‘mEliABDER OCTOBER/NOVEMBER, 1970 $1.25 THE LADDER, published by Lesbians and directed to ALL women seeking full human dignity, had its beginning in 1956. It was then the only Lesbian VOLUME 15 No. 1 and 2 THE publication in the U.S. It is now the only women s magazine openly supporting OCTOBER/NOVEMBER, 1970 Lesbians, a forceful minority within the women’s liberation movement. LADDER Initially THE L.ADDER’s goal was limited to achieving the rights accorded heterosexual women, that is, full second-class citizenship. In the 1950's women THE LADDER STAFF j as a whole were as yet unaware of their oppression. The Lesbian knew. And she wondered silently when her sisters would realize that they too share many of the Editor ...... Gene Damon Lesbian’s handicaps, those that pertained to being a woman. Director of P rom otion...... -l ...... Rita Laporte Production E d i t o r ...... Hope Thompson THE L.\DDER’s purpose today is to raise all women to full human status, with Circulation Manager ...... Ann P. Buck all of the rights and responsibilities this entails; to include ALL women, whether Production .Assi.stants ...... Lyn Collins, Kim Stabinski, Le.sbian or hetero.scxual. I Gladys Irma, King Kelly, Ann Brady, Robin and Dana Jordan OCCUPATIONS have no sex and must be opened to all qualified persons Secretary to the E d ito r...... Tracy Wright for the benefit of all. October/November, 1970 CONTENTS: LIFE STYLES must be as numerous as human beings require for their personal happiness and fulljllment. Can Women Unite'? By fiita Laporte ...... 4 Beginning, Short Stoiy by Isabel Miller...... 7 Questions for Casandra, ABILITY, AMBITION, TALENT - An Entertainment by Melinda L. Brown ...... 12 THESE ARE HUMAN QUALITIES. Sexual Politics, A Review by Hope Thom pson...... 13 Gemstones: Minor Works of Djutia Barnes, by Carol Lynk ...... 15 Personal File: Four Friends, by Margaret Fulton ...... 17 ADVERTISING RATES Dance Lesson, 6y The Class Workshop. Drawing by W.B. E dm onds...... 21 Cross C urrents...... 24 Half Page ...... f45 Back Cover $100 Poetry 6r Lyn Collins, Kathleen .McKinnon, Paul Mariah, Quarter P ag e...... $25 Full Page . $ 80 Robin Jordan, Anne Hayden, Carol Wilde, Martha Shelley, and Georgette M orreaux...... 31 Lesbiana, by Gene D a m o n ...... 36 Repeated Advertisements at Reduced Rates You’re Stepping on My Model T, Short Story by Jane Alden ...... 40 Illustrated by Candi McGonagle Good Old Golden Rule Days, by Diana Sterling...... 41 Illustrated by Kate McColl Readers R espond...... 44 CONTRIBUTIONS are gratefully accepted from all who wish to support our COVER: Poster from Charon Productions, work. V\e arc a non-profit publication depending <;ntirely upon subscriptions, P.O.Box 9117, donations and volunteer labor. If you bought this copy of THE LADDER from Berkeley, California 94709. (S2.00 po.stpaid) a bookstore or newsstand, please subscribe. Back Cover; Pappa Cottontail: King of the Bunnies, Song by Winifred Gandy Cartoons by Jules Feiffcr and Candi McGonagle (ORGAMZATIONS OR GROUPS wishing to order bulk quantities o f THE Published bi-monthly at Box 5025, Washington Station, Reno, Nevada, 89503. LADDER may do so at the rate o f 10 copies for $8.00. Send check or money order with your order to THE LADDER, P.O. Box 5025, Washington Station, All rights reserved. No part o f this periodical may be reproduced without the Reno, Nevada, 89503.) written consent o f THE LADDER. By RITA LAPORTE Can W on. en U n it e ? ^ould not give them a second thought. dear. If you allow me more freedom. I’ll Inside the movement it would be folly, a give you more and better sex.” What a We all know the usual answer to this look to a particular man for their protec­ pitiful aping of men, to expect to rally all >, sellout! It ha.s been my conviction all along one. There is no need to list the unflattering tion and fulfillment having no mind for the of us behind one leader and one platform. that the reason women .should have equal qualities attributed to women that are larger, more important affairs of society. So what do we do, we women who, for rights and responsibilities in a world of supposed to make it impossible for them Natural selection over millions of years has whatever reasons, are driven by discontent human beings is that they are human ever to cooperate in signiflcant numbers to equipped the male for the cooperation with the status quo? beings. As a Lesbian I am nothing less, one required to carry out the grand designs of accomplish major goals. This is simply the It is not a foregone conclusion that of God’s children, a subject in my own right “nature” of the female. The other side of humanity. It is thus a scientific “fact” that women will free themselves from slavery and an object to no one. I would be the last the eoin is that she is not very competitive, the male is meant to govern and to handle and usher in a better world for all. What are woman to promise better sex to men in the except in the one area vital to her — the vital affairs of society. some of the pitfalls awaiting the women’s hope they would give me a little more catching a man, and hence is not suited to We could look at this “fact” in another movement? 