9%, for Maori women 25.6%, for Pacific Island women 29.2%, and for women with disabilities an estimated 37.6%. ‘Women are more than twice as likely as men to work part-time, and half as likely to B ut you work full-time. In September 1991,17.9% of the female labour force was in part-time c a n vote work, whereas only 6.6% of the male labour force was in part time work. V. ‘ In 1992 women carried out approximately $22 billion of unpaid work. Women perform two-thirds of all unpaid work, which is estimated to account for between 30 and 58% of the Gross Domestic Product. ‘The Employment Equity Act was passed in 1990. It was designed to make it possible for equal pay for work of equal value to become a reality. The Act was repealed later Avecaqe the same year and with the demise of national pay awards it will be hard to have it nan reintroduced. Our relationship still isn't , recognized bu fV\e law 4 LESBIAN WOMEN still don't* have the same rights 3s ‘ While lesbian women have made some gains recently, most notably heterosexuals!( with the passing of the Amendment to the Human Rights Act, there is still a long way to go before they have equal rights with heterosexual women. Lesbian women do not have the same rights in the areas of immigration, matrimonial property and inheritance, and their relation­ ships are not acknowledged by either Income Support Services or the Inland Revenue Department.

CAH vote, f

ABORTION AND CONTRACEPTION . live in Hie central ^orlh Island of IHe Weil Cwt ot the Sovttt Islatvt l ‘Abortion and contraception law in New Zealand is cov­ ,oa't have acms to abortion seevim H ered by the 1977 Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act. To obtain an abortion a woman must con­ vince two certifying consultants that continuing the preg­ nancy would damage her physical or mental health. Regional health authorities are not required by law to provide abortion services. In practice this means that while abortion is legal in some circumstances, women often cannot obtain an abortion without expensive travel and time consuming consultants visits. Free abortion on demand has never become a reality for New Zealand women. ‘Contraception is easily available in New Zealand, how­ ever there is no 100% reliable and safe contraceptive in existence. New Zealand is one of the few developed countries where Depo Provera (also known as 'the injec­ tion’) is still prescribed, despite the well-publicised con­ cern about its safety. Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 33 Women Together A History of Women's Organisations in New Zealand

nne Else’s 'Women Together: A his­ Women’s groups have difficulty institu­ common consciousness and mass action. tory of Women's Organisations in tionalising themselves because they rarely There were too few women with resources. A New Zealand. Nga Ropu Wahine o have access to substantial resources. They So once the vote was won, the campaign te Motu', published in September, is a huge­ have tended to be carried on by whatever was over. The National Council of Women ly impressive work. Over 600 pages long, it money the women can raise by small scale (NCW) was founded originally in 1896 but inheritance, cake stalls, that sort of thing. contains not only short histories of 132 its base was quite narrow. Although the Even those such as trade unions, which women’s organisations in New Zealand, but members focussed on feminist issues they involved waged women, had low incomes. couldn’t translate them into any kind of also invaluable introductory essays covering In fact the only relatively well-to-do mass movement. the spectrum from politics to religion. women’s organisations were clubs such as such as the 'Women Together’ should automatically the Lyceum, which kept their entrance fee Later, groups find a place in the libraries of historians, relatively high. Women would join with Country Women’s Institute and NCW writers and everybody else concerned with their husbands’ money - rarely their own. (which restarted in 1917 after fizzling out in women’s interests and issues. I hope, Better-off groups like this could acquire 1906) based themselves on the observed though, that its readership doesn’t stop their own club rooms and hire them out to needs of women rather than on a political there. This is a book to thrust at anyone who other groups, so they had an ongoing source philosophy of women's rights. They wonders what women have been up to for of income. Men’s organisations, of course, based their demands the last 150 years. As Dame Catherine often had such resources. around the figure of Tizard said at its launch, it should be an And therefore exerted more power? eye-opener for men who for years cheerily Of course. There hasn’t been much writ­ the wife and mother, waved their wives off to their 'harmless lit­ ten in New Zealand about men’s organisa­ which had wide appeal. tle meetings’. At such meetings women tions but in 'Men Only’ which Barbara were developing their skills, and learning to Rogers wrote about men’s organisations in Male politicians organise effectively. England, she pointed out that they not only couldn’t argue with it. The book was conceived as a suffrage have more resources than women’s organi­ What did you find were the main reasons for year project by the Historical Branch of the sations do, but they also concentrate a lot of organisations going under? Department of Internal Affairs, whose chief power in one place. It’s informal power Sometimes they arise in response to a historian Jock Phillips called together a which comes about through networking in particular circumstance. Either this changes committee of Maori and pakeha women, these men-only enclaves. Even now women and they aren’t needed anymore, or they are including historians and representatives are still barred from some of these organisa­ ahead of their time and can’t make much from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, in tions, such as the Masons, and the headway. An example of the first is the October 1990. On February 18, 1991 Anne Wellesley Club in Wellington. Sisters Overseas Service, which helped Else started work as fulltime editor. How many women’s groups in the past were women who couldn’t get abortions in New How did you begin to tackle such an formed specifically to work for change? immense task? Zealand fly to Australia. Their ideas were so Almost all of them. Some groups, such advanced that they couldn’t attract members The committee and I made the important as the Daughters of the American and make headway. policy decisions, such as how to structure Revolution in the United States, have Other groups last a long time but their the book and what it would cover. After that always been about protecting the status quo, original agenda doesn’t change; as their I got essayists lined up on particular subject but there are fewer of these in New Zealand. members age they fail to attract young ones. areas, and they acted as co-editors for their We’re not big on extreme right wing Organisations which survive tend to be chapters. Early on we got together to dis­ groups. Even if organisations such as the those which consciously update themselves. cuss which groups should be featured in League of Mother appear to exist to protect The YWCA, for example, in each era has each chapter. We knew we could have about the status quo - and from a feminist point of had to ask themselves what the situation is ten per chapter, with a thousand words or so view are seen as conservative - their goal is for young women. For a long time they ran devoted to each. to do what they think is best for women. hostels but they shut these down when Was the selection controversial? young women began to go flatting, and Not really - obviously women are disap­ Feminist action moved into a new phase of helping solo pointed if their group has got only a passing appears to have come mothers, running self defence courses and mention but there has been little criticism of so on. Even so they have considerable the overall selection. and gone like the tide. financial difficulties because the cost of run­ Early suffrage groups were undoubtedly One thing that struck me was that many of ning something on a large scale is getting the groups had been quite shortlived. Did feminist but they mounted a campaign harder and harder to meet. you find that was a pattern with women’s rather than started a movement; the condi­ Women’s groups have often been criticised groups? tions didn’t exist in the late 19th century for as consisting largely of well-off, middle class 34 / BROADSHEET Summer 19S3 women who don’t represent all women, or Yes I am, but there is still a vast amount have less influence now than even ten years even the majority. of work to be done. In particular we need to ago, because new right economics has so Well, there’s a contradiction that analyse from a feminist point of view what thoroughly invalidated everything outside women’s groups face, especially those who has happened to women’s organisations in the mainstream of 'the market’. Voluntary want to bring about political action. They the last 20 years. Given that the only way groups, by definition, are marginal. Of need to organise precisely because they are for women to achieve anything for women course new rightists rely on them heavily to women, and therefore members of an is through collective organisation it’s keep society going and fill the cracks - now oppressed group in society. But at the same important to find out what works and why. chasms - but at the same time anyone who Women’s organisations have served as a doesn’t believe in 'user pays’ and does time no group can possi­ springboard for women to get into public things for nothing is an idiot in new right bly represent half the life. They are an apprenticeship for public terms and doesn’t deserve to be consulted. total population. They can’t life. There’s an extra dilemma in the fact that Voluntary organising seems to be out of feminists fought for women to get paid for speak for all women. Therefore fashion for women. Is there any organisation their work: many women’s organisations it’s easy for them to be now that young women are joining? now feel guilty about asking women to do No, but in fact young women in the past work for nothing, but they can’t afford to attacked on this basis. have rarely formed or joined women’s pay and so they’re struggling. Men’s organisations don’t get that criti­ organisations either. This doesn’t mean to The corporate world is prepared to fund cism because they are not seen to be dealing say nothing’s happening. For example, a male collective activities such as member­ with the male condition. Men are not group of young women at Victoria ship of Rotary and golf clubs, or yacht races oppressed as men, so their maleness is not University recently put on a review called round the world, because these are seen as something they need to organise around. 'Educating Barbie’. That was collective advancing their business interests. But Men for Non-Violence is the exception - action of another kind. they’re much less likely to fund women’s the only group which has explicitly said, But at the same time women are feeling sport because of its low media profile, let 'We are men, violence is a male problem less need to join an organisation for person­ alone organisations such as Refuge or Rape and we’re going to do something about it.’ al reasons than they did in the past. They Crisis which are picking up the pieces from The most vulnerable women’s groups don’t need it because their lives are socially anti-social male behaviour, and the effects are those which organise in male-dominated much freer; they can get out and do what of new right policies.fi fields. It’s interesting that if women organ­ they want without having to have an Interviewer: Mary Varnham ise in areas such as the media and fine arts excuse. As a result they have to feel very A critique of Women Together will be pub­ they immediately come in for accusations motivated if they’re to join an organisation. lished in the Arts section of Broadsheet, of discrimination and seeking special treat­ The groups that are flourishing are the ones Autumn 1994 issue. ment, whereas groups in traditional that provide relaxation and diversion - women’s areas, such as weavers or embroi­ quilting, embroidery, art groups, envi­ derers, don’t get that particular criticism. ronmental groups, walking groups, How many groups in the book have allowed exercise groups - or help women get on men to join? in their professional lives, such as busi­ Most early women’s groups had men ness networks. involved in some capacity, if only looking In the late 19th century the vote was after the finances. One thing that needs to an obvious goal. During the 'second be studied further is the process by which wave’ of the 1970’s and 1980’s sexism male membership came to be seen as a was so pervasive and obvious and barri­ problem. Why, for example, did some ers against women so stark, especially groups make an issue about it and others in employment, that it was relatively didn’t? We weren’t able to investigate these easy to gain the interest and commit­ overriding issues, but we hope women will ment of large numbers of women. pick them up and do further research. The issues now are Why were women’s organisations sanc­ tioned, given that the campaign for the vote more subtle, and the had shown they could bring about radical problems that change? It was accepted that women had their remain are either so own sphere, and that one of the ways they deeply entrenched occupied themselves was through belong­ ing to women’s organisations. Newspapers that they appear to carried large sections reporting on the activ­ be intractable - such as ities of these organisations. For many violence against women and women’s women the organisations were extrei i.ly economic disadvantage; or else subtle important. They were the only thing they ones - for example media treatment of did that was separate from their work as women’s sports - that it’s very difficult wives and mothers. for women to work out what to do. Are you happy with the book? In addition, women’s organisations Suicide or

SORROCIDE

ANNIE GOSLYN WRITES IN RESPONSE TO RUTH WALLSGROVE’S ARTICLE - ‘SWEET AND SOUR’

NEW FICTION R I T A , A VIRGIN - THE ROLE AND MEANING OF SPARE RIB MAG­ WOLF ~ t <§ BIRTH? DIRECTS SLEEPING W ITH THE AZINE, PUBLISHED IN THE SPRING 1993 ISSUE ENEMY u r n i ^ m ANOTHER .VI AC 77 IR) HOLLYWOOD MYTH OF BROADSHEET. WHATEVER if IRAQI HAPPENED 1 WOMEN’S hen I was working for a magazine in London, I frequently went for TO THE LEAGUE W OM EN'S TÊ SPEAK O U T lunch with the rep from the printing firm that had our business. He PRESSES? -J f %' Wused to tell me anecdotes about the printing trade. One such anecdote plus: uvT.f m rne qvai was about a Scottish printing firm his company represented. The Scottish firm j-euciTV KtHwc a -ifsstcA m in o r i t y used to be printers for Spare Rib the London-based feminist magazine, 1 don’t W HAT DO WE SCNKW tWEATRB & WANT? AUSON MOVfcT. DIRTY WêKrwO BY remember exactly what he said, but he made a joke about what the printers LOOKING FOR 2! AH A VI: GEORGIA A NEW KINO ^ ^ O-K fr.rE: t h e c o m p a n y thought of it all - about lesbians and strident feminists who needed a good fuck. It OF COVING OT STRANGERS AND "•*» * RA HA 2QO didn’t seem to matter to him what I would think as a woman. I said nothing. I did -vs, not stand up for who I was as a feminist and a lesbian. I remained in the closet, 1 p f ^ - . was a voluntary worker for Spare Rib at the time.

FACTIONS AND AGENDAS I first contacted Spare Rib after seeing an advert asking for a volunteer. Elorine Grant wrote to me asking me to come and see her. It was 1989. There were limes when I disagreed with something they promoted or the way they approached issues. Every feminist I knew had -Some gripe or other. I would have been wor­ S p a re R i b ried if that had not been the case however, one thing which irks me about the femi­ * A G ft , 2 t ' I f - f Af>«u nist and lesbian movements is the way in which we believe things have to be done perfectly according to our own personal agendas. If not, we trash them, boycott them, don’t spend our money on them and denigrate them after their demise. Exclusive N e w t We save our greatest venom for our own publications, factions and enterprises, Report sii South Atricafl It is happening in the US with Dykes Against Porn graffiti bombing and slashing Algoris»; Cu ba’ International the lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs. It is happening in New Zealand with the BennttOn BojfOOM furore which has blown up over the HERO Project mission statement’s lack of a direct reference to bisexuals and transpcoplc. When was the last time we slashed Play Boy or picketed parliament for sending transpeople to prisons according to the sex on their birth certificate rather than their post-op gender? Maybe the outside world is getting too frightening to fight.

