THE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S Q 1 ON THE

Vol. XXVI SPRING 1993 $3.95

RUSSIAN OMEN: MADONNA... EX AFTER WHO CARES ? THE FALL BEYOND "CHOICE"- CONTROYERSIES IN WOMEN'S HEALTH

ELAYNE RAPPING ON WOODY ALLEN; MIA FARROW

" pt. Women rs History is Worth Saving Help Preserve Paulsdale In 1923, Alice Paul authored the Equal We know the importance of public Rights Amendment and crusaded for its pas- memoriakThey serve as symbols of our sage for the rest of her life. She also wrote the «>lle«ive past and inspirations for our equalrightsstatementsintheUnitedNations futurc- ^ there are few national monu- Charter Because of Alice Paul's work, the ments wluch KCO&™ the contributions of 1964CivilRightsActoutlawedsexdiscrimi- Amencan women. Although women sparked " B . . the historic preservation movement in this nation m the workplace. m Qn[y A% of al, Natbnal Historic Today, the Alice Paul Centennial Foun- i^fa^ honor the accomplishments of dation, a volunteer, not-for-profit organiza- women> tion, is struggling to preserve Paulsdale, her Women pionecred major reforms in edu- birthplace and home. cation, health care, labor and many other Paulsdale, recently named a National His- areas of our society. Paulsdale will become a Alice Stokes Paul toric Landmark, is acirca 1840 farmhouse on national leadership center where new (1885 - 1977) 6.5 acres in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, near generations of women and girls will come Philadelphia. This is the place where Alice together to create solutions to the problems

voices throughout the land, re- peating oaths of office for the Cabinet, the To honor the vision and courage of Alice Paul, the Foundation plans to create at seizing this opportunity to preserve Paulsdale Senate, the House and for state and local as a place to help create a positive future for offices. Women said it was time for change; Paulsdale a national conference and leader- ship development center for women and girls. women and girls everywhere. Join with us to it was time for women to lead; it was time begin creating our future today. for women to make a difference. Paulsdale is an historic site that will go As women take a stand, it is important to beyond honoring the achievements of one For more information about the remember the women who struggled for significant American woman. It will continue national campaign to save Paulsdale or to generations to help us reach this point. her legacy through the work it make a tax-deductible contribution, please There are so many of greater and lesser fame undertakes.Paulsdale will serve as a catalyst write or call... for creative collaboration among both indi- who have paved the way. By recognizing the Alice Paul Centennial Foundation, Inc. viduals and groups for strenghtening the con- accomplishments of these women, we are P.O. Box 472 tributions which women can make toward able to strengthen our resolve to face the Moorestown, NJ 08057 America's social and economic future. challenges ahead. 609-231-1885 Alice Stokes Paul is a striking example of one woman who has made a difference in the lives of women and who continues to inspire us today. Alice Paul was the architect of some of the most outstanding political achievements made by women in the 20th Century. Alice Paul dedicated her life to the struggle for women's rights i n the United States and around the world. She was a foremost leader in the finalbattl e to win the vote for women. It was Paul who created the National Woman's Party to finally achieve suffrage through a constitutional amendment. Save Paulsdale to Continue Alice Paul's Legacy Spring 1993

FEATURES 10 ON THE ISSUES Stand-Up Feminism is growing! The Subversive Power of Laughter With this issue by Norine Dworkin we welcome thousands of new subscribers. Please 18 write us with your Against Ambiguity comments, pro and con. An Homage to Knowledgeable Love by Alfred E. Fireman —The Editors 21 Always In Your Face Flo Kennedy: An Activist Forever by Beverly Lowy 24 Sex After the Fall Starting a Birth Control Revolution in Russia by Merle Hoffman 30 Let's Get "Serious" The Attack on Madonna Scholarship by Laurie Ouellette

SPECIAL SECTION CURRENT CONTROVERSIES IN WOMEN'S HEALTH 34 Taking Issue with Fetal Tissue Are Women Being Conned? by Janice G. Raymond 38 Making Babies Miracle or Marketing Hype? by Elayne Clift 42 The Pros and Cons of Menstrual Extraction Why It's a Good Idea by Rebecca Chalker WOMEN'S HEALTH Why It's Not by Louise Tyrer 34-42 COLUMNISTS Elayne Rapping;—3 on the Allen/Farrow and Rachel Kingsley Cases

bell hooks—5 Desperately Seeking Madonna, the Feminist

DEPARTMENTS Front Lines—2 Win Some'Lose Some—7 Choice Books—48 In Memoriam—57 Feedback—58

Cover Collage by Joan Hall Front Lines

VOL. XXVI SPRING n1993 PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Merle Hoffman EXECUTIVE EDITOR Upsides / Downsides of Beverly Lowy EXECUTIVE EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Linda Gutstein ASSOCIATE EDITOR Making Choices Laurie Ouellette ASSISTANT EDITOR Karen Aisenberg When it comes to our reproductive lives, we EDITOR AT LARGE feminists are understandably skeptical of the choices Phyllis Chesler CONTRIBUTING EDITORS we're offered. Those of us who were given birth Eleanor J. Bader control pills in the early '60s are probably even Jill Benderly more aware than younger women of the dangers Charlotte Bunch Vmie Burrows and health consequences of chemical intervention. Naomi Feigelson Chase Oh no, we were assured, the Pill isn't causing Elayne Clift Irene Davall erosions of the cervix (or headaches, or nausea or bell hooks high blood pressure). Later we discovered the Pill Roberta Kalechofsky could cause all that and more, including strokes and Flo Kennedy Fred Pelka embolisms. Now the Food and Drug Administration Elayne Rapping finally has approved Depo-Provera as a Helen M. Stummer contraceptive, saying that the risk of cancer is '"minimal." Excuse us if we view this ART DIRECTORS Michael Dowdy with a jaundiced eye. We're told it will give us autonomy and control over our Julia Gran reproduction, but how much control when for three months we can't forgo the drug ADVERTISING AND SALES DIRECTOR no matter how many side effects it has? At least with the contraceptive implant Carolyn Handel CIRCULATION/BUSINESS CONSULTANT Norplant inserted in our arms we can have it removed — but this? Warren Braren The fact is that just about every reproductive technology will have feminists on both MUSIC/ARTS ADVISOR sides of the fence, with a few of us trying to straddle it. Is in-vitro fertilization with Camille M. Barbone its low success rate really a boon to women? Or are too many of us victims of marketing hype, and pie-in-the-sky promises made by those who stand to benefit ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's financially from our bodies? Is fetal tissue research a real medical advance, or is it Quarterly: A feminist, humanist magazine of critical thinking, dedicated to fostering collective responsibility another way of using woman-as-incubator? Will we always have to be on the alert for positive social change. not to be abused, to be able to make truly informed choices? Of course we will. ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's One very controversial method of reproductive control is menstrual extraction. Quarterly (ISSN 0895-6014) is published quarterly as an informational and educational service of CHOICES That, at least, is in the hands of women, and we can be involved with our own Women's Medical Center, Inc., 97-77 Queens procedure. But, is it safe? Proponents say it's the safest way to have an abortion and Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11374-3317. can, if we wish, be used to give us the power to regulate our menstrual flow. The Unsolicited Manuscripts: All material will be read by the editors. For return, enclose self-addressed, majority ofth e medical establishment appears to disagree and considers the procedure stamped envelope with proper postage. Articles should potentially dangerous. The feminist Boston Women's Health Book Collective thinks not be more than 2,000 words. All editing decisions are at the discretion of the editors. Feminist cartoons are menstrual extraction seems to have a very low rate of complications, risks and side also acceptable under the same provisions. ON THE effects but that "more research needs to be done before we know whether extraction ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly does not of the uterine lining on a monthly basis is safe." accept fiction or poetry. Advertising accepted at the discretion of the publisher. Our section on reproductive health explores both sides of the menstrual extraction Acceptance does not necessarily imply endorsement. debate in articles by Rebecca Chalker (for) and Louise Tyrer (against). Read them PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The opinions expressed by and decide for yourselves. contributors and by those we interview are not necessarily those of the editors. ON THE ISSUES The After all, unless we are able to examine, explore and question, we can't make Progressive Woman's Quarterly is a forum where informed choices, and that can be extremely hazardous to our health. women may have their voices heard without censure or censorship. Subscription Information; 1 year $14.75; 2 years $25.75; 3 years $34.75. Institutional rate: Add S10 first year; $5 each additional year. Add $7 per year for Canadian orders; $7 per year foreign (surface mail) or $20 per year foreign (airmail). Send to ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, PO Box pL 3000, Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ 07834. Application to Mail at Second-Class Postage Rates is Pending at Flushing, New York and additional mailing office. Postmaster: Send address changes to ON THE Beverly Lowy ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, PO Box Executive Editor 3000, Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ 07834

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 I S T

here's something ers desperately trying to get in and take mysterious about charge. the current ob- In fact, as Barbara Ehrenreich pointed session with out in The Hearts of Men, it was not "family values." women, but men who used the excuse of The focus, pre- women's growing economic indepen- dictably, has been dence to run in cowardly, irresponsible on "unfit" moth- droves from the responsibilities of family ers like Murphy Brown, who "glamor- life, leaving whatever children there were Tizes" single motherhood and thinks "fa- behind. Many of those who did stay thers aren't important;" and like the around did so on their own terms and for impoverished Rachel Kinglsey, whose their own reasons, not a few of which son divorced her on grounds of neglect were less than caring or responsible. and abandonment to foster care; and Domestic violence, incest and child abuse mothers like Mia Farrow, whose mental on the part of fathers and father figures, health is in question because she took in and the failure of fathers to support too many neglected, abandoned chil- children, whether living with them or dren. Why has there been no discussion not, are national scandals. of the role of the men in these bizarre But when the media seeks to discuss or situations? analyze what's wrong with families, some- The family, admittedly, has broken how these material realities become in- down. Children are unquestionably in visible and irrelevant. The truth about deep distress andjeopardy. But the view, men's role in this crisis is obscured be- so favored by prominent right-wing hind fantasies of "preserving" or "re- males, that this situation has been caused building" the old patriarchal homestead, by feminism and must be cured by put- with good old Dad keeping the kids in Family Troubles: ting the reins of domesticity back in the check and wayward Mom off the streets A look at the Allen/ hands of fathers, is a strange one. If, as and in the kitchen. This is true in both implied, the bars are full of strong, sol- fictional and nonfictional media repre- Farrow and Rachel vent, good-hearted males crying in their sentation. Whether it's a well-meaning beers because women have banned them movie like "Boyz in the Hood" which Kingsley Cases from domesticity, where the hell are creates a fantasized Black Super Dad and they? It doesn't seem to me that most paints every mother as almost criminally women with children have guard dogs selfish and neglectful, or the sensational and "No Trespassing" signs on their cases of Woody Allen's sexual behavior doors to fend off armies of Ward Cleav- or 12-year-old Gregory Kingsley's ma- ternal divorce trial in Florida last fall, the media has an infuriating way of twisting things around so that men are heroized or at least let off the hook — while 'women, no matter how blameless or in what circumstances, are demonized. I confess, I followed the Allen and Kingsley stories with mesmerized fasci- nation. These cases were in many ways as telling, and disturbing, as the Thomas/ Hill hearings and the William Kennedy Smith trial. Instead of sexual violence, the issues raised in these situations are even more vexing and confusing: What is a parent and what is a family? What are the roles and responsibilities of women, men and government toward children in a postindustrial, postmodern, tostfeminist world? To watch the Kingsley case on televi- sion or to read about it in the press, was to firstwitnes s a heartbreaking, and then heartwarming, melodrama of the Ameri-

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 PHOTO: ANTHONY SAVIGNANO/GALELIA LTD. 3 can Dream at work. There was the mother, of children than with the rights of state) "adopt" Rachel Kingsley and her unkempt, mascara running, a litany of wealthy, white men to select and appro- other two, far less promising or attractive badjobs, welfare, bad relationships, sexual priate whatever children they like. (And, children? One thing is certain: The po- improprieties and substance abuse charges by implication of course, to get rid of litical nuances of such gender/family against her filling the airwaves. There whichever ones they don't want, leav- issues are far too complex for the simple were her two younger sons, one testifying ing them to the care of impoverished conventions of TV. in an ill-fitting suit, nervous and gawky, women and social service agencies.) If it took me a while to sort out the mistaking his left hand for his right. The fact is that the few responsible, politics of the Kingsley story, the Woody Across the room was the Russ family, solvent white males who, like Russ, Allen case was even more confounding. led by the father, George Russ, a promi- actually do, in fact, function as active, For a long time I resisted the idea that nent attorney representing himself in a eager fathers, can take the pick of the this sleazy scandal deserved any political perfect TV drama. He had noticed Gre- genetic litter, and apparently do. Gre- analysis at all. But that's because in this gory while inspecting a boys' orphanage gory, especially compared to his physi- case it has been not only the media, but and singled him out to take home as a most of the "left" — broadly defined as foster child. There was his smiling blonde everything from the Democratic party wife and her well-scrubbed brood of on — that has made it hard for many to poised and handsome children. And there In the framework see the real sex and gender issues in- was Gregory himself, an almost frighten- volved in this case. ingly unemotional and articulate boy In fact, my first response to the messy who testified about his neglect and abuse, of the media affair was anger at the Republicans' ef- his lack of feeling for his natural mother forts to politicize what seemed a tawdry and brothers, and his desire to sever all spectacle this trial personal incident. As Quayle aide Bill ties to the Kingsleys, take the name "Sean," Kristol put it, "Woody Allen is a good and be adopted into the Russ family. became, Gregory's Democrat." But as time went on, I began Throughout the trial, Gregory's voice to feel more and more that the Repub- never wavered from its firm, confident behavior and licans just might have a point. Allen's monotone. His face betrayed no trace of behavior toward both Mia Farrow and emotion — sadness, anger, ambivalence, attitudes toward his her daughter Soon-Yi Farrow Previn anxiety. Had the context been different, is really the flip side of the Kingsley/ he could have been auditioning for one of demonized mother Russ case. If conservative males want those creepy horror movie children from women as desexualized servants, and "The Bad Seed" or "Children of the seemed just about children as investment property, liberal Com," so inhumanly controlled and males — even in an age of lip service unfeeling did he appear. as American as feminism — often want something But this, admittedly, only occurred to equally odious: The freedom to use both me later. In the framework of the media Norman Rockwell women and children for sexual pleasure spectacle this trial became, Gregory's be- without the burdens of patriarchal re- havior and attitudes toward his demon- and cherry pie sponsibility. And every woman who ized mother seemed just about as Ameri- lived through "the sexual revolution," can as Norman Rockwell and cherry pie. or is now trying to survive its anxiety- Even the judge's obvious prejudice (he ridden aftermath, knows it. actually called the boy "Sean" through- cally and emotionally troubled biological "The heart wants what it wants," says out the trial) seemed noble and touching brother, was clearly a male prince among Woody in his cinematic whitewash of in this mediated context. After all, the men — handsome, precocious, assured. the matter, "Husbands and Wives." But evidence against Rachel Kingsley was Nor could one fault him for jumping at as every male child should be told early, truly damning, and her attorneys, work- his good fortune in being "discovered" "That doesn't mean the heart is supposed ing pro bono, were powerless to tip the and transformed from underclass riffraff to get what it wants; or that it comes balance even an inch toward their client. into the ranks of the privileged. "I just without strings." Like a lot of men most Sympathetic to the views of legal scholars want to be happy" he said. Who could of us know, Woody Allen never had to about children's rights, I was torn as I blame him? grow up. If the Kingsley/Russ tale was watched the proceedings. Children do But if George Russ and Gregory Norman Rockwell, Woody Allen is indeed have the right to safety, ongoing Kingsley are anomalies, Rachel Kingsley pure Hugh Hefner. Rich and famous, care and emotional stability. Rachel certainly isn't. She is a woman who had Allen was able to maintain a 12-year Kingsley certainly had failed (for what- been abandoned by the abusive father of relationship with Mia Farrow without ever reasons) to consistently provide that. her children (who "nobly" agreed to the ever living with her and her children, or Let the kid decide, I thought, and to hell adoption since he was no longer inter- even spending a single night in her apart- with Pat Buchanan and Dan Quayle. ested in being a father), and had struggled ment! Indeed, Soon-Yi's startling ratio- Except that was not really the point. to keep herself alive and eating ever nalization for the wholesomeness of her The media has so confused us that we since. What does the new progressive affair with her mother's longterm lover literally can't tell left from right or femi- family law say about the rights ofmother s was that Allen was "in no way a father nism from fascism in this case. Ultimately, to material sustenance and emotional stability? Why didn't someone (like the the suit had much less to do with the rights continued on pg 53

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 N I S T

ust as it was once fashion- and the culture as she revels in the power able among "cool" femi- of having made it. nists to love Madonna, it is Fiercely critical of Madonna when I now permissible to ac- see her work projecting the worst aspects knowledge that she is ties of white supremacist, capitalist, patriar- passe. Or as someone ex- chal culture, I am also fiercely affirming claimed the other day when of her successful attempts to challenge I was talking about Ma- sexist notions of womanhood, female donna: "I mean, who sexuality, and the like. Those progressive cares?" The truth is a lot of dimensions of Madonna's work are us still care about Madonna. Too few evoked when she explains her reasons for contemporary female cultural icons have doing the Sex book (celebrating sexual- Jdared to support the feminist movement ity, challenging corrupt patriarchal con- or feminist thinking. Yet fromth e start of structions of family values); when she her career, Madonna claimed to be into champions gay rights; when she opposes Desperately "women's lib." Charting her journey to censorship; when she contributes to AIDS fame and fortune we learn much about activism. Yet these days, Madonna's pro- Seeking Madonna, the nature of being female in the age of gressive political agendas are being un- The Feminist the feminist movement and the orga- dermined, threatened by her seemingly nized backlash which seeks to crush it desperate longing to be "one of the by inventing terms like "postfeminist." boys" — to be inducted into the white Looking at where Madonna came from supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal hall of and where she is now, we face the harsh fame. At this stage of her career she reality that feminism, though nowhere reminds all of us that even the most near "post," is definitely in danger progressive and radical among us on the of being usurped by false representations culture scene can undermine positive of women's liberation that suggest political actions if we become so enam- we're so free we can now have it all, ored of our power that we think it's finei f be victims, oppressors, whatever we we project progressive politics when it's choose. After all, free will and the zeal in our own interests to do so, while to work hard is all it takes to make it big simultaneously reinforcing oppressive time in the free enterprise system. And norms because we feel like it and/or Madonna, the great high priestess of because it's good for business. making it big time, seems to be losing her This damaging undermining position will to subvert and transform the system is exposed in the October issue of Vanity Fair which highlights Madonna. A frightening gap seperates the radical vision of the sexuality Madonna projects in the interview with Maureen Orth (evocatively titled "The Material Girl's Sexual (R)Evolution") and the boringly conventional "kiddie pom" photographs accompanying the text. Seeing the over- 30 Madonna, re-inventing herself as little girl sex kitten for the thrill of hold- ing onto the sustained patriarchal porno- graphic gaze of anyone looking, exposes the ways aging in a sexist society can disrupt any woman's allegiances to radi- cal politics. What is the "material girl" to do when she has fast become a woman in an economy of cultural images where her power is so deeply rooted in the romance of youth? Madonna's re-in- vention of herself in the little girl "porn" image comes across primarily as a ritu- alistic, opportunistic attempt to keep alive the image of herself as forever young. Casting herself as the little girl on

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 PHOTO: SLUNG FAT TJIA the playground sex symbol, Madonna inability to grasp that feminism, or for betrays her earlier radical questioning of that matter, women's liberation, was sexist objectification of women and an- never about trying to gain the right to be nounces via these photos that she is dicks in drag. But I seem to recall that the willing to play with the boys on their men I knew back then, you know, when own terms. the contemporary feminist movement was "hot," all believed that us little Gone is the "hot" Madonna fiercely challenging the status quo. There is noth- women didn't really want our freedom, ing "fierce" or interesting about these we just wanted to be one of the boys. photographs. And, in fact, those same men, no doubt And they do not evoke in me a fierce thinking through the dicks in their brains, PRO-CHOICE response. Looking at them I just simply told us that if we "women libbers" just felt sad: That after all her daring, her had a good fuck, we would all come to courageous challenging of sexist con- our senses and forget all about liberation. CHOICE. structions of female sexuality, Madonna, We would, in fact, leam to find pleasure at the peak of her power, has stopped in being dominated. And when femi- nists did not fall for this dick-thing rap, MOST businesses think repro- they tried to seduce us into believing with our brains and our bodies that the ductive choice is none of their ultimate power was to be found in being No doubt that business. We don't agree. able to choose to be dominated or domi- nating. Well, many ofus said "thank you We're Working Assets Long "dick" in her brain but no thanks." And, well, some ofus were tempted and began to think that if Distance. Every time you call, we accounts for we could not really have our freedom proudly send money to groups then the next best thing would be to Madonna's inability to have the right to be dicks in drag, like Planned Parenthood, NARAL phallocentric girls doing everything the and the Ms. Foundation...at no grasp that feminism boys do — only better. It is this "gaslighting" seductive rap that cost to you. was never about try- seduced Madonna so that she, with much grace, "cool," and downright boldness By contrast, AT&cT ing to gain the right to of spirit, shares that same rap with her canceled its funding of Planned feminist sisters and all her other fans. be dicks in drag Speaking from the perspective of the Parenthood under pressure from "dick" in her brain, most of the recent anti-choice groups. images she projects in videos, films, photographs, etc. tell women and every- Of course, we also complete one that the thrill, the big orgasm, the pushing against the system. Her new real freedom is in experiencing being your calls to almost anywhere in work has no radical edge. It reveals only both dominated and dominating. the world, at base rates lower than that she has fully succumbed to the se- Madonna's feminist fans, once so ador- duction of that white supremacist, capi- ing, are on the positive tip when we insist AT&T, MCI* and Sprint®. talist, patriarchal insistence that no woman that we want an end to domination, So why give your money to dare escape sexist objectification — the when we resist her allure by saying no — misogynist pornographic gaze that as- no more seduction and betrayal. We the wrong choice, when you can saults, rapes and violates. long for the return of the feminist Ma- No, the Madonna of today would have easily use a phone company that's donna, the kind of cultural icon Susan women believe that we gain our freedom Griffin celebrates in Woman and Nature pro-choice? by embracing the phallocentric perspec- when she writes: "We heard of this tive, taking over and occupying patriar- woman who was out of control. We chal territory so that we do the "dick heard that she was led by her feelings. 9 thing" better than any man ever could. That her emotions were violent. That WORKING ASSETS And is it supposed to make us feminists she was impetuous. That she violated Long Distance feel proud, like we won the revolution, and overrode convention...We say we when Madonna asserts: "I wouldn't want have listened to her voice asking, 'Of apenis.Itwouldbelikehavingathirdleg. what materials can that heart be com- It would seem like a contraption that posed which can melt when insulted and would get in the way. I think I have a dick instead of revolting at injustice, kiss the 1-800-COTEN in my brain. I don't need to have one rod?'...And from what is dark and deep 419 between my legs."? No doubt that "dick" within us, we say, tyranny revolts us; we in her brain accounts for Madonna's will not kiss the rod." •

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Win Some (C Lose Some A Compiled Adaptation of News Items with Editorial Commentary by Beverly Lowy

THE LAST HOURS paid for dead wolves. "It is a well-documented When Kelleyhouse was a OF THE WOLF? In the two weeks following fact that those people most regional biologist in the Alas- Timothy Egan, NY Times: In the decision, Gov. Walter J. distant from the realities of kan town of Tok, his nick- November, the Alaska Board Hickel of Alaska was hit by a wolves and other species have name became "Machine of Game approved a plan to flurry of letters and faxes from developed highly protective Gun-Kelleyhouse," after he begin shooting hundreds of people threatening to cancel attitudes toward them in a suggested that the best way to wolves from helicopters and Alaska vacations if the kill well-meaning attempt to control wolves was to ma- airplanes. Wolves are extinct proceeded. With its billion- assure their future," said chine-gun them down. or endangered in every state dollar tourism industry David Kelleyhouse, Alaska's but Alaska, which has a wolf threatened, on December 22 director of wildlife population of about 7,000, Alaska canceled the plan for conservation, who pro- and Minnesota, which has 1993. (It could be brought moted the kill. more than 1,000. They were back in 1994 wiped out by systematic poi- son campaigns, in which bounties, promoted mainly by ranchers, were.