1 have th o u ^ t of some simply freedom. Freedom is not something I have the rough and tumble world of men where way. Only by banding together and follow­ by observing my own reactions to articles to pay men for — it is my birthright. the important affairs of humanity are han­ ing a leader can men find strength, for they about the movement. I find myself becom­ It is this attitude, this fear of displeasing dled. She is neither cooperative nor com­ are emotionally and spiritually weaker, ing furious at times, for a moment for­ men, that worries many Lesbians in the petitive. But she makes up for this with her more dependent and more sheeplike, than getting that these writers want essentially movement. Will straight women eventually mystical gift for serving a man and raising women. This animal-like urge to band into the same things I want and that, beyond give up as men, notoriously unchivalrous, his children. groups, while giving the individual members disagreement on many levels, there is a very fight back more and more below the belt? If one is a man, this is a delightful and a feeling of potency, also necessitates fight­ real unity of purpose among the awakening There is a large reservoir of goodwill in the self-serving “fact” of nature. Aristotle dis­ ing to defend the prowess of their leader women of the world. hearts of feminist Lesbians. We ache to sec tinguished three kinds of people: freemen, against other, exactly similar groups- (My As a Lesbian 1 especially fear a split slaves and women, all basically different. It the unhappinc.ss of so many of our straight Daddy is stronger than your Daddy.) And between heterosexual women and Lesbians. sisters, to see how men take advantage of took only about 2000 years to discover that so flowered the art of war. Not only are Lesbians hated and feared by Aristotle was wrong about slaves. Any their goodness. But thi.s reservoir is not Women, on the other hand, are deter­ most women, but many Lesbians lose no infinite. I have often found myself trying to group has the potential for enslavement if mined by no such group pull. Women who love over their straight sisters. All of us, the exploiting group is powerful enough. justify the ways of straight women to angry wish to cooperate with other women do so straight and Lesbian alike, have heard much Lesbians. 1 cannot see cither Lesbians alone However, about half of any slave popula­ on the human, not animal, level. Not being about how terrible Lesbians are. We are the tion consists of men, and it is not altogether or straight women alone succeeding in the pushed by instinct to fall into gangs behind only really “respectable” scapegoats left. revolution for greater humannes.s in all wise for some men to enslave others. Even a a more powerful woman, they are free to For me at least this side of the split has male .slave is heir in some fashion to the people. We Lesbians are fewer in number join together intelligently and they are free become one big bore. I can no longer than you heterosexual women, but we manly virtues and telling him he is not does to leave the group by intelligent choice bother to get angry at such ignorant, not work forever. Now, females — that is make up for this by our greater determina­ when they feel the group is up to no good. heterosexual drivel. But the other side, tion to live whole and free. Men give us another story. Anyone can see that they arc With no male-like biological compulsion to what Lesbians think of straight women, is none of the questionable advantages they really different and henee inferior. For their join a herd, they are free to cooperate seldom heard. While these women damn give to straight women nor do we desire own good they must be owned in some where that is the wise thing to do. This Lesbians without fear of reprisal and out in those “advantages”. We are committed manner by a male. (We will skip the makes it impossible for vast hordes of the open and earn points from their men from the start to total victory. Compromise ego-enhancing aspect of such ownership.) women to be led into activities destructive besides, Lesbians are quite capable of giving with members of the ruling sex does not There is another marvelous thing about to the human race. At the same time it as good as they get. So far they do this in tempt us. We look to the day when we can women: they actually enjoy a slave status. makes agreement harder to come by. Obey­ private, among themselves. What we all, at converse with men and women and enjoy They love the protection that belonging to ing animal urges is easier than making one time or another, think of straight the company of people who are no longer a strong man provides. Every woman yearns conscious decisions to follow a certain women Ls hardly flattering. The s tra it t bound up in heterosexual chauvinism. If a to find