"THERE WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT SPARE RIB’’ I K I I IWWlKt» I remember distinctly where the printers rep and I were in 1989. We were walk­ IIC M IS A. I M'i s ing to lunch down Regent Street on a grey winter’s day. The magazine I worked for no longer operates out of Great Portland Street and Spare Rib no longer pub­ leaning lishes from Clerkcnwcll Close near the Lesbian and Gay Centre and Farringdon Sista Cufcfta tube station. Similarly, Sisterwrite Bookshop no longer opens its doors onto tn Conversation with Jean • Bin f # B r e e z e Upper Street in Islington. With Spare Rib and Sisterwrite, 1993 saw the demise of

3 6 /BROADSHEET Summer 1993 two important repositories of feminist culture in “ ...one thing which irks unrepresented. Western international sub­ London. True, 1992 saw the expansion of the scribers probably balked at the localised adver­ Charing Cross bookshop, Silver Moon, from me about the feminist tising and arts pages which told them what was one shop front to three and the Silver Moon on in London theatres and British television imprint is busy buying publication rights from and lesbian movements is while the editorial wandered around the third world. Naiad Press in the US. Also, the Women’s the way in which we Press mass staff exodus created a new feminist With Spare Rib I was volunteering my press, Open Letter. believe things have to be efforts to an enterprise which was a link in the Nevertheless, there was something special chain of the women’s movement. It may not about Spare Rib. Spare Rib may not have done perfectly according have been the enterprise which most reflects begun as a collective, but, like Sisterwrite, its me personally or the women’s movement as a story is one of collectively and longevity. to our own personal 'whole but without it the women’s movement Collectives are getting a real bashing these days has grown smaller. It seems that we so often - as are left wing politics. The British Labour agendas. sit around waiting to be provided with some­ party has abandoned its pro-gay, pro-social wel­ If not, we trash them, thing and then knock it if it fails to measure up fare, pro-nuclear disarmament politics. A large precisely to our own standards. I think that is chunk of the feminist movement is running for boycott them, don’t very Western. In this consumer society we the academic post-structuralist closet. In New only buy that which, from the lavish array of Zealand, the Listener Women’s Book Festival spend our money on them products, most suits us. This is why Spare Rib is approaching Shell for sponsorship despite died. We starved it by abandoning it. We Shell’s environmental and anti-HIV stance as and denigrate them after killed it off by not succeeding in challenging it well as its use of right wing vetting agencies their demise.” supportively as feminists and by denying it in like the Economic League to root out the left­ mainstream society as I did that day in Regent ies, feminists and homosexuals before they get Street. To say it committed suicide is too easy anywhere near a job interview. an excuse. II There was something grassroots and immedi­ Annie Goslyn is a freelance writer who is ate about sitting around discussing the latest currently researching women’s publishing legal wrangle as corporate capitalism sought a enterprises. little light relief Spare Rib bashing. Once there I were legal proceedings over song lyrics copy­ right infringement in the Spare Rib Diary. I think it was Sinead O’Connor’s record compa­ ny that was doing the sueing. It didn’t stop me buying Sinead’s records. I didn’t stop buying Michelle Shocked records when she got engaged and flaunted the fact in lesbians’ faces rather brutally at one of her concerts. I didn’t stop buying Spare Rib even though it margin­ alised me racially and in terms of my sexuality.

RADICAL SOCIALISM TINGED WITH FEMINISM With Spare Rib in the late ‘80s you knew you were working with radical socialism tinged with feminism. You knew if you were a white woman that you were going to be represented in the magazine.^ pages in a very marginal way. Ethnicity and solidarity with a socialist brother­ hood seems to have been the focus which turned so many white middle class feminists away and caused the subscriptions to fall. The magazine, as with any other magazine, was well out of the financial reach of most of the women featured in Spare Rib's pages dur­ ing those years. They were indigenous women who were fighting predominantly armed strug­ gles where communism and socialism were the political language, not feminism. The women who bought Spare Rib found themselves largely

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /3 7 An open letter to white men

New Society Publishers adjust to recession, secretary shrugs her shoulders dismiss- 4527 Springfield Ave ingly and rolls her eyes as if to say, “he Philadelphia stalemate, challenge thinks he can just come in here any PA 19143 and partnership. time with his orders and treat me like I am nothing.” It is not safe to talk with As a woman, I see how the media Dear White Men, you about these dynamics and often it often shows men in stereotyped roles is not even safe for us to acknowledge which must be as demeaning to you as First of all I want you to know that, in to ourselves that we are the target of it is to women. For years we women spite of all the differences between us, oppression. And so sometimes we pre­ have objected to the dumb blonde and I do not hate you. As a woman I can tend. We pretend that we don’t see the idolised love goddess images per­ see that individually you are trying what we see, we pretend that we don’t petrated by movies and TV. But I really hard to take care of things the care about what is going on between guess you have been too proud — or way you were taught to, and that it is us. Why? Because we are afraid. too afraid — to complain of the bozo not easy for you. As competition from Because you are bigger, more powerful fathers, the wooden oversize heroes or talented white women and equally tal­ and often control the purse strings of the inarticulate hard macho characteri­ ented women and men of color our home, of our salaries, and of the zations portrayed in all their emptiness increases, as your domination in every country. Having been raised to think and simplicity. Somehow you must sphere is challenged, I can see that you that when we are adults a man will bear this too without complaining. It feel like you are losing control and that take care of us creates fear and a lop­ you are not secure in this increasingly must be humiliating. complex world. We women have been looking at sided dependence. And so we The stress on you is showing and you for a long time. We see you up pretend, smile and lie we — those people outside of the close; in bed where your body does not white men group — we see it. Your always seem to be under your control, to you about how we stress shows up in our lives as abuse in the office where you regularly suffer love your strength, — physical and verbal abuse of the dishonor that is build into competi­ women, abuse of children, abuse of tion. We see you hiding from intimacy your intelligence and animals, abuse of nature, and abuse of with other men. We see you trying to your self. And we wish you I yourself. Rarely is there a week when play and rest from the burden your one of your group does not crack up lives have become. Surely you must would take care of us. And we hate and go out and kill a bunch of his fel­ know that residing next to our love of that part of ourselves. We wish we low human beings. You never know you is also an abyss of unfamiliarity. could take care of ourselves so we when you will be the target, or maybe Surely you must know that when could come to the bedroom, the board- the one behind the gun of frustration women are alone with each other, even room and the Congress as equals. Deep down we know we are resilient, smart and madness. Reports of suicide, child your wife, your girlfriend and secretary and wife abuse, alcoholism, gay bash­ say depreciating things about you out and strong. But the way things are ing are staggering evidence of your of frustration and alienation. I know organized makes it easy for us to for­ get. frustration and rage. The white police you say demeaning things about officers who beat Rodney King must women. I hear them as I walk down I have taken advantage of your superior strength and asked you to pro­ have been possessed by that madness. the street. I know those insults hurt me tect me when I needed to grow into my Surely you can see that there are a lot — Iam sure they hurt you. Even own strength. How often have I of homeless white men on the streets though you may say these things in a watched as men carried something so these days, while most women get public way and we women do it more taken in by relatives or can find some privately, it is the same. Please forgive large that help was really needed. But 1 other way to hide. And you are losing me for the ways I have kept you from stood and watched in bemused won­ control of major sectors of the econo­ your dignity and pride as a man. derment as to why men don’t ask for help or even take it when it is offered my — if there ever was any control. You see, we see you and we don’t always like what we see. We don’t by a woman. I have looked for a man Having been trained even understand what we see a lot of to do a task often when 1 could have to control, to com­ the time. The male boss steps into the learned it myself or found another female secretary’s work space with woman to do it. Car repair, furnace mand, to dominate, it what to him must seem like a simple cleaning, carrying out the garbage — ! seems it is difficult to request. When he leaves her desk, the these jobs must get a little tiring for 38 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 you. I see real evidence of change in I know in an almost palpable way I tre of town. Together we would outline many of these areas, but I also know I have allowed my fear of violence to our grievances. I know feelings would have a way to go before I can work cloud my vision of men’s natural feel­ be powerful on both sides. When we interdependently with you. ings of toughness, wildness and their had said it all, when our hatred, alien- ) connection to nature. I ask men’s for­ ation and fear was entirely spent — we I deeply believe that giveness for taking my experience with could look at each other clear-eyed and part of you wants us men as a group and projecting that fear tenderly ask of each other “What can on to individuals. My fear is under­ we do to make things right?” to be equal, and part standable given women’s history. I am Silence would fall upon us all. We of you is scared to actively looking for ways to extend would look clearly at each other and forgiveness to you for the acts which maybe for the first time see — really death that if we didn’t have hurt me personally. I search for a see each other. And then, someone or have to rely upon you, relationship with those members of maybe all of us would utter the words your gender who are also looking for “We will start.” We will promise that we would have no use ways we can be kinder, gentler and no longer will we make war — on each of you, and you would fairer with each other. I seek forgive­ other, on the earth, on people of differ­ ness of myself and I search for the for­ ent race, and in the wider world — no have not place to put giveness from men whom I have hurt. more. We would spread blankets out, However I have kept you from your and share food we had each prepared. In so many ways your penis. true humanhood — please forgive me. As we talked maybe we could open women have been taught they must Our present situation of enmity is our hearts to each other in some fresh control or civilize men, who are vio­ intolerable to me. I know together we ways and listen with a new apprecia­ lent, destructive, wild and crude. can do better. Can you ever understand tion of the viewpoints, goals and Before women came to outpost towns my rage at the world where most lead­ wounds of the other. We listen deeply in the old west, my grandparents told ers of your gender are making such a to prepare ourselves to struggle with me, things were rougher and more vio­ colossal mess and where my sisters each other in the future. It will be a day lent. When women came, they exerted and I are treated so violently and by day journey I know. We will disap­ their “civilizing influence”. For years badly? Sometimes I have focused that point each other and need to come ■ in this controlling role, your mothers, rage on you individually, which I together again and again to listen to | sisters, lovers, and friends have cut you each other and ask for forgiveness j know is unfair. off when you felt frightened and Together we anew. Maybe we could come together ; shook, when you were sad and cried, have created this situ­ each spring for a renewal festival j when you felt angry and needed to called Forgiveness giving. rage. We have managed and pressured ation and together we In the future we would know that a you to be persons you are not. Because will need to work to shift had happened when the incidence of our fear of perverted aggression we of rape fell to zero. In human history have not valued the healthy and cre­ change. In this time there have been instances where cer­ ative expressions of that aggression we need each other in tain forms of brutality have fallen out and toughness. Governments and ' of use — cannibalism, lynching, burn­ sergeant have taken advantage of this global as well as per­ ing witches, dunking. Even though toughness; manipulated and distorted it these were mostly public acts of so that you could go and kill people. sonal terms. oppression and rape is a private act, I want to apologize for all the I heard about a march in Canberra, rape can — I know it can — cease as women who have kissed their sons, Australia where several hundred men well. Then we will know that even husbands, and lovers off to war. Who marched for forgiveness — from though every tiling is not as it should be have pushed them out of their homes women and from themselves. I wish — the truce is meaningful. to go and protect us. Somehow my my gender had been there too, maybe Until that day, I remain your friend, gender made you think we loved you walking from another park. I can see it your ally and equal. I will work to for­ in a uniform, that in order to prove now. We women would march to for­ give you and to work with you as an your manhood (to prove you were not give men for absenteeism from the equal for the rest of my days. Time is “a woman”) you had to cut off any soft home, for their woodenness, for men’s short. We only have time to do the part that would keep you from being failure to see us accurately and accept- important work. This peace between us able to kill and be killed. We have ingly. We would march to forgive our­ is essential if we are to go into the allowed you to go off to wars in part selves for asking that our sons be future as partners working to preserve because of our own unwillingness to tough, for depriving them of their feel­ life on our lovely planet. May your life j confront these horrible realities and in ings and esteem, for our failure to become increasingly transparent to the j part because my gender has been out understand and accept men. Each gen­ spirit that moves within you. ■ of power so long. Oh, how horrible der would have a lot of forgiveness to Sincerely, Fran Peavy this dynamic must be for you! march for. We would meet in the cen­ Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /39 SURFACING the Self

women being caring and strong chool had some high A Survivors Story in themselves without compro­ points when I look oming from a back­ mise. Many of the women Sback, in as much as I ground of sexual teaching at that time seemed figured I needed the help of abuse by most male different from what I had some strong, in touch women if family members and thought women to be and I I was to get anywhere at all. sexistC beliefs from society in admired them a lot. Of course I But my problems had not been general, I learnt early on that wasn’t aware of this at the time addressed and weren’t likely to being female meant I was a but it is good to go back and be while I was being sent piece of shit. I could never do connect with where things against my will to MALE anything of any value, never do began to happen and why. So shrinks, who were not in the anything I wanted to, without although these women had to least bit interested in listening being called a rebel, and I work within the MALE SYS­ to a confused and angry young would never have the respect TEM, I began to see a division, girl. While I was under the care of anyone I felt I needed to be one between women the way of my family I had no control of respected by. Growing up with society dictates, - to me at the who I could see for help. this sort of negative belief sys­ time this was my Mother, my Those I did see had heard how tem, that never let up from one friend’s Mothers, the supportive BAD I was from DADDY day to the next, it isn’t hard to housewife, cowcocky’s wife; - DEAREST and the seed was understand why eventually and these women I got to sown. I didn’t have a shit somehow I had to reject what I observe who just seemed like a show. I had been labelled as was being taught by this world breath of fresh air. an uncontrollable teenager and of men - and reiterated by the they only looked as far as submissive behaviour of the was far from being a symptoms not causes, - as if I women around me at the time. model student. My was out of control in the first The unfortunate part is I had to Idemanding behaviour, of place. So they decided I was FLIP OUT before anyone total disregard for the powers on drugs. would listen to what I had tried that be, must have tried many to voice for years. My teacher, who copped the flak of the hat was to be my when I was twelve, had been mixed-up kid that I was. But I problem and of the only one in my younger always seemed more reason­ Tcourse I was treated days to pay me any attention able when it was one of the accordingly. I was sent to and listen to me, so I guess women teachers dealing to my Kahanui Farm, a drug rehab she helped me keep my head Bad Attitiude, than if it were the centre, where it was estab­ above water, but I never told male teachers. They were so lished that I was not on drugs her what was going on coz I easy to ignore. They were and therefore there was not a didn’t have an understanding of either boring or bastards or lot they could do for me, except it or know the words. Besides, both. While some were okay, let my folks know. I was sent when I was in her company it I’d had enough of the Male there a second time. When I was a time I felt good about world as such and mostly I just seemed somewhat miffed myself. I guess this is about became detached. about the whole pathetic fiasco the time I became aware of I became 'ungrateful’ as well