Conservationist? We suggest Kelleyhouse apply for a job as gangland hit man.

DUMPING ON federal Resource Conserva- the scientific community. MINORITIES tion and Recovery Act was Civil-rights advocates and Earl Lane, NYNewsday: The $335,566 in areas populated environmental groups have U.S. government regularly mostly by whites, $55,318 for raised the issue of "environ- imposes smaller fines against jnostly minority areas. mental racism" in recent years, polluters in minority com- The study also arguing that minority com- munities than in white areas, ..said the gov- munities too often are seen as according to a National Law ernment typi- dumping grounds for waste Journal analysis of federal en- cally takes longer sites and polluting industries vironmental enforcement. to address hazards that are unwelcome in more The study found that penal- in minority com- politically-connected neigh- ties across the spectrum of air, munities and often borhoods. water and hazardous-waste accepts solutions that pollution laws were 46 per- are less stringent than Apparently it's better to be politi- cent higher in white commu- those recommended by cally connected than politically nities than in minority areas. The study included virtually all enforcement cases on the federal Environmental Pro- tection Agency's docket from 1985 through March, 1991. For hazardous-waste viola- tions alone, the penalty differ- ences are even more striking. The average fine under the

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 THE BAD REAL HALLOWEEN SPOOKS SAMARITANS An AP dispatch: In San Diego, parents who took their Dale Fuchs, NY Newsday: children to a Halloween haunted house staged by a Florence Constantine, 57, fell fundamentalist Christian group are complaining that off a slow-moving Anitrak they were not warned that the features included skits train in Price, UT, and rolled showing aborted fetuses. THE BABY FLESH nearly 30 feet down a "I was appalled," said Christine Cummins, who walked TRADE mountainside to the frozen through the house holding her one-year-old son. "I can't A Reuters dispatch: Police in bank of the Price Paver. She believe they're showing this to small children." Tegucigalpa, Honduras res- lay unable to move for about The haunted house was sponsored by the 100-member cued three babies during a 18 hours, said Utah state Potter's House Christian Fellowship. Congregation raid on clandestine nurseries trooper Sgt. Billy Hunt, who members acted out skits about topics like drug abuse where newborns are pur- accompanied her to and abortion. chased for sale to wealthy for- Castleview Hospital in Car- "Our primary objective is to teach the Gospel," said eigners. bon County. Alphy Fisher, the pastor at Potter's House. "These are real Police said they arrested a "She felt like nobody issues in life, and they have to be addressed." woman, Maria del Carmen would come," said Hunt. Zepeda, in one of the so- "She said, 'I've never even Obviously they have a strange version of the "Gospel truth." called "fattening homes" dreamed of being as cold as where the babies, ranging in I was.'" age from two to seven months, To keep warm and attract were held in preparation for attention, Constantine tried illegal adoptions by foreign, to ignite nearby reeds with a mostly U.S., couples. The cigarette .lighter but they babies fetch up to $30,000 wouldn't catch fire. She also each. Liberal Party Deputy hollered for help, but no one Rosario Godoy has drawn at- responded. tention recently to the thriv- And when two hunters ing trade in blackmarket passed by, she pleaded with adoptions in Honduras. them for help, but they re- Godoy says there are as many fused. as 30 rings involved in the One ofthe m said, "We can't lucrative traffic of newborns do a damn thing for her," said kidnaped or purchased from Hunt, relating Constantine's impoverished mothers. description of the exchange. There's a market for everything She's lucky they didn't take her — especially if you have the cash head as a trophy. and lack the conscience.

OF YOUTH AND age discrimination suits he said, were replaced by UNPROTECTTVE AGEISM now involve people in their younger people. CUSTODY Susan Harrigan, NY Newsday: 40s. For instance, Sheila Tilberis, who is in her 40s News dispatch: A Paki- Age discrimination complaints Sullivan, 49, a former se- and replaced an older editor, stani human-rights group have risen across the entire nior fashion editor at "wants a youthful magazine, welcomed a government economy, as recession-related Harper's Bazaar magazine, and to achieve that end, she plan to curb rape by ban- layoffs and company recently filed an age dis- wants a youthful staff," ning overnight police de- restructurings have hit older crimination suit against Bembach said. tention of women, but workers especially hard. The the Hearst Corp., the Gary Hoenig, editor of News said more must be done. federal Equal Employment publication's owner. Inc., a trade publication for the Around 85 percent of Opportunity Commission, According to a document newspaper industry, and edi- women taken into police which enforces antidiscrimi- Sullivan filedi n federal district torial director of Magazine custody are sexually nation laws in the workplace, court, she was one of nine Week, another trade publica- abused, said Asma has recorded a 30 percent in- people, eight of whom were tion, said: "The heat is on so Jehangir, secretary gen- crease in age-bias complaints over 40, fired by Elizabeth much to be hip and young eral of the country's Hu- since 1990 — a jump from Tilberis, the magazine's new and with-it that I think people man Rights Commission. about 23,000 to more than editor-in-chief. Jeffrey M. are often tossed aside." She called the govern- 30,000 cases. Bernbach, the attorney rep- ment plan "a step in the In the past, age discrimi- resenting Sullivan, said sev- The hip young "unth-its" will right direction." nation suits often have in- eral other suits may be filed learn that what goes around comes soon by fired Harper's Bazaar volved workers in their around — and sooner than they But a very tiny step indeed. mid-50s and 60s. A lot of editors, almost all of whom, think!

8 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 NO GOLD IN THIS not discriminate against RAINBOW? one another." Sarah Wood, NY Newsday. O'Connor called the pro- Cardinal John O'Connor gram and other efforts on openly criticized N.Y.C. behalf of "sincere people, Schools Chancellor Joseph sincere government offi- Fernandez for promoting a cials trying to banish rac- controversial first-grade cur- ism [and] banish anti- riculum guide that teaches re- Semitism" in the city "an spect for gay families. exercise in irrationality." "I wish he would stop The cardinal said, "As long pushing the The Children as we accept the perversion of of the Rainbow," O'Connor goodness and decency in the said during a sermon at name of human rights or an- St. Patrick's Cathedral. tidiscrimination," and "be- O'Connor questioned lieve that morality is purely a "teaching in kindergarten personal thing, with no im- and in first grade things pact on society," these efforts which, please God, they would be "hopeless." [children] would never even dream of if left We think the biggest perverter of alone...all in the name of "goodness" and "decency" is the assuring that they would "GOOD" WOMEN woman's lawyer, Mark cardinal. DON'T CARRY Mueller. "Valdez broke CONDOMS down the door, knocked SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT Ross E. Milloy, NY Times: the phone out of her hand, News dispatch: According to a study by the Food Re- When an Austin, TX assaulted her with the knife, search and Action Center, millions of low-income chil- woman found herself fac- and ordered her to take his dren may start the day hungry because thousands of ing a knife-wielding in- pants off. She thought he schools aren't offering federally subsidized breakfasts. truder demanding sex, she was going to kill her." The At the same time, those schools that provide the break- tried talking him into wear- lawyer said his client was fasts are serving record numbers, in part because of the ing a condom to protect sexually assaulted for over economic hard times. Nationwide, 47,627 schools par- against disease. That much an hour before fleeing her ticipated in the National School Breakfast Program in is undisputed. But what fol- house naked and summon- fiscal 1992, and served a record 4.16 million poor chil- lowed has touched off a ing help from a neighbor. dren. But more than 41,000 schools, serving 8.5 million storm of protest in Austin. "There was no rape to it," students, do not serve breakfast even though they are A grand jury of seven said Valdez. "She's the one eligible to participate in the Agriculture Department women and five men re- gave me them condoms. She's program, the center said. fused to indict the accused the one took my pants off and attacker, Joel Rene Valdez, put it on me. She told me to Our inquiring minds want to know: Why? a 27-year-old house put the knife down and I did. painter. Grand jury pro- After that she started telling ceedings are secret, and no me about AIDS, then reached reason was given. But one into her purse and put on the participant later told an condom." Austin TV station that some Steve McCleery, the assis- jurors believed that the tant district attorney who is woman's act of self-pro- now handling the case, called tection might have implied the grand jury's action "very her consent. strange, bizarre even," but he The woman, a 25-year- added: "Actually, they were old leatherwork artist, re- a pretty good group. Some- turned home from a party thing about this case just wor- about 2:45 a.m., undressed ried and upset them. I am and went to bed. Alarmed genuinely puzzled." by her barking dog, she switched on a lamp and Too bad the condom wasn't filled confronted Valdez ap- unth carbolic acid. proaching with a knife. "My client locked herself (Note: A second grand in the bathroom and started jury recently indicted the calling 911," said the accused.)

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 t "It's not that I have penis envy. It's just that the people with them seem to go further in STAND-UP life. I wouldn't use it wantonly.. just when I wanted to be taken seriously."— Reno

"Men love looking at pictures of two naked women together in their Penthouses but only f they're pretty. You get oV Marge and Madge stepping out of a big rig after SUBVERSIVE a long day in the seat, and guys are like, 'Hey! That ain't natural.'"— Brett Butler POWER OF "This cost almost $2,000. You're supposed to wear it once? Bullshit! I wear it to LAUGHTER work, to the toilet..." — Claudia Sherman, about her wedding dress

By Norine Dworkin

10 PHOTO OF LISA KRON: DONA ANN McADAMS ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993

Who says women don't have a wicked render traditional constructions of sense of humor? power completely impotent. Women have a long history of creating When women comics make their own and exhibiting what Roseanne Arnold experiences and perspectives — sexual- calls "funny womanness." With varying ity, in particular — the subject of their degrees of political stridency, depending onstage acts, they also expose the cracks on the social climate, women's comedy in the patriarchal order. By galvanizing has always communicated the female women's responses through laughter, experience in frank, intelligent and, at they are creating alternative communi- times, refreshingly brash and ribald man- ties. As Roseanne Arnold puts it, com- ners. Unfortunately, as is the case with so edy is the "last free speech art form," much of women's culture, the history of the only place "where a woman can female comedy has been, until recently, speak as a woman, as a stranger in a largely forgotten. strange land, as part of a group that Women comics have certainly come a defined itself in its own view and with long way from the time when they were its own words in a manner that seemed forced to cloak their identities with pen to heal instead of wound." names. And even further from the time Importantly, women comedians usu- when groundbreakers like Phyllis Diller, ally perform in mainstream comedy Totie Fields, Lucille Ball andjoan Rivers clubs, on TV, or in concert halls, where — who all made it possible for women they attract a mainstream audience comics to finallyb e taken seriously — with woman-positive messages. "I'm an earned their laughs at their own and all affordable, relatively palatable female women's expense. headliner," says female powerhouse Today, the advent of cable television stand-up Brett Butler. "I'm in enemy has opened up a number of venues — territory. Now, they say I'm selling out, HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime, but I'm also making a nice living, and I Lifetime Television — to comedy, pro- know people are hearing things they pelling more women than ever before don't hear from other headliners — men into the stand-up arena, says Karen or women." On a recent Sunday night Glass, producer of Comedy Central's at New York's Improv comedy club, popular talk show/stand-up hybrid, Butler was practically the only comic in "Women Aloud." Nonetheless, women's humor has al- Male humor is ways been viewed with some trepida- tion, explains Regina Barreca, author of They Used to Call Me Snow White.. .But I traditionally Drifted, a book about female humor. Although male humor is traditionally considered considered more hostile, women's hu- mor is perceived as more "dangerous" than men's because it "challenges au- more hostile, thority by refusing to take it seriously," says Barreca. women's Just how challenging is an articulate, funny woman comic onstage? When male comics like Eddie Murphy and humor is Andrew Dice Clay refer to women as cunts and bitches, they reinforce the perceived traditional male hierarchy. In contrast, the subversive potential of female comics is to shatter the patriarchal as more definition of' 'Woman'' simply and solely as the receptacle for the penis, and to "dangerous"

12 PHOTO OF JUDY TENUTA (LEFT): CAROL BOBOLTS the lineup generating more than be- mused stares from the audience. While all around her male counterparts were getting the deep freeze from the icy crowd, her jokes and stories, some auto- biographical, some political, but all told in her deep throaty voice laced with Southern drawl, warmed the room. "When comedy works perfect, we are a big circle," Buder had told me a few days earlier over coffee in the theatre district. "It's a circle of fire,lik e a power circle. When I rock a room that's got every kind of political belief in it, that's like holy. That's what I'm striving for." She adds that "When I'm onstage in a lineup, I'll lean down and say to some- body in the front row, 'A man will be back in a minute; just like God intended.' They look at me like 'She read my mind, and if she read my mind, she can't be that dumb.' I just do my little thing. They don't know what to do with me, so most of them just go for it." But should women comedians, who are artists in their own right, really be held accountable forpromotingwomen's causes? Only if the audience laughs. "The world is imploding," Butler says. "Countries are changingborders. There's a hole in the sky. Our rights are being taken away. In Germany, the Nazis are back. I don't know how anyone in good conscience can go, 'Don't you hate it when a person gets in the express lane at the grocery store with more than 10 items?' It takes a lot of time, energy, and passion to combine a belief system with an art form. Some ofm y favorite political comedians will no longer play in con- ventional arenas, and now they basically preach to the converted. Yes, we have an obligation to think about what matters to us, what's important to us and see if there's a way to bring it onstage. How- ever, the joke is what we're in it for. And if I go onstage and most of my act is judging and being an intolerant, close- minded person, I lose. There's a way of coming in another way, kind of surrep- titiously." Yet to characterize women's humor as a single-voiced, monolithic entity is to miss its rich diversity. As this past election

PHOTO OF BRETT BUTLER: JIM FISCHER 13 year has shown us, women themselves are deeply divided over "women's is- sues." Women do disagree over funda- mental issues such as what our role should be in society and reproductive freedom. Out of these divisions comes a humor that represents a multiplicity of views and voices, some of them certainly more (or I less) radical than others. It's heartening that women are feeling confident enough to joke — as the off- Broadway comedian Reno does—about the S & L crisis, abortion, drugs, the Gulf War, gay rights, and the recession. She's also the only comedian I've come across to discuss mammograms and breast can- cer — which has killed more women than AIDS — in her performances. But a good portion of women's humor re- mains a ghetto humor, stubbornly fo- cused on beauty, men, divorce, single living, housewifery, the office, etc. And for some comics — particularly those who are just starting out and finding their voices — self-loathing, woman-hating comedy continues to prevail. Researching this article, I sat in on an all-female lineup at Glady's Comedy Room atop New York's Coldwaters restaurant where I was treated to an array of woman-bashing like I haven't heard in a while. A heavy-set woman with teased blonde hair went so far as to appropriate Andrew Dice Clay's obnox- ious cat calls as she attacked women for having smelly vaginas. Even HBO headliner Joy Behar, who has a wonderful bit that points up the faddishness of women's body shapes and skewers the obsession with skinny bod- ies, persists in perpetuating the stereo- type of the ugly feminist. "I'm a femi- nist," says Behar, "not a radical feminist. I don't belch in front of men, and I wear a brassiere." It's a queasy experience, watching this odd sort of gender-disassociation dance. But not everyone hears the same tune. "It doesn't matter," says comic/actress Louise DuArt, applying makeup in her dressing room before a Sunday matinee of "Catskills On Broadway." "Male or female, funny's funny." A stand-up who has performed corpo- rate gigs for the last seven years, DuArt * AT l>°

14 PHOTO OF SUZANNE WESTENHOEFFER: JIM FISCHER ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 IS U E S RECOMMENDED

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ON THE ISSUES PO Box 3000 DENVILLE NJ 07834-9838 "I'm not going strong women, DuArt creates effective counterpoints to the negative images of women so readily consumed by this down by the culture — ditz, slut, bitch, gold-digger. Even as non-confrontational as her act river. I'm is, DuArt says she occasionally feels the backlash against women. At a recent benefit in New Jersey, she found herself wearing on the sidelines with the only other woman comic present when the publi- jewelry, I'm city shots were taken and the news cameras rolling. "They didn't want the women," she said. "It was very upset- carrying ting. I went out of my way to be there, there's a prejudice, and I'm doing some- money, thing for nothing to help a cause. I thought, 'That's the last time I do that.'" Although she rants like a truck driver I have a vagina and fancies herself the female Sam Kinnison, comic Claudia Sherman is the on me" picture offemininit y in her virginal wed- ding dress. "There are times when men asks, "Have we come all that far?" and like me more than women," Sherman then answers her own question with a says. "I get these guys in a headlock, and wry laugh. "No. We have not. If any- I yell at them, 'You swine!' And they thing there's sort of a backlash because love it." women who have tried to be on equal Juxtaposing her behavior with her at- terms with men have been put down for tire, Sherman mocks the "nice girls don't that." say such things" stereotype. And by Although she considers herself a femi- wearing her dress repeatedly, she's com- nist, DuArt intentionally keeps her act— menting on the massive expenditures impressions of women and men — de- women undertake to get married. "The void of anything that could be construed wedding gown is the epitome of'Where as feminist. For her it's a question of am I going to wear this again?'" she says. dollars. "Being a feminist and taking that Yet there is also backlash rhetoric present chance, you're limiting your audience in Sherman's routines when she rein- considerably," she says. "I have to feed forces other negative stereotypes about the entire family; I'm the main bread- women: "On your wedding day, you winner, so I have had to be careful what think you look the most beautiful, but I say. I do a lot of corporate dates so you the other girls are saying, 'I can't believe pretty much have to appeal to a wide she got her fat butt into that dress.'" audience. I've been told several times As I discovered, humor by women that they don't want to hire women. does not always guarantee pro-woman They're so afraid that women are going humor. There is a very real difference to talk about childbirth, PMS, or put between generic women's humor and men down that theyjust don't want to be the often acrid feminist humor that, bothered. You really can't have a strong according to feminist scholar Nancy feminist view on something or else you Walker, not only illuminates societal won't be hired. That's the bottom line." discrepancies between the genders, but But as an impersonator, DuArt's subtle the greater social structure in which nod to feminism is evident in the kinds of people are oppressed according to gen- women she chooses to showcase in her der, race, class and sexual orientation. act: Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Walters, "Feminist humor is not a compendium Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, Whoopi ofjokes or reversals," says lesbian come- Goldberg, Mae West. Imitating these dian Kate Clinton in "The Politics of X\AKE HEY

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 PHOTO OF WHOOPI GOLDBERG: COURTESY RON GALELLA 15 Humor: A Feminist View," a videotape a scathingly funny deconstruction of slang made by Gloria Kaufman and Madeline words for vagina that exposes the whole Pabis. "It is a radical analysis of our being slew of euphemisms as a mask for male in the world, based on our commitment fear and powerlessness. "Snatch!" she to our right to be joyful." shouts, letting the word hang in the air. The number of women actively prac- "That's so Freudian: I'm gonna snatch ticing feminist comedy is still very small. that thing, and I'm not going to give it But they are out there, and they are back." talking about sex and power. For in- A highly energized performer, Reno stance, when lesbian comic Suzanne segues into a shuddering imitation or- Westenhoeffer imitates a man preparing gasm during part of her show that would to go down on his girlfriend by stretching put Meg Ryan (in "When Harry Met her mouth, taking one lap at the air, then Sally") to shame, pronouncing her sexu- announcing proudly, "Done!," she's fi- ality in a most vociferous way. And in her ring offa double barrel. She is articulating latest show, "Reno: Once Removed," classic male fear of female genitalia, she takes on, among other things, the while at the same timetakin g a shot at the masculinization of language. "It's sacred realm of male sexuality — and impossible not to be sexist in this world," finding it lacking. she says. "Wo-man, Per-son, You guys, "I love to do thatjoke," Westenhoeffer you got all your words shoved into confides between bits. "You watch the ours. We have nothing of our own. couples, and the women go [laughter There's no per-daughter." and then go, 'Oh, not you, honey.'" But to say Reno is a feminist comic is Headliner Elayne Boosler plumbs only to scratch the surface of this truly women's fears of assault and rape as well intellectual performer. Reno is one of as the "blame the victim" mentality that those rare funny women whose reper- frequently results when women are sexu- toire eschews the traditionally "female" ally violated, when she talks about the Ft. subjects — in fact, she barely touches Lauderdale man acquitted of raping a them at all. She prefers to examine the woman who wore no underwear be- personal and political contradictions that cause the jury believed she was "asking pervade our lives: High-priced nouvelle fork." cuisine; yuppie ice-cream parlors spring- "Now when I go out," Boosler jokes, ing up in ghetto neighborhoods; Iran- "I wear two pairs of underwear so that Contra; Iraqgate; growing up Hispanic they know, not only am I not asking for in a white, adopted family; and one ofm y it, I 'm not even thinking about it." While personal favorites, a commentary on the idea of wearing two pairs of panties By galvanizing Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug for "double protection" is amusing, it slogan.'' Particularly in die ghetto, they've cuts to the heart of the still prevalent women's heard 'no' all their lives. Got any oppor- notion that women who dress provoca- tunity? NO. Got any money? NO. Any tively, act sexy or have too much to drink Hope? NO. Then just say NO because are in some way asking to be assaulted. In responses George Bush isn't gonna give you any of the same routine, Boosler further high- that shit either!" lights women's safety concerns when she through As another contemplative, funny answers her boyfriend's suggestion that woman, Whoopi Goldberg tends to fo- they stroll by the river with: "I'm not cus more on global issues than her peers. going down by the river. I'm wearing laughter, they Like Reno, Goldberg's feminist material, jewelry, I'm carrying money, I have a explored through superb characteriza- vagina on me." are creating tions and stand-up bits, tends to be just In her one-woman show, "Reno: In part of a routine that questions every- Rage And Rehab," which was deve- thing from religion, abortion rights and loped on the "downtown" performance alternative AIDS awareness to misperceptions of the circuit, moved off-Broadway and was handicapped, racism, politics and drug later featured on HBO, Reno offers up communities addiction. When Goldberg describes how