her lord and master and it is here course of action. Living on our distinctively woman is a weak-willed jelly fish endlessly by-product of this human maturing is more and only here that she understands the human, as opposed to animal, level is not fawning on the almighty male whom .she and better sex for the sex-starved heterosex­ meaning of competition. She has sharpened easy. Yet this is what we women must do. fears and hates and treats with unbounded ual male, find and dandy. Better still, her wits and wiles over millennia in her We must pioneer a new and better form of contempt. But .she dare not let him know perhaps a result will be better LOVE for the fight for survival — snaring and keeping a cooperation, a new and better sort of thi.s for he is her meal ticket and she will do sex-strangled male. man. leadership. anything to insure her own survival, .short Lesbians, being unconcerned with the Men, on the other hand, according to The women’s rights, or women’s libera­ of standing up to him. She is the ultimate libidinal problems of the master sex, are Lionel Tiger in MEN IN GROUPS, have tion, movement consists of very diverse hypocrite. If she can wangle a few rights nevertheless unavoidably entangled with learned to work together, originally in the persons. Outside the movement are millions without angering him, fine. If n o t she will that sex, employment being a prime area. “vital” occupation of the hunt They have of women dead set against it. Switzerland retreat. Here we have to swallow arguments applica­ perfected the arts of leadership and follow­ now has an association of females dedicated Gloria Steinem is quoted in Time, Au­ ble only to heterosexual women employees: ership. Biologically they are the sex capable to defeating the right of Swiss women to gust 24, 1970, as saying, “Men think that Women are just marking time on the job of dreaming great dreams and carrying them vote. What is amusing about these silly once women became liberated, it will mean until they find a man and/or begin breed­ to fruition, dreams requiring the smooth women is that they will not be allowed to no more .sex for men. But what men don’t ing; it is bad business to give them manage­ working together of large numbers of men. vote against the right of women to vote. realize is that if women arc liberated, there ment training or to consider them for While men look to other men where great Perhaps there is a message here: anti-femi­ will be more sex and better.” So there we promotion. Try to imagine the fury and accomplishments are to be wrought women nist women are powerless indeed and we have it from the hetero.sexual woman’s frustration of the Lesbian when she hears 4 point of view: “I’ll make a deal with you. this. If she speaks up to say this has no bearing on her, she is fired on the spot. She route, governesses, Europe, college and male establishment. leaders, the embodiment of power, can be dangerous. But how ran we do without says nothing and seethes. She knows she graduate school — hardly the desirable 1 have noticed a curious development them? To go back to what I said in the and her Lesbian sisters are a major factor in working class background. Whether the among some women and one 1 find amus­ beginning: women are not instinctually giving women in the labor force a good current crop of revolutionaries would for­ ing. In their fear of power they have bound to follow leaders. We must use our reputation, while many of her heterosexual give me this in light of my having driven a decided to remain anonymous, to refuse to minds in deciding which potential leaders to sisters drag that reputation down. Small streetcar and worked in factories, I cannot speak up in public or to give interviews to follow. We are free to choose some and wonder that some Lesbians come to hate say. This reverse snobbism can be more members of the media. If all of them reject others. We arc free to follow leaders straight women, not as straight women hate vicious than the common variety, for those cannot be equally famous (or notorious), in part only. We can follow some here and Lesbians - out of ignorance - but out of a used to power wield it with more humane­ then none wifi be, for fame, even short-lived some there. I can follow a Lesbian-hater realistic appraisal of the facts. This kind of ness than those who suddenly acquire it. fame, brings with it a measure of power. where I find common ground with her. We divisiveness, Lesbian against non-Lesbian, I know a good deal more about human But this strategy does not seem to apply to can differ over which intermediate goals are must be overcome and can only be over­ nature than about political systems and am women who have been safely dead for some most urgent: acceptance of the Le.sbian, come by goodwill on both sides. frankly out of my depth with the latter. I time. On the contrary, the prominent wom­ There are other areas of divisiveness think of a political system as a means of en of the past, particularly those who spoke repeal