40 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 as 'uncontrollable’, and lems in the family. As more suddenly I owed the world and more anger was direct­ for wasting time and ed toward me I took it on money. as my fault. I think Mum did try her best but she had previously been couldn’t handle the pres­ kicked out of my step­ sure of her life and the Ifather’s place, then he abuse she had suffered; decided he still had jurisdic­ she couldn’t cope with me. tion over my life so he I see that now but at the kicked me out of Mum’s time I hated her for not car­ place as well. What hurt ing, for not listening and the most about this was not believing. that she let him. I found myself living with an elderly t is interesting to think woman, supporting myself that, considering all through my sixth form year Ithe shrinks I had with help from Mum, and been sent to up till the age very little support from of twenty four, I had sel­ DSW - in as much as get­ dom been asked if I had ting my stepfather to fulfil been sexually abused. his legal obligation to pay Those that did ask never my living and schooling really bothered to recheck costs. I felt bewildered, when I lied and said 'No’ lonely and oh so ANGRY. or pretended not to hear, or just sat in silence. Mostly it rom here I went was not mentioned. They rapidly downhill, asked if I were on drugs, Falthough nobody alcohol, seeing boys, if I would have noticed. One thought I was pregnant or becomes a master of dis­ gay, adopted. Any number guise, I’d been doing it for of so called symptoms and- years. I had become the ways of behaving that are class clown. It was my sur­ classed as unacceptable vival strategy, although I but never, for a long time, did not know it at the time. was it really looked at, the My school achievements issue of sexual abuse. I were minimal to non-exis­ feel they were too scared tent. I had few friends and to just in case the answer I had become very was 'yes’. Like “well we detached and totally para­ can fix it if you are on noid. Everyone was out to drugs”, etc.... but to go get me. deeper would be too much. No wonder the whole heal­ hen came another ing process is so terrifying, ultimatum. I was so daunting. If the so Tto go to a shrink, called PROFESSIONALS yet another, by order of my can’t even handle it as out­ stepfather and ‘bloody well’ siders. sort myself out. I blamed myself a lot for all the prob­

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 41 was seeing this shrink tion sufficiently on my own was to even be an option. This is a who struck on the ques­ given the choice of voluntary big step because now that I am Ition; “Do you think you’re admittance to Tokanui or com­ no longer wanting to die any gay?” Interesting that being mittal. I gave in. time I am faced with issues I gay is often used incorrectly as find too traumatic to deal with. a symptom of some sort of nce again, it was the It frees me up to get on with the abnormality, whereas my sexu­ presence of some process of healing. It still hurts ality, although not at that point Ostrong women who, like Hell and I can get as mad tried, was none the less the after a few initial battles, helped or sad as I like coz that danger truest part of me that I pos­ bring me round. They listened, has been removed. Without sessed. I not only thought I they believed and did not the daily struggle with depres­ sion, and suicide, in so many ways life is a lot easier - even Yes, I have been abused, Yes I’m gay and enjoyable. It is hard, but to live Yeah I want to deal with the shit, accept through it and come out the other side is the best way I who I am and get to a better place in my life. know to thumb my nose at the world that tried to kill my spirit. Now I can say without a doubt was gay I damn well knew it judge. Everything I had ever in my mind, that not only will I and if he thought he was going struggled with was validated. survive; I am here to stay and to get his hooks in to fix that, Yes, I had been abused; Yes, be all I want and can. B he had another think coming. I’m gay and Yeah, I wanted to CJ It was not a safe subject to get deal with the shit, accept who I into, although I happened to be was and get to a better place in totally besotted with a woman my life. Well, it certainly was at the time, and I decided to not an ideal place but it did give i leave well enough alone. I also me a starting point. Somehow LESBIAN LINE thought I was the only person I could focus on myself and

in the entire world who was, if learn to accept that I have a A u c k l a n d not certainly NZ and the flak right to be fully valued, that I G ay two women were getting at the can care for myself and that school I was at at the time told people can and do care for me. L es b ia n me it was not time to test that I spent four months in that hos­ W e l f a r e water. pital and I managed to make a G r o u p start for a while although I went o shorten the saga down backwards at times and had PO Box 3132, Shortland Street, Auckland some, through a series of other admissions to various Office: 309 3268 Mon - Wed Tevents that did not go ter­ places; for assistance in coping ribly to my advantage - specifi­ in the most severe times of FREE, CONFIDENTIAL cally; the rape that occurred at depression. age seventeen and subsequent SERVICE FOR LESBIANS sexual harassment at work ’ve not attempted suicide OR WOMEN WHO places - I ended up severely for three years and that depressed and attempted sui­ Iseems a weird kinda thing THINK THEY MIGHT BE. cide on at least three occa­ to admit, but to me it is a real sions. This eventuated in my achievement. It’s a good indi­ W ednesday admission into the Psychiatric cator for me, as I feel so much ward of Tauranga Hospital. stronger now that even if I am 7.30pm to 10pm : After a run in with the Charge feeling a little depressed I know Phone 303 3584 1 Nurse I left, but unable to func- I have come too far for suicide

42 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 )

COLUMNIST Gripes of Roth

Dear Father Xmas, ho ho ho to you too. Dear Santa note - it’s four colly birds What a nerve telling me you’ll give me whatever they are. Still I’ll give one of the usual twelve days of Xmas to get the mokapuna some of the cauliflower me to change my mind! You’re just in pickle I made to leave out with the milk post-election mode, hoping that special for you and your reindeer. votes will swing it your way. Except Have you thought of getting your hear­ you think you’re so smart going all ing tested? Some of us as we got nostalgic at me with twelve not ten older...The fifth day with five gold extra days and telling me you’re my rings I thought might be a bit of an up true love the way the song does. Do market shange but I got limbered with you mind! Beards leave me cold. I five cold tinnies! Honestly! The spirit learned early on that big show - like of Kate Sheppard will get you! bushy beards over bare chests bouncing Obviously I wouldn’t know where to with baubles - often went with not put six geese a-laying so I was relieved much go. And that twelve days of when aurally challenged old you pro­ Xmas stuff just reminds me of the par­ duced nothing worse than an assorted ticular Family Holiday when the kids cheese board prettily laid out. And I took a fancy to the record and played it really loved my seven dear little swans and me just about to death. made of soap that I can try to set a- You don’t have to tell me - 1 know my swimming in the bath. Nice one, offspring have been getting to you. mind. Danny’s father came round to see Santa! They’ve been writing Dear Santa letters, “if you’re all right Mum” - so like his But your Brownie points got into total j telling you that poor old Grandma is father (whom I inadvertently married) deficit with your eigth maids a-milking. j going off her head. They’ve forgotten when he thought there might be a break A video of eight episodes of those awful on purpose how I told them months ago in the continuity of domestic services. Anchor ads milking all that emotion that I’d be among Absent Friends on 25 As for day two - a couple of revolting about families splitting up. You thought December. pigeons shut up in my front porch doing that might encourage me into Xmas And you think that showering me with their worst is not what I like to see first togetherness and all that cooking? A gifts you’ve chosen is going to soften thing in the morning, so I sent them on tape of nine drummers and ten pipers in me up? I bet you lavished your goodies their way smartly for their family some ghastly pipes and drums band in support of First Past the Post. A patri­ reunion with turtle doves. doesn’t appeal either. But ta muchly for archal old traditionalist like your good Day three was a bit embarrassing in a ticket to Broadsheet fund-raisers to self would hardly be advocating MMP way. I bet my bossy-boots of a daughter watch eleven ladies dancing. (More Management by the People) gave you that old 78 record she’s hung The last day with twelve lords a-leaping would you? on to. It’s awfully scratched and hard to was totally over the top. Couldn’t you Well, seeing that even the Warehouse or understand, and you’ve misheard and even produce some of the yoga lads Deka probably can’t produce a partridge probably never get your mind above from the Natural Law Party doing their in a pear tree I suppose it wasn’t a bad your navel anyway. I mean the proper vertical take-off? What I got was a try for day one to send the unfolding- words are “three French hens” but I dozen cordless beepers all giving me the into-a-bird remember all too clearly the record same mind-mangling message: Go invite to grandson Danny’s end of year developed a sort of a blurred bump to Home Grandma, Get In Behind the orgy at his kindergarten. Frankly, Father make it into two syllables there and any­ Family Festival and ENJOY. X I feel I’ve done my stint as a Caring way doesn’t everyone call them con­ I’ve got news for you Father Xmas. Just Family Member on these occasions and doms now not French letters any more? for one I’m going to be soothingly soli­ anyway it was my Keep Fit day. The lad who does the chemist’s deliver­ tary; my chimney is off limits to you, Danny’s mother said didn’t I think I was ies did look at me oddly I thought, but and no, your reindeer may NOT safely being a teeny bit selfish and I told her then he usually brings me hearing aid graze in my back yard. Get your Santa yes and enjoying every minute of it, and batteries and my incontinence pills. I do sack stuffed and have a nice day. I’d explained to Danny and he didn’t wish she’d written the words into her Margot Roth

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 43 Cervical cancer is one of the most com­ with cervical dysplasia and cancer, mon reproductive cancers among medical researchers not only use this women world-wide. Women living in information to support their claim that developing nations, poor women and cervical cancer is caused by women’s women of colour are at a greater risk of “promiscuity,” they also cite this data SEX dying from this disease. In Canada and as evidence that cervical cancer is a other wealthy nations, women are sub­ sexually transmitted disease (STD). ject to mass screening, intrusive diag­ Over the years, medical researchers nostic procedures and destructive treat­ have first proposed, then accepted, and ments in an attempt to “prevent” the later rejected, a succession of sexually disease. Therefore the question of what transmitted disease organisms as the and causes cervical cancer has profound probable cause of cervical cancer. PUNISHMENT implications for women’s lives and Early research centred on the “classical health. venereal diseases,” gonorrhea and The Medical research has found associa­ syphilis. When evidence for the causal tions between cervical cancer and a role of these organisms waned, variety of possible causes, such as researchers were nonetheless reluctant Politics smoking, oral contraceptives, talcum to give up their theory that cervical powder and the long-banned drug DES. cancer is a STD. Other STD organisms In addition, feminist health activists presented as possible candidates of Cervical have pointed out the potential role of include trichomonas, mycoplasma, other factors, such as Depo-Provera, a cytomegalovirus, chlamydia and the long-term injectable contraceptive, genital herpes virus, all of which have Cancer. environmental and occupational car­ been dismissed as unlikely causal cinogens, nutritional deficiencies, and agents. tampon use. Within the medical litera­ In 1976, a new theory was presented ture, however, the risk factor which which suggested that human papilloma receives the greatest attention is that of virus (HPV), the virus which causes a woman’s sexual behaviour. genital warts, was the cause of cervical This research focus has a long histo­ cancer. This theory gained wide accep­ ry. Contemporary medical literature tance in the 1980s, supported by often refers to a study conducted in numerous clinical studies. 1842, of nuns and women in the gener­ Yet recently, the evidence support­ al population, which is said to have ing this theory has been re-evaluated by demonstrated the absence of cervical some researchers. Munoz and Bosch, | cancer among “virginal” women, and in a 1989 World Health Organisation i has given rise to the prevailing theory report, argued that the existing studies ! that the disease is caused by women’s linking HPV to cervical cancer “were j “promiscuity”. not planned as full epidemiological I A great deal of effort has been investigations and so none of them sat- j expended by modern medical isfies the usual criteria of design and j researchers in the attempt to substanti­ analysis which would ensure the con- j ate this misogynist theory. trol of bias, confounding and chance in j Innumerable studies have been pub­ their interpretation.” lished which link cervical cancer to Medical researchers remain j having more than one (hetero)sexual undaunted, however, in their quest for a I partner or having intercourse before the sexually transmitted cause of cervical ; age of 20. Having collected their data cancer. As the HPV theory comes ; on the number of male sexual partners under critical scrutiny, new research : and age of first intercourse of women now suggests a link between cervical