16 PHOTO OF CLAUDIA SHERMAN ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 WITH

not to perform cunnilingus ("This is not rig, you don't need to be gay to do lesbian only one of us doesn't have to fake a cow chewing grass, babe...When it's humor or to enjoy it. orgasm." done badly, you get up, and you're Lisa Kron, an out lesbian performer "How do people get to be homo- pissed.") in one of her many comic relief who plays the "downtown" performance sexual?" bits, she's voicing a dissatisfaction with circuit, describes her humor as "straight- "Okay, homosexuals are chosen first her partner's performance that many people friendly." She explains that "I on talent, then interview, and then the women might be uncomfortable ex- want to be inclusive. I don't want to do swimsuit and evening gown competi- pressing, while at the same time toppling my shows just for lesbians; I like to tions." the ivory tower of male sexual prowess. include straight women as weD." While feminist humor attacks the co- In her HBO special, Goldberg, as a "I don't think I gear my audiences vert sexist assumptions that lurk in our young Black girl pretending to have toward lesbians" adds Kron. "I talkabout culture, lesbian humor adds to that an long, blonde hair by wearing a shirt over myself, and that means I talk about my active undermining of the heterosexual her head, takes on the white standard of girlfriend, I talk about my experiences in assumptions that also pervade our cul- beauty fantasy ("I'm gonna have blonde a homophobic world. Basically what ture. Take a typical rite of passage such as hair, blue eyes, and I'm gonnabe white"). that comes down to is talking about weddings. While Claudia Sherman takes The young girl tells the audience she fitting in, and that's universal. My expe- apart the Cinderella mystique shrouding tried to bleach herself white with Clorox. rience has been that it does play to a weddings, Westenhoeffer uses her hu- But this is only Golberg's starting point. straight audience. Essentially, what I'm mor to point out that weddings are a She carefully draws the analogy out so talking about is day-to-day absurdities social construct that celebrate hetero- that it includes everyone in the audience and the feeling that you don't fit in. sexuality while marginalizing homosexu- as the girl peers out and says, "Nobody Often my specific examples have to do ality, since same-sex unions are not le- on TV looks like none of y'all. Who with my being lesbian in a primarily gally recognized: "What's a bridal shower those people look like?" heterosexual world. There's an incred- if you're gay?" she asks in performance. Bingo. Goldberg starts with a "Black" ible amount of meanspiritedness, an in- "It's the parade of gifts you'll never get image problem, and by making a general credible amount of sexism, and an because you're queer." statement that the TV and mass media incredible amount of racism and For all the progress women comics images pounding us daily truly don't homophobia in mainstream clubs," says have made, comedy industry insiders — represent or relate to any of us, manages Kron, who refuses to work those venues. club owners, agents, promoters, even the to include everyone. She recalled a booking conference where women comics, themselves — still re- Later, Goldberg nests a searing indict- she was rejected out of hand by an agent gard stand-up comedy as an ment 'against the Church and so-called simply because she is gay. unequivocably male domain. There "family values," this time in the character Westenhoeffer, however, spins that kind will always be "exceptions": Sandra of a sun-kissed Valley Girl who acci- of homophobia into easy fodder for her Bernhard, Roseanne Arnold, Judy dently gets pregnant. This bubbly, beach act. Tossing her lion's mane of blonde Tenuta, Brett Butler, Joy Behar — all blanket tale takes a sudden plunge when hair, she explains she'd like to play other loudmouthed women who bring in the Valley Girl botches a coat hanger New York clubs, but that managers have good box office. But club owners such abortion in a beachfront bathroom, leav- told her although she's good, they groom as Stand Up New York's Cary Hoffman ing her sterile at the age of 14. their talent for TV, which will never continue to believe that because comedy Goldberg so immerses herself in these accept lesbians. "I'm like, no lesbians on is such an aggressive act, men are simply characters that, if only for an instant, they TV?" Westenhoeffer gripes. "Whatabout better tailored for the job, leaving female become real. In that instant, Goldberg 'Hazel?' What about Alice on the 'Brady co-mics forced to define themselves manages to humanize abstract concepts, Bunch?' And I guess you didn't know against the stereotypical notions of femi- and bring them home for her audience. about Miss Jane Hathaway on 'The ninity and womanhood. In the world of As an offshoot of feminist humor, les- Beverly Hillbillies.'" comedy, this means that nice girls laugh bian humor deals with the absurdity of As an out mainstream lesbian comic, at others — they don't make jokes homophobia and societal pressure to Westenhoeffer uses her humor to themselves, that good girls don't speak keepsame-sexrelationshipsunderwraps. attack the blind ignorance about ho- out, and — that age-old kicker — that Lesbian humor seems to be growing in mosexuality that exists in our culture having a great sense of humor translates popularity among straight women as with her routine about classically to being "really ugly." well, because it establishes a sense of dumb questions heterosexuals always This is a tough challenge for women com- shared community not contingent on ask about gay people: ics. Luckily, they can joke about it. • identification with men. And, as Rhett "So, what do you guys do in bed, Butler illustrates with her quip about anyway?" Norine Dworkin is a freelance writer living in Marge and Midge getting out of the big "Well it's a lot like heterosexual sex, New York City.

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 17 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Against Ambiguity ^injiomage to (Knowledgeable £ove S V^^Xome say love is magical. I say the word love is commonly used to invoke magic — the kind that helps us fill neediness, or gloss over despair, or convey the illusion of wholeness upon a life unable to be whole. I have seen countless people try to make connections to others through the magic that the word evokes—the physical attraction, sexual pleasure, jokes shared; it's a kind of euphoria we've all experienced — what a colleague of mine, Dr. Elvin Samrod, has called "the only socially acceptable psychosis." Today, love, like gravity, is dismissed by most folks as another event that controls our lives but just can't be fathomed by the average observer. As a result, we don't seem able to teach our young how to take an interest in whether the people they love are capable of taking on that assignment.

By Alfred E. Fireman

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 ILLUSTRATION PAUL RATZ deTAGYOS 19 In a relationship there are ways to our culture frightened of the relationships rely on the sure knowledge measure a partner's ability to form an prospect of a language that describes that reliability and tenderness will persist. adult love — concrete ways — rendered people who are sexually involved but The quality of a successful relationship so by keen observation. The point is, that are neither making love nor fucking derives from the continuity of traits and real love can be verified. The sooner we one another? In between these two virtues that both partners agree are essen- know that love is a skill to be mastered, extremes might be something akin to tial and respected properties of the other not an instinct to be expressed or a need "making affection." person. to be sated, the sooner we will learn how Once a couple professes their love for In seaching for a quality relationship, or to enj oin it to the reality and loveableness one another they also own each other's deciding if yours is a dangerous one, you of a partner. What that means, as well, is delusions about love. One of these is must inquire, "Is my partner bound to that the magical kind oflove, the unreal that a whole set of entitlements should her/his essential virtuous traits? Is she/he kind that we allow to masquerade as real, flow from the use of that word. "Now secure and sufficiendy self-identified with can be unmasked. that you've said you love me," one says, them to be free to negotiate our wants Anybody can say, "I love you," but and needs, to be able to give ground many who profess it are claiming some- without feeling it as a threat to her/his thing that they cannot do. When babies, sense of self?" children and immature people say "I What can Most important, ifw e are viable, able to love you," what they feel is satisfaction love and be loved, we will pick partners and gratitude at having their needs met. who can manage without us, but prefer When, for instance, someone says, "I make not to. And, of course we should possess must be in love, look at all the abuse I put that ability ourselves. up with,' 'what is the underlying premise? We should not want people who would Isn't it that putting up with abuse must a relationship feel lost without us. Contrary to the junk be a sign oflove? That attitude indicates of romance novels, "I need you," and "I a compulsion to repeat pain. And, while work is a can't live without you," are not pro- no one likes pain, the people for whom found representations of caring, though it was a maj or part of childhood will often they may be of dependence. hold fast to the familiar rather than brave mastery of However far and to what heights ofjoy the mystery and anxiety of the unknown. a relationship takes us, we must never Another, all too common, misuse of allow it to bum the bridge for either the word love is when it is invoked to solitude partner's safe return to home, alone — justify a good sexual experience. "I never nor should a relationship be undertaken would have slept with him if I weren't in "how can you ignore my needs, keep until such a home, within the self, exists. love," is part of everyday conversation. me waiting, forget my birthday?" The Too many have dared such journeys Those who confuse sexual attraction and word does not have to pass a standard. It with no provision for safe return. What satisfaction with love crave sexual union can mean anything each person thinks it is even worse is that many begin the with others because it is the only way means. journey with self-doubt and self-depre- they can feel, "Yes, I exist." They are As for the person to whom love is cation, preferring to play the lottery for "love addicts," seeking to renew the professed, one may respond, "You say a bad relationship to staying home alone. elusive sense of themselves as whole by you love me, but I do not feel respect What most folks haven't appreciated falling in love with partner after partner. for you, or like, or trust." Only that is that just being better with someone, Whatever you may call these crazy person can confirm the presence of but okay without her, is the true grail connections, they are surely not love. the experience, and only then is the of interpersonal success. What makes Literally hundreds of thousands of relationship valid. it work is a mastery of solitude: The couples are entwined in such absurd, Love, in order to be, derives from the ability to be okay alone first, then destructive duos. Shackled by myth and virtue of the lover. It can be measured, better with someone. distortion, those sick and sad connec- and it must be deserved. There is, for In taking the measure of love we tions thrive on a partner's fear of being example, no more reliable measure of a must note how securely the objects alone. "I would rather have the discom- satisfactory, adult relationship than to of our love hold allegiance to the fiting voice of my partner's anger than note the way in which our partners have truth, how reliably they adhere to the silence of my own uncertainty." dealt with the inevitable losses and disap- facts and logic. Only by observing Certainly our language doesn't help pointments that come with living. their understanding of territorial us in our efforts to finepoint the real So, how do we find reasonable people rights and imperatives, by seeing their experience of love. Isn't it socially and take the measure of their ability to sense of mercy and forgiveness, by and culturally confusing to glom love? We must know what love is and watching how much they charge for thousands of connections between possess the character traits to be able to favors and punish errors, can we related and caring, troubled and war- give it. Personal consistency and conti- know. Love, I submit, is a functional ring couples into one ambiguous la- nuity in those we love are absolutely derivative of personal ethics, and it is bel? And, for that matter, isn't it crucial in assessing their worth. Not not antithetical to reason or logic. I confusing that there is no satisfactory knowing what romantic turn or creative word to describe intercourse between enterprise a partner may undertake may AlfredE. Fireman, M.D., P.A. isapsychia- people in like? Are the wordsmiths of be great fun for a day, but wholesome trist in private practice in Clearwater, FL.

20 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Always IrfVbur Face FLO KENNEDY An Activist Forever By Beverly Lowy

"NO MATTER HOW POWERFUL AND RICH AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT BLACK PEOPLE ARE, THEY RETURN TO A SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS AND FEELING VICTIMIZED WHEN THEY TALK TO WHITE PEOPLE"

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 PHOTO: COURTESY C. ERRANTE,"WE WON'T GO BACK! " DOCUMENTARY 21 erhaps nothing is more for years and is reliant on a wheel- awe-inspiring than the ac- "WOMEN ARE chair, Kennedy still writes, travels to complishments of African- give lectures and continues to fight American women, some injustice on issues ranging from pros- famous and some un- GROWING ALL THE titutes' rights, racism and sexism to known except to those consumers' rights, unethical business Pwhose lives they have touched. All are TIME, BUT practices and Native-American land heroines who have struggled past the rights. Albeit she is frequently con- barriers of racism, classcism, sexism and fined to her bed, she is never alone. often the most dire poverty, to leave a THEY'RE DOING Her phone rings constantly, as does positive mark in the world. Some who her doorbell; people are in and out, are better known include activists such as TERMITE-TYPE talking, eating, just sitting around. Sojourner Truth, Mary McLeod Recently, documentary filmmakers Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Coretta ,39 Camille Errante and Carole Richards Scott King, Betty Shabazz, Maxine STUFF interviewed Kennedy for a new Waters, Aileen Hernandez, Myrlie Evers, video, "We Won't Go Back! The Rosa Parks, Barbara Jordan, Shirley Story of the National Organization Chisholm — the list can go on and on. for Women." We also have the writers, the actors, the rights, among them, the Coalition "We were there for hours," says singers, the entertainers who have suc- Against Racism and Sexism and, in Errante, "and we managed to get a ceeded against incredible odds — the 1971, the Feminist Party. The Feminist compelling half hour of film. People worst being their color and their sex. Party is a national but informal organiza- never stopped coming in and Flo Among those who won't be recog- tion still in existence, that works for would break off to chat with each nized in the history books are the women's equality and choice by institut- one." many anonymous Black women phy- ing legislative action and political action That's similar to the experience I had sicians, nurses and nurse practition- on behalf of candidates. The first candi- when I interviewed Flo in 1985, just ers who have dedicated their lives to date to be supported by the party was before she joined On the Issues as a bringing healthcare to those who Shirley Chisholm. Contributing Editor. Following is a por- would not otherwise have had it; the Kennedy was also one of the origi- tion of that interview, which captures teachers who have worked under the nal founders of NOW, but aban- some of the flavor of the unique Flo most appalling conditions — fre- doned it soon after when she decided Kennedy, however inadequately. Only quently with only minimal supplies it was geared too much to white, in person can one fully appreciate the — to bring the light of education middle-class women. In 1969, she earthiness and zest of this straight-talking into the otherwise dark and hopeless gave up her law practice to "kick dynamo. lives of children living in the ghettos; more ass" by lecturing and writing. the community activists who have Her book, Abortion Rap (regrettably ON WHETHER WOMEN fought the government and big busi- out-of-print), which she co-authored FEAR POWER ness to keep hazardous waste dumps with Diane Schulder Abrams, was a omen are and other dangerous pollutants out comprehensive compilation of in- not afraid of of their neighborhoods; and the or- formation on the abortion issue, in- power, dinary women, the mothers and cluding the testimonies of women they're afraid grandmothers, who have done the who were forced to face illegal and of the oppres- extraordinary: Working to put bread unsafe abortions. sor.'Cause the on the table while they strive to Kennedy still attends NOW con- oppressor is very ruthless with people in protect their children from the crime- ventions and continues to speak out power from oppressed groups. Also, infested, drug-ridden neighborhoods in her inimitable, no-nonsense way women tend to do things that are safe. where circumstances force them to that so delights the press. At the And what's safe does not put you in a live. In special celebration of Black NOW convention in July, 1991, position of power. Women are growing History Month in February and months before the Anita Hill/ all the time, but they're doing termite- Women's History Month in March, Clarence Thomas hearings, Kennedy type stuff, which means you chew the we pause to honor these women and admonished forcefully against Tho- porch until it falls down and then they to applaud them all. But no com- mas' nomination to the U.S. Su- step out on the porch and...But, we're memoration could be complete with- preme Court: "I find him an expanding our interests. Feminists called out mentioning the ineffable Flo embarrassment.... [someone] who has me to come out against apartheid and we Kennedy. climbed the ladder and pulled it up went over and spoke out at the South One of the first African-American behind him." Months later she re- African Consulate. In other words, women to graduate from Columbia ferred to Anita Hill as having "re- women are pushing their way into areas University School of Law (in 1951), vived and saved" the feminist move- that are not just "women's issues"...in Kennedy has been instrumental in found- ment. fact, so much so that Nairobi put out the ing a number of organizations dedicated Today, at 76, although she has been word through the Heritage Foundation to fighting for women's rights and civil in pain and progressively bad health that [at the World Conference of the

22 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 U.N. Decade for Women] it's a "no no" know what they're up to. to talk about women's issues other than KENNEDY Don't forget you're going against a crotch issues. Women are not going to very racist and scary and brutal be encouraged to talk about South Af- society... .Black people are very much rica, apartheid, Ethiopia, certainly not HAS BEEN afraid of authority. Their bosses are the Arab/Israeli scene and so there again, probably white and everybody they're women are being silenced. The next INSTRUMENTAL scared of and mistrust are white move is the dollar power move and that's people. The more they see that Black got to be the feminists'. IN FOUNDING A people are already on board, the more they are reassured. Another thing — ON THE MEDIA'S VIEW OF Black women think you're only con- THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT NUMBER OF cerned about your own issues. They ee, what you must under- want to see feminists come in where stand is there's a lot hap- ORGANIZATIONS women are involved in the Black pening, but you'll never community, whether it's about a know it because as long as feminist issue or not. See, that's what we allow the media, at DEDICATED TO they can understand and see getting our expense, to go their together with. So, they have as much owSn merry way and ignore our kind FIGHTING FOR right to say, "Why aren't you with of women, we wouldn't know what us?" as you have to say, "Where are was going on no matter how much WOMEN'S the Black women?" I've been hear- was happening. One of the reasons ing this from white women ever we're ignorant is because we're since I started in the '60s. I still work treated like mushrooms...kept in the RIGHTS AND with white women because I think dark, piled over with shit and we they're important and I understand grow fine. And we contribute be- CIVIL RIGHTS the pathology — but there's no rea- cause we continually buy the prod- son for Black women to be with you ucts that run the media — networks guys because you're not relevant to especially — with Procter & Gamble, them and you don't come to them General Foods and all that stuff.. .Why think it's dumb because I think I'm when the issues are simple and simple would they include us in the power smarter than most white people and I numbers could make a difference. structure when by leaving us out, also think that's because I'm a lawyer They're more sophisticated and you they have one less crowd to worry and I'm very self-assured. No matter need them worse than they need about? Now, if they decide, because how powerful and rich and anything you. So, they don't believe you're Jesse Helms is so anti-woman and else that Black people are, they re- interested in them, and you don't anti-media, to recruit us to join them turn to a sense of powerlessness and believe they're interested in you — to fight the right wing, we might get feeling victimized when they talk to and you're both right. some results...but, right now they treat white people. Why should Blacks us like enemies. Akhough we may soon trust whites? After all, Black people Eight years have passed since that be the only friends they have between went into the labor movement and interview. Today, issues affecting one group and another, Ted Turner, wound up getting trashed by unions women of color have been priori- Jesse Helms and all these other that won't let 'em come in; and they tized into the platforms of the entrepreneurs and merger-makers, but are very accustomed to helping people women's movement and far more it certainly won't be because we were when they're trying to be powerful concerted efforts have been made to politically astute enough to press our politically and then being left out and attract these women to join. And this point at this moment. trashed. The women's movement has past November, women proved been no different — no better — and they've gone beyond "doing ter- ON WHY SO FEW WOMEN in fact, worse, because women are mite-type stuff and showed real OF COLOR HAVE very racist from the git go. Socialists political clout. BEEN ATTRACTED TO that dominated the labor movement However, we still have a very long THE TRADITIONAL were a little smarter and were a little way to go. It is thanks to women like WOMEN'S MOVEMENT more understanding of racism in a Flo Kennedy — as if there's anyone philosophical way. But the women ecause you're white. else quite like Flo Kennedy! — that in the feminist community were only this has happened at all. I I think more because politicized as far as sexism went and you're white than be- not politicized as far as racism or (We express appreciation to our Contrib- cause the issues don't classcism to the same extent....And, interest them. In uting Editor Irene Davall, Flo Kennedy's keep in mind, there are events that longtime friend and comrade-in-arms in other words, I think Black people have that you don't get they're more suspicious of racism in the civil rights and women's rights move- B to, so that Black people don't know ments, for her invaluable assistance in white people than they are of sexism what you're up to and you don't in the community in general and I preparing this article.)