of all abortion laws, child care centers, equal employment opportunities, having nothing to do with the Lesbian- concentrating power in order to accomplish up on behalf of women, are written about etc. There is no reason why we should all heterosexual dichotomy, a dubious dich­ the goals of society. I have no idea what and admired. We women DO have a history agree on priorities for we cannot all of us be otomy based upon male chauvisnism in the “Power to the People” means. If every and one to be proud of. Must our leaders all working in all areas at once. Underlying all first place. An area that particularly geU my citizen has the same amount of power as be dead before we are permitted to admire our disagreements, even our rages at one dander up is the notion that only Socialism every other citizen, no one has any power. them? Cannot we allow ourselves to have How can 200,000,000 individuals take some live leaders? another, there is uittty and we all feel it (whatever that is - the articles never say) deep down. WOMEN CAN UNITE! will free women from male exploitation. I equal part in the management of our What is this fear of leadership? Again, am a little surprised that otherwise bright country, from deciding Supreme Court women should slavishly follow the thmking cases, to voting on federal and state laws, to From far away I hear you.I Something of an old, 19th century male or some passing local ordinances, to running corpo­ about evil not being able to produce good, current “In” neo-Marxist. This is something rations, to setting up medical standards, to ISABEL something about our having only Irene’s of an emotional reaction on my part for, if putting out a new Betty Crocker cake mix own assertion that every thing worked out following some old or new male is correct, . . . The problem here is one of Power. well for everyone. then so be it. An idea is not to be discarded And power is dangerous. Some women You say, ‘They show what becomes of I say, “We have only her a.ssertion for simply because it sprang from a male brain. seem to be saying that we must abolish people who have no spiritual life.” any of it. If she didn’t say there’d been a (In my youth 1 thought all good ideas came power. The only way I know of abolishing I say, “No spiritual life!” divorce, we would have no way of knowing from men only). No, my objection has, I human power is to abolish human beings. “Irene said herself she’s not a Christian. it. Believe one, believe the other. Is she a think, good logic, or I should say, good Any group of people will engage in some And certainly she’s done things a Christian reliable reporter of her own life, or isn’t “psycho-logic” behind it. 1 see the human minimal cooperation and will decide in woman wouldn’t be able to do. Most ále? To me she seems reliable.” being as the basic unit in any society and in some fashion who is to do what. Unavoid­ un-Christian women couldn’t for that mat­ “And those are your friends!” any political system. A social system can be ably some individuals acquire more power ter.” “Yes!” I say. “And 1 think most people no better than the people ¡who make it up. than others, even without meaning to. One You have not understood her. You have would honor them and honor me for having And people are plagued with ignorance and man throws his spear farther and more got hold of a few externals and shut your won their friendship.” stupidity, with selfish ambition, with cruel­ accurately than another. One woman grows mind to all the rest. It is done. There will be nothing. How ty, with hatred, with fear, with their very better vegetables than another. Someone I say, “You might equally think that ean I live without your earess to imagine? finitude in all directions. .A poUtical system makes a better basket. A social or political because áie was sustained by the great In these .six weeks, such dreams have can be better or worse, but it cannot create system evolves with some people more spiritual force of love, she was able to take become the breath of my life. human nature. highly regarded than others. Elitism rears its a moral action that saved the lives and Can I claim you led me on? Yes and no. We are, all of us, still prone to magic head. This is a dirty word today, but elitism health and happiness and sanity of several You piled hope on me with one hand but shibboleths and incantations. MARXISM! is not bad per se. It is so only when the elite people — her children, her ex-husband, his unloaded it with the other. 1 .suppose what Che! Mao! (I can almost hear Red Chinese in question is based upon false values, as new wife, herself, Laura. How many’s that? you put me in would come close to being literally a flap - back and forth, the winds youth crying, out of earshot of government many elites are today. Eight.” officials: CAPITALISM! Nixon! Goldwa- We are not bom equal in genetic endow­ But my heart is out of the argument. 1 of hope and despair. And now it will be ter!) I expect this from men, the sex more ment, something no amount of social re­ don’t really hear you, your words. 