44 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 III cancer and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). -t* u While EBV is not normally considered a sexually transmitted disease, at least one research team has argued that there is a possibility of it being venereally transmitted. Having run out of candi­ date STDs, medical researchers investi­ gating the cause of cervical cancer seem content to classify any organism found in cervical tissue as sexually transmitted. The medical community’s stubborn obsession with “promiscuity” and STDs as the root causes of cervical cancer is not only fruitless, but also detrimental to women’s health in a number of ways. In the first place, this misogynist model suggests that women bring this disease upon themselves by violating social norms of sexual con­ duct. The disease thus becomes a badge of shame. • Contemporary For example, Paula, a white, bisexu­ al woman in her early twenties, did not , medical literature tell her family that she had had an often refers to a abnormal pap test, because, as she explains: “I had an idea in my head that vical cancer is an STD, risk factors study conducted' this was something that was my fault, such as environmental carcinogens and in 1842, of nuns something I’d done wrong.” contraceptive drugs have not been ade­ Similarly, Fran, a 23-year-old, quately researched. For example, Jean and women in white, lesbian, who had been hetero- Robinson, a British women’s health the general sexually active at one time, stated: "I activist, presented compelling evidence have an incredible guilt complex, in 1981 that linked cervical cancer to population, because I was really promiscuous when carcinogens in the workplace of both I was a teenager. So I felt like, “Oh women and their male sexual partners. which is said yeah, that’s it, this is my sins being Medical researchers, however, have to have paid for, right - I’m going to die.” chosen not to pursue this area of These feelings of shame and guilt research. demonstrated put unnecessary stresses on the health Clearly, medical researchers need to the absence of of women trying to cope with cervical broaden their approach to the causation dyspalia and cancer. Furthermore, the of cervical cancer to take into account cervical cancer medical model implicitly supports the complex social and environmental among “virginal” repressive patriarchal restrictions on influences on women’s lives. The cur­ women’s sexuality, presenting rent model, which portrays women as women, and has women’s sexual autonomy as a health predominantly sexual beings and labels risk. our behaviour with moral terms such as given rise to the The most dangerous aspect of this “promiscuity”, is based on misogynist prevailing theory medical model, however, is its narrow assumptions about women, our bodies focus. Some medical researchers have and our sexuality. While sexual behav­ that the disease even attempted to explain the higher iour may be a factor in the develop­ is caused by rates of cervical cancer among working ment of cervical cancer, it must be class women, women who smoke and investigated in a non-judgmcntal way, women’s promiscuity. women who use the pill, by claiming and other possibilities must be given that these groups of women are particu­ equal consideration, fl larly “promiscuous.” This is an abridged article from a While the medical community has By Jan Darby Canadian perspective. An article from spent literally the last century and a Reprint from ‘Healthsharing’ a New Zealand perspective will be half trying to prove the theory that cer- Summer/Fall 1992 published in a future issue.

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /4 5 feministVIRAGO PUBLISHING

Virago Press was started twenty H arriet Spicer, the man­ have a token feminist in the office; years ago by Carmen Callil. It aging director of we are an entire group of women - was conceived as a press specifi­ Virago, was in New though very different - who define cally for women and more impor­ Zealand for the Listener themselves as feminists. tantly, by and for feminist women. Women's Book Festival and to celebrate Virago's twentieth How do you choose the authors you From small beginnings in 1973 publish? Virago has developed into an birhday. independent company publishing Harriet has been with Virago since it began in 1973, workng Well, as with all publishers, but to over one hundred titles a year. be honest more being a women's first as a publicist, and then Virago publishes a wide range press, we get huge amounts of sub­ moving through a range of missions and we've - after twenty of books - the Virago Modern jobs with the company includ­ years - got a good name with Classics series, contemporary ing production, commisioning novels and poetry, anthologies, agents, and we'll work to go out to design and illustration, admin- find people both by talking to a biographies, travel guides, isteiing personnel and finance. network of academics or by tavel- psychology, race, health - a This flexibility has proved use­ ling to New York. I think that dif­ broad spectrum of work for ful in her present position ferent books will come in different feminists and other women. which, in one day, can involve, ways. You'll find a wonderful Virago Upstarts is the list for "talking to Virago's city autobiography will come from the j girls and young women and investors, being asked to give desk of an adult education tutor j includes The Young Persons an opinion on post-feminism, who just thinks this is particularily j Guide To Saving The Planet, and finding out why, yet again, good, and another wil come from a j New York agent in a high rise | Out In The Open - A Guide there are no light bulbs." penthouse. For Young People Who Have j | Been Sexually Abused, Have you had a lot of flack for call­ ing yourselves a feminist press? Has being a feminist press helped j and The Young Person's other publishing companies pick up j Guide To Animal Rights. I think flack in the very beginning more women authors - have you Some titles, which provide a - now it's just "do you still need created a demand? platform for women's views to?" and the answer is yes! on contemporary issues, I think we've always answered a j include works on men, male Do male investors believe you demand for publishing for women. When that's seen to be successful j and female language, bullying would make more sales if "you did­ n't take such a feminist line?" that obviously helps, but we can't i and coming soon, Mandy channel the entire energies of the | Merck's Perversions, Patricia huge numbers of talented writers j Yes, you always get that but on the all over the world, and we do try j William's The Alchemy of Race, other hand, now, when a great and publish from all over the and A Certain Age, a book number of women are published, j world. Although competition about menopause. one of the things which is impor­ makes life more difficult we did tant about Virago is that we define hope to put women's writing on the ■ ourdelves as a feminist press. We aganda everywhere. don't have a feminist list, we don't

46 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 In New Zealand there's been a lot of would be heaven so writing about angst and women's I put it aside for my role - now it's becoming more posi­ flight to New tive. Zealand. But yes, I do read, because I'm thinking about angst - power you have to read balance...and it's mixed. There are when you decide still new areas where women have whether to publish to work through their particular or not. vulnerabilities - the problems that they face, because they continue to The Virago Classics, face a very particular set of bringing women's demands on their strength in the writing which has daily world, but women are being largely been ignored positive. One of the new trends, and republishing it - which I'm not being very original are you starting to in describing, is the new self-help run out? psychology. We have a wonderful psychology and psychoanalytic list Well, there was a and that's something that wouldn't moment when I have been possible in 1973. Even might have agreed, if we'd had the resources to bring it but for instance next out, these aren't the books we year we'll be launch­ would have found. ing a series called \ "Lesbian Landmarks" which has a “I think w e ’ve How many of the books do you get wonderful editor who's probably a chance to read? the best read woman in the world, always answered j Alison Hennegan, and she's found There are some books you always books which might be classics but the demand to know are wonderful and there are they're going to be presented very terrifically good reasons for pub­ differently. The style will be much publish women lishing. For instance, the collec­ more contemporary and jazzy. tion we've done for the birthday One will be Han Suyin, one called authors.” has been done by a woman in Child Of Manuella, which is Virago, Lynn Knight, the woman German. So yes, the classics are who's edited Modern Classics for dropping off but wonderful new some time. She's put together a ones are coming along. 11 collection called Infinite Riches - short stories from the Virago Interviewer: Debbie Hager Modern Classics and I knew it

G ay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International Professional Sexual Abuse Survivors Support Group LOVE makes a family This is an ongiong group for women who have experienced sexual abuse from An organization of Lesbian Moms, health practitioners and other professionals. Gay Dads, our Partners, would-be Parents and our Children Meetings: Wednesdays 7 -9pm

N e w s le tte r • Annual Conference Auckland Women's Health Centre, 63 Ponsonby Rd, P.O. Box 50360 • Washington, DC 20091 • (202) 583-8029 Ph: 376 4506 or 376 3227

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 4 7 Now you m G Now you don’t. n May of 1992 Mandrika Racism she saw a woman nearby and called out. It Rupa left an evening meet­ quickly became apparent that the woman was and the not the ally Mandrika had hoped for, and was, Iing of the Auckland Film in fact, associated with the male stranger. Society; briefly Immigration He spoke again, saying that they had been following Mandrika for sometime and knew stopping at an inner city Department. all about her, then smiling, handed over an restaurant to greet a friend; official looking piece of paper. Mandrika before driving on to an This is one quickly scanned the page, aghast to realise that it was an Immigration Department arranged meeting with woman’s Removal Order. It boldly stated that if she friends at a late night cafe. experience. didn’t leave the country within 42 days arrest At that time Mandrika was and forced deportation were imminent. With some relief Mandrika recognised that the unaware that she had been order was actually for another person. sighted by two immigration Confronting the man she repeatedly demanded to know what ‘it was all about’? officials and; incorrectly; However, he just laughed her off, saying identified as an overstayer. “you know very well”, and refusing Getting out of her car, into the dimly lit Mandrika’s request to accompany her to her carpark, she was alarmed at the sudden friends nearby, jumped in a car and drove appearance of a strange man who came and away. stood closely to her, commenting off handed- Reviewing the event later Mandrika came ly about her having just finished work. to the conclusion that the man had been plan­ Aware of the increasing incidence of attacks ning to arrest her, but that her confrontation- on women, especially at night, Mandrika was ary manner had been a deterrent. She was particularly frightened about the man’s inten­ concerned at having been incorrectly identi­ tions. Frantically looking around for support, fied as the person for whom the removal Do all Indian women look alike? order was intended. The matter obviously hadn’t been resolved and she worried that she might indeed still be arrested and jailed. The thought that she could be removed from the country she had lived in for 30 years, and from her daughter, friends and family appalled her. How had this

48 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 situation arisen, seemingly based on was telling the truth. Of course his groups; and marginalised groups sel- | the statements of an anonymous man? reply was “Yes” - end of inquiry. dom have credibility. Instead of passively accepting the sit­ Feeling less than satisfied that justice - The official didn’t feel the need to uation Mandrika decided to fight, what had been served, Simon Jefferies state who he was, and his purpose, she considered, the injustice of the referred the matter to the because’ “She knew damn well what Immigration Department’s actions. Ombudsperson. was going on”. With the help of friends, and assisted Sixteen months after Mandrika had The racism and sexism implicit in by a determined lawyer, Simon been accosted by Immigration these assumptions illustrates how this Jefferies, (who was prepared to forego Department officials, the ‘mind set’ can interfere with the pro­ payment until the completion of the Ombudsperson responded to Simon fessional conduct of an official’s case) Mandrika set about obtaining an Jefferies: “It is apparent that Ms Rupa duties. admission of fault from the was served with a removal order by How far might this situation have Immigration Department; and the officers of the New Zealand gone if, for example, the woman being assurance that she would not be arrest­ Immigration Service .... previous served spoke little English, had mini­ ed. Her experience of this action investigations into this matter seem to mal support and didn’t understand how shows explicitly how racist and sexist have been inadequate, and procedures the system worked? It’s quite possible the system is, ensuring that women - for serving removal orders will also she would have been arrested, jailed particularly black women - are kept in need to be carefully examined to and deported to a strange country. their ‘place’. ensure that a similar mistake does not What is happening to other women of To proceed with the case it was nec­ occur in the future .... The New colour in New Zealand if those j essary for Mandrika to establish her Zealand Immigration Service is pre­ assumptions outlined above arc as j true identity with the Immigration pared to make a formal apology for endemic as they appear to be? What j Department. At great inconvenience, this error and to cover Ms Rupa’s legal training do Immigration Officials ! and personal expense, documentation expenses”. receive? What right to they have to | and photographic evidence were pro­ The Immigration Department has ‘arrest’ people, those who are not j duced for this purpose. With some considerable powers. How could these infringing the law? How can this prac- j reluctance it was accepted by the be used against a New Zealand citi­ tice of institutionalised harassment be j department that Mandrika was who she zen; so that Mandrika found herself in stopped? claimed to be. However, far from such a nightmarish situation? How is In many ways Mandrika’s experi- j admitting fault, the stranger - now it possible that an officer of the New ence, and her right to be in New 1 identified as an Immigration Officer - Zealand Immigration Service could Zealand, becomes irrelevant when con- j continued to state that he had served have made such a serious bungle, and sidering the implications of this situa­ the order on the correct person, but yet receive the unqualified support of tion. Nobody deserves to be treated j Mandrika had not been that person! the department; in an effort to cover it this way, under any circumstances. i The department chose to accept the up. In order to conduct themselves in Imagine being held in a deportation : word of their officer, implying that such a manner it would seem that the centre, under constant surveillance, j Mandrika had been lying about what Immigration Department has definite with no visiting - not even being j had happened; although obviously it in views about use of these powers, and accorded the same rights as a prisoner, j no way benefited Mandrika to main­ about Indian women in general. Often the women held speak limited j tain such an elaborate pretence. It was - That all Indian women look alike. English, sometimes none at all. They incredulous that they continued with In the case at hand the name of the per­ come from cultures where previously ! this belief when there was ample evi­ son on the removal order indicated that their only contact with men their male ; dence to the contrary. The depart­ they came from a different part of relatives - often jailers of another kind! ment’s own records contained an India than Mandrika. (The difference It is now 20 months since Mandrika account of serving the removal order: in appearance between people from was approached by a strange man in a on where ‘the person’ was sighted, varying regions is as distinctive as that dimly light carpark, and three months their car registration, indication of between Greeks and Norwegians.) since the Ombudsperson announced times, route travelled and where and - The white male assessment of the that the Immigration Service was in ; when the order was served. All which situation is the ultimate truth. Any error. However, the situation has still ! could be substantiated by Mandrika. challenges to the ‘truth’ are invalidated not been resolved to her satisfaction. In the face of the department’s reluc­ and the challenger is automatically The experience of this injustice contin- j tance to look further at their records, considered to be lying. ucs as she wonders daily, when will ; Simon Jefferies requested a Ministerial - ‘These people’ always lie. (“You this happen again, and to whom? In : Inquiry. This was carried out by the can’t believe a word ‘they’ say, ‘they’ addition to the lack of safety that all 1 Associate Minister of Immigration, will try and lie their way out of the sit­ women deal with, women of colour ; Roger Maxwell. The sum total of the uation when caught”) ‘They’ and have to fear the possibility of wrongful inquiry amounted to questioning the ‘these people’ are a terms frequently arrest and possible deportation. 15 immigration official as to whether he heard when referring to marginalised