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 23 • n some ways my personal and brutal conditions she was familiar with, The two feminist publishers had dreams I political ties with Russia seem to but seemed quite resigned to having also: Dreams of giving Russian women I have an uncanny quality — al- continued abortions. Like so many other dignity, autonomy, and choice — and I most like destiny. Russian women, she was violently op- they viewed me as the vehicle to help I The ties began with CHOICES, posed to using birth control because she make those dreams a reality. I the women's medical center I was taught by her doctor that the Pill was Two weeks after they left New York I founded in 1971, and around far more dangerous than repeat abor- for home they faxed me an official invi- I which I've built my life and work. tions, and other forms of contraception tation to lead a team of physicians and I In the 1980s, as the immigration were practically unavailable. counselors from CHOICES to Moscow I policies of the Soviet Union eased, Thinking about her and the conditions for an educational exchange. We would I masses of Russian emigrees found of her life, I began to have dreams and be meeting with gynecologists from a their way to New York and many of the fantasies of going to Russia to rescue state-subsidized teaching hospital to de- women found their way to CHOICES. women from this brutal system of sexual monstrate state-of-the-art women's Counselors at the clinic would tell me oppression. Several months ago my healthcare. that a surprising number of these women dreams came closer to reality when two Taking little time to say yes, three had 10, 15 and 20 previous abortions; Russian feminist publishers visited New months later I was on my way to Russia and so we learned that abortion was the York and familiarized themselves with with nine of my staff, carrying visions of major form of birth control in the Soviet my work. My philosophy of informed being a pioneer and of changing their Union. For these women, the "issue" of medical consumerism, Patient Power, world. abortion posed no questions of morality, and the need for personal and sexual As the plane began its nine-and-a-half ethics or women's rights versus fetal life. styles to be part of an individual's birth hour flight, I recalled a different time 10 There was only the harsh reality that sex control decision astonished them. In years earlier when I first traveled to rarely came without anxiety and that the Russia you got whatever was being Russia. I was with a friend who was price one often paid for it was high and pushed at the moment. If they had a familiar with the culture; she begged me dangerous. Then one day there was a 35- stock of old fashioned spiral IUDs, that's to take a suitcase full of contraceptives: year-old woman who came to me for her what was dispensed. If they had high- pills, diaphragms, condoms — anything. 36th abortion. She expressed relief and dose estrogen pills, that's what was pre- My concerns about arbitrarily distribut- some pleasure at the supportive and posi- scribed — regardless of any individual ing hormonal medication and diaphragms tive aspects of the clinic as opposed to the contraindications or preferences! which would not be fitted by physicians

"TIHE AudiENCE WAS iNTENSE, lil

24 PHOTOS OTTOPOHL ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 were laughed off. "They need anything and everything they can get." After learn- ing that the two most popular forms of birth control were douching with lemon juice, and jumping office boxes if peri- ods were late, I stuffed my bags full. Now, here I was again — in Moscow. My hosts had arranged for us to stay in a pre-revolutionary mansion called Perendelkina that now functions as a government artist colony where pen- HofflVIAN SpEAks ON sioned writers and old artists retire. Perendelkina is in a so-called "green WOMEN'S SEXUAI FREECIOM zone" 20 minutes outside of central Moscow, and boasts the grave of Boris Pastemack. As I walked the carpeted halls, with fading old Persian rugs buck- ling under my feet, I could hear the muted sounds of typewriters.These writ- ers seemed content and secure in their work, but, in general, very little works properly in Russia at this time. At Perendelkina, the phone system is primi- tive and erratic. For a complex of 100 rooms there is only one outside line which often crosses wires with a private AFIER home. Getting anything done is always a matter of extreme negotiation. My hosts told me that despite the fall of commu- nism many people are not ready for a Starting "market economy." Most Russians did not work hard under the old system because the paternalistic state took care of everything—housing, healthcare and a Birth vacations were subsidized. Now they can't imagine why they have to work harder to get paid more. It seems that everyone wants to feel and use the only Control power they really have — the power to say no. Everything is a struggle; at least THE one to two hours a day are spent nego- Revolution tiating and navigating just to be able to get from one place to another — or trying to find a phone that works. Russia Our first lunch at Perendelkina com- bined politics and poignancy. Apologiz- ing for the country's economic crisis, an attentive staff served us a meal of boiled eggs, bread, cheese, squash and oatmeal. In the evening we were taken to an * extraordinary banquet at the Artist Guild. The hall is a famous meeting place for FALJ: intellectuals, artists and writers of the Russian intelligentsia. Oak-beamed walls By Merle Hoffman

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 25 and ornate glass chandeliers were the many women find that they are pregnant If I bring in the concepts of "choice" background to a pianist playing Chopin they are well within their second trimes- and "responsibility," the needfor women and Rachmaninoff with an occasional ter. If they are to receive a state-spon- to think deeply about birth control and American favorite like "Feelings" thrown sored abortion at no cost, they must have abortion, the need even for counseling in. the approval of three physicians, includ- prior to abortion, will I be adding to an I was aware as I looked at the table ing a psychiatrist. Because most women antiabortion groundswell? Will I spread out with cavier, lox, sturgeon and cannot, and will not. navigate this diffi- inadvertantly be introducing anxiety or vodka that my hosts had gone to unusual cult bureaucracy, most opt for "clandes- guilt to an already overburdened and expense and time to produce this. The tine abortions," done in their homes by oppressed female population? After all, dinner continued for hours with each state gynecologists eager to earn extra the slogan of many prochoice activists in one of us in turn rising to propose a toast, money. The unsanitary and dangerous the U.S., "Abortion on demand and then drinking our vodka "to the end." conditions result in many teenagers and without apology," is a reality in Russia. One of my hosts rose and expressed her young women becoming sterile. Russian women have abortions on de- gratitude tor my coming and for the Most of the women that I spoke with mand — on request really — no apolo- chance to exchange ideas. She asserted seemed to be insulated from feminist gies needed because there are no other that the country needs women to take it thought and the feminist movement as choices. But because there are no other

Abortion is not a major moral crisis for Russian women — it's just life

WOMEN did NOT NOTJCE T^E AudiENCE AS T^Ey obEdiENTly UFTECI TIHEJR qow/NS..."

in hand and lead it out of crisis. we know it in the United States. They choices, abortion has little to do with There was an easy affection, an ability continually referred to me as Miss or freedom and privacy and much to do to touch and to connect with each other's Mrs. Hoffman and one of my staff cor- with oppression and coercion. As in eyes and energies without the need for rected them and wrote out "Ms." "But most societies, women's health and continual translation — and there was is she married or single?" I explained that women's lives are not a high priority for also a strange tension and excitement in yes, I am married but that it is not the Russian government. the air. As I looked about me I saw that necessary that my marital status be public The day of the Educational Sympo- people had broken up into small groups — and they loved it! It was as if sium, I awoke with an intense feeling of and were discussing potential business I were catapulted back 20 years to the excitement. This was the day I would deals — everybody was hustling! dawn of the women's movement, re- make my presentation and challenge the There was a keen awareness that with membering the "clicks of conscious- assembled feminist physicians and jour- the fall of communism people were able, ness," the constant explosion of insights. nalists to create a truly revolutionary indeed, desired, to show creativity and An interesting thought then occurred society—a society where women's lives entrepreneurial spirit. One person rose to me. There is no word for "counsel- really count for something. to toast capitalism — and I found myself ing" in the Russian system, because they At the symposium, I spoke of how saying "Yes, capitalism, but capitalism don't perceive a need for it. Abortion is reproductive freedom must be the bot- with a conscience!'' The next day brought not only the status quo, but the only tom line of women's autonomy. If a meetings and interviews. I spoke with choice the majority of women have to woman cannot decide when, or whether, Dr. George Kavkassidze, who specializes control their fertility. There is no orga- to bear children, the other choices in her in infertility, which has reached epi- nized opposition on religious or moral life are diminished. The availability of demic proportions in Russia. He was grounds (although there is a growing legal and safe abortion is critical to her eager to assist with the creation of a right-to-life presence in Moscow), and health and quality of life. But, it is not women's health center where there could women regard their multiple abortions enough. Without full information about be pregnancy testing, counseling and pragmatically, as just a way of "getting all reproductive and sexual issues, access state-of-the-art abortion care. I learned cleaned out." Abortion is not a major to abortion is an illusory freedom. that there are practically no pregnancy moral crisis for Russian women — it's I stressed what I know to be true in the tests available in Russia; that by the time just life. most personal and political sense, that

PHOTO. DAVID GLUCK ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 "there is no choice without knowledge. went off with her bucket and pail. If we accept that the exercise of freewil l The next day my staff was scheduled to defines what it is to be moral and fully perform abortions and Norplant inserts human, then women who lack the infor- at the state teaching hospital, Gyneco- mation to make choices will be destined logical Hospital #53. It would be his- to remain second-class citizens." toric: the first time Norplant would be The speech was received extremely inserted into Russian women, and the well. The audience was intense, like first time abortions would be performed sponges soaking up every word. Most with state-of-the-art technology. We interesting, I found a piece of antiabor- had brought equipment, machinery and tion literature on a chair as I left the hall. drugs with us that had never been im- It was exactly the same propaganda that ported to Russia. The entire hospital was the antichoicers thrust into the hands of on full alert. There were approximately patients every day at CHOICES — 25 people in the operating room where except that it has been translated into CHOICES physicians would be giving a Russian and printed in Alaska. I had to demonstration. Students of anesthesia, laugh; in a strange way, it made me feel gynecology residents and the administra- right at home. It also reinforced a truth I tive staff of the hospital hovered around have always known: The war against the operating room tables. The patients AN AUCHENCE women's freedom is global and has no were brought in in their own night- MEMBER follows boundaries. gowns because of the shortages of paper ilN Along with translated literature, T- and supplies. Fashions ranged from plain shirts and magazines, I had brought 7,000 flannel to see-through red lingerie. The RUSSIAN condoms with me to distribute after the women's stoicism and seeming lack of presentations. Suddenly, the well-dressed modesty amazed me — even more so professional journalists, feminists and when I remembered that these are women physicians turned into a swarming mob. who were taught to be so ashamed of We were surrounded and pushed and their bodies that they were not permitted shoved as a frenzy of hands reached out to mention the word menstruation in to grab the condoms. I was left breathless mixed company. It's a dangerous form and amazed. of modesty that I've seen lead to While condoms are the only birth medical and sexual problems. Of the control method produced and sold in small amount of birth control available, Russia, they are not highly utilized. Most out-of-date spiral IUDs are the most are substandard and break easily — and commonly used (by 5 percent of the the strength of the "macho" myth pre- population). But because of the social vents many men from even using them. stricture against openly acknowledging I think of the enormous statue of Yuri menstruation, women are too embar- Gagarin, the first man in space. It stands rassed to go to their gynecologists during like a colossus overlooking the main their periods, the optimum time when thoroughfare in Moscow. How a society IUDs should be inserted. As a result they with the technology to conquer space are often left infected and infertile. Yet, cannot find its way to produce an ad- there in the operating room there was no equate rubber speaks volumes about its observable modesty, and absolutely no priorities, and the primacy of politics concept of privacy or patient dignity. over reason. The collectivism of this society even extends to the medical sphere where it is I was still recovering from the on- not uncommon to see four or five abor- slaught of grasping hands, when I found tions performed in the same room at the ANTichoicE my way to the ladies' room. I was with same time. The women did not notice is qlotW. IN my translator, who was part of my staff, the large audience as they obediently and with whom, before leaving for Rus- lifted their gowns above their waists. It is OR RussiAN, sia, I had practiced a few phrases like just the way life is here, and they deal JT'S EXACTly ThE SAME. "Women of the World Unite." We with it: They place themselves on the were saving it together and laughing as an table and follow orders. old lady came in to clean. Listening to us she asked, "Unite? What do they want to I looked at their faces and into their unite for? And if they unite, what will eyes. What I saw there were the thou- they do?" Looking at her and picturing sands of women before them whose my mother saying, "Are you playing hands I'd held. We are all sisters. Joan of Arc again?" I said, "Well, maybe The staff at the hospital was extraordi- we will make the world a little bit better nary — eager to learn — eager to please place." "Okay," she said resignedly as she — eager to participate with me in a joint

27 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 capitalist venture. The abortions cost 900 had an abortion"—feedback that led me it was the difference between being rubles, which equals $3.00 — less than to the knowledge of how important it is a liberal and a radical, and she said it the cost of a McDonald's hamburger and for women to own that experience. was much greater than that. Another about one week's average salary. When I suggested to Grebesheva that raised her voice to say that it didn't matter The next day brought a meeting at the we replicate this in Red Square, she what women called themselves, "all Russian Family Planning Association; it loved the idea but said, "Our Russian women are feminists and fighting for the was to produce an historic feminist act. women do not yet have the courage for same thing." Formed nine months earlier and existing this." But the energy in that room was so And still others said that they never on donations and government subsidies, strong and driving, I urged them to do thought of using the word sisterhood, the Association is the major voice in something now. The result was a decision that the concept was always one of "broth- Russia calling for a reasoned and intelli- to draft an open letter to Boris Yeltsin erhood." Women never considered gent tamily planning program. The di- outlining the grave conditions of wo men's themselves unequal or oppressed be- rector, Inga Grebesheva, famous for be- healthcare and demanding economic cause they believed the propaganda fed ing the "only woman deputy" of the funding for birth control and education. to them by the communists — that men Central Committee of the Communist When I asked Grebesheva if she could and women were truly equal. At that Party, told me she became a feminist have it done by the next day so that point, Grebesheva came into the room when, at party meetings, her colleagues leading feminists at the Feminist Round and, not taking time to remove her coat, began to reter to her as the "woman Table where I would be speaking could proceeded to read the letter she had A society with the technology to conquer space cannot find its way to produce an adequate rubber "SudcJEiNly, T^E WEll'dREssEd pRofEssioNAl JOURNAHSTS, FEiviirsjisTs physiciANS TURNEd il\TO A SWARMJlMq Mob." minister." She recognized that they had sign it, she smiled "I've been writing it drafted to Yeltsin. I watched the faces — never thought of her in relation to her in my head for four years," she said. pleasure, pride, anger, anxiety. Some got work or her title, but only to her gender. This was one of those transcendent up to sign, some left the room and some Grebesheva, having produced one film connections, the times when you meet watched transfixed. A feminist move- on the horrifying state of abortion care, someone — a group of women — and ment begins? was raisingfunds which she hoped would you know that the different languages The mixture of the spiritual and pro- educate people further on the Russian and different realities cannot obscure fane surrounded me. Lunch in a Mos- abortion system. She envisioned pro- the one reality — that we are all strug- cow hotel had me sitting next to a young ducing 12 hours of tape of individual gling with the same issues and the same couple who held hands across the table, women telling about their abortion ex- problems. had their eyes closed tightly and mumbled periences. It seems that having 15, 20 or The next afternoon brought over 30 under their breaths. This went on for even 30 abortions does not equal coming feminists together to share information at about five minutes, and I realized that to terms with it. Most women are ashamed a "Feminist Round Table." Writers, they had been praying. As the young to talk about their abortions, and doctors, scientists, journalists and representatives man left the table, the woman turned to with their fanciful prescription for birth from governmental agencies engaged in me and started a conversation. It seemed control, do not help them break the lively dialogue. A self-described radical that they were missionaries; Evangelical silence: They tell them if they worked feminist made the distinction between Christians who had been in Moscow one harder, they would not have time to women who were part of the "women's year and had started their own church on think about sex and, therefore, would movement," and women who called October Street. "This is extremely fertile not get pregnant. themselves feminists. Women who were ground for gathering new souls," she My mind immediately flashed to all the part of the women's movement told me as she searched her handbag for soap box actions I had arranged in the believed in a philosophy of "women are prayer cards. "Now that communism is American abortion wars — all the "My people, too," whereas feminists wanted dead, their spiritual hunger can be fed." name is Joan or Ruth or Karen, and I've to change the patriarchy. I asked whether In Moscow I saw advertisements for

28 PHOTO: OTTO POHL ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Billy Graham's Crusade and remem- responded that Stalin's motivation was bered the delegation of Bible students to populate Russia with soldiers to who shared my plane ride over. Souls are counteract Hitler's rising militarism. a new growing market, ripe for the Certainly, encouraging the birth of girl AbORNON WAS FiRST picking. children was not part of the equation. iN RtssiA iN 1 920 AS A Conversations in the hotel leapt into Nevertheless she still thought it was a my memory. They continued to affirm good thing because she would not have TOI

coNdiTioNS ANd AFJOUT 20 PERCENT of

MARRJEd COUplES CANNOT UlWE childREN

bECAUSE of TIHE dAMAqE of

MlllriplE AbORTJONS.

OfSlly 1 5 PERCENT of AII WOMEN of childbEARiNq AqE USE CONTRACEpriVES ANd ONly 5

PERCENT USE REASONAbly EffECTiVE

MErhods such AS spiRAl lUDs

AS oppossd TO 50 TO

60 PERCENT iN MOST

OT^ER COUNTIES.

A youiNq RUSSJAN physiciAN CONFERS T^E AILMENTS. 29 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 PHOTO OTTO POHL LET'S GET "SERIOUS" THE ATTACK ON MADONNA SCHOLARSHIP

ESPITE ITS OPEN CELEBRATION OF BISEXUAL, HOMO-

SEXUAL, AND INTERRACIAL SEXUALITY, AND NOT-SO-

SUBTLE EXPLORATIONS OF TABOOS LIKE SADOMASOCHISM

AND RAPE, MADONNA'S MUCH-HYPED BOOK OF EROTIC

PHOTOGRAPHS SEEMS TO HAVE COME AND GONE WITH-

OUT AS MUCH AS A HINT OF CONTROVERSY OR PROTEST.

PRESS COVERAGE OF SEX (TIME WARNER, 1992), WHICH BY LAURIE OUEUETTE WAS MARKETED AS MADONNA'S OWN SEXUAL FANTASIES,

TENDED TO DISMISS THE WHOLE AFFAIR

AS A BORING, TASTE- LESS, AND EVEN

COMICAL SELF-PRO" MOTION THAT IN

NO WAY LIVED UP TO ITS OWN PUB- LICITY. AS ONE DISAPPOINTED NEW YORK TlMES RE-

VIEWER QUIPPED, "THERE'S LITTLE IN THE BOOK YOU

COULDN'T FIND AT A BIG CITY NEWSSTAND." HAS

AMERICA'S MOST VISIBLE FEMALE ICON LOST HER POWER

TO TITILLATE, ENRAGE AND SHOCK?

COLLAGE BY JOAN HALl ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993

Hardly. Madonna has always made a room discussions and fillingth e pages of got out about a scholarly anthology ex- lot of people uncomfortable, and she still academic journals and textbooks since clusively devoted to the pop icon —The does. But it's been conservatives who Madonna's early days as the Material Madonna Connection: Representational Poli- have complained the loudest, and whose Girl. tics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural charges have generated the Madonna- Paying close attention to the way Ma- Theory (Westview, 1992) —that such related media controversies we've come donna parodied gender in videos such as scholars became a fashionable target for to expect. As with her "Justify My Love" "Material Girl" and "Like a Virgin," the "concern," condescension, and scorn video before it, Madonna's Sex was a power she holds in creating and re- from progressive quarters. The first at- sure target for cries of moral outrage and creating her own representations, and tack, written months before the book right-wing threats of censorship, protest the way she experiments with bisexual- was even published, was a biting piece in and boycotts. The radical right, still lick- ity, crossgendered playfulness, and gay the leftist Nation that was subsequently ing their wounds after their homophobic, iconography, Madonna scholars are not reprinted in liberal magazines and news- antifeminist rhetoric was over- so much interested in Madonna herself, papers, including Harper's. Starved for a whelmingly rejected by Madonna controversy and the American public last perhaps disappointed that one fall, declined to comment had not emerged over Sex, on Madonna this time the mainstream press has around. But that says MADONNA SCHOLARS ARE waged its own nasty critiques more about the breakup of Madonna scholars. The of a 12-year conservative charges against Madonna stronghold over cultural NOT SO MUCH INTERESTED scholarship are all remark- politics than it does about ably similar: First, Madonna a declining interest in Ma- IN MADONNA HERSELF, is a tasteless opportunist and, donna. like consumer culture in gen- As much as Madonna's eral, is unworthy of academic haters wish she wouldjust BUT IN THE WAY THEY BE- study; and second, academic go away, evidence sug- work on Madonna, while gests that the pop star is as passing as "serious" scholar- provocative and influen- LIEVE SHE SHAKES UP TRA- ship, is in fact convoluted tial as ever. Fans and curi- puffery that has little social ous-minded culture DITIONAL SOCIAL ROLES significance and adds noth- watchers alike doled out ing to the advancement of 50 bucks to buy Sex, now knowledge. a national bestseller AND POWER HIERARCHIES Some of this criticism holds (150,000 copies sold on a germ of truth: Like the vast thefirstday alone, 600,000 majority of academic work, were bought in only nine days); and but in the way they believe she shakes Madonna scholarship tends to be jargon- serious discussion about the book, while up traditional social roles and power laden and prone to over-interpretation. all but missing from the mainstream hierarchies. Contrary to "antifemi- But the hostility and vapid sarcasm to- press, is certainly alive and well in popu- nist" Camille Paglia's well-publicized wards Madonna scholars in particular lar discourse. Audience members and argument that prudish feminists have suggests that something else is at stake callers on radio and television talk shows been opposed to Madonna from the here. Consider, for instance, the way the have passionately debated the erotic pho- start, Madonna in fact has provided Nation described the phenomenon as an tos in Sex —as well as Madonna's rela- academic feminists with a concrete "orgy of slumming" that goes "tooting tionship to feminism, gays and lesbians, means to explore recent theoretical around amid the rubbish of popular female sexuality and pornography, and debates within feminist theory, par- culture." The analogy suggested by the discourse about Madonna has thrived in ticularly the notion that the way we London Times is equally belittling: "The letters to the editor and in ordinary think of gender —as well as race and great thinkers of the New World sit conversations. sexuality —is not static, but is open around eating tortilla chips and watching If Sex failed to live up to the contro- for construction, subversion and pop videos, just like teenagers. The dif- versy we've come to expect from Ma- change. ference is that while teenagers consign donna, one reason may be that the media At a time when disputes over such information to their mental trash has discovered another Madonna-re- multiculturalism and the canon are un- cans, the academics feel it necessary to lated phenomenon with an even greater der fire, Madonna's influence on aca- consign such information to their word potential to cause shock and outrage: demic scholorship has not gone unno- processors." Not to be outdone, the New "Madonna scholars." There is nothing ticed. Surprisingly, however, the most York Times remarked: "It's hard to read new about the flourishing body of aca- hostile attacks waged against scholarly The Madonna Connection with a straight demic scholarship revolving around work on Madonna have come not from face. Many of the essays... read like Madonna and her songs, videos and the right, but from the intellectual left. National Lampoon parodies of academic films: Scholars, most of them working Madonna scholars have captured the criticism. One keeps expecting the au- out of feminist, gay and lesbian, and amused attention of an occasional jour- thor to interject an 'only kidding!' or a cultural theory, have been leading class- nalist in the past, but it wasn't until word just joking!'"