1 hear only despair, my emotion a limp rag, given to magic, to secret societies, to form or radical revolution will erradícate. only that my friends don’t delight or move broken balloon, sagging in one dull poa- fraternity foolishness. 1 am saddened and Some people will become better at certain you, that you don’t approve of me or them, tion. alarmed that so many otherwise liberated tasks than others and some people will that you wouldn’t want for us a life like The cab leaves us at my building. You women should stoop to this. Join the class gather up more power than others. Power in theirs. Well, 1 must be reasonable. I have pay the driver. 1 go up the steps and unlock Struggle (in a country where most of us are the right hands is all to the good. Power in spent six weeks in refining and defining my the door. I wait. 1 am not certain you will middle-class?) and wipe out exploitation, the wrong hands must be combatted. We feeling for you. Shall I call those six wasted come in. The cab drives off. You stand at the profit motive, tlie desire for success and women must think out the problem of weeks? What m ^ t I have spent them on the bottom of the steps. Perhaps you need who knows what other human traits! Some power — pertiaps we can bring to it some instead? And haven’t they been, often, an invitation. I can’t speak. 1 hold the door of what 1 read sounds as though I myself new solutions. But it is no solution to try to blissful? Should 1 regret the hours I spent invitingly as though I expect you. Awk­ wardly you climb the steps. Stumble. I am should be destroyed in the interests of tear down women who have gained a wondering what it meant that you caught reminded of the many times I’ve stumbled women’s lib. 1 came up the private school measure of power within the heteroxexual my cold foot and warmed it in your hands? in walking with you — how awkward one share my life with someone who is just tliere by a friend.” you brings back all the clouds and knots can be on feet numb with love and doubt. waiting for me to get over it?” “What friend?” and griefs 1 ever fought against. I suffocate. You are awkward. You are a big lady, tall, No, I haven’t thought of that. But 1 “Barbara.” I die. 1 would try to drink my drink but I and fond of food. \ t her age, you will be a think 1 won’t say so. Could 1 become a “I’ve wondered what she is to you.” think I would choke. magnificent mountain like Irene. It’s one Catholic for you? I don’t know. Laura has “Was.” We sit side by side on my couch, which more reason you should have liked her. made an occultist of Irene, but 1 doubt it “Was she?” is my bed. I am unable to speak, and for I thought we could make a long happy was set up as a pre-condition. “Yes.” reasons of yoiir own you don’t cither. life. 1 thought it was hopeful that it’s taken “People who love begin to agree, 1 “How long?” My cat jumps to your lap. You pet him six wcek.s, which have made me love you think,” I say. “I suppose your faith would “A few months. Summer to summer. A although you don’t like cats. Just toni^t, more and more. I spoke to Irene of the time influence whomever you lived with. Irene year. ” at Irene and Laura’s, you said, “Well, I like it was taking, as a good hopeful thing, and has taken up Laura’s superstitions - says, “What happened?” Tigger but tbal’s because-” and then left she said yes but not necessarily. .She said ‘Bread and butter,’ like a child now.” “Intimate and painful revelations — the sentence for me to finish in my heart. that .she had loved and waited for years and “Catholicism is not a superstition.” haven’t you just told me you disapprove of Many times you’ve petted him on my lap ended with nothing, nothing at all. not even "That was just an example. W'hy arc you that kind of talk?” and caught some of my leg or hand in the a kiss after years of waiting love. So it can trying to pick a fight?” “Only from those I’ve just met. Tell me. caress. go that way too, she thought 1 should Y'ou are quiet. I think I know why you Why did it end with Barbara?” I watch your hands. Skillful, strong know. Now 1 will have to ask her whether want a fight — .so we can make up. 1 say, “1 “Many reasons. We never did get along. hands. Short nails, no ring, no polish. They not having had a kiss makes it easier think I’ll have a drink.” The last thing was that she wasn’t - faithful are hands 1 dreamed would heal me. Tigger’s afterwards. I think it must. She told me “Then 1 will too.” — to me. So I left.” hairs fall and cling to your dark slacks. It’s once that it’s harder to give up real children I go lo the kitchen. Make drinks. You “Did she want you to stay?” wild to have a cat. I think I’ll try to get than imaginary ones. That was to suggest stand in the doorway watching me, but as 1 “She didn’t want to fail again. In that Barbara to take him back. Hairs on my that I .should know my.self now and choose come towards you, you fade back to the way she wanted me to stay. It wasn’t reason furniture, on my clothes, cat food in my what I really am. And it’s probably likewi.se couch. I wi.sh 1 knew what to do. 1 set the enough. I thought if I had to suffer anyway, refrigerator, kitty litter in my bathroom. It easier to give up a fanta.sy kis,s than a real drinks on the coffee table. I might as well have some of the po.sitive is mad. I think 1 will make my life very one. I say, “I’m sorry you don’t respect their things of life. Like children. Like money. stripped and simple and get a lot of sleep. Well, so much for the ouija board. 