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /4 9 w riter Lorae Parry a c to r and have been acting since then. I While women's playwriting was very think the reason why I started writ­ abundant before theatre became profes­ ing was to help redress the poor sional, when it became professional, the ■ female representation that existed in women slipped away. I know it plays. At that stage we were very because I've done a lot of research on it keen to create vehicles for ourselves for Writers Week in March. One of the ■ to act in and also to redress this things I talked on was the history of f imbalance. women's playwriting, in New Zealand. I I think nowadays I don't write so From the beginning of the century until | much from the point of view of about the mid 60s when theatre was ^ mm | wanting to create a vehicle for amateur, there was a lot of plays written i ■ myself as from a very passionate by women. They were all one-act I . desire to continue to add to the plays, but there was a lot of them. But ! I B sma^ storehouse of women's playsthen theatre became professional, and |in this country. When I say driven, the boys took over, basically, and so the % m I become very passionate about this moment there was money involved, ■ Yippee, another play whole issue, that there are very few men got very involved, whereas before women's plays compared to men's and it had been a bit of a prissy thing to do there are so few lesbian roles as well. for men. Even now, looking at with a lesbian as the And what we want with women's roles Downstage's playbill, in the years it's is well-rounded roles where the women been going, which I think is about 25 main character. Like are the wit, and not the butt of the joke, years, there's been 12 plays written by where women are fully fleshed and women. In the first five years there Lorae Parry's enormous­ multi-faceted, not just one-sided, as were three and they were all one-act they tend to be if they're not written by plays or children's plays. Then Renee ly popular Frontwoman, women, and of course perhaps only we and Jennifer Compton came along. In can write those roles for ourselves. the last 10 years, Renee being a forerun­ once again Cracks is What do you think of Roger Hall's play ner of this, and on her heels people like By Degrees? me and Cath Downes who started writ­ highly believable, accu­ I haven't seen it! I'm loathe to say that ing as performers to create more work. men can't write well for women, or that And in the early 80s, there was sudden­ rate and entertaining. women can't write well for men, good ly a whole heap of women's plays hap­ writers certainly have a good handle on pening here in Wellington. We all pul orae: I was thinking a couple of these things. However, it only stands to on these plays in Circa. The majority of days ago why I write, and I reason that we write best what we know women writing are from a performance decided that I felt quite driven. about, so this is why it's so important background. I'm hoping the sense of being that there are more women playwrights I hope there are young women coming driven will pass, because it's a pace becausethat men are obviously, and why through, it's one of the reasons I contin­ isL very hectic and very fast, particularly wouldn’t they, going to write them­ ue to write. Playwriting has been such a writing in this way for the type of the­ selves into the central protagonist role, male-dominated profession, there have atre that I'm writing for. and give themselves all the funny lines. been very few role models for young I've started writing other stuff over the In Cracks, the male character was a women. And also, as Renee said at a last two years, short stories for radio, total fabrication, whereas the women's Listener Women's Book Week, play- and children's stories, and also just roles were based on a lot of different writing is on the end of the shopping list recently for adults. composites of facets of women I knew, of writing, and 1 think that might be I recently wrote a story about a young facets of myself. I knew the women true. To write a play, you want an audi­ woman coming out, and subsequently better, and relating to those women ence, and to get an audience, you've got read it, on National Radio. characters was much easier for me. to get a theatre which is going to put I went to the Drama School in 75, 76, Why are there so few women's plays? your play on. That's a really big job,

50 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 and if you don't manage that, you get entirely different again, it's a real come­ represent lesbians because very few detered, and you stop writing. I've been dy in an entirely different style. It's other people are going to do so. lucky to live in a city where there's a about these three women who bought a Heterosexuals don't think, I've written a theatre that has a commitment to new house, and they're about to be built out, play with a heterosexual now, they just New Zealand writing — Taki Rua and the fight they go through to fight keep on writing plays with heterosexu­ Depot. this multi-national. It's terribly funny, als. Until lesbians and gay people con­ Why did you set Cracks in Australia? it's very New Zealand, very topical and tinue to keep putting their cultural Because that was where I knew about very local. It needs to go through group to the fore as strong central char­ the characters I was writing about. another metamorphosis before it sees acters, not necessarily commenting Then I was going to set it back in New the light of the stage. upon that, then things can't change. Zealand, in a working class equivalent Your plays all contain a lot of humour. Maxine's relationship with Pinky of the western suburbs of Sydney, but it I write and perform for Hens Teeth, becomes stronger as it goes along. But became impossible to, the moment I which is a women's comedy company. I didn't want her to angst over it, and I discovered the Charlotte Badger stuff, I use humour very deliberately and as certainly didn't want to excuse it, I just which was really fascinating, our first much as I can because I think it’s a wanted it to be there, like an accepted ! female ancestor, who was pretty well a wonderful vehicle for getting things thing, an accepted way of moving into J feminist pirate. Once wove her into the across. In Frontwoman, the themes in it your sexuality. Here's a young woman | story, her story was about coming to could have been potentially quite threat­ who's moving into her sexuality, this is I New Zealand. She literally made the ening to non-lesbians if they had their the way she moves into it. And by the | ship's crew mutiny and rediverted the strict little ideas of what lesbians were, end of the play, Cracks has become j boat to the Bay of Islands where she and because of the humour, it carried very firmly, in my mind anyway, a les- j lived for a while. them along with it. Cracks to some bian. She's seen what she is, and she's ! Being in Australia also removes the degree is like that too, because some of chosen it. That's why at the end her j issues in it, so as New Zealanders, we the things in it are quite hard-hitting. I clothes are certainly piratey, but they're ; can get a perspective on the issues that think that if you write with humour, to certainly dykey. I just wanted it to be j the play's talking about. It also allows me it's much more, I enjoy watching intrinsic to the story. something with humour more than Feedback? the characters to comment on their i views of New Zealand, and it's always something that's ramming a message The feedback has been brilliant. | interesting for a culture to see how down my throat. Frontwoman was supported totally by they're reflected back by other cultures. I feel that everything I write is intensely the lesbian community, and that's how You acted in Frontwoman — did you political underneath it all, it just has a it's been published. It got funding from want to act in Cracks? layer of humour on the top. Archetype, a lesbian-run typesetting I considered acting in it really seriously, Where did Cracks come from? company, donated a lot of their time, I I considered playing Cracks, mainly When I first starting writing it I was the Women's Recreation Fund (ex-club ! because it was such a casting challenge, interested in this woman who hadn't fund) gave some money, as did the j finding someone who could play Cracks managed to get out of her working class DOODs, the Dykes Out Of Debt. And | with an Australian accent. But fortu­ environment...for some people it's hard a lesbian publishing company also j nately my cast have come up amazingly to get out of that environment, it's a bit helped me with some money. I think ! well with that lingo and the twang and of a challenge. I was listening one day it’s probably the first full-on lesbian everything. It's just lucky to get them, about two years ago to the Eyes of Lucy play that's been published in New the cast is just fantastic. Jordan, and there was a friend of mine Zealand. What audience are you writing for? in her thirties dancing to it, and that was Lorae's thoughts on Suffrage Year: "In I know that because my commitment is my initial inspiration for the play, the some ways, it's been a missed opportu- j so much to writing good women's roles words 'at the age of 37, she realised she nity, it could have been a lot more inter- I for the. stage, women have to be a large was never going to get to Paris with the esting than it has been. Things like i part of who I'm writing for. It's impor­ woman in her hand,' there was some­ Bolger getting a suffrage medal makes j tant for women to see themselves thing about this character that had the whole thing a laughing stock, and ! reflected back, and lesbians in particular stayed too long. And why had she I’m extremely proud of Gaylcne Preston j because there is so little that we have. stayed too long — because she didn't giving hers back. The other thing I I Anti-heroes like Cracks, people can find actually really know she was a dyke, think is, shit, it's almost running oui, so ! incredibly funny and relate to, because clearly. I didn't want to take her we may as well make the most of it, we she's got street cred — you know her, through it all. probably won't bloody well gel it for j because she's somebody you've known After I wrote Frontwoman, I felt, I've another 100 years. in the past, or she's like somebody that done that now (written a play with a les­ "I have no problems taking suffrage j you see walking down the street. I've bian as the main character) and how money, it's meant six new women’s | always been really interested in making could I write about these issues again. plays have been written and put on, in a j it accessible. And then I changed my mind on that festival of women's plays, which is a Any other plays in the pipeline? entirely. 1 don't know why 1 changed historical first for this country." II I wrote another play about the same my mind, but I decided it was my social Interviewer: Jo Mackay time as I was finishing that one. It's duty and my deep desire to continue to Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /51 R B /lE W / 7 / m

I l l l l i l are very much the touch of colour added to the threatening landscape, they decorate the stage of life where Pakeha are the central key players. From these opening scenes Maori people are presented in a ‘child-like’ construction. Maori are seen to imitate the actions of the white man and woman and to be intrigued by the written word, being disconcerted when it doesn’t ‘rub off’. In light of the fact that our people had permanent Moko (for thousands of years i before Ada arrived!), that did not rub off, this can be seen as a naive perception of our people. The Maori characters presented are constructed within typically eurocentric perceptions, and located in marginal roles. Such portrayal adds to the perpetuation of belief systems that undermine not only our position in this country but also our intelligence. The colonial images are strong in this movie. What is most disturbing is the reinforcement of a number of colonial ideas. These ideas live on and get accepted as true by Pakeha. Quite a few ‘suc­ cessful’ movies over recent years have portrayed indigenous peoples through a Western lens, - it seems quite trendy. But what these movies are con­ THE PIANO sistently showing is that it’s okay to exploit other Written and Directed by Jane Champion cultures through images. Colonisation has not Reviewed by Cherryl Smith, Ngati Porou, Ngati Apa, ceased, it continues through the capture of our Ngati Kahungunu and Leonie Pihama, Te Atiawa, ‘A images. Ngati Mahanga In an interview with the Listener, Jane Campion his is more of a discussion than a nice stated that Maori provide a subversive clement to the review It’s about the ways in which Victorian repression of the movie - it’s just a pity Maori people have been constructed that it was not a more realistic portrayal. In one part in Pakeha movie making, and it’s white we are led to believe that Maori would not know about the ‘common sense’ assumptions held what a shadow play was and would attack, in true Tabout the relationships between indigenous ‘warlike savageness’. It is interesting (and disturb­ peoples and the west. It is not simply a story story’ ing) to hear the laughter permeate the theatre during but involves wider and more complex issues. this scene when Maori men ‘rise to the defence’ of Who could not be caught up in the power­ what they see as an act of cowardice. The statement ful images of this movie - The Piano? And made is that Maori people in their ‘naivcity’ or ‘sim­ yet we came away troubled and disturbed by plemindedness’ do not ‘see’ that this is merely a the images for they presented contradictions play. To imply that Maori people did not, or could and highlighted that for Maori, nothing not, differentiate between the real thing and the changes. Whilst Jane Campion obviously had imaginary, is insulting. Not only are our Maori an army of bit players, walk-ons etc and women being totally misrepresented in these images, Maori advisors (although it’s questionable as Maori men too gel to look like idiots. Stereotypical to the real input an advisor can ever have), views of Maori men are that they are warlike, act we get no change from the usual stereotype impulsively and violently, and lack reason. i ! Maori images. The opening scenes in The landscape is a wild, unpredictable one. Like Aotcaroa show ‘happy-go-lucky’ Maori frol­ the movie ‘Vigil’ this movie overdoses on the rain icking on the beach, who get to comment on and bush imagery. The land is the usual colonial the whiteness of the pakeha skin - skin that is portrayal of the type that needs clearing and laming. apparently ‘just like an angel’ (would any It has always been presented as harsh land, for set­ Maori actually say this crap?). Here we have tlers that meant you had to be tough to live here. | established the tenor of the relationships that ‘Breaking in’ the land is a major focus, similar to 1 are to follow throughout the movie. Maori that which Donna Awalere referred to as "the mowed 5 2 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 lawn mentality’. When are Pakeha Maori women feH at their feet. Also Sorry, but white women do need filmmakers going to stop viewing this prevalent in the myths is that Maori transforming. What we are seeing in land as in need of taming? Whilst women were commodities traded by the movie is a reiteration of Pakeha watching the movie we can imagine Maori men. This film does nothing to individualism, the myth making and Pakeha viewers saying to themselves break these myths. Maori women are eulogising around certain patterns of ‘thank god that someone civilised that portrayed as sexually available, as if behaviour. Construct yourself as the land’ (thank god someone mowed the they have been corrupted by the white only oppressed and then see yourself as lawn!) For some these images may be man’s goods or as if they lived perma­ transforming the landscape. seen as a true portrayal of Victorian per­ nently inside a Goldie painting (except Transformation is seen as being a ceptions, however Campion presents not all Goldie’s had long hair). Maori process of imposing ones will, there is these images unproblematically with no are portrayed as free from the Victorian no self - critique on Ada’s part and she indication that there is any other view. hang-ups about repressed sexuality, does not have to consult anyone else. Watch any Marae programme on a they get to lounge around a lot as if The individual focus keeps re-emerg­ Sunday morning to get the Maori per­ waiting for something (a pat on the ing and all the characters are separate spective on the land and landscape. It’s head maybe). entities revolving in their individual not the threatening and taming version What we have in Piano is, as one universe. Even Ada’s daughter who that we see portrayed here. What we do Maori woman described it, a ‘nice 'betrays’ her, sends the message that see is a deep and abiding love and white story’ . It seems to attempt to the only one that you can rely on is one­ respect for the bush and a certainty of reveal the contradictions, conflicts and self and one’s will. They are all tor­ connection to the land that is passed on hardships faced by colonial women. tured, lonely entities. in oral traditions. Ada, it seems, had everything going Imposing one’s will is what drove You could not have a Victorian against her and in that sense of struggle colonialism and has resulted in the sub­ movie, it seems, without having sup­ I can see how this movie would be very jugation of millions of people world pressed and uptight characters in the appealing to Pakeha people, and wide. When will Pakeha ask them­ sexual area. The word Victorian seems Pakeha women in particular. That, per­ selves what made that possible. to equate with sexual hang-ups. Pakeha haps, is the danger for Maori people. Imposing will replaces one set of feminist analysis of this movie has The appeal of the Ada character super­ oppressors for another. Imposing one’s focussed on whether or not Ada actually sedes all else that is happening in the will says that you can decide for others. became emancipated. Did she go back movie and specifically the types of mes­ You don’t need to listen to others - into the nuclear family, achieve sages that are being delivered in terms right? B respectability and therefore sell out? of Maori people. Should she have killed herself? Should Right from the beginning of the she have chosen to go it alone? Why movie we know that Ada is victim-of- did she choose Baines after he had male-oppression. Her father has just ‘raped’ her. Sexuality, and the control married her off to a colonial settler. But of sexuality, are strong themes in this Ada has WILL - this woman has so movie. The men are driven by their much WILL that she decided to stop sexual parts and this causes them to speaking as a girl and she has not done A rterior Soft furnishings control and manipulate women. Baines so ever since. The male oppression eventually manipulates Ada into ‘lov­ continues through her relationships in ing’ him. Aotearoa but luckily Ada’s WILL never * Natural fabrics are handpainted to How are Maori seen in this sexual lets her down. At the end she even create uniquely crafted furnishings. * Bedsettings.Tablesettings,Window universe? They are portrayed again as proves that she can WILL herself to die Treatments,Canopies,Flags and many the backdrop, discussing the sexual if she chooses to. other items can be created to prowess of Baines, conjecturing on his Really, this is the usual lineal think­ compliment your home or business. sexuality. There is the ‘camp’ Maori ing that emerges from a focus on sexu­ lying on the branch of a tree fighting ality as being central in the world and THE HIGH QUALITY OF "ARTERIORS" with the women over this man. Much the only form of oppression that exists. RANGE COMBINES CREATIVITY AND of the colonial writing on Maori women The victim Ada, who luckily has heaps COMFORT TO PROVIDE THE ULTI­ has caused a lot of myth making about of the I, me, myself, mine philosophy, MATE IN SOFT FURNISHINGS FOR Maori women and sexuality at this time. overcomes the odds thanks to her will Common in the writings of Pakeha men and gets an off-beat man to love her in ANY SUROUNDING. is the view that Maori women were all her egotistical self. Ada is never freely available to Pakeha men, that seen as being in need of transforming. FOR FREE C O l^LT A X IO ^ OR ESTIMATE Maori women sought domination by the The happy ending is when Baines CALL AM/rOTHILL O ^ (0 9 )p .1 164 superior Pakeha colonisers and so comes to her on her terms. Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 53 REMBNbooks