32 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 What is really fueling such rhetoric? In Prominent feminist cultural scholar E. uniform celebrations of Madonna as a defense of Madonna scholarship, Ma- Ann Kaplan, director of the Humanities feminist or even populist idol. Sure, donna Connection editor Cathy Institute at SUNY-Stonybrook, and also some work on Madonna does laud her Schwichtenberg, an assistant professor of a Madonna Connection contributor, has cultural diversity and the issues she raises Speech-Communication at the Univer- been studying Madonna for nearly a about gender, but other essays are more sity of Georgia, points to a kind of high decade. She is surprised and troubled that critical of Madonna's "flagrant self-mar- culture snobbery. "Our whole culture is the recent backlash against Madonna keting strategies," and others demand incredibly media dependent, and there scholars —which she feels is quite con- that Madonna push her destabilizing in fact is a need to analyze popular culture servative —has emerged from a journal political agenda further. And, if those in relation to larger political issues," says on the left. Why this seeming contradic- who have been so quick to yell phooey Schwichtenberg, whose academic work tion? Kaplan believes it relates to the over the Madonna Connection had been explores how Madonna "challenges the recent backlash against feminism. "Ma- more in touch within feminism, they stability of gender as the edifice of sexual donna is a woman who has entered the might have realized how significant a difference'' through drag and number of the theoretical other mechanisms. "Ma- debates raised in many of the donna is a figure that is very book's essays—debates over important to subcultural sexual difference, identity groups, like teenage girls and THE NATION DE- politics, postmodern femi- lesbians. To say she doesn't nism, and the social construc- deserve to be studied is very tion of gender—are to the condescending to a lot of SCRIBED THE PHENOM- future of feminism. These is- people." sues represent new turns in And that's not all. There ENON A5 AN "ORGY OF feminist theory, and raise dif- is also an antiwoman bias ficult questions about any sort operating in hostile atti- of universal female subjectiv- tudes toward Madonna SLUMMING" THAT GOES ity and oppression. Surely this and the academics who discussion is more relevant, study her, most of whom and more interesting, than are women. As Sch- "TOOTING AROUND snide jokes about terms like wichtenberg explains, "Metatextual Girl." "The same derogatory AMID THE RUBBISH OF It remains to be seen what criticisms used by male Madonna scholars will say reviewers to describe Ma- about issues of pornography, donna —'she isn't a seri- POPULAR CULTURE" domination, and sexual vio- ous artist,' or 'she's trivial,' lence raised in Sex. But even for instance —are also those who findMadonn a and used to describe Madonna scholars. public sphere as an entrepreneur earning her work truly banal or disturbing might The fact that Madonna is an enor- a lot of money, something that is not think twice about condoning backlash mously successful businesswoman considered natural for women," she as- against scholars who are no doubt al- who is very confrontational accounts serts. "Sexually, she can be quite threat- ready theorizing the book before they've for some of the backlash as well. ening for men, as well as for women, and even had a chance to, as Madonna would Madonna challenges people to re- this has made her a complicated, and say, "express themselves." As Kaplan has flect on their prejudices, and this can highly contested phenomenon. Male pop pointed out, "Madonna may embody be very threatening to men." stars, from Elvis Presley to Michael Jack- some undesirable characteristics, includ- Laurie Schulze, a teacher of film and son and Prince, have gotten away with ing an incredible sense of narcissism. But television studies at the University of exploring male sexuality, but when a she is nevertheless a contradictory and Denver and a contributor to the Ma- female icon like Madonna begins to complex cultural phenomenon that can- donna Connection, puts it more bluntly. open up discourse on female sexuality, not be simply dismissed." "We're being treated as the 'sluts' of she creates a disturbance." Certainly progressives and, especially, academia, in ways weirdly analogous to Do Madonna scholars really make the feminists should be the last to try to how Madonna herself is viewed," says case that Madonna is subversive, squelch those who are seriously attempt- Schulze, whose scholarly work includes liberatory, or even feminist? Unfortu- ing to make sense out of Madonna. research on how audience reactions to nately, outrage over the fact that Ma- What will ultimately emerge is a situa- Madonna vary according to different donna is studied at all has prevented tion where the right no longer needs to interpretations of feminism. Why the meaningful debate around these ques- tell those scholars —feminist, gay and hostility? Schulze links it to the fact that tions. If critics had not been so hostile lesbian, and people of color—who are "the Madonna Connection is trading in thefrom the start, and had not spent so much not part of the white male establishment margins, both with its object of study — time making scholarly work on Ma- that their work is not appropriate for the a woman artist who is also a popular artist donna seem ridiculous out of context, academy. Because the left will have done —and also in her even more marginalized they might have been more fair in noting it for them. Maybe that explains why audiences —gays and lesbians, African- that the essays collected in the Madonna conservatives have been so strangely si- Americans, and Hispanics." Collection, for instance, are nowhere near lent about Madonna lately. I

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 33 34 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 TAKING SSUE WITH FETAL TISSUE Are Women Being Conned?

he crisis over a woman's right to abortion and reproductive self-determination in the United States has produced a situation in which many women's health supporters have leaped to advocate problematic and potentially dangerous technologies for women. With this advocacy, they are abandoning the kind of critical thinking and independent judgment that has, for the last 20 years, characterized the women's health movement. Why is it that to be prochoice Who is the has come to mean that we must accept a problematic chemical abortion method called RU 486, as well as a host primary patient in of experimental new reproductive technologies — in-vitro fertilization (I VF), embryo transfer, and now the new, much- abortions involving fetal touted field of tissue research and transplantation? Why is it, for example, that the consequences to women of tissue procurement — the fetal tissue research have all but been ignored in the fetal tissue debate now being waged by opponents and proponents of abortion? Medical research involving fetal tissue has been aborting woman or the going on for decades, but only in the last five yean has it been used to treat people; there is a particular hope for its efficacy possible recipient in treating devastating illnesses such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. of the tissue? The altering of abortion techniques is one of the more immediate consequences for those women undergoing the procedure who consent to donate their fetuses for research and transplantation. In the suction or curette methods, for instance, fetuses are macerated before they are removed from the uterus; this causes the woman as little discomfort and By Janice C. Raymond danger as possible. However, it makes it difficult to identify

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 RENE MAGRITTE ©1992 C HERSCOVICI/ARS, NEW YORK 35 specific sorts of tissue and to retrieve, intact, fetuses with the instead of wasting it. fully developed cells and tissues necessary for fetal tissue More and more, it is women who are expected to be transplants. Doctors who need good tissue samples must altruistic with what issues from their bodies. Donor systems, therefore modify the suction method and extend the time it especially in the reproductive realms, mainly depend on takes to perform an abortion, something which could put women. In surrogacy arrangements women contribute women at additional risk of complications. To obtain usable gestating capacities; women undergoing hysterectomies are tissue in the first trimester of pregnancy, the Institute for the being asked to donate their eggs for IVF research. Compara- Advancement of Medicine, the largest U.S. supplier of fetal tively, where men donate sperm, the procedure is quite tissue, encourages doctors to employ ultrasound to findth e different: It is simple, short lived and procured from a fetus in the woman's uterus and then to vary the amount of pleasurable act. Eggs, however, are procured from an un- suction so as to trap the whole fetus in the catheter. This comfortable and unpleasurable medical procedure — method, however, is not very successful. Other doctors use a laparoscopy. Prior to laparoscopy, a woman must submit method by which a suction abortion takes 15-25 minutes herself to risky hormonal injections for five to seven days instead of the usual fivet o seven minutes. For Australian to increase the production of eggs, have her blood doctors, the preferred method of obtaining intact fetal drawn three times, undergo ultrasound, and 30 tissue is to dilate the woman's cervix to the point minutes of anesthesia. Women undergoing tubal where the fetus can be extracted whole and ligation, too, are being asked in increasing alive. Disagreement in the medical commu- numbers to donate their eggs for IVF re- nity over whether older or younger fe- search. In 1988, U.S. News and World tuses are more useful for fetal tissue . . . /» . i Report estimated that about 125 medical transplants raises the possibility that f£5 VYa int On f6 id I centers in the U.S. offer to purchase eggs and advertise quite widely for women will be induced to have t - - donors. Whether or not women abortions after the first trimes- tlSSUe reSearCn and donating eggs are compen- ter to thus insure that the sate e do tion s fetuses wiiibe mtact nas been the Bush administra- J J* §s ™ fetaSincl tissue salvagine requireg sintac thatt a pitched by the clinics as fetus be delivered as whole as possible, yet it is generally bettelion'sr ban on federally-funded ,£%££££& for the woman if a fetus is frag- llbi>Ut of appealing to women's per- mented in the womb — the question sonal and social obligation to must be asked: Who is the primary patient • . i nurture and give is clearly being in abortions involving fetal tissue procure- tntO itUmanS exploited in these medical contexts. ment — the aborting woman or the possible transplantIt is wits howeveh the radven — stilt l ao fquestionabl fetal tissue recipient of the tissue? Will doctors determine the field — that we see just how readily the timing and methods of abortions to conform to the pervasive notion of women as givers and do- need for a certain kind of intact and/or usable fetal nors comes to the fore. There has been a lot of material? miracle talk about the promise of fetal transplants, One primary effect of fetal tissue research and transplants has but it is, so far, only a promise. been to turn women into fetal tissue containers; mere maternal The firstoperation s using fetal tissue took place in Mexico environments for the fetus. (In many of the new reproductive City in 1987, and then in Stockholm, Sweden and Birming- technologies — egg extraction and donation, for instance — ham, England. The first U.S. fetal tissue transplant was women can all too easily be objectified as "natural resources" performed at the University of Colorado in 1988. Initially, whose bodies are mined for medical and scientific "gold.") the Mexican team reported that the condition of one of the The role of women in fetal tissue research is, after all, to provide Parkinson's patients receiving a fetal tissue brain graft was the raw material. markedly improved, yet three of the eight Mexican trans- Ironically, a justification for fetal tissue transplants cited by plant patients had died within two years of the operation. In medical researchers is that all this tissue is "going to waste." 1988, the Swedish team reported that their implantations had And with the increased assault on abortion in the United not had any clinical significance. In the same year, the States, even some prochoice advocates have come to feel they American Academy of Neurology issued a statement urging must justify abortion by citing a general benefit from it. great caution in expanding the use of fetal tissue transplants Unfortunately, women themselves are made to feel that their in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Two weeks before abortions should have a redeeming virtue. Fetal tissue dona- their position was publicized, the American Association of tion can provide "redemption" for what is often a difficult and Neurological Surgeons had issued warnings to their painful decision. But to have an abortion is a hard enough membership about performing fetal tissue surgery. Both decision for women without their having to be burdened with groups took the position that what little we know about the worry over whether or not to donate fetal tissue. actual results of fetal tissue surgeries, especially with Parkinson's Is it possible that one day abortions could become the patients, is more a cause for caution than a case for cure. handmaidens to fetal tissue procedures? A majority of respon- A UNESCO report also found that despite great initial dents in a 1989 survey conductedby G/<3m

36 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 fetal tissueint o the brains of Parkinson's patients. People widi suppliers obtain a woman's consent before giving fetal tissue. no other hope of cure are lining up for fetal tissue grafts. But about half the suppliers refused, and they no longer Akhough newspaper headlines in November, 1992, re- provide the Institute with tissue.I n England, where hospitals ported success using fetal tissue to repair die brains of a small must get a woman's consent before distributing her fetal tissue group of Parkinson's patients, the text told a different story. for research, only 50 percent of women undergoing abortion The Boston Globe, for example, reported that the techniques, give it. But even if all the women undergoing elective "Did not alleviate all symptoms or achieve consistent results." abortions consented, there would still not be enough fetal Three patients gained "modest improvement," and one tissue to meet the demand. patient died four months after the implant surgery. The results Regulations that would ban the sale of fetal tissue have also of eight other patients, "could not be discussed." Success, it been proposed. They would: Insure that fetal dissection seems, was limited to two people who, after injecting them- cannot take place while fetuses are still alive; dissociate selves with synthetic heroin, had become literally frozen in doctors performing abortions from those using fetal tissue; place. The study reported diey regained the ability to prevent women from designating beneficiaries of fetal walk, dress and feed themselves. Researchers also tissue; and confine research and treatment with fetal admitted diat to improve the survival rate of trans- tissue to quality controlled medical centers. Aside planted tissue, multiple abortions would have to from the fact that none of these regulations addresses be scheduled widiin hours of the fetal implant the changes in abortion methods and the conse- operation, as only 10 percent of the im- quences for women, a system of regulation planted fetal cells survive. Clearly this The incentive that would allow fetuses to be used for raises a question about the even larger „ _ medical research and treatment will be- amounts of fetal tissue needed, and JO f 0 f gin a process that is likely to end with where it will come from. ** *^ the widespread use of fetal remains The only restraint on fetal for a host of purposes — experi- tissue research and surgery fetal tissue is coming ft mental, therapeutic and com- Bush mercial. And, as we have ban the medical researchers and seen widi attempts to regu- late surrogacy, diose who fetal tissue processors, not have the most to gain — surro- The administration's ban was gate brokers and lawyers — are based on its position that "permit- the " diose who are at die forefront of ting die human fetal research at issue influencing and crafting the direction of will increase the incidence of abortion the legislation. The incentive for legal across the country." It was this decision that regulation of fetal tissue is coming from the linked die fetal tissue debate with die contro- medical researchers and fetal tissue processors, versy over abortion. Ever since then, liberals and not from die women direcdy involved. True, the feminists have been supporting fetal tissue research proposed regulation of fetal tissue would close some and transplantations in what appears to be a line of of the loopholes now present in die unregulated world defense against the erosion of abortion rights. of fetal tissueprocuremen t but, if enacted, would give the Several Congressional hearings have been held, and procurers and researchers a stable marketing and experimen- legislation has been proposed to overturn the ban on tal environment. Finally, regulation doesn't address die federally-funded fetal tissue research and transplanta- political reality diat has cast women in the role of human tion. In 1991, the House of Representatives Subcom- incubators. mittee on Health and Environment held public hearings Fetal tissue legislation is discussed as if there are only two on a bill to overturn the ban, and I appeared before this sides to the issue: Those who are prochoice are in favor of fetal subcommittee as the only witness to testify against this tissue research, diose who are antiabortion are opposed. bill. All of the witnesses in favor of lifting the ban Public debate over the use of fetal tissue has already been testified on the presumption that the research was stereotyped as a controversy between the forces of medical progressive, proven to be therapeutic, and lifesaving. progress and die retrogressive right wing. Widiin diis camp No one questioned its claims or seemed aware of the of only two recognized positions, there has been no room for skepticism in the scientific community. None of those others. It is a tragedy and a travesty of feminist drinking and in favor of lifting the ban, including all the Congressmen politics that feminist critics of fetal tissue procurement and on the subcommittee, addressed the consequences for research are accused of being in league widi die right wing, women of fetal tissue procurement. All those support- and genuine feminist dissent is suppressed. M ing the research appeared to acquiesce in the widely- expressed sentiment that abortions were a waste if fetal Janice G. Raymond is Professor of Women's Studies and tissue was not put to medical use. These supporters were Medical Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. willing to give the legal go-ahead to a system of routinely Her most recent book, co-authored with Renate Klein and harvesting fetal tissue before its success has been proven. Lynette Dumble, is RU 486: Misconceptions, Myths and Some have argued that fetal tissue donation and procure- Morals. She is Associate Director of the Institute on Women ment should be legally regulated to insure the aborting and Technology at MIT, a research, public policy, and woman's informed consent. In 1988, the Institute for the advocacy group founded to assess the effects of new and Advancement of Medicine did insist that its clinic and hospital existing technologies on women.

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 37 MAKING BABIES: MIRACLE OR ARKETING HYPE? Risks, Caveats and Costs ews stories call them "a worldwide epidemic," "a public health problem," and "an economic issue." Successful parents call them "a dream come true." They are the babies — often several per birth — resulting from reproductive technology, a booming business in this country and elsewhere. In the United States alone, approximately 270 fertility clinics exist and infertility care is estimated to be a $1 to 2 billion-a-year business, with each attempt at assisted reproduction ranging The hype is from $2,500 to $10,000, depending on the method tried. Based on surveys over the last decade, the U.S. Public that women are frivo- Health Service says there are at least 2.3 million "infertile" couples in America who have not managed to conceive after lous, if not downright evil, one year of unprotected intercourse. (The World Health Organization (WHO) uses two yean as its standard defini- frittering their time away in tion.) Since 1978, when the famous "test-tube baby" Louise Brown was born in England, approximately 20,000 babies have been born in the U.S. through treatments ranging from law school and then drug therapy (Clomid and Perganol are the most commonly prescribed) to in-vitro fertilization (IVF), and other tech- demanding fertility niques in which eggs are harvested, fertilized and implanted. More than 3,100 babies have been born through IVF in treatment each of the last two years. But that number can lead to false optimism. Estimates of successful outcome (which many call "a take-home baby") vary widely, with 9 to 14 percent being the accepted range. The rapid proliferation of clinics established to attract and serve infertile couples does raise serious health, economic and By Elayne Clift ethical questions. For example, what are the health risks to

38 RENE MAGRITTE ©1 992 C. HERSCOVICI/ARS, NEW YORK ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 multiple-birth babies? Are clinics profit-driven, promoting who made it and the six who didn't. Or the mother with more expensive techniques, offering IVF to women who are breast cancer and we don't know why. Or the woman whose not suitable candidates, or encouraging those interventions triplets have died." which insurance companies will cover? What are the ethical Health risks do exist, and are underplayed, for both mothers issues raised by storing thousands of frozen human embryos, and infants. Ann Pappert, adoptive mother, health journalist, the "leftovers" from high-tech fertility treatment? Is the high and author of the forthcoming Cruel Promises: Inside the rate of multiple births that result from reproductive interven- Reproductive Technology Industry (Simon & Schuster, 1993), tions placing an unfair burden on neonatal intensive care units sees clever marketing as leading to the notion of "miracle in hospitals? (Overall, according to Dr. Louis Keith, professor babies." But, she says, "the health problems are buried in the of obstetrics at Northwestern University Medical School in warm glow of promotion which positions the doctor as brave Chicago, the number of twins in the U.S. rose 33 percent and humanistic and the client as lucky and adoring." Both from 1975 to 1988; the number of triplets increased by a Pappert and Rothman think IVF and other techniques are staggering 101 percent during the same time period.) In an used inappropriately in many cases and that they are "fraught interview with the New York Times last May, Keith said, with problems for mothers and babies.'Tor example, what "This is a public health problem because we are produc- are the long-term risks for women taking Clomid, ing an incredible number of children who are at grave Perganol and other drugs, including Lupron, which is risk for prolonged stays in the neonatal intensive approved by the Food and Drug Administration care unit and all of the complications of prema- only for treatment of endometriosis but which is turity." In the same article, Dr. Emile often prescribed for infertility? IVF also raises Papiernik, who until recently had worked questions. As Pappert points out, "No clini- at the hospital that produced the first 2f) f)f)fl cal tri^s anywhere in the world have French test- tube baby in 1982, called J measured the safety and efficacy of the rise in multiple births due to IVF> but since there m over 200 fertility-enhancing drugs a ha hip* hnvp hppn "worldwide epidemic." UUUICS nUVC UCCn clinics providing it, we say,'Oh, Papiernik said that at the 1 • JI Y T ei JI 1 it must be safe'" WHO aerees hospital where he prac- bOm in the U.S. thrOUgh that IVF and related lech- ticed, half the babies trans- . r 1 nologies have not been ad- ferred from maternity to treatments ranging jrom drug equateiy evaluated A re- neonatal intensive care are from - # # cent report states that "serious fertility-induced pregnancies. The cost of such care has led countries therapy to in-vitro ^ *« associated with IVF. with national healthcare such as En- •^ The ovarian hyperstimulation syn- gland and France to restrict the number of drome occurs in I to 2 percent of embryos implanted during IVF to three, to women treated with ovulation-induc- prevent multiple births. ing drugs. Multiple gestation occurs in approximately 25 percent of IVF pregnancies. The questions being asked are important, but are The perinatal mortality rate for IVF babies is four they the right ones? Barbara Katz Rothman, sociolo- times and the neonatal mortality rate twice that of gist, women's health advocate, and author of In Labor: the general population. The rate ofvery low birthweight Women and Power in the Birthplace, is uncomfortable with among IVF babies is over 11 times higher than in the conventional queries arising from the boom of hi-tech general population." fertility. "Insofar as access to any medical service is an issue, In Australia, where every IVF attempt and every IVF birth then yes, it's an economic issue," Rothman says. "But are followed, data reveal that less than 5 percent of babies whether or not IVF and its consequences are expensive is not resulting from IVF are considered to be healthy, primarily really relevant to the question." The discussion, she says, because of their low birthweight and related problems. should be driven by women's health concerns, and not the Considered an international standard, the Australian registry marketing interests of clinics, whose advertising techniques results are dismissed by Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the Rothman sees as the real problem. "The hype is that women National Institute of Child Health and Human Development are frivolous, if not downright evil, frittering their time away (NICHHD) at the National Institutes of Health. According in law school and then demanding fertility treatment long to Dr. Alexander, NICHHD has a voluntary IVF registry and before they need it to produce exceptional babies.lt is a in a one-year follow-up study of 100 children, no physical or victim-blaming discussion." In fact, says Rothman, "the developmental problems were identified. The Australian economic system doesn't permit women to have a child data, he says, have been "dismissed," and problems with low- when they want one; it creates a world in which it's very hard birthweight babies are a "blip on the screen." IVF studies in for women to do what they want, and then blames the the U.S. have been curtailed since a NICHHD Ethics women." Advisory Board was disbanded in 1980 by then-President In addition to positioning women as cranky and demand- Ronald Reagan, leaving bioethical research tied to fetal tissue ing, marketing techniques often contribute to a couple's in limbo. perception that they are infertile, and media coverage fre- Still, as one recent article in Newsweek's "Business" section quently suggests that fertility techniques have more to offer put it, "The in-vitro fertilization business is taking off," than they really do. Says Rothman, "You always see the two adding credence to the concerns of Rothman and Pappert smiling women with their six babies, never the one woman continued on pg 56

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The best' A GLOSSARY OF TERNS CLOMID: A drug which is believed to work the mother's uterus. Can result in multiple by stimulating the pituitary gland in the brain births because four embryos are usually im- to produce hormones needed for ovulation. planted in order to improve the chances of Approximately 10 percent of women who achieving pregnancy.* become pregnant using Clomid have mul- GAMETE INTRAFALLOPIAN TRANS- tiple births.* FER (GIFT): A technique which allows egg PERGANOL: More powerful than Clomid, and sperm to unite inside a woman's fallo- this drug stimulates development of egg- pian tubes. containing follicles in the ovaries. About 20 ZYGOTE INTRAFALLOPIAN TRANS- percent of pregnancies achieved with FER (ZIFT): Implantation of a fertilized egg. Perganol result in multiple births.* IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION: The surgi- •Research shows that multiple birth babies are at higher risk for many problems, including bleeding in the brain, breathing difficul- cal removal of eggs for fertilization in the ties and impaired vision. Triplets are almost three times as likely to laboratory with subsequent implantation in have a severe handicap as singletons (babies born alone).

ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 41 THE WH ATS HOWS AND WHYS OF MENSTRUAL EXTRACTION n Los Angeles in 1971, before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, a small group of women began observing abortions in an underground clinic. Carol Downer, then a housewife with six young children, was one of those women. "We quickly saw that early pregnancies could be terminated sately and simply," If a woman got Downer remembers. "We learned that the new suction technique being used in that clinic was less traumatic, and less her period and didn't risky, than the standard dilation and curettage (D&C)." In a D&C, the walls of the uterus are scraped with a sharp metal want it, she could get rid curette; in suction, a cannula, a flexible, plastic straw-like tube, is inserted into the uterus through the cervical canal, and a of it. If her period was missed hand-held syringe (with the needle removed) is pumped. The uterine contents are suctioned through the cannula into the because of pregnancy, she syringe. At about the same time, Downer went to the clinic with a young woman who was going to have an IUD inserted. could have an extraction Downer was permitted to watch. "I was just bowled over by how accessible the cervix (the entrance to the uterus) really is," and end the pregnancy Downer says. Suddenly, what she had observed in the clinic jelled. "I realized that ifwejust had some essential information about our bodies, we wouldn't have to put up with back-alley abortionists anymore." By Rebecca Chalker The next time Downer went to the clinic, she "appropri-

42 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 ated" a plastic speculum, a cannula and a large syringe and took them to her consciousness-raising group. That night the group discussed abortion laws, the lack of availability of abortion, and marveled at the new equipment. Then, not knowing how anyone would respond, Downer volunteered to demonstrate how to use the speculum. "When people saw my cervix, they instantly understood the potential of the new abortion technology," she says. Lorraine Rothman, a school teacher in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles, and herself the mother of four children, was at the meeting. "We knew that the suction equipment had enormous potential, but I thought it needed improvement," Rothman remembers. Rothman had a sci- entific background and had worked in a chemistry lab. She took the device home and came to the next meeting with an improved model. In the new model, the uterine contents passed through the cannula into a tube, and then into a collection jar, instead of going directly into the syringe/pump. Rothman, who dubbed her device the "Del-Em," points out that it's more uncom- fortable for the woman having the extraction when the pump is connected directly to the cannula. The group now had the technology not just to terminate pregnancies, but for genuine reproductive control. "If a woman got her period and didn't want it, she could get rid of it. If she didn't get her period, perhaps because she was pregnant, she could have an extraction and end the preg- nancy," Downer observes. Over the last two decades, perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 women have learned how to do M.E., and an estimated 20,000 procedures have been performed in which pregnancies have been terminated — a tiny number compared to the 1.5 million abortions performed each year. Suddenly and unexpectedly, on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, making first-trimester abortion a decision between a woman and her doctor, and second trimester subjected to minimal regulation by the states. Two months later, Downer and Rothman borrowed $1,500, hired a doctor and opened an abortion clinic in Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, they opened a number of other clinics across the country forming the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers, an association of independent, women-owned clinics that provide abor- tions, birth control and well-woman gynecological care. At the centers, the suction technique rather than curettage for first-trimester abortions remains the method of choice. Downer and Rothman continued to share information with women who were interested in learning about menstrual extraction (M.E.), but with clinics to run and other critical issues in women's health to consider, M.E. went on the back burner. When the Reagan/Bush Supreme Court allowed significant restrictions on abortion in its Webster (1989) and Casey (1992) decisions, women in the prochoice movement, including Downer and Rothman and many of their colleagues, began to wonder what they were going to do if Roe were overturned. At this point, the concept of M.E. and its practical potential began to take on new resonance.

43 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 RENE MAGRITTE ©I 992 C HERSCOVICI/ARS, NEW YORK uterine-size check, which experienced self-helpers have WHY MENSTRUAL EXTRACTION become quite efficient at doing. Missed tubal (ectopic) pregnancy. In pregnancies under eight IS A GOOD IDEA weeks, when most abortions and M.E.s are done, the first By Rebecca Chalher indication of a tubal pregnancy is the lack of pregnancy tissue when the uterus is evacuated. Chorionic villi, the feathery Menstrual extraction (M.E.), a technique that can remove the tissue that is characteristic of pregnancy, is not difficult to contents of the uterus safely with a hand-held suction device, identify, and can be readily recognized by women in M.E. was developed in the days before abortion was legal by groups as well as by doctors. In any event, in clinical practice, women who grew tired of waiting for the Supreme Court to tissue examination is usually done by nurses or lab techni- legalize abortion. In those heady years ofth e emergence of the cians, rather than by the doctor. modern women's movement, thousands of women learned about M.E. and many formed self-help groups and were The failure to recognize existing injections or unusual condi- instructed in this simple but revolutionary technique. But tions such as fibroids or ovarian cysts. If women in M.E. when abortion rights presumably became secure, and with groups want to make sure that they do not have an mountains to be moved in the name of full social equality for asymptomatic infection such as chlamydia or gonorrhea, all women, M.E., for the most part, ceased to be a pressing which could be introduced into the uterus during a menstrual issue. However, with the continuing assault on abortion extraction, they can go to a clinic or to their own doctors to rights, and ever-decreasing access to safe, legal abortion, have the appropriate screening tests done. If a woman is renewed interest has been sparked in M.E. and other safe receiving regular gynecological care, she will probably be methods of fertility control. aware of having fibroids, cervical scarring called "stenosis" that may be caused by surgery on the cervix, or rare The Safety of Menstrual Extraction conditions such as a double uterus. Fibroids are not a Some physicians and family planning advocates have contraindication to abortion or M.E., but may make the expressed concerns about lay practitioners performing pregnancy seem more advanced than it really is, or may M.E. These concerns are usually expressed as fears cause more bleeding than normal. of medical complications, although the same If a woman has significant scarring ofth e cervical complications can occur when abortions are canal, chances are the cannula would be diffi- performed by physicians. Some critics have cult to insert, and her group will probably be also expressed fears that desperate women "I realized aware of this condition, which may or who are unfamiliar with their own may not make an M.E. more difficult anatomy and with theM.E. equip- that if we just had or painful. If this is the case, she and ment will harm themselves. her group can evaluate whether These concerns are well- orno bebett erforher intentioned, but they are some essential information ^^ u based, for the most part, •^ to have a clinical abortion. on a lack of understand- ing about how M.E. is prac- about our bodies, we wouldn 't gS^; ticed by women in the United States. have to put up with back- are t*ZX$£*S^not These criticisms include: 11 | . • • , womaare nno hat s essentiaa historyl ounlesf pelvis ca alley abortionists inflammatory disease, or is predis- The lack oj a formal diagnosis of preg- anymore " posed to infection because of diabetes nancy. Most women know when they or other conditions. Menstrual extrac- are pregnant, and diagnose themselves, ei- tion groups do not routinely use any drugs, ther by recognizing the signs and symptoms but if antibiotics or other drugs become ne- of pregnancy, or by using a home pregnancy cessary, a woman could see her own doctor or go test. Ultrasound, an image of the body's interior to an emergency room. made with high-frequency sound waves, is not ne- cessary to confirm pregnancy in most cases, even though Use of sterile technique. Sterile technique simply means it is now widely employed by abortion clinics. How far the pregnancy has advanced is usually determined by a continued on pg 46

44 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Hidden symptoms. Heavy menstrual flow, which sometimes THE CASE AGAINST MENSTRUAL leads to a desire for repeated menstrual extractions, may be an indication of cancer of the lining of the uterus, as may intermenstrual bleeding. Women with such symptoms need EXTRACTION to be examined by specially trained physicians to evaluate, By Louise Tyrer diagnose, and manage their condition.

With abortion debates escalating, "self-help" menstrual Pregnancy. For a woman who is pregnant, the risksassociate d extraction (M.E.) has been promoted as a way for with M.E. as a "self-help" abortion technique are particularly women to exercise full control over their reproductive great. First ofall , pregnancy tests alone are not always accurate. options. While all women should be actively involved If a woman thinks she may be pregnant, a pelvic examination in all matters related to their healthcare, the health and sometimes ultrasonography are necessary to establish the dangers and political risks associated with this unsuper- certainty of a suspected pregnancy, and to identify whether vised medical procedure far outweigh any possible the pregnancy is a normal uterine implantation, or is an conveniences or advantages in a society in which legal ectopic pregnancy. Furthermore, some women continue to abortion is still an option. have periodic bleeding widi pregnancy and a woman may be Every woman should be free to choose whether or not unknowingly 12 or more weeks pregnant before she suspects to undergo "self-help" M.E., be it to minimize monthly that she is so. Since "self-help" M.E. is performed by a non- cramps or to terminate a suspected pregnancy. How- medical person unqualified to determine the site and duration ever, women deserve the opportunity to make a fully of the pregnancy or perform a complete medical examina- informed decision which must include the case against tion, the risk of complications — such as the inability to menstrual extraction. complete the abortion, uterine perforation, hemorrhage and/ or infection — would be significantly increased. Health Risks Pre-existing pelvic conditions. Sometimes women un- Menstrual extraction refers to removing, by suction, the knowingly have a pelvic pathology such as uterine fibroid contents of a woman's uterus, which may be the lining tumors, a double uterus, ovarian cysts, or cervical that builds up prior to menstruation as well as the scarring. When a woman is pregnant, each of these products of conception. This entails the inser- conditions can increase the likelihood of an in- tion of a small, flexible, blunt-tipped cannula complete abortion, or complicate the perfor- into the uterus and attaching it to a vacuum mance of the procedure. A pelvic evaluation source, generally a hand-held syringe. by a specially trained health professional is Most lay women who perform this Women must essential to determining the appropriate procedure for other women will procedures and techniques to termi- only do so within 50 days ofth e not be lulled into nate pregnancy safely in these situ- onset of the last menstrual ations. period, in an attempt to thinking that menstrual Puncturing the uterus. Im- avoid initiating an proper use of surgical abortion in a woman extraction will provide a equipment can occur in whose pregnancy is so fir "self-help" M.E. and may advanced it cannot be com- safety net should abortion result in uterine perforation. This pleted with the equipment uti- risk is lessened when the procedure lized. Some lay providers will per- is performed by an experienced form it for women with late periods again be made clinician. without establishing that the woman is Incomplete abortion. The more complex in fact pregnant. In all cases, M.E. can pose illegal the abortion procedure, the less chance of serious health risks. hemorrhage, infection, or both. Health profes- sionals experienced in performing abortions are Infection. Every time a woman's uterus is invaded, more capable of determining whether the products of as it is when a cannula is inserted into the uterus during conception have been fully removed. They can send the monthly menstrual extractions, the chance of pelvic sp ecimen to a pathology laboratory when indicated in order infection becomes greater. Any degree of pelvic infection can to establish whether a woman's pregnancy is ectopic, which increase a woman's chance of subsequent ectopic (tubal) pregnancy, or lead to infertility. continued on pg 47 45 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 getting the cannula — the straw-like instrument that is one pad an hour, pelvic pain, a temperature over 100 degrees, inserted into the uterus in M.E.s or abortions—"sterile," and and signs of pregnancy that do not go away. These signs are keeping it that way during the procedure. There is no doubt very specific and can be recognized by anyone who knows that self-helpers can learn this simple technique as well as what to look for. doctors can. In abortion and in many surgical procedures, Menstrual extraction done by committed, trained women "sterile" actually means "high-level disinfection," since true can be done as safely as clinical abortion. Pointing to rare sterility is nearly impossible to establish and maintain. In conditions, or denigrating the skills and abilities of experi- M.E., the cannula can be adequately disinfected by soaking enced self-helpers is an unfair and incorrect indictment of in certain chemical germicides such as Zephirin or household M.E. The lack of safe, legal abortion is far more dangerous to bleach. Some self-help groups have been able to make women's health, and is the real risk factor for women who arrangements through a friendly practitioner to have cannulas experience unintended pregnancies. sanitized in a commercial gas sterilizer at a hospital or clinic. Over the last 20 years, M.E. has been practiced by women Although there is very little blood involved in M.E. and who are highly aware of self and body. These women work what there is goes directly into a collection jar, taking in tight-knit, friendship groups, often referred to as "self-help" universal precautions, such as using disposable gloves, is groups. These normally consist of up to a dozen women who necessary, and wearing goggles, masks and plastic gowns is meet monthly or more often to discuss their feelings about recommended. Each group needs to assess how rigorously M.E., study the reproductive anatomy, and polish their skills. the precautions must be followed. If a woman enters an already-existing group, she may observe extractions for several months before she has one herself, or Use of local anesthesia. Local anesthesia, an injection of a actually tries her hand at moving the cannula in the uterus. If novacaine-like drug into the cervix, is not necessary in either the group is new, its members may practice the basic skills of early abortion or M.E. In clinical abortion, the injection is vaginal and cervical self-examination, and do uterine-size given to relax and soften the cervix, but it does nothing to checks to leam to estimate the size of the uterus. Knowing mask or diminish cramping. Some women actually find the how to do accurate uterine-size checks is essential in order to injection more uncomfortable than the two or three avoid doing a procedure on a woman who is too far minutes of suction in clinical abortion. pregnant. Women in a new group may seek out an experi- Risk of uterine perforation. The small (4 or 5mm) enced member of another group, or even a sym- cannulas used in M.E. are highly unlikely to pathetic doctor to serve as mentor and supervise perforate the uterus. In clinical abortion, extractions until the group feels confident to perforations typically happen when metal do them on its own. As a member of one instruments, such as a curette, are group told me, "Our first three years used, or when doctors are tired, Just how far were one long learning process." pressured or distracted. Perfora- Women in self-help groups know tions also occur more often can the government the abilities of the others in the when women have gen- group and can therefore de- eral anesthesia, since go in dictating what people pend on a high level of skill doctors are sometimes and commitment. not as careful when a can or can't do in the In the week or so after an woman is asleep and unaware M.E., the group keeps in close of pain. touch with the woman who had privacy of their the extraction to monitor any signs The importance of follow-up. Women of a complication. The woman herself in M.E. groups keep in close touch with own homes monitors her temperature, bleeding and the woman who had a procedure and with cramping, just as women who have abor- each other after an M.E. Just as in clinical tions do, and she reports anything unusual to abortion, a woman who has had an M.E. monitors the group. her own cramping, bleeding and temperature, and Every group ideally has a back-up plan — a trusted reports anything unusual to her self-help group. If the physician or nurse practitioner to call in the event of any procedure appears to be incomplete, the group will evalu- complication. This is far preferable to going to an emer- ate the situation and decide if a second aspiration is necessary. gency room where many of the physicians are unfamiliar with The signs of complications of M.E. and early abortion are very specific: Heavy bleeding, defined as bleeding through continued on pg 55

46 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 is a life-threatening condition. their lives as a result of illegal abortion. We cannot, we must Post-abortion infection. Health professionals are trained and not, go back to those dark days, nor should women ever need better equipped to minimize the risk of infection, as well as to rely on less than the most informed, technically advanced diagnose and treat possible infections that may occur after and individually sensitive reproductive healthcare services — abortion. Carefully sterilized instruments, "no-touch" tech- including elective abortion. niques, and minimal insertions of instruments into the uterus For the benefit of the health of women in the U.S., we need are necessary to reduce risk. A "self-help" procedure, how- to expand our energies to ensure that abortion remains a legal, ever, may require multiple insertions of the suction cannula available and accessible option for all women. In this light, to finish the abortion procedure. Furthermore, trained health "self-help" menstrual extraction must be seen not only as a professionals are better able to identify abnormal cervical and potential health risk, but also as a counterproductive political vaginal discharge, which may require antibiotic treatments, tactic. Women must not be lulled into thinking that men- as well as administer antibiotics at the time of abortion to strual extraction will provide a safety net should abortion minimize the risk of post-abortion infection. "Self-help" again be made illegal. I say we can Never go back. M.E. groups are not able to do so. I envision that a more useful way to ensure women full AIDS. The emergence ofAID S and Hepatitis B pose an ever control over their reproductive health is to take two courses greater need to minimize possibilities of infection during the of action. First, we need to change the dynamics ofth e politics abortion procedure. This requires the wearing of clothes, in this country so that medical providers and women seeking gloves, and plastic eye and face masks to protect the operator abortion can feel comfortable in providing and receiving high and patient from any potential contamination with blood and quality abortion care. Bill Clinton's promise to overturn the other bodily fluids, such as vaginal secretions. Abortion tissue "gag rule" is an important step in this direction. requires the utmost care in analysis. Furthermore, all instru- Second, we need to expand the pool of adequately trained ments must be decontaminated and sterilized, and all disposables abortion providers to include licensed, non-physician repro- must be properly bagged and handled by designated collec- ductive healthcare specialists as well as certified nurse mid- tion centers. Even the slightest break in skin, e.g., a torn wives, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants. These hangnail,can be an entry point for the fatal HIV virus. It health professionals, many of whom are women, are is reasonable to assume that women seeking abortion already grounded in the anatomy and physiology of care and providers alike will want to be in a women's reproductive systems. Unlike "self-help" medical-care environment that can assure the menstrual extraction providers, this cadre of spe- minimum risk. cially trained health professionals can recognize in advance when a patient has a pelvic pathol- Consistency and continuity of care. The ,_,j ogy and make sure that she receives special- woman who obtains an abortion ± fie emergence ized physician care. Furthermore, they from a licensed and specially are experienced in working as trained health professional is 01 AIDS and HeVatltlS members of teams, including phy- assured of more consistent J •* sicians, who are experienced in quality of care, as well as handling the sometimes life- 24-hour access to ex- B pose an ever greater need threatening emergencies perienced physicians that can occur with abor- who have surgical capa- to minimize possibilities of tion. bilities for the rare — but • /•.• * • J-I i Not only has this innovative sometimes serious — compli- inJeCtlOn UUring tile aOOr- approachtowomen'sreproductive cations that may occur with any healthcare been endorsed by organi- abortion. tion procedure zations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Na- Political Risks tional Abortion Federation, the Association of It is unfortunate that current laws and harass- Reproductive Health Professionals and Planned ment by antichoice bigots have created a climate Parenthood Federation of America, it has been in which physicians are discouraged from providing proven successful: A report by NAF found that abortion services. However, "self-help" menstrual ex- women undergoing early abortion by trained non- traction is not the answer. physician health professionals experienced no increased risk As a resident physician in ob/gyn prior to the legalization of than had the procedure been performed by a medical doctor. abortion, I saw too many women die from every manner of complication or become reproductive cripples for the rest of continued on pg 55

47 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 ChoiceBooks • ChokeRt A PEEK BETWEEN THE and laws against wifebeating; the exclu- SHEETS sion of Jewish and Catholic vacationers from Protestant resorts; equal pay for WOMEN OF THE KLAN: Racism women in jobs outside the home; and and Gender In the 1920s by Kathleen societal respect for the job of mothering. M. Blee (University of California Press, Berke- Robbie Gill, the WKKK's Imperial ley and Los Angeles; $ 12 paperback) Commander, did not mince words on the subject of women's rights. "It has A few years ago the name Ku Klux Klan never been the purpose of God," she might have summoned visions of Aryan declared, "that women should be the males wearing long, hooded robes and slaves of men." Lambasting women's burning crosses. Then, with the ascen- subordination as the legacy of "primi- sion of David Duke, things changed. tive" theologies, Klanswomen sought Klansmen, we learned, no longer had to rights in politics, the economy, marriage don the trappings of a secret society. and the law. Yet, says Blee, they "stopped They could wear gray flannel suits and far short of supporting full equality be- pin-striped shirts. And they could smile, tween white Protestant men and like other political contenders, and glad- women." hand their way to political power. Nevertheless, many WKKK members Despite this transition from outcast to found solace and sisterhood in the elabo- respectability, one feature has remained rate protocols, rituals and ceremonies constant. Think Klan and you're likely that distinguished the group. A secret to picture an all-male group scheming to language, complete with kleagles, preserve patriarchy, white supremacy klaverns, klonvocations, klonciliums, HIGHLIGHTS and the most virulent brand of political kouriers, kouriers private, Realm Com- reaction. manders, Imperial Commanders and The assumption of maleness, says Grand Regents in the Service ofKhncraft Kathleen N. Blee Kathleen Blee, author of the terrifying was "designed to increase members' Women of the KKK and compelling Women of the Klan, is commitment to the order and sharpen based on fact, for current Klans (and the distinction between insiders and during the 1920s groups like the Aryan Nation and The outsiders." Order) involve women only in ancillary Coupled with a vast array of outlandish Germaine Greer roles. Leadership is reserved for men and tales told to enhance activism (nuns were on menopause and aging all decisions stem from their self-interest. confined to coffins filled with human But this was not always the case. In- excrement in order to satisfy the sexual deed, Blee traces the development of the hunger of priests; Catholics had invented Deborah Fink Women of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKK), a skin bleach so that Black men could a history of women in a group that sprang up in the early 1920s become Caucasian and marry white Rural Nebraska and attracted more than half-a-miHion women; Jews had an international bank- members before its disintegration a de- ing conspiracy against the interests of cade later. gentiles); WKKK members operated out Charlotte Davis Kasl, Surprisingly, the women's Klan of the of a sense of urgency. In addition, the 1920s was not simply the women's aux- group made sure that its events were fun, iliary of the men's organization, nor did giving women an avenue for social ac- blasts Alcoholics Anonymous the group merely rubber-stamp men's tivities apart from men. Even the white activities. According to Blee, robes infused a spirit of adventurous "Klanswomen embraced the KKK's rac- rebellion in the women who wore them. ist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic agenda Ten years after its founding, however, and symbols of American womanhood the women's Klan was a shadow of its but they used these to argue as well for former self: A small, isolated sect de- equality for white Protestant women." stroyed by internal squabbles and fiscal In fact, their agenda included advocacy mismanagement. Although some of the of a number of disparate concerns: Pro- women remained active in political life, hibition of pre-nuptial agreements about many dropped out, succumbing to the future children; the outlawing of the pressures of the Great Depression. Catholic Knights of Columbus; passage The Klan, however, has gone through of the first Equal Rights Amendment several transformations since the 1920s,