1 life. It’s what I’m looking for, 1 think.” Like a respectable home.” You say, “1 .see 1 made you angry.” .suppo.se Laura pushed it. It said, yes, you’re “1 didn’t say 1 didn’t respect it.” “Like marriage.” “No. You just remind me that there is a gay. It said introducing you to them would “Oh, I thought you did.” “Yes. That’s what I thought. Suffering reason, after all, why I spend twelve hun­ precipitate our love, but it woidd beiup to “It tempts me very much. Perhaps as an being my fate, a loveless life. Have those dred dollars a year on a shrink. I was me to make the first move. In my fantasy I idea more than as a real thing. I would hope anyway. And there were plenty of men planning to give him up. I felt so well.” can easily approach and touch and hold and that even living such a life, I could be a ready to oblige me. And no women to “My heart’s just held together with a kiss you. but in life the ouija statement is Christian good person and do some good in confuse me.” little spit and brown paper, too,” you say. ridiculous. You are a .scholar, you are tall, the world. They seem completely unaware I stop. You know what comes next. One “Don’t you see how scared I am?” you are four years older than I, you pay the of anything that doesn’t relate to their own of us should say, “Until —” but neither of 1 reach out and lay my hand on Tigger’s cab. you buy the theater tickets, you pick — peculiarity. I wouldn't want to be as us does. back. Your hands are very near and do not up the checks at dinner. It isn’t possible narrow and cut off as that. I would want to 1 say, “1 talked with Irene and Laura move away. Awkwardly and anxiously 1 that if you loved me you wouldn’t be able live in an ordinary house in an ordinary city about it. I thought Irene’s life might be my capture one. You let it lie in my hand. 1 to move tow ards me. and move among ordinary people. They’ve guide. I might go her way. She’s had it all — take courage to improve the relationship, to You sit on my couch. I u.«ed lo plot how made their own little fal.se world as though the whole range. Life can go tliat way. She bring them palm to palm. Experience with to get you there, keep you out of the chair, the sexual function is all they define them­ proves it. But she doesn’t recommend it. men makes me so afraid; so many times I make you sit beside me. You go there now selves by and all that intcre.sts them about Even though some of us think it ended well have let my hand be taken and felt only by yourself. “Drink?" I a.sk. other people.” for her. boredom or oppression. 1 couldn’t bear to “No. Thanks. I can't stay.” But you do “ You misjudge them. They’re interested “What does she recommend, as though I make you feel .such things. My sins of stay. in more things than anyone el.se 1 know. need ask?” insincerity are coming home to roost. “I’m sorry the evening was such a bust,’’ Kconomic.s. politics, art, history, arehitec- “I said nobody interested me. She said 1 am not ready. I cannot immediately I say. lurc, music, the occult, psychology. When when I became internally ready someone recover from the despair of so few minutes “1 knew we shouldn't on a Kriday. The they take me walking in New York, 1 realize would.” ago. Memory must guide me: until you fish and everything. They didn’t mally I’ve spent my life with my eyes shut.” “Such as herself?” spoke against my friends and the kind of respect that. And I doubt you did either. I “.And yet they live in a homo.sexual What! You don’t know anything or love they symbolize, I longed for you. re.scntcd, I must admit, the three of you neighborhood and devote thi‘ evening they understand anything or deserve the evening Somewhere inside I still must long for you. .sitting there boasting of the religions you’ve first meet me to a diseussion of what one they gave you or the weeks I kissed my If you will receive me now, now is the time outgrown, so confideni that in lime I may would hope were intin\ate and painful pillow calling it by your name. I unname even though I have to go by memory. I mature to apo.stasy too” ri'vi'latious. which I havi- not requested, and my pillow, 1 call back my love. remember many times that would have "I don't think that was meant” I do not speak in kind." Oh, Cod, despair. Not to love you or been better: the night we watched TV and “ llavi- you con.sidered that I may not?" ■rhey were talking to me. They were hope for you or wait for you or plan for you almost put your arm around me but you .say. “Do you ever seriously think that I assuming that I'd told you about them, you or wonder what you mean and why then played with the ornament on the wall mav have found the true faith and that I which I had." you keep me waiting. There has been more instead; the many nights you have said you mav keep it? .And that I may want friends “Where did you meet them?” pleasure in waiting for you than in embrac­ were leaving and then loitered against the who respect it? And that I may not want lo “Where? At their house. I was taken ing anyone else in my whole life. Not loving door unable to go; tbe afternoon you warmed my feet. If I had let you catch my couch back and watches. I’d like to be unwise thou^ts crowding to be said. discuss. And any problem you can discuss eye any of those times, we would be watching, too. I have never seen two wom­ “Can you have a roll in the hay?” I ask. you can get somewhere on.” already begun and not have this doubt and en kiss. It must be nice to see. I wish movies I may as well have said the other. Before I “You think .so?” I say. Oh, poor Irene, pain to go through. showed it. They show other kinds of love. can hurt you more, I go to the bathroom liking you and being judged by the Spanish Since it was I who held us back before, Why not ours? and wash my face and breathe a while and Inquisition in return! you leave it to me now. 1 have never done I consider opening your shirt but you comb my hair. She says, “I regret I yattered so much. I this, darling! I have only waited and let press so elose that I think you don’t want When I come back, you have your coat was so curious about her I was afraid I’d try things happen. me to. It’s all right. There’s plenty of time. on. “I’ll phone you,” you say. to pump her if 1 didn’t yatter.” Non-Chris­ Still holding your hand I lean against As many as sixty years maybe. Twenty-five “All right.” tians have morals you wouldn’t understand. your shoulder. Because you do not move, I plus sixty equals eighty-five. Twenty-nine You have never got away so fast before. I say, “What’s the elicking in the trust that you don’t object. But what a plus sixty equals eighty-nine. Quite possi­ You are in the hall when the panic hits me. phone?” thing to trust in a woman! 1 turn my face. ble, as healthy as we’ll be once we get 1 mn to the door and call your name. You “It’s signalling the operator to make her It is at the level of your neck, which is a happy. come back. I kick the door ^ u t and ask you for a nickel.” good place to kiss you, so 1 kiss you there But you are crying. My cheek is wet stumble into your arms. Your big body “I have to go. I can’t talk on this and you sigh and tilt your head back to give with your tears. How bravely you cry, enfolds me. You kiss me a long achiirg phone.” me your whole throat. The wonderful flow without a sound. goodbye but afterwards you still say, “I’ll “How long will you be gone?” of power and possession and de.sire I feel at I say, “What is it, angel?” call you.’. “Till Monday morning,” I say and won­ this sweet gesture makes me sure that I can, “I have to sit up. My nose is plugging.” der where that came from. Yes, it is what I after all, be the one who makes the moves I let you up. You sit very straight. It is morning. I haven’t slept I wait for want her to tell you if you ask her where I and starts things. It is easy and natural now Tigger jumps into your lap. I go get you a it to be late enough to call Irene and Laura. am. to get up on my knees and lean above your Kleenex. They are my mothers and will comfort me “Call us when you get back, please.” lifted face and take your glasses off and kiss I say, “What is it, baby?” and tell me everything will be all right and Her voice is loving and concerned. She your eyelids and face and mouth. “I find. That. In my heart. I am. Married that 1 will soon be happy. At ten I can wait would have been this way at ten. I feel a nervousness in you and I let your to someone else.” no longer. Irene answers, not crossly but But the train is a good enough place to mouth go so you can tell me why. Your I wait. strangling with sleep. I choke and say be. 1 get glimpses of the Sound. I need the gla.sses worry you. What have I done with “A girl. Woman. I knew at school. It was nothing and hang up. Ten o’clock on sight of water. I need to walk and get very them? Have they fallen? Am 1 bending very hard for me. Because not natural, you Saturday morning is too early to call even tired and think. I need to decide how many them? I say, “No darling.” I show them to know. And the Church has no sacrament the fire department more times 1 can let a woman break my you. “Look, not even smudged.” But to for it. But I needed it. And maybe I So I call the shrink at his home in heart before it breaks beyond repair. ease you I put them on the table beside our rationalized or something — 1 came to feel Connecticut. This I may do becau^ I pay I will rent a hotel room in Connecticut evaporating drinks. We laugh. I like you that it was somehow a secret sacrament