STANDING IN THE SUNSHINE: ‘We need to People. Then there’s Margie Thompson’s tale of A history of New Zealand women since they won the vote Nita Rosslyn, ‘The Girl in Red’, who cycled around Principal Author and Researcher, Sandra Coney consider New Zealand in 1935 in her scarlet suit, and was Viking / Penguin Auckland 1993 women who rumoured to be both a man and a German spy. There n 1893 there were 60 members of the are stories about the first and second Miss New Auckland branch of the WCTU. By 1993, buy into the Zealand: Thelma McMillan in 1926 and Dale Austen almost as many women had written, in 1927. Thelma was offered a Hollywood film test, researched and advised on Sandra Coney’s patriarchal but her mother forbade it, so Thelma returned to her Standing in the Sunshine. In her introduction job at Arthur Barnett’s in Dunedin. Dale, who SandraI Coney states that the book is both a bargain, appeared in a number of Hollywood movies, was marker and celebration of this year’s centennial, as well as offered a long-term contract but refused it. Her and a study of ‘the enormous changes’ in mother never forgave her for that. There’s a fascinat­ women’s lives in the last 100 years. Its aim is to those who ing biography of Ramai Hayward, film maker and be a reference book, and to provide resource photographer, and a wonderful overview of early material for those studying women’s history. oppose it’ women climbers. In the section on ‘Women on the In order to achieve these ends, the book is Land’ we are introduced to self-taught botanist Amy arranged by themes, rather than chronological­ Hodgson, who had a ly. The 14 themes covered range from the suf­ passion for liverworts, frage campaign and women in politics, to fam­ and has several named ily life, health, education, sport, romance, after her, and in the work, the land, and women’s involvement in ‘War and Peace’ theme war and peace. Within each theme there are we learn about women several pieces on the topic, often including a teachers who left New photo essay. The book succeeds as a resource Zealand in 1902 to go and reference work, but is much less success­ to South Africa to ful as ‘a history of New Zealand women since teach Boer children they won the vote’, if by ‘history’ we mean interned in concentra­ more than a collection of interesting, usually tion camps. Of the 220 well-written and researched narratives. women who applied, As a resource for studying and teaching 20 were chosen. All of New Zealand women’s history, Standing in these stories are illus­ the Sunshine is a valuable contribution to our trated with wonderful knowledge about women’s lives in the past. photographs and pic­ Inevitably, given the outpouring of material in tures, many of them the last year, some of this material is not new. unpublished before This is especially so in the section on this work. ‘Womanhood Suffrage’. Almost all of the With these fabulous women who are given brief biographies have illustrations and inter­ been recorded in the collection The Suffragists esting, well sourced (and thus The Dictionary of New Zealand stories, Standing in the Biography) and/or The Book of New Zealand Sunshine certainly Women. Those who haven’t been, like Lily Kirk, perhaps meets its aim to be a reference book, and to provide resource don't warrant the title ‘suffragist’. Certainly in the brief biog­ material for those studying women’s history. But as a history raphy of her there is no mention that she was even involved in book it falls short of the mark. It does so on several counts. the suffrage campaign. First, there is the decision to organise the book thematical­ However, in general the book offers an interesting blend of ly, rather than chronologically. For some unknown reason, material known to those of us who study New Zealand histo­ Sandra Coney believes this allows the authors more freedom ry, and exciting new information, uncovered in the research in the subjects they can cover, and is more accessible to the for this project. There are fascinating essays, such as the one reader. I am not so sure. Apart from the few examples of by Camille Guy and Sandra Coney on ‘Pink Pills for Pale photo essays spanning the period, or a chunk of it, it is hard to People’, looking at quackery and attempts by the medical pro­ see why the book could not have been chronologically driven, fession to outlaw advertisements for remedies such as Doan’s especially given that one of Sandra Coney’s aims is to show Backache Kidney Pills and Dr Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale ‘the enormous changes’ in women’s lives, 1893-1993. The

54 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 book’s thematic structure makes it very politicians were (both Pakeha and When argument and interpretation difficult for the reader to see great Maori), who the first registered woman are entered into, sometimes the author’s changes in women’s lives over the last doctor was, or who was the first Maori historical knowledge is not enough to 100 years, especially as within each to play at Wimbledon was, is all very sustain the line taken. In the section on theme the essays are not necessarily in interesting, but by itself is not history. women in politics, Sandra Coney traces chronological order. For it to be history we need it to move the campaign to get women into parli- The decision to intersperse Maori beyond this celebratory ‘herstory’ style. ment. The argument is, at times, a little and Pakeha stories is also problematic. The information needs to be analysed shaky. Sandra Coney claims that with It is understandable that the authors do the reformation of the National Council not want to marginalise Maori women, ‘...we should of Women in 1917, ‘the pressure was by placing them in a separate Maori sec­ again applied to permit women to stand tion. But as Sandra Coney herself points not get carried for parliment.’ Yet in 1914 James out, in the pre-WWII period Maori and McCombs had moved amendment to the Pakeha women lived in separate worlds, away and Legislative Council Bill, asking that geographically and in almost every women be allowed to stand for the other way. The interspersing of the sto­ attribute House of Representatives. The amend­ ries about Maori and Pakeha gives a ment was defeated by just two votes. false sense of a bicultural past. everything to While women’s agency and actions are For the book is blatantly bicultural. important to record, we should not get While in some cases the authors of the women, and carried away and attribute everything to essay on Maori women do not give trib­ women, and nothing to men. We are al affiliations, in most instances Maori nothing to men.’ now in a situation in New Zealand women write on Maori women, and and argued through, we need to know where we know more about the every­ Pakeha women write about Pakeha the context, what happened after the day lives of middle class women, than women. It will be refreshing when New ‘first’, and why. It is interesting that we do about middle class men. Standing Zealand history comes of age and any when academic historians, like Margaret in the Sunshine reinforces this pattern. historian can write about any group of Tennant, are referred to, they are given The men who get a look in, especially in people. It will also be pleasing when the prefix ‘historian’. For the reader the politics section, are hazy characters. women of other ethnic backgrounds are who wants a well produced, interesting Sandra Coney argues that the suffragists incorporated into our history. Yvonne coffee book on women’s lives, this lack ‘chose’ Sir John Hall as their political Van Dongen’s essay on immigrant of context and analysis may not be an ally, but gives little sense of the impor­ women’s citizenship and Ta’i George’s issue. But if the general reader wants to tance of men like Hall, and those before piece on tivaevae (Cook Island explore changes in women’s lives, and him, who put before the House bills to women’s quilts), are the only contribu­ the reasons for those changes, then 1 enfranchise women. And anti-suffragist tions about women of other ethnicities. think it will be an issue. Mr Henry Fish is given as much promi­ It will also be a sign of maturity when One of the reasons why it will be nence as pro-suffragist Hall. Again the feminist studies such as this consider problematic is the middle class, blue portrayal is incomplete. While it is true women who are politically different stocking focus of much of the work. that Hall lost the 1892 Dunedin mayoral from the authors. While the feminist The concentration on the earlier period, election, it is unwise to attribute this to campaigns of the last twenty years are the 1890s and 1900s, also raises diffi­ women’s influence, given their relative­ covered in some detail, the book fails to culties if change is to be discovered. ly low voter turnout in that election. It offer the same treatment of the ‘new While sections such as ‘Playing the must also be remembered that Fish right’ women who arose at the same Game’ offer an informative overview of regained the mayoralty in 1893. And time. Patricia Bartlett’s Society for the twentieth century women and sport, too while Fish lost his seat in the House of j Protection of Community Standards, often the sections say little about post- Representatives in 1893, he regained it j organisations such as SPUC and the 1930 women. I found the work theme, in 1896. Family Rights Association, must also be ‘Working Their Fingers to the Bone’, But these are the criticism of an aca­ studied if we are to understand women’s especially disappointing in this regard. demic historian. Standing in the past. We need to consider women who In many cases the material presented Sunshine is an impressive contribution buy into the patriarchal bargain, as well buys into an historical debate, but the to the flurry of suffrage year publica­ as those who oppose it. author usually seems to be unaware of tions. It is beautifully produced, and has Apart from these political considera­ this. This is a great pity. As a whole, the the most impressive collection of pho­ tions, I feel the book is too fragmented work would be enlivened if readers tographs and illustrations on New to be good history. It describes some were made aware of previous interpreta­ Zealand women. It is a joy to dip into. If very interesting women and events in tions placed on events and individuals you want a reference and resource work our past, but rarely analyses them or and how this does or does not differ on Maori and Pakeha women, 1893- j places them in context. This is especial­ from how the author views the event or 1993, then this is the book to buy. II ly true of all the essays on ‘women person. In some ways this is achieved, firsts’. Knowing who the first women but in too many narrative is all. Reviewed by Caroline Daley Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 55 R&JlEWbooks

Passion Bay is imminently readable and a If you’re pleasing introduction to the writing of Jennifer hanging out for Fulton for avid Naiad fans - thought the Kiwi on an exciting the cover was a nice touch also. South Sea Island holiday, but Lotto hasn’t happened yet, then look no further... PASSION BAY Jennifer Fulton Naiad asn’t it wonderfully exciting when we first heard that Naiad had published a novel by one of our very own? “Set in SAVING GRACE New Zealand, with New Zealand characters”, was Jennifer Fulton Wwhat I, incorrectly, first heard. And indeed there Naiad is a mention of Aotearoa, Wellington City to be elcome back to spectacular Moon Island, j exact, where one of the main characters of this Lotto still hasn’t struck it lucky for you? ! ‘romantic adventure’, Cody Stanton, hails from. Well never mind, settle down in a warm I Now, I actually read the second book, Saving spot and delve into this story of ‘high adventure’ j Grace, before I had the chance to read Passion and ‘romantic entanglement’, for a relaxing few j Bay - silly me! However, if you really want to get W hours. engrossed in the mystery of Moon Island - why You’ll enjoy meeting Annabel and Cody again j Annabel Worth’s past has previously been closed in these pages. Now happy and secure with their j to her, and what are the conditions of her Aunt’s life on the Island and each other - or is everything j will?? - then it is a good idea to read the books in really as idyllic as it seems? Previous guest to the | the correct order. Island, Dawn Beaumont, returns again, this lime J Cleverly written into this story is the mention to recuperate after a tragic accident. But the R ‘n of the novel ‘Introducing Amanda Valentine’, by R she receives is perhaps not quite what the j Rose Beecham - as referred to in my review of Doctor envisaged! Grace Ramsay, first time visi- j this actual book. And complimentary to this tor to Moon Island, has two secrets to hide; her ! aspect is the chapter in which Annabel has an murky past and her suspect present. entertaining, and novel, meeting with an American There’s some snappy writing in this story. It’s j writer; then finds herself penned into the author’s sharp in style and topical in content, while missing I subsequent release! Interesting thought, eh? none of the attractions offered in Passion Bay. j So, if you’re hanging out for an exciting South The setting of Moon Island certainly offers the j Sea Island holiday, but Lotto hasn’t happened yet, opportunity for Jennifer Fulton to add to and ! then look no further; Passion Bay can provide it develop this story line in further books, and intro- j all! Mystery and intrigue; angst and adventure; duce new readers to the delights of holidaying in the exotic and erotic; capable, but romantic, char­ the South Pacific. acters; and beautiful things to gaze upon in your minds eye! Reviews by Lisa Howard Smith 5 6 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 An interview with our own Naiad novelist, Jenny Fulton FULL ON WRmNG