48 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 oks • ChokeBooks • ChoiceBooks ebbing and flowing with the tides of members were applauding D.W. Grif- of Cholera, Greer describes in her own political reaction. Nevertheless, saysBlee, fith's Birth of a Nation; Attorney General words the moment when the old couple, •'The mainstay ofth e 1920s' Klan was not Mitchell Palmer was apoplectic in his about to have sex, "can proceed no the pathological individual. Rather, Klan attacks on American supporters of Bol- further in their genital affairs until Fermia promoters effectively tapped a patho- shevism; and a broad cross section of drinks anisette. Then, a blow having logical vein of racism, intolerance and people were angered that women had been struck for the liquor lobby, they are bigotry deep within white Protestant won the franchise — and had discussed off and running." communities. In this sense, the history of the existence of anti-Klan organizing, the After a while, a house guest like this the 1920s' Klan, although distant in book is still an invaluable look at an inspires in me an unaccustomed sympa- time, is frighteningly close in spirit to the extensive and powerful American social thy for breweries — not to mention pervasive strands of racism and unac- movement. Fermia — who I sincerely hope enjoyed knowledged privilege that exist among —Eleanor]. Bader herself. dominant groups in the United States Still, Greer's extensive research yields today." some fascinating tidbits. Some of them The watchword is backlash, a fact of SHE LOOKS LIKE US are frightening, like the historical ac- life in both the 1920s and 1990s. Just as counts of medical "treatments" ofmeno - the Klan experienced a growth spurt THE CHANGE: Women, Aging and pause ("leeches applied to the genitalia" following the establishment of women's the Menopause by Germaine Greer is my personal horror favorite). Others suffrage and the formation of the U.S. (Alfred A. Knopf, NY; $24 hardcover) are amusing, as when Greer, producing a kind of Heloise's Hints for the meno- Reading Germaine Greer's Tlte Change: pausal, suggests her favorite self-help re- A secret language Women, Aging and the Menopause was, for medies: "Among the riteso f passage that me, rather like having a difficult house the middle-aged woman can choose for complete with guest. There she was, tucked away in the herself there should be the ceremony of guest room of my mind, sometimes fas- renouncing her addictions," she advises. Kleagles, Klaverns, cinating, too often irritating. And she These include sugar, tobacco, coffee, tea, stayed so long I wished I had one of those alcohol and salt. You might also try Klonvocations, pillows embroidered with the rudely fasting and drinking—"lots of cute legend: "Do not mistake endurance water...[preferably] spring water with a Klonciliums, for hospitality." high mineral content." While you're at Though long, this book is not the book it, you might "take a sauna bath and Kouriers, was on menopause we are all eagerly await- gently switch the skin with young birch ing. It certainly is not the book I'd twigs." (It is wise ofher to remind one to designed to increase recommend to any woman looking for a be gentle; a woman who's just given up clear, coherent discussion of what she her every bad habit might well beat members' should do about whatever symptoms of herself to death in the tub.) commitment the climacteric are plaguing her. (In fair- Such advice is probably relatively harm- ness, that book probably can't be written less. Gardening, Greer's own midlife for decades, until considerably more re- passion, is certainly a safe enough activity Communist Party, in much the same search has been done.) if you're not allergic to bee stings, and way, the legalization of abortion, the On the subject of menopause, which when she gets on this subject, she can dramatic increase of women in the paid the title and subtitle indicate will be the barely contain herself. Gardening is not workforce, and the election of hundreds book's main thrust, Greer is her usual only therapeutic (for her), it may be of people of color and women to local flaky self. Her scorn for pharmaceutical medicinal. "Walking or working among office has given rise to new expressions companies and the "Masters of Meno- living plants is very much the best way of absorbing their active constituents, which of conservatism, misogyny and racism. pause" (those men who have studied it) rub off on the skin and arise from bruised In fact, parallels between the women's may indeed be well-placed; what woman leaves...gardeners feel very much better Klan of the 1920s and women in present- has not, on her own, thought of DES for gardening, back pain and all. The day antiabortion movements make daughters while contemplating whether or not to take hormone replacement effect is so like the 'mental tonic' effect of Women of the Klan essential and eerie hormone replacement therapy (HRT) reading. therapy? Certainly industry-funded research and that we may be justified in suspecting Blee's accessible, fast-paced social his- that there are volatile estrogens in living tory goes to the heart of right-wing researchers deserve a healthy dose of skepticism, but Germaine Greer's basic plants that do not survive in treated political activism and trends. While I plant material." wish she had situated the WKKK in life view can only be called paranoid, and You are on your own when it comes to more of a social context — at the time of I don't call paranoia healthy. Writing of choosing what to plant so that it rubs of its burgeoning, for example, non-Klan Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time 49 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Institute for on you and makes you feel terrific. I audience: "When a subject is highly suppose poison ivy is not on the list. controversial—and any question about Social Ecology But the question on the minds of most sex is that—one cannot hope to tell the Plainfield, Vermont women in the market for this book may truth. One can only show how one came well be, should I take estrogen? They to hold whatever opinion one does hold. will not find much help here. Greer is as One can only give one's audience the Women and Ecology confused about it as everybody else. At chance of drawing their own conclu- A Colloquium on Social Ecofeminism one point she calls it "a drastic therapy for sions as they observe the limitations, the a brutalized lifestyle;" elsewhere she ac- prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the knowledges that "patients usually do feel speaker." I.S.E. - P.O. Box 89, dept. O, Plainfield, better on estrogen, a great deal better, so You have perhaps heard that in The Vermont 05667 - 802-454-8493 much better that they realize for the first Change Germaine Greer, who once told time just how unwell they had felt before us to abandon our underpants, now estrogen." She says that "the belief that it urges us to give up sex (at least in the form

'Bringing women's history to lift

is Emma Goldman in Greer, who once told R MOST DBNGEROUS UJOMflN and us to abandon our underpants, Amelia Earhart in A. E. now urges us to give up sex for info, contact: M. CoCopy (at least in the form of intercourse) 669 Copley %(£, (216) 762-8338 in our dotage

MENOPAUSE, NATURALLY: is estrogen deficiency that causes climac- of intercourse) in our dotage. I wish she Preparing for the Second Half of life teric symptoms has never been substan- would follow Woolf s advice and admit Updated 1992 tiated by empirical proof" Yet she says her own prejudices, which I imagine by Sadja Greenwood, M.D. had she known that Dutch researchers would go something along the lines of This new edition, completely updated in (in this case not referred to scornfully as "I'm not getting any now and I'll be 1992, addresses questions women have profiteering "Masters of Menopause") damned if I'll let it bother me." When about using post-menopausal hormones, include carpal tunnel syndrome among she appeared on the "Charlie Rose Show" and the conflicting opinions they encounter. New information includes the symptoms of menopause, "I would in New York to promote her book, I screening tests for osteoporosis, new have taken estrogen before undergoing heard her confess that she would not ways to deal with hot flashes, what painful surgery [on both hands]." rule out the possibility she might yet natural progesterone is, testosterone stumble across some gorgeous therapy, exercise, diet, and how to She abhors the "medicalization" of a maintain Post Menopausal Zest. Send natural life process, and she seems posi- (young) man and, presumbly sans $16.95 postpaid, Volcano Press, Inc., tively to hate the only people who can anisette, give up celibacy with as P.O. Box 270 S, Volcano CA 95689. provide a woman with estrogen. What much enthusiasm as she embraced it. For free catalog, send name, address & 29-cent stamp. should you do? "If your (young male) I further thought I saw a rather wist- doctor is doctrinaire, change him, pref- ful look on her face when she con- erably for an older (woman) doctor who templated this possibility. knows what you are talking about." This No doubt there are many women is sexist and ageist and, worse, silly. A who, at 50, and perhaps even at 25, agree Alaska is coming in first good doctor is hard to find at any time, with Greer that no sex is better than bad and second in a contest in any place, by any patient, and when sex. But not every woman will have the we don't want to win. you findon e you won't care about age or same definition of what constitutes bad gender or the prints on the waiting room sex, nor the same attitude toward a life Our state is first in the nation in the walls. I once visited an (older, female) with no sex. Germaine Greer is no more incidence of child sexual abuse and second in the number of sexual assalts. gynecologist who fervently believed Everywoman than you or I. It is, per- STAR needs your support to help fight hysterectomy was the best treatment for haps, useful to remind middle-aged rape and to help victims become survivors. menopausal symptoms; I currendy see a Take your stand against rape today. women that one does not need a man in Send a tax deductible donation (young, male) doctor who willingly ad- order to live a rich and happy life. But to STAR. For donations of '100 or more, mits the only real truth about HRT: It's wise readers will draw their own conclu- you'll receive a "No Means No" T-Shirt. a giant crap shoot. sions "as they observe the limitations, the *S.T.A.R.* In the speech that became A Room of prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the 1057 W.Fireweed Ln. #230 Anchorage, AK 99503 One's Own, Virginia Woolf told her speaker." Greer does not aid the reader A United Way Agency 50 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 in this task when she allows her preju- and author of Dear 60 Minutes (Simon & dices to turn oracular. "Human beings Schuster). She says she is "younger than VIVISECTION are not monogamous," she states with- Gennaine Greer and older than Paul out citation or qualification. Perhaps McCartney." AND DISSECTION we should read: She is not, or her friends are not, or her lovers have not been. IN THE (On another subject, she declares that OH NEBRASKA! "No old person wants to go on a tour CLASSROOM: that has only old people on it." Appar- AGRARIAN WOMEN: Wives and A GUIDE TO ently she has never spent time watching Mothers In Rural Nebraska, 1880- CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION buses unload in the parking lot of Epcot 1940 by Deborah Fink (University of North i Center. It doesn't matter. If she thinks Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC; $34.95 hard- something is so, it is so.) By Professor Gary I. Francione cover; $ 12.95 paperback) and Anna E. Charlton, Esq. Greer is at her best when she leaves the subject of menopause and its j It was no picnic for the working class in medicalization and (her) politicalization America 1860 to 1930, but to hear it of it. On aging, she can be superb. The from Deborah Fink, you'd think they chapter entitled "Grief is both compas- only suffered in Nebraska. sionate and bracing; she notes "the au- No question, agrarian women in thentic regret of the climacterium, with Nebraska during this time period had its special feeling that if only one had a hard row to hoe. Few rights, few been allowed a reprieve one would have amenities, little money, and lots and done better." She offers sympathy and lots of work came with the inalienable wise advice forcopin g with what one has right to breathe the fresh air of the in fact lost at this stage of life. Women Nebraska farm and fulfill the who have found themselves depressed Jeffersonian ideal of an agrarian during the climacteric may find an ex- America. The farmer's wife canned panded and enriched understanding of some 600 quarts of fruit and vege- those feelings here. tables a season, subsisted on monthly And her last chapter, "Serenity and { change garnered from egg and butter Power," is a passionate and powerful sales, got in the corn, kept the grow- call to middle-aged women to give "This book demonstrates up the incessant worry about one's It seems a looks, to accept one's inevitable aches in a powerful way the and pains. Early in the book, Greer hollow assumption connection between civil writes: "Women might well ask, rights and animal rights." 'When in this life will I be allowed to that frontier farm - William M. Kunstler, Esq. let myself go?' Is one never to be set free from the white slavery of attrac- life made it easier tion duty?" Her own answer, in part, can be found in the author's photo for women to ORDER NOW! on the bookjacket. Unretouched and Single copies $7.95 unrepentant, Greer posed wearing a achieve any equality Five copies or more, $5.95 per copy baggy T-shirt and looked the camera with men FREE with New Membership straight in the eye, so harshly lit that The latest essay of our IN FOCUS series every bag and wrinkle are visible. ing family warm, fed and healthy by Robert Sharp, author of She looks her age. She looks like enough to work the fields, then The Cruel Deception. many of us. She looks comfortable. birthed another child and got back to work. "When you are young," Greer ob- U Here are my membership dues $ 15 serves, "everything is about you. As you Obviously an avid researcher, Deborah [Membershipinclude II issiiesAcaroflhe/ll'.l/rt^rtj/HP ) grow older, and are pushed to the mar- Fink appends a list of 230-plus references Student and Senior $5 gin, you begin to realize that everything to this book, lacing them throughout in D Here's my additional contribution to fund is not about you, and that is the begin- a painstaking fashion that dulls the flow, non-animal research. ning of freedom." Margaret Mead, who confuses the issues. coined the phrase "menopausal zest," Most of her research is centered in could not have said it better. And the Boone County, Nebraska (1880 popula- (Address) reader who hangs on for this last chapter tion 4,170; 1940 population 12,127) (On) (State) (Zip) may even feel her endeavor well worth where the majority of women were of Because of our efforts to influence legislation, dues and the effort. German and Scandinavian ancestry. They contributions are not tax deductible. — Kathleen Fur}' lived under the same codes as city women. The American Anti-Vivisection Society They seldom owned or inherited prop- 801 Old York Road, #204 Jenkintown, PA lc)0-t6-lh8S Kathleen Fury is a Connecticut-based writer erty, taught school only if they were TEL (215) 887-0816, FAX (215) 887-2088 O ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 unmarried, and were discouraged from Al-Anon, the companion organization asserting independence. Widows were for family members of alcoholics, used LILITH often dependent on their children for the same steps, which its members ap- housing and support in their old age. plied to their own problems as (forgive The Independent (This is an example of how Fink neglects me, I'm going to coin yet another term) to note — and thereby undermines her proto-codependents. By the 1970s, this Jewish Women's own thesis—that the hard times were for technique had yielded such spectacular everyone: Widowers, too, were depen- results that it was being used for other Magazine dent in old age.) These women put up problems. People addicted to gambling, with sexual and physical abuse, and narcotics, or overeating formed 12-step drunken husbands. Sexual taboos were groups. Others, whose problems seemed, Subscribe for: fostered by the "community's collective like those of Al-Anon members, to stem memory" so that its citizens shunned from their relationships to other people, • FEMINIST FAMILIES women who had children out of wed- started more groups for smokers, • HOT HISTORY lock, were divorced or barren. Again, workaholics, mental patients, sexual with a misleading tunnel vision about her compulsives, debtors, incest survivors, • SMASHING subject, Fink suggests that only farm adult children of alcoholics, and so on, women used button hooks to induce and so on. STEREOTYPES abortion. Surely their city sisters did, too. It is getting hard to keep up with all the • RITUALS AND But does Agrarian Women challenge disasters and rescues in the world of self- "the widely-held assumption that fron- help, but Charlotte Davis Kasl, a thera- CELEBRATIONS tier farm life in the United States made it pist, and author of Women, Sex and easier forwome n to achieve rough equal- Addiction, displays almost the entire spec- ity with men," as the bookjacket adver- trum from food addictions to child abuse and: tises? Does Deborah Fink, as one of the in this book. book's academic promoters says, "ex- In addition to her detailed views of 12- Evelyn Torton Beck, Phyllis plode the romantic vision of agrarianism, step groups, she discusses physical health, past and present, by taking a careful look psychology, and spirituality as they relate Chester, Nicole Hollander, at the lived experiences of rural women?" to addiction, and she lays out a variety of Harriet Coldhor Lerner, While she takes us from the sod farm recovery models using principles from house of the late 1880s through the both eastern and western culture. She Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Progressive Period 1900 to 1920, the presents a lot of information, although Depression and the Nebraska drought of her style suffers from New Age speak. A Judith Plaskow, Letty Cottin 1934, there are no explosions, few sur- few examples: Faith is not a verb, Pogrebin, Susan Weidman prises. It seems a hollowrzther than widely- dammit (I faith, you faith?), "uncovery" held assumption that frontier farm life (you're uncovering your real self, get it?) Schneider, Susan Schnur made it easier for women to achieve any is not an improvement over "recovery," ************************ equality with men. and if I never hear the term "shame- Unfortunately, her interview sample of based" again, it will be too soon. Name women never does come alive. Too full There is, however, a larger flaw in this of narrow documentation and repeti- volume. The author consistently em- Address tion, her attempt, even in researching her phasizes the importance of flexibilityi n inclusiveness, so one might expect her to City _ State Zip own family, falls short of making a case for reader interest. extend that attitude to the very successful — Roberta Cootes 12-step tradition. Unfortunately, a large portion of the book is a polemic against Quarterly Roberta Cootes is an agrarian woman in rural AA and its offshoots. It contains many generalizations taking the punitive and 1 year -$16 ; 2 years-$29 ; Sonoma County, California, who reads widely. reactionary views expressed by AA mem- 3 years -$42 sample copy -$5 bers as representative of the majority, TAKING INVENTORY with no effort to acknowledge that the Enclosed $ organization's huge membership spans a range of opinion from the profound to LILITH Publications, Inc. MANY ROADS, ONE JOURNEY: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps the pathological, that groups differ tre- P.O. Box 3000, Dept LIL by Charlotte Davis Kasl, Ph.D. (HarperCollins, mendously, and that AA members speak NY; $13 paperback) only as individuals. She quotes AA ad- DenviUe, NJ 07834 monitions out of context ("Keep com- ing back," "Don't make any important SOI93 A little history: In 1938 Bill Wilson wrote the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous decisions in your first year," "Anything in an effort to spell out the process of will do for your higher power, a door- recovery that he and the other early knob, a tree") and then characterizes members of AA had found so effective. them as threats, dogma, or trivializations.

52 PHOTO: MICHAEL A. SMITH ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 In her attacks on patriarchy she fails to program, recovered in it, and later ceased guy for you. recognize, first, that the primary focus in active membership, engaged in busy and The moment this situation changed 12-step groups must be on the addiction healthy lives. There are others who con- was apparently when Allen noticed Soon- and not on any group's social inequities tinue, after many years of recovery, to Yi as an object of sexual desire. Never which the program is not designed to belong to a 12-step program because fear, though, the deal with Mia was cure, and second, that there are many they enjoy it, not because they are afraid already dead. "Almost immediately" af- groups that are not sexist. or unable to move beyond it, any more ter she gave birth to their one biological Part of Kasl's problem is that she seems than they are afraid or unable to move child, Allen explained to Time magazine, not to understand some central 12-step beyond their love of music or their long- their "romantic relationship" ended. (You concepts. For example, in complaining time friendships. know what a sexual turnoff motherhood that "ego deflation" — the diminishing — Kate Gilpin is to a lot of men.) Basking in the glow of of self-obsession — is only appropriate sexual liberation—which made women for white, upper-class men, she misses Kate Gilpin is a poet who lives in Richmond, more demanding and men less bound to the point. Ego deflation is as necessary to California, and is familiar with 12-step put up with it — men have a whole lot heal self-rejection as it is to heal self- programs. of trouble staying with women as they importance; the problem for the addict is mature, develop and become more diffi- not what she thinks about herself, but cult to manage. It's a lot easier to simply that she thinks only about herself. When RAPPING from pg 4 replace women who become "high main- finding fault with AA's references to tenance" with newer, easier-to-handle character defects and amends-making, figure" to her. In all the years Allen was models. Kasl is quite mistaken in assuming that involved with her mother, Mia, "he (Anyone who thinks physical beauty they are intended to produce guilt feel- barely ever spoke to me or noticed me," is the issue here should consider again. ings. The opposite is true. Most people says Soon-Yi. Well, there's a prince of a Older men — even when they look who come to a 12-step program are

The problem for the addict is not Flynn's School what she thinks Meadowsweet of Herbology Herbal Remedies about herself, but Est. 1980 Est. 1983 Ongoing courses in Store Hours: 12-7PM that she thinks only Herbal Medicine. Friday and Saturday about herself Please call or write Areus & Doroth\. for brochure. Proprietors already awash in guilt feelings, and either cover them up or are paralyzed by them. 77 East 4th St. New York City, (212) 254-2870 The steps are designed to fix that. For example, Step Four says, "[We] made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." The person taking this step TIMES DEMAND THAT lists the emotions and actions that she, WOMEN'S VOICES BE HEARD! and she alone, feels interfere with her Political and progressive, reaching ability to lead a healthy life. No one else's more than 65,000 readers, our six opinion counts in this. This is not an issues a year cover the women's beat: instruction to wallow in remorse. This is politics, health, grassroots activism, racism, homophobia, sexism... and a call to clean house. more. We critique pop culture— Certainly, 12-step programs are nei- movies, theater, books, art and music—all from a "blissfully biased" ther faultless nor the only solution to the feminist perspective. problems they address, and they are not Don't miss a single issue! for everyone. But Kasl weakens her own arguments with distortions — among them that 12-step groups encourage per- YES. I want to try a sample copy. Enclosed is $2.00. manent dependence on their meetings. YES. I want to subscribe. Enclosed is $12.00 for a one-year subscription, $20.00 for a two-year subscription. It is of some concern to me that she may Name_ Return to: Subscription Department NDW alarm readers who could be helped by a PO Box 3000 12-step program, but who may be fright- Address. Denville, NJ 07834-3000 ened away by her book. There are many City/State/Zip_ people who have come to a 12-step NEW DIRECTIONS FOR WOMEN • 108 WEST PALISADE AVENUE, ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY 07631-3001 53 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 like Woody Allen — have no trouble few public discussions of sexual mat- own, no matter what our ages or kinship remaining sexually desirable to beau- ters in the media, even the so-called entanglements. tiful young girls. The reason women "progressive" media, have anything Obviously, this doesn't apply to all don't retain the same erotic lure — sensible to say about male responsi- liberal males. But just the fact that so especially as they gain experience, bility toward their families. many of us — female and male — poise and social power — has to do had trouble deciding whether the with a lot more than mere physical Woody Allen Affair was politically changes.) The Allen and relevant at all, much less what the It is here that the thorny matter of "correct" take on it was, speaks to a incest, emotional and actual, comes Kingsley cases were in real vacuum in the development of in. Of all the young, malleable girls the left's position on "family val- Woody could have hit on, he chose many ways as telling, ues." Maybe Dan Quayle isn't so Mia's daughter, and according to wrong about that at all. Newsweek he never thought for a and disturbing, as the When I finally saw "Husbands and moment that what he did posed a Wives," I was surprised at how little moral problem. But as strange as that Thomas/Hill hearings the film actually reflected the issues may seem, it is not — based on what and the William raised by Woody Allen's personal we now know about incest — an life. That's because Allen, like his unusual situation. Every day men Kennedy Smith trial mainstream and tabloid media counter- choose to make sexual partners of parts, has a way of twisting and obscuring their children and stepchildren and gender issues in his films. If Russ was nieces and nephews because they are The right says that it is women who playing a Ward Cleaver-like patriarch there; because they are vulnerable cause men to misbehave sexually, and it is on Court TV, liberal Allen was playing and relatively powerless; because women who—like the "bad" and "fallen" his usual put-upon, victimized, morally these men haven't the foggiest idea Rachel Kingsley — cause the family to anguished schlemiel to the art house of what a parent is, or what an adult's "break down." Liberalism says, implicitly crowd. Although no reviews men- responsibility is toward the children at least, that once women got "liberated" tioned this, "Husbands and Wives," in their lives. It doesn't help that so all bets were off, and we were all on our like TV in the Kingsley case, de- monized the "bad" women and whitewashed the male hero. The young girl in the film is aggressive and experi- "The most important book on reproductive rights ever written." enced. She controls the sexual flirtation —Barbara Ehrenreich she engineers, while saintly Woody of course demurs. Adding insult to injury, "A celebration of women's collective strengths ... to help the Mia character is portrayed as a pas- them explore the complex terrain of sexuality, and relation- sive-aggressive manipulator who subtly ships, and if they desire it, parenthood."—Barbara Herbert, M.D. maneuvers to replace aging Woody "The ultimate guerrilla guide to reproductive choices." with a young, attractive colleague. —Publishers Weekly In light of all this, Murphy Brown's life is looking better and better. Rich, "Perhaps the most important book ever written on women's mature, secure in her person and her rights and women's lives." —Barbara Seaman work, she has a kid and the option to choose a bunch of media-made men, good friends and responsible col- leagues, to help her raise him. She A WOMAN'S BOOK doesn't have any sexual strings at- tached, so she is free to get on with her independent, socially-meaning- ful life. I can see why Dan Quayle OF CHOICES was so distraught about this. It could WOMAN'S definitely give women some danger- Rebecca Chalker BOOK OF ous ideas. • Carol Downer CHOICES ••*? Elayne Rapping is a Professor of Com- Abortion, munication at Adelphi University, who $13.95/288 pages/illustrated: Menstrual Extraction, writes frequently on media and feminism. Distributed to the trade RU-486 Her most recent book is Movie of by Publishers Group West the Week (University of Minnesota, 1992). She is currently working on a book on women, addiction, and the re- • 1 Four Walls Eight Windows covery movement, to be published by Beacon Press.

54 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 government go in dictating what people EXTRACTION from pg 46 can or can't do in the privacy of their own homes with adequate knowledge Elizabeth Stone House of the risks and consequences of their Our Residential Programs lor Women and Their Children Include: '"A McnIOl Hosllh All 2rroli/c — o BCir-'nClp, peer suppt^ p'D^mm activities? "A Battered Women't Program-on emergency shelter '•A TiMii-jiiian.il Housing Progrnm-o bridge to indecenieni living

The Whats, Hows and Resources Available Include: 'The Road I Took To You; Storfaa o! Women and Craziness. Whys of M.E. Video >T. .,(.,- r - for reni or purchase. * 13 Myths and Realities. Pamphlet available on request. the pathology. " Women and Crjtzineis* Oral histories available for Women who have learned M.E. tend 56.35 plus postage. ' The Elixabath Store House Handbook: Sheltering People In Menstrual extraction is not something to agree that the training is too ardu- Emotional Distress. AvailaDle for S29.9S gius sosiage. that can be initiated overnight. It takes a ous and the commitment too pro- considerable amount of resourcefulness found for the technique to be widely and commitment just to assemble the practiced. Only women who have a equipment. Parts of the Del-Em are specific interest in taking more con- easily accessible — the glass jar and trol over their reproduction, and in aquarium tubing — but it can take se- meeting regularly for several years, TV&men Jawing. veral weeks to find a source for cannulas will spend the time required to ac- l/Oewun and order the chemistry lab stopper quire the necessary skills. Nonethe- For a change in your life, we inviti e you to try: THE WISHING WELL Features cur- and two-way bypass valve. By the time less, these same women feel that the rent members' self-descriptions (listed by all parts have arrived, pregnancy would code), letters, photos, resources, reviews, concept of M.E. is a powerful tool and more. Introductory copy $5.00 ppd. probably be too far advanced for M.E. to for the prochoice movement. (discreet first class). A beautiful, tender, loving alternative to "The Well of Loneli- be effective. Any woman can start a self-help ness." Confidential, sensitive, supportive, group, and, in a reasonable amount dignified. Very personal. Reliable reputa- tion, established 1974. Free, prompt infor- The Legality of Menstrual of time, could learn the technique and mation. Women are writing and meeting Extraction practice it quietly and confidently, Neach other EVERYWHERE through: So far, M.E. has not been held up to legal away from the prying eyes of the Wiihina Well scrutiny, and is unlikely to be, unless authorities and the taunts of anti- P.O. Box 713090 a serious complication occurs and a abortion zealots. Santee, CA 92072-3090 complaint is filed with local prosecu- At the very least, that could be a life- (619)443-4818 tors. Nevertheless, there are interesting saver. H questions about M.E. that bear explora- tion. Rebecca Chalker is an internationally With the exception of Vermont, known abortion counselor and an active which allows physicians' assistants to do speaker on women's health issues. abortions, all other state laws require that abortions be done by physicians. Today, so few doctors know how to EXTRACTION from pg 41 do abortions, or are willing to do them, one wonders how long they can justify Send $1 for our color catalog of retaining exclusive control over the woman-identified jewelry in practice. silver, amethyst, moonstone, & gold. According to a recent nationwide LIZZIE BROWN survey done by Dr. Trent MacKay, P.O. Box 389V Brimfield, Ma 01010 assistant professor of obstetrics/gy- (413) 245-9484 necology at the University of Cali- "Self-help" menstrual extraction — fornia, Davis, just 12 percent of ap- no matter how many anecdotal re- proximately 270 training hospitals ports of individual experience are with programs in ob/gyn now re- put forward — cannot be considered GODDESSES quire training for first-trimester abor- either safe or empowering. Women Goddess of Willendorf tions and 7 percent require residents deserve, and must demand, the best Earth Brown Artstone to learn to do second-trimester abor- healthcare available, including abor- 6"H. $23 + S3S&H tions. A little over 56 percent were tion training for non-physician health Our museum quality stone found to offer optional training. professionals. Furthermore, women recreations of Paleolithic, must unite to ensure that safe and Meso-American and Asian Any legal challenge to M.E. would Goddesses are meant to be probably be made under state Medical legal abortion is always an option. handled and used in rituals Practice Acts, most of which specify that We can never forget how many and meditations. Each statue abortions can only be done by licensed women lost their lives before the is individually cast and hand physicians. right to choose became the law of the polished. 717 992-6393 A legal challenge to M.E. would prob- land. • FREE CATALOG ably also raise a number of questions GRAND ADVENTURE about the constitutionally guaranteed LouiseB. Tyrer, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., was RD 6 Box 6198A, Stroudsburg, PA 18360 right to privacy. Just how far can the motivated to commit her life to women's 55 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 healthcare after growing up in old China, summer cited IVF America Inc. for its to publish these rates annually along with where she witnessed the suffering associated "ambitious growth plans" to become the names of reliable embryo laboratories with unwanted childbearing. As an obstetri- "the McDonald's of the baby-making being used by clinics. In addition, a cian and gynecologist, she has devoted the lastbusiness." model program for the inspection and 22 years to family planning. Tyrer directed Claims like these prompted Rep. Ron certification of embryo labs would be the family planning division of the American Wyden (D-OR) to introduce legislation promulgated for states to adopt. Any state College of Ob/Gyn for five years, and went last year to regulate IVF clinics. In a failing to comply with this code would be on to serve 16 years as Vice President for statement to a Congressional Subcom- cited in the annual consumer guide book Medical Affairs at Planned Parenthood Fed- mittee on Health and the Environment, to be produced by the Department of eration of America. Tyrer is currently the Wyden said, "Couples seeking help for Health and Human Services. Medical Director of the Association of Repro- an infertility problem are bombarded Wyden's legislation is supported by the ductive Health Professionals. She has pub- with advertising claims which have touted American Fertility Society, an organiza- lished over WO articles. success rates of 30, 40, 50 percent or tion of health professionals concerned more. They don't know that a minority with infertility, the Society for Assisted of clinics are responsible for the most Reproductive Technology,which con- MIRACLE BABIES from pg 40 successful IVF births, let alone which ducts its own yearly review of fertility clinics have the best track record in clinics, and Resolve, Inc., a national treating patients with their specific infer- advocacy group for infertile couples. Amy about aggressive marketing techniques. tility problem. And they don't even know Hill, Resolve's Twin Cities Chapter It is chilling to hear one executive of a that there's no one watching to make Board chair and a consumer member of holding company which supports a chain sure that these facilities meet even mini- the Ethics Committee of Abbott North- of IVF clinics say that "the market has ma/quality controls." Wyden's bill, which west Hospital in Minneapolis, thinks the barely been scratched," or to think of was passed by Congress in October, calls legislation has helped give needed expo- clinics becoming "the Burger King of for fertility clinics to report their preg- sure to the issues of reproductive tech- baby making," both statements reported nancy success rates (definitions of success nology. "The risks are real," she says, inNewsweek. Says one physician, "There's vary but are usually defined as the per- "and truly informed consent is critical." a certain amount of merchandising in centage of IVF treatments that result in a Hill agrees with Rothman and Pappert IVF." A New York Times article last live birth) and for the federal government that potential risks and consequences must be put on the table for potential clients. "It is a very expensive, very stressful process with so many unknowns," she says. But she shies away from an A Masters With Meaning analysis which frames problems primarily from a feminist perspective, and believes Individually-designed, independent study, supported by region- that most clinics behave responsibly. "We al faculty. Earn your MA in 12-18 months with brief regional need to address the needs of infertile residencies. Accredited, financial aid available. couples and their health issues," Hill says. "I see my mission with Resolve as giving Studies include writing, psychology/counseling, women's access to others." studies, education, environmental studies, health education, Hill is active in trying to increase history, and others. B.A. external degree is also available. insurance coverage for infertility treat- Vermont College of ment. Currendy only 10 states require insurers to provide limited coverage. Norwich University Because private health insurance compa- 1-800-336-6794 Box 694, Montpelier, VT 05602 802-828-8500 nies have been reluctant to pay for IVF, consumers must bear substantial costs. THE WISE WOMAN With each treatment costing any- where from $2,500 to $10,000, to 2441 Cordova Street obtain a baby a couple may have to go Oakland, CA 94602 through several treatments with a (415)536-3174 final total of over $20,000. Accord- ing to government estimates, Ameri- THE WISE WOMAN, a national quarterly journal, focuses on feminist issues, Goddess lore, feminist spirituality, and Feminist Witchcraft. cans spend $1 billion a year to combat Includes: women's history/herstory, news, analysis, critical reviews, infertility. art, poetry, cartoons by Biilbul, exclusive interviews, and original Whatever the risks, the caveats, the A research about witch-hunts, women's heritage, and women today. expense, women like Amy Hill con- I \ Subscription: $15 a year/$27 for 2 years, $38 for 3 years (U.S. funds). A tinue to employ assisted reproductive N. / Sample copy or back issue: $4 (U.S. funds only). / \ technologies, despite the limited suc- J C Published quarterly since 1980 by Ann Forfreedom. \. y^ cess rate. Hill is also one of the lucky //\\ A FREE 1 -year subscription to each Women's Studies teacher that / \ ones. She will give birth this year to sends in a copy of this ad. Z^ her second child. "The joy," she says, THE WISE WOMAN, 2441 Cordova St.. Oakland. CA 94602. "is inexplicable." •

56 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 IN MEMORIAM "For such as they there is no death; Their lives the eternal life commands; Above manys aims their natures rose. The wisdom of a just content Made one small spot a continent, And tuned to poetry Life's prose. "*

We mourn the loss and celebrate the lives of:

AUDRE LORDE, Black PETRA KELLY, feminist, lesbian feminist, activist, poet, founder and leader of the West writer of journals, essays and German Green Party, fighter fiction, Poet Laureate of New for the rights of women and York State (February 18, minorities and against the re- 1934—November 17, 1992) emergence of Nazism in Germany (November 29, 1947—October 20, 1992)

*This adaptation is from the writings of an earlier feminist, Louisa May Alcott

57 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Feed Back • Feed Back POLITICALLY consciousness about sexual violence." I INCORRECT suddenly realized that this is precisely PQ I was shocked to see in "Win Some • Lose how I survive. When the local news tears Some" (Fall 1992) that you used the down my mental blockade, I become word "gyp" both in a headline and in an terrified, unable to go about my daily article. This is a racist term referring to routine until I can once again alter my Gypsies and implying that to be a Gypsy consciousness about sexual violence. This is to rip people off Please remember that gets more and more difficult because I Gypsies were systematically exterminated am a rape survivor. along withjews and homosexuals during For me the fear is based on reality — the Nazi Holocaust. not on something theoretical that hap- Pamela Cooper-Wliite, Director pens to "other people." Judging from Center For Women and Religion your article, I would say there are "be- Graduate Tlieological Union tween 12 to 41 million Americans" who women get Berkeley, CA also potentially become temporarily dys- functional when confronted with the through each day by FADE TO BLACK ugly news of yet another woman raped. I am writing regarding my extremely If 12 to 41 million rape survivors aren't blocking out negative opinion of your photograph enough to significantly alter our nation's which ran with the cover story "Who perception of violence against women, consciousness about Are the Young Feminists?" (Fall 1992) what will it take? which shows the legs of three women, It's nice to think there is at least one cut off above the knee. The photo- man in our nation who is sensitive to the sexual violence. graph is entirely inappropriate to il- fear that keeps many women from ever lustrate that today's feminist could be feeling totally relaxed. If there were more I suddenly realized that any of a wide range of races, classes, of you, one day I might be able to quit and social backgrounds. Furthermore, looking over my shoulder. this is precisely how I the image of the disembodied limbs Name Withheld of a woman's body is a feminist's Hammond, LA survive. " nightmare — in a word, objectifica- tion. This photograph is more suited PORN AS AN ART to appear in a fashion magazine or a FORM? Hollywood movie than on the cover As an antipomography student activist, of a "progressive" feminist magazine. and co-founder of Students Organizing That aside, I thought that the article by Against Pornography (SOAP), I was Laurie Ouellette, as well as several of the deeply disappointed with Norine other articles, were interesting and intel- Dworkin's article "Deep Inside Annie ligently written. Sprinkle." From the beginning, Dworkin "Just because Sprinkle Use Carrigg insults those of us who view pornogra- New York, NY phy as an assault on women and children. now exploits herself, She claims that Sprinkle "straddles the LIVING IN A BATTLE schism between pornography and art" versus being ZONE because she is a former pom star who is Thank you, John Stoltenberg, for your now a sex worker making videos. Re- exploited by men or article "Let's Make Rape an Election naming oneself while continuing in the Issue" (Fall 1992). I am a well-educated same line of work does not enable one to professional woman riving and working straddle a schism, though it may allow other women, does in rural Louisiana. It seems that every year one to be consumed by it. Just because or so, one or two hideous crimes against Sprinkle now exploits herself, versus be- not justify the name women in our small town serve to re- ing exploited by men or other women, mind us that we live in battle zone. The does not justify the name change from change from porn most recent disappearance of a local porn star to artist. woman (after which her car and clothes Dworkin portrays Sprinkle as a sexual star to artist." were found — amid bullet casings) left radical because she has grasped pornog- me temporarily dysfunctional. It was then raphy with both hands and made it her that I recalled your words, "Most women own. This argument,that pornography get through each day by blocking out changes from abuse to pleasure as long as

58 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 Feed Back • FeeJBack • Feed Back

the victim/participant "controls" it is tions are buying into it. material, your magazine helps women ridiculous. Would we call the Black man In the Fall 1992 issue there appeared an see the positive potential of erotica. who sells himself into slavery a "rebel?" interview with Annie Sprinkle the Women often felt alienated and of- The most painful part of the article "former" porn actress turned perfor- fended by pornography partly because was Sprinkle's absolute dismissal of mance artist. I object very strongly to her men have dominated the industries pro- responsibility for her actions. Sprinkle characterization of antipom feminists. ducing sexual images. Women's por- claims that she is glad that there are Having been raped or abused does not nography tends to emphasize the sensual, antipornography activists working to mean that one hates men or sex. That is playful nature of human sexuality. Not protect women and children from an old, worn-out stereotype of feminist only can erotica enhance the quality of violence and exploitation, but she women that I had hoped not to find so our sex lives, but it can serve to educate feels pity for us. She describes a mem- acceptedina feminist magazine. A woman and provide a vehicle of self expression ber of Women Against Pornography can have these experiences and under- for those women interested in using it as being unhappy, celibate, full of stand very clearly that we all are social- that way. I hope more women will enter rage and physically ill. Sprinkle wishes ized to accept a rape mentality. We also this field,b e they artists or exhibitionists this woman happiness and sexual ful- understand that there are some very or both! fillment, but, alas, this woman must courageous men struggling against that Ten Goodson, Chairwoman work in rape crisis centers dealing socialization. Just turn to the page after Taskforce on Sexwork/Pornography with victims of a pornographic cul- the interview with Sprinkle to find an San Fransisco NOW ture which Sprinkle has helped to article by John Stoltenberg, an antiporn create. Sprinkle never once sees the activist that I for one could never hate, MALE RAPE OUT OF obvious connection between her life and he is a man. I take issue with Sprinkle's THE CLOSET as a porn star and this woman's career statement, "We're looking at bodies, I read in the "Feedback" section of your as a rape crisis advocate. we're looking at curves, we're looking at Summer 1992 issue the responses to an I admire and enjoy On The Issues, but I breasts, we're looking at sex," when she article on male rape. I am a male rape have a problem with the pictures used in is responding to the feminist argument survivor myself, assaulted when I was 19. both the Sprinkle and the Stoltenberg that pom lies about women. Right there, I am an active volunteer with the Knox- article ("Let's Make Rape an Election she tells the lie. She describes the female ville Sexual Assault Crisis Center and Issue"). While the pictures in the Sprinkle body, and then labels it "sex." My body would like to share the article with other article were clear and vivid, the picture is not sex, but it is sexual. Why are men's male survivors. used in the Stoltenberg article was hard bodies never labeled "sex"? I too am grateful to the women's move- to see. Specifically, the pain on the As for her characterization of the women ment for forcing our society to acknowl- woman's face and the blood running in Women Against Pornography, not all edge the existence of the secret epidemic from her punctured nipples were not of us antiporn activists are celibate, and of sexual assault. only not in color, but the entire picture miserable. I am happily married, and my David Merchant was distorted. While the differences be- husband also happens to be against por- Knoxville, TN tween the pictures may have been acci- nography. Even so, we have wonderful dental, it still strikes me as sad. If we are sex. FAT AND BREAST going to talk about pornography, let's Annie Sprinkle, you only have a job CANCER CONT'D include showing real pictures of women because you have chosen to use the As my a'dele on the links between and children being raped, beaten, torn, exploitation of women to get ahead and breast cancer and dietary factors went mutilated, defecated upon, and finally make money. Instead of getting out to press (Winter 1992), a much pub- even killed. We owe it to ourselves, as there and helping to eradicate violence licized medical report could find no well as to the victims and the survivors, against women and claim our sexuality, link between fat intake and breast to be this honest. you go out there and espouse pom as a cancer. What did not make it into the Jennifer Lyn Beegle, President method of helping. And pom is the last news reports was that this medical Association for Women Students place any woman should look to dis- study did not test low-fat diets. It Miami University cover her true nature and pleasures. only observed the effects of diets containing more than 20 percent tat, Oxford, OH Sandra Antoinette Jaska (Address not given) as a percentage of calories. At all of SEX VS. SEXUAL these upper levels of fat intake, breast cancer seems to be equally common. Despite recent books such as Backlash: POSITIVE PORN On The Issues should be proud of its Cross-cultural comparisons show that The Undeclared War Against American low breast cancer rates occur where Women by Susan Faludi and The Beauty presentation of the divisive feminist sub- ject of pornography in "Deep Inside fat intake is much lower, around 10 Myth by Naomi Wolf, the trend to percent of calories, and plant-based ignore underlying reasons for women's Annie Sprinkle.'' Rather than catering to the repressive forces of fear and prudery diets prevail. oppression and collusion in our oppres- Thank you for your continued great sion continues. Even feminist publica- seeking to eliminate sexually expressive 59 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 work on this issue. the Socialist Workers Party should be women, were somehow guilty! He needs Ned D. Barnard, M.D. ashamed of themselves for their mean- to clarify what he meant when he said the Washington, DC spirited campaign against the victim and supposed victims were women "without her family, and for their lies about the access to power," and "vilified by the GUILTY AS CHARGED case. left." I've been following the controversy about I'm a little confused though by Pelka's Steve Silluzio the Mark Curtis case, both in On the comments on the Scottsboro Boys. To West Hebron, NY Issues and in the Militant. Based on all that read the Militant and the Workers' Van- I've read, I think it's pretty clear that guard, you'd think that Pelka even be- FRED PELKA REPLIES Curtis is guilty of the sexual assault for lieves these innocent Black men, who Contrary to what may have been printed which he was charged. The leadership of were framed for raping two white elsewhere, I never said, and never meant to imply, that the Scottsboro defendants were anything other than the innocent victims of white racism. I do refute the "The Miracle on 57th Street" S WP claim that the Curtis case resembles Tucked away on the 4th floor of an office building on 57th Street in New Scottsboro, where a group ofBlack youths York City is an elegant boutique & bookshop devoted exclusively to were sentenced to death in Alabama in women's sexual health, self-growth and happiness! 1931 for the fictional rape of two white We offer books on sexuality, relationships, Tantra, Goddess history, women. To say, as the SWP does, that women-created erotica, and an exciting collection of romantic and sensual Curtis' being white doesn't matter is to accessories to enhance self-love and shared-love. deny the central importance of racism to Created by women for women and their partners, Eve's Garden is a the Scottsboro case, the long history of comfortable space where women can shop in a new-age environment that lynch mob terrorism against African nurtures the intimate connection. And that's the miracle! Americans, particularly males, and the Send $2 for our mail-order catalog* or visit in person and receive one free. continuing racial bias in our courts today. Monday thru Saturday 12 Noon to 6:30.119 West 57th St., Suite 420, NY, NY The two accusing women were desti- SQ . (212) 757-8651. Either way, start creating your own miracle today! . g,o* {MMturcUt wing 'Endorsed by lending -lex cducalois and therapists throughout the country. tute and uneducated, and characterized as "cut-rate whores." While these facts can't justify their actions, and obviously pale beside the powerlessness and vic- timization of the nine youths whose lives Not So Subtle Tees were shattered at Scottsboro, we shouldn't forget that those with the real power in Depi. I. P 0. B. 410, Lincolndale, NY, 10540 Alabama were the judges, cops, juries, Tel.: (718) 998-2305 prosecutors and others who remained 100% cotton tee shirts silent in the face ofinjustice , or who used #CM - Black on grey or white the case to defend their privilege and #NO - Black on white or white on black advance their political careers. M, L, XL$11.XXL,XXXL$12. Curtis supporters have accused me of Sweatshirts 50/50 white or black "race-baiting, sex-baiting, and guilt-bait- M.L.XL, $16. XXL $12. ing," and have labeled my work "ob- Shipping add $2 each item scene," and "racist, anti-Communist NYS Residents add Sales Tax trash." What I find obscene is their attempt to invoke the atrocity at Send for brochure Scottsboro to defend a white man so clearly guilty of brutalizing an African- 16816 STH AVE. Si. • MILL CREEK, WA 98012 American child. Write or call for FREE CORRECTION Due to a printing error, we mistakenly information packet. gave the impression in our last issue that convicted sex offender Mark Curtis was Cascadia Health Research is a new due for parole this past November. In service designed to help you become an fact, Curtis was due only for a hearing on active, informed participant in your own his request for early release, which was health care. Detailed reports available denied by the Iowa parole board. RESEARCH on any medical or psychological disorder. The reports are prepared by an M.D. and include information about Please direct all comments to: 1-800-241-0325 the most current conventional and Editors, ON THE ISSUES, 97-77 Cindy Brown. M.D. alternative treatments. Queens Boulevard, Suite 1120 Flushing, NY 11374.

60 ON THE ISSUES SPRING 1993 The Thinking Person^ Weekly Newspaper For the truth about America in the 1990's— read The Voice every week. You may not like what you'llfind — but you'll be smarterfor knowing .

hen it comes to insightful, Read the people who matter in controversial, stimulating intelligent American journalism: Press Clips W reportage about politics and columnist Doug Ireland • the brilliant culture in America and beyond, The Village cartoons of Jules Feiffer, Lynda Barry, Matt Voice is the smart reader's choice, every Groening, Stan Mack and Mark Alan week. Written by some of the most Stamaty • Moving Target columnist James important journalists in America today, The Ridgeway • dance critic Deborah Jowitt • Voice covers the gamut: New York and Richard Goldstein on gay issues • Native national politics... features that range from Son columnist Nelson George on African- racism to abortion to white-collar crime... American issues • Media Blitz columnist columnists who break the news of scams James Ledbetter, who skewers the press and scandals before the mainstream on a regular basis • film critic J. Hoberman press... and provocative arts criticism that • Gary Giddins and Robert Christgau, two of exposes readers to far more than just the most distinguished music critics in the Broadway, the Guggenheim and Carnegie country • Op Ad columnist Leslie Savan, Hall. who critiques advertising with a sharp pen.

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