“My first book,Passion Bay, is one of ‘10% inspiration and 90% perspiration’ is reviewers think; any reviewer who knows Naiad’s biggest selling titles (and has) had one of my favourites. Another is, ‘A writer her job critiques a book in it’s appropriate numerous positive reviews, and was in the writes’. I’m working on my seventh book context, and assess whether it does the top selling lesbian titles on such influential and my first movie script at the moment. I job it sets out to do. I have not had a sin­ lists as The Lambda Book report last year. will get these finished this year by working gle review I would consider negative; many

Saving Grace (Jenny’s most recently pub­ 10-12 hours a day - weekends included! Is I find almost embarrassing in their enthusi­ lished book) appears to be following suit. it worth it? Yes, yes and yes! I consider asm. Am I planning to write anything ‘seri­ I describe both books as romantic myself extremely fortunate that I can earn ous’? I have already written a contempo­ adventure novels. I get asked various a living doing what I love. For me writing is rary lesbian novel, which is due for publi­ questions by readers here and in the the best job in the world. cation in 1994, that my editor claims ‘could States about the settings of the books, (such as) which island is it? Moon Island Earlier this year I doesn’t actually exist, but it is based on a read and reviewed very beautiful little island called Aituaki, in the Cook Group. the Naiad novel "I’m also asked how well my books sell Introducing Amanda down under. I don’t have much idea. I suspect a good deal more would sell if Valentine, written by they were kept consistently in stock by the Rose Beecham, and bookstores which handle Naiad titles! Hares & Hyenas, the wonderful lesbian shortly after had and gay bookstore in Melbourne, report the opportunity to that they sell like hotcakes. The Feminist Bookstore in Sydney tends to hide them introduce myself to away, apparently feeling that in displaying Jenny Fulton, the a New Zealand Naiad writer their own Claire McNab may feel slighted! Unity creator of Rose and Books, in Wellington, generally has at Amanda. It was a least one title of my present three in stock. I gather from readers comments that the pleasure speaking books are hard to come by elsewhere in with Jenny about Aotearoa, including Auckland. (Try The Women’s Bookshop, in Dominion Road) her writing, and I guess this more or less provides an getting answers to answer to a question I’m asked all the time, ‘Why write for the American market?’ the questions I’d The short answer - they buy my books! posed in my review. Next question? Would she be inter­ “What books are waiting to be pub­ lished? Due out in 1994 are Second ested in an interview Guess, the second ‘Amanda Valentine ‘ for BROADSHEET mystery and True Love, a novel about the ethics of love and friendship. In 1995 was a further there’ll be Heroic Couplet, the third question I had? I knew that many of our readers would ‘Amanda Valentine ' book. There are oth­ ers in the wings as well, but I’m still work­ be equally eager to find out more. To do so, read on:- ing on them. “How easy is it to get a book pub­ “Am I ashamed of writing lesbian pulp be really important - we’ll see. As far as lished? I believe the statistic is less than a fiction? (Loud laughter) I respect my read­ my plans and ambitions go, I will never quarter of a percent (0.25%) of manu­ ers and work hard to write books which stop writing books, but I also love a new scripts submitted for publishing ever end provide the entertainment they deserve. challenge so movies are next for me. up in print. This applies to the major les­ My novels are good quality, best-selling, Watch this space! B bian and gay presses too. There are lots examples of their type and I’m certainly not By Lisa Howard-Smith of cute adages that can apply to writing - ashamed about that. As for what Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 57 When negotiations failed, the tailoresses formed a union. By May 1890 there were Tailoresses’ Unions in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. Through enormous public exposure of conditions, threats of industrial action, financial support from other unions and strikes, the tailoresses established logs of union rates. These became awards for weekly wages under the Industrial Conciliation & Arbitration Act, 1894. In the 1890 Maritime strike, the Waihi strike and the general strike of 1913, men, not womqn, were the strikers, but women had a role of their own. What is interesting about Maryan’s account is the way it refutes ideology about public and private worlds as separate male and female spheres. When men lacked work, women and children starved with them. Women contributed to the duration of strikes by making ends meet, by picketing and political activism. They did so because their standards of living and, at the time of the Maritime strike, their own political freedom was linked to that of their partners. As ‘Striker’s Wife’ wrote to the Otago Workman in 1890: (p.33“)“...we have as much interest in the strike as our husbands have, as much to lose and as much to gain...On its results depends our condition (will we live) in comfort with recognised rights or as slaves.” THE SCARLET RUNNERS : WOMEN AND INDUSTRIAL ACTION, Some fourteen pieces of labour legislation were introduced by the 1889-1913 Liberal-Labour Government in the 1890s. Narrow definitions of Maryan Street, ‘Industrial’ initially precluded registration of unions covering sales and Working Life Communications service jobs. Arbitration provided an alternative to industrial action, j his small book uncovers a forgotten part of New Zealand’s his­ which protected occupations without industrial muscle, including tory, that of women’s involvement in early industrial action. It most typically female occupations. However, most occupations for is timely, not only because of the Women’s Suffrage T women were not able to sustain organisation until compulsory union­ Centenary which funded it, but because next year would have been ism was added in 1936. the centenary of our traditional labour relations system, overturned By 1911, the use of arbitration to control wages was opposed by

by the Employment Contracts Act, 1991. The shift from occupational GIL HANLY the ‘Red’ Federation of Labour. Waihi miners and other tradesmen to enterprise bargaining has deunionised large numbers of women in deregistered so as to take industrial action, but a dissenting minority low paid clerical, retail and service work and in February 1993 the of engineers registered a new union. The fight was not just between gender pay gap began for the first time to widen. workers, employers and 'Massey’s Cossacks’, but between New Zealand is unusual internationally in that women are as ‘Federationists’ and ‘arbitrationists’, with women active on both sides. ! highly unionised as men. Yet labour history focuses almost exclu­ Mothers, wives and sweethearts were over a third of the strike com­ sively on the derring do-ing of men. However Maryan Street’s mittee, negotiated community politics for credit and supplies, picket­ research of the early years reveals that, even in the great strikes in ed with placards and abused scabs and police. The press dubbed 1890,1911, and 1913, women were actively involved alongside their them ‘Scarlet Runners’ in reference not just to beans but to their men to protect family incomes, and, before arbitration, women took ‘Red’ connections and unladylike activities. industrial action on their own behalf. The ‘sweating’ system of subcontracting that Maryan describes j The NZ Tailoresses Unions flew in the face of assertions that sounds remarkably like the clothing industry described to me by an women could not combine in a trade union to protect themselves. In Apparel Workers organiser in 1990. The instability of tendering job the1880s Depression women endured deplorable conditions of work lots had totally casualised machinists’ employment but, she through ’sweated’ sub-contracting in the clothing industry. explained, hourly rates were protected by the award, which placed a j Apprentices, sometimes unpaid, were dismissed before they quali­ floor under competition between employers. That was before the j fied for full rates. To earn a living women took outwork after the legal Employment Contracts Act. Contracting is also common in low paid ! 8-hour day. A Tailoresses’ secretary wrote (p.9) :‘‘Freedom of con­ service work and now is being introduced for health services. tract was unfettered. Weak women had absolute freedom - to accept The Employment Contracts Act fragmented national awards into i work at starvation rates or starve” enterprise bargaining. Employees have the legal right to collective I In 1889 tailoresses took their plight to a Presbyterian minister, contracts but their only means of securing these is moral persuasion then to the newspapers and public meetings in an effort to secure a or industrial action. This is exactly the 1880s situation, against a tariff of minimum rates. similar background of high unemployment. The papers are full of ; “They are afraid of our proposal, because it might reduce the small strikes and women picketing supermarkets. The encouraging j profit side of their balance sheet a little; because they are afraid one thing about this early herstory is that against all odds women did take \ might gain a pecuniary advantage over another...We want to set lim­ industrial action - and we do. The pity is that we should have to. its to the fierceness of this competition.” (p.11) Reviewed by Linda Hill 58 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 commemorating early suffragists.” or an avid fan of Shonagh Koea's work, 1 Or to read Linda Evans' moving speech at her latest collection of short stories, the 1977 Christchurch United Women’s FFifteen Rubies by Candlelight, provided Convention; yet another pleasurable read. The themes “— We are women who have chosen to present in her earlier work are explored; how love other women, a commitment which a widow copes following the death of her hus­ involves our whole lives. We have seen that band, and how personal interactions are the oppression of women is organised and of unspoken dialogue. Koea uses language perpetuated by men and we have chosen to in an innovative and witty way. She intro­ OUT FRONT: LESBIAN POLITICAL withdraw our energy from them. We are no duces us to the internal world of feeling but ACTIVITY IN AOTEAROA1962-1985 longer dependant on male protection, approval grounds us in the stark parameters of reality. By Julie Glamuzina or acceptance for our survival. We are defining Her characters carefully mediate between any lesbians of my generation, in our our own identities. But to live such a life, a les­ internal and spoken dialogues, combining the 40s and 50s, whose concept of our bian life, in a man-made heterosexual society two in a clever way. That aspect of her writ­ Msexual identity has developed over can be a perilous undertaking.— " ing is intriguing and entertaining. The unspo­ the years and in relation to the ideology of And to read later that Linda runs ken dialogues communicate meaning more feminism are increasingly aware of the gap Wellington’s Access radio lesbian programme, powerfully than any of the actual dialogue. between ourselves and the new young gener­ which has been operating since 1984. This is Each story is finely crafted, providing a fasci­ ation of lesbians. To the young postmodern a history. nating tapestry of relationships. One story lesbian the 70‘s radical lesbian feminist is an Reading amongst the demands of the starts with the perceived vulnerability of a antediluvian creature, 'politically correct' and Auckland Liberation Manifesto May, 1972 “that widow. A fat, lascivious man stalks her and alien. all discrimination by society against gay peo­ waits for financial forces to deliver her to him If we are to have a community that encom­ ple should end and that all means should be like a tasty morsel, but her true mettle is passes young and old we need to know more utilised to remove the present attitudes exist­ revealed and he is disappointed. about one another. And that’s hard now that ing so that gay people can live in freedom- There are portrayals of women’s lives, the women’s movement, which used to pro­ now." navy wives defined by their husbands' vide groups, venues, conferences at which I am reminded just how much effect the careers and the aftermath of their lives with­ lesbians met, has become inactive. So this political action of the last twenty years has out those husbands, new book is very timely. The introduction had. That we can live in freedom now, after “They were wives of naval officers, she begins the recent amendment to the Human Rights and Hilda, and they had nice things. It was “Knowledge of the past is essential to Bill is largely a result of the activity recorded in obligatory to have nice things to gild lives that building strong lesbian communities in the pre­ this book. Did you know that in 1980 the sent and to keep them going in the future.” Human Rights Commissioner said that he were often not nice and contained invisible Although the book’s subtitled “Lesbian thought that in some circumstances discrimi­ symptoms of neglect and decay.” political activity”, it’s more like a potted history nation against gays was justified? Another story relates how the content of a of lesbianism in New Zealand, as it’s not just It’s a well presented small book- with lots man's shopping is an accurate indication of political groups that are recorded. Glamuzina of photographs which will have us oldies with his love life and the twist at the end makes it states “to live as a lesbian is in itself a political our magnifying glasses to see if we're there in a rewarding read. In the Tea P a rty an position”, and groups like the first NZ lesbian the crowds, and it has an attractive cover with unwanted visitor is tolerated by his reluctant social club, the KG (Kamp Girls) club in a dashing picture of Amy Bock. And if you hostess and offered only tea even though she Auckland are discussed and described as ‘a don’t know who Amy Bock, NZ's most notori­ knows he is a coffee drinker. She idly calcu­ bold political act’. ous lesbian was, you'll need to read this book. lates how his dead wife would have struggled Although the dates of the survey are 1962- At $10 it’d make a superb stocking filler for carrying home the groceries. She fantasises 1985 there’s fascinating material included any dyke at Christmas. about killing him and it’s a great story. from earlier periods. Did you know that the Reviewed by Aorewa McLeod In another story an indomitable old lady is Royal Commission on Social Policy, 1988:167 taken on an outing from a retirement home stated: S h o n a g h % for a picnic for the day, and springs into life Of specific concern to Maori lesbians is the KOI. A once she comes across the places of her claim that homosexuality was introduced by past. Her daughter-in-law, lamenting the old the Pakeha and that it had no place in tradi­ woman’s longevity, is surprised by the gift of tional Maori society.— Kuia and Kaumatua her rings. Some of the characters find them­ have suggested to the Commission that on the selves facing isolation and lack of love, but contrary homosexuality - female and male - they find a way through. While some of the was not uncommon in pre-European times stories portray women alone, there is also an and that it was in fact more readily accepted accurate sketch of the unhappiness some than today? women suffer through being married. It's great to read of women who are still Anyone reading this collection will be left active over twenty years later, entries like: feeling refreshed from the experience. “1970 September Suffrage Day Action FIFTEEN RUBIES BY CANDLELIGHT Another fine volume from Shonagh Koea. Auckland. Maori radical feminist and lesbian Shonagh Koea Reviewed by Catherine Farmer Ngahuia Te Awekotuku led the women’s liber­ Vintage, Auckland ation marchers on a suffrage ‘day of mourning’ Summer 1993 BROADSHEET /5 9 RE\/\E\Nbooks

dynamic organisation of Maori women has had on their lives and those of their Early Stories from whanau. The story each woman presents is TE TĪMATANGA told 'as it was spoken'. No clumsy intervention translates or interprets the Founding Members of script. The korero 'speaks' for itself often moving easily between two lan­ TĀTAU guages as the written text articulates the Maori Women’s the striking duality which is a reality of Maori women's experience. T A T A T T As might be expected each of the 1 A 1 A U voices in Te Timatanga resonates dif­ Welfare League ferently. Though the motivations and beliefs which brought the women of the League together are clearly shared, the concerns which drive this commit­ ment are numerous. Since the League was generally regarded as a whanau based network of women working toward achieving better more equitable conditions and opportunities for Maori people this struggle was not necessari­ ly perceived as having a distinct politi­ cal agenda. Where Pakeha women may well have embraced the ballot box with | enthusiasm and viewed the parliamen- j tary system as an institution able to j adequately represent their views Maori i women's association with the League j seems to have rejected the largely male ! dominated mainstream of predictable public life. That is to say even if the I te timatanga ko te kore e Timatanga:Tatau Tatau is a Leagues legendary cooking and gar­ A no te kore ka ahu mai generous collection of oral his­ dening competitions waged war on Ko te mahara tories which records the Maori disadvantage by promoting the A no te mahara ka ahu mai thoughts and reminiscences of zealous acquisition of material home Ko Te Ropu Wahine Maori Toko i Te sixty-sixT extraordinary ordinary Maori improvements the success of the j Ora... women. The richly transcribed inter­ domestic campaign effectively encour­ In the beginning there was nothing views are compiled without pretension aged many of the women to find confi- j And out of nothing came or editorial artifice so that each of the dent voices of their own. the idea whaea speaks warmly but directly As Te Maari Joe of Karoa puts it | And out of the idea came about their fledgling years with the suddenly, "these women at the grass the Maori Women's Welfare League Maori Women's Welfare League. roots...speak their mind and stand j And out of the League came From quite modest beginnings in together on issues within our laiwhcn- j TE TIMATANGA: TATAU TATAU 1951 where post-war optimism had ua. The men know this and try to beat ! Early Stories from Founding Members | charged the newly formed League with us down" but "we're a rather formida- i of the Maori Women's Welfare League excitement, commitment and hope for ble group to contend with. Wc'vc taken i published by Bridget Williams Books a bright future for Maori, right up until the women who...just sit around ' the present rather less resplendent day. home...we've pulled them out and The contributors describe in their own we're taking them with us."(p.69) quite personal terms the effect that this 60 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 However in Te Timatanga the voice which is heard most eration of young people who remain active in the organisa­ clearly belongs to Dame Mira Szaszy, founding executive tion. For these are the rangitahi that will discover after their member and past president of the League. Not only was reading of Te Timatanga that in the beginning there may Dame Mira significantly involved in the organisation of the have been nothing but then there was the League and that league but she was also the 'listening post' to whom the sto­ really is something. ries of the other contributors were originally told. In her No reira account Dame Mira reflects on the vagaries of government Tenei te mihi ak$ ki nga whaea rangatira korua, e Mira, e policy and ministerial interference which attempted to Miria...tena na korua. manipulate the 'will' of the League. Dame Mira's analysis Nga whakaano aroha, whakaaro papai, mo nga kaha, mo sharply reminds us that Maori women were on to it and nga manamana korero mo/nga mea katoa kua tohua mai e resisted the thinly disguised overtures made by the Crown to korua ki a matou, nga whakatipunanga. usurp the autonomy of the League. Dame Mira “did not Ko te tumanako, kia mau pupuri tonu nga tikanga, nga approve” of the League presidents “'representing the govern­ tohutohu ranga tina ki roto i te whakamanawa o tena o tena o ment'” because as she saw it the organisation must retain “its nga iwi puta noa. independence..." (p. 22) Aroha atu, aroha mai. ft It is the spirit of independence which guided the League Reviewed by Cushla Parekowhal during Dame Mira's leadership. This was either mediated by aroha and pragmatism which made the organisation 'very There is a * WELLINGTON conscious of the status of Maori women within the Maori space in our world’, (ibid) Such an awareness began to recognise that real opportunities for Maori women had not improved with bookshop UNITY advances in either education or economics. As Dame Mira directory for BOOKS herself says, Maori women were 'being held back because of your local to the most interesting bookshop! these attitudes towards women'(ibid) and subsequently gen­ erations of the League set out to challenge them. advertise. Why 119-123 WILLIS ST, WELLINGTON Despite the League’s ability to advocate innovation and don’t you sug­ PHONE TILLY 3856- 110 change Dame Mira recalls the time when the organisation gest it to them. moved as 'just about a whole body' according to traditional precedent and practice. The occasion was the death of Te Puea, founding patron of the League. Dame Mira describes how the women carried a tree and 'walked barefoot into the marae in respect to Te Puea. BOOKSHOP Books by, for and about women The tree was actually made up of branches of money from WOMEN members of the organisation. They tied these pound notes all 228 DOMINION RD, MT EDEN, Square Edge, Church Street, over the tree as our koha. This great thing being carried...by AUCKLAND 3 Palmerston North. women to her tangi was really an expression of aroha...It At the Valley Road lights P.O. Box 509 was very sad but in a sense a wonderful experience' (ibid Phone / Fax (09) 630 7162 Phone (06) 358 2644 pg.229) It is this juxtaposition of two ways of being which gives Maori women insight into the duality of self where the indi­ WOMEN S BOOKSHOPS vidual is paradoxically both lost and found within the ritu­ alised dynamic of the group. SUPPORT WOMEN Nevertheless there seems to be anxieties expressed in Te Timatanga which see that the League has not 'got hold of younger women' (ibid pg.98). As Maree Millar of Tai SUPPORT YOUR Tokerau observes the organisation is not able to 'reach youth like we used to' (ibid) This concern is shared by Harata WOMEN’S BOOKSHOP Solomon of Ikaroa who when the League was first formed, 'found it really exciting because...it was something KATE great...for Maori women'. The need to develop 'younger SHEPPARD members is acknowledged. As the kuia herself says, Maori women for too long have been treated as 'unwanted little Women’s Bookshop children...as though we are incapable of making our own Women’s Bookshop Ltd. 145 Manchester Street, decisions'. 266 Victoria Street Christchurch The new challenge for the League is to access the energy P.O. Box 19041 of young Maori women. The autonomy and vision which Hamilton Phone (03) 379 0784 inspired the original members needs to be affirmed by a gen­ Phone (07) 838 0656 Fax (03) 379 1769

Summer 1993 BROADSHEET / 61 REMBNbooks

in this regard, I am insulted by them. The collection was, the editor states, Here's what she says about Claudia seeking ‘simply anything that the words Bell's ‘Story’: “writing the body” brought up for the ...[the] younger characters repeat the writers’. She goes on to discuss her inherited myths handed down through belief, with which I agree, that ‘the bat­ the generations in an oral tradition. tlefield for women is our bodies’. After Kirsty is anorexic and obsessed with some passionate prose about reclaiming food and diet. Liz fears she will end up our bodies she writes, with alarming fat and ugly and worships death as an naivety: alternative. However, the discussions “Attitudes and practices of the med­ develop as they explore the retold tales ical profession reflect the widely held and Kirsty realises “Women's bodies prejudices of the dominant culture and have never had to be as thin as they are until this ignorance is replaced by an now” while Liz notices that notions of educated and sensitive awareness, very size are just fashion and large bodies little will change. It is time for the domi­ were called voluptuous and used to nant culture to listen to us.” model for paintings in past times. Kirsty Well, yes. However, it is a truism in notes that Marilyn Monroe would be the 1990s that telling members of the considered fat by today’s standards. By dominant culture how they should be repeating and analysing the stories, and what they should do to be fair to us ME AND MARILYN MONROE women come to an awareness of their as women has never and will never bring NEW WRITING BY NEW ZEALAND WOMEN position and their own ability to redefine about change. This book is much more Cathie Dunsford (ed) the myths, reclaim their bodies for them­ likely to be read by ‘us’ (women) than Daphne Brasell Associates Press selves...” by those prejudiced, ignorant members After that, you hardly need to read of the ‘dominant culture’. Unfortunately, he best thing about Me And the story. I don't think polemic prose, a stylistic Marilyn Monroe is the title. Even The connection the editor draws feature which far too many of the stories the title story is disappointing; like between two sculptural works, one share with the introduction, works to T Canadian the other Shona Rapira Davies' many others in this collection its original empower ‘us’ any more than it educates idea is poorly — and in this case confus­ Nga Morehuis interesting. ‘Women felt and sensitises ‘them’. ingly — developed. When I had finished empowered but men felt intimidated by I do not dispute the pervasive nature reading the story I didn't know what it Nga Morehu’, she comments. The of the beauty industry with its construct­ meant, what the message for daughter intention of this book is clearly to have a ed, objectified ideals of women, nor the Janie actually is. Cathie Dunsford as edi­ similar impact; in this review I am greed and misogyny which are its moti- j tor offers an initial comment on this exploring why, for me, it produced a vations, nor the urgent need for repre- j piece in her introduction that, with its range of reactions from irritation to sentations of women in all media that | esoteric references to surrealism, adds to despair alleviated only by glimmers of are about us as we actually are. But I do j my confusion. Later, she offers a further enjoyment and appreciation from a few not perceive the writing in this book, explanation: ‘The mother-narrator of the stories. presented as alternative representations makes sure she tells her daughter the dif­ My difficulties begin with the over­ of women, as ‘slashing through centuries ference between the economic business blown explanations and interpretations of illusion and mythologies’ with of beauty and the actual reality.’ At this of the contributors' writing in the intro­ ‘tongues [that] are razor blades’. point my confusion shifted, not to the duction. Unfortunately, that is not all; My problem with many of the stories | relief of an increased understanding but the first half of the introduction reads is that they are badly written. Often there J to irritation. The meaning of the story like an extended self-promotion is a good original idea that is let down belongs in the story, not in an editor's brochure, with as much reference to by the vehicle, the writing. The editor ! interpretation. where Cathie Dunsford has been, who pre-empts this criticism when she writes; : Many of the stories are explained and she knows and what she has done, as to ' “Many readers and critics in j interpreted in the introduction. This the rationale for the book. This serves to Aotearoa miss the significance of our patronises both writer and reader. draw attention away from the writing the creativity because they look only at a Elucidating the themes in a collection is book was published to present. Surely local context and mostly from a one thing, analysing and explaining the purpose of an introduction is to focus colonised perspective. They accept an them is quite another; far from being on the book's purpose and comment on ‘objective’ set of rules that determines j appreciative of Cathie Dunsford's efforts how the content achieves that purpose. literary merit without questioning the | 62 / BROADSHEET Summer 1993 criteria they are using. Intelligent beings moral dilemma, and this is evident in her know that there is no such things as M ARIN Aft' writing. Of her own words she says:"l think objectivity. It is simply a concept used to that fiction is a good place to explore these reinforce a position. But it can have dis­ W a r n e r moral dilemmas because they are often astrous results." unanswerable. There is no wrong. It's a Even when our women authors win M erm aids powerful aspect of fiction because it can look fh Apparent’. our conversation Marina talked about the two positions, total doubt, and then suddenly These writers, it seems to me, have j given attention to craft, storytelling, distortion of women’s voices, obviously not I will get roused and want to say 'this is not style and essence as well as the idea, the in the sense of high pitched shrieking, but in the time to think about it, it's the time to say j message, the belief the writer wants to the way the messages of women are often things, and say them clear’. Just take a ! put out in the world. In making the criti­ incorrectly received, and interpreted, This is stand, and you can't always do that in fiction. ! cisms I have in this review my intention apparent in her treatment of the narrative in So I like to work between the two areas, is not to ‘rip apart’ (Cathie Dunsford's a number of the stories in this book, particu­ because I also like to invent things," I cer­ words) ‘our women authors’ but to ask larly in The First Time' and 'Now You See tainly will be looking forward to the next | for more. Me’. invention to roll off the pen of this adroit ! author. Lisa Ho w a r d "S o n 'iik Reviewed by Pat Rosier Marina Warner is a fine observer of the Sum m er 1993 BROADSHEET /63 GROUPS/SUPPORT Does your bookshop Tamaki Makaurau LESBIAN SUPPORT / COMING or local store stock broadsheet? OUT GROUPS Phone (09) 528 5119, The retail distribution and wholesale LESBIAN NEWSLETTER PO Box 3833, Auckland. of BROADSHEET is co-ordinated by a monthly newsletter by and for lesbians LESBIAN LINE telephone coun­ Anne Hunt. Phone (09) 817 4349. • new s • view s • events • ads selling. For support and counselling Be informed! by lesbians, for lesbians, their families Annual subscriptions are $15. and friends. Wednesday 7.30 to Lesley M Harwood Post to PO Box 44-056, Consultant & Counsellor 10pm. Phone (09) 303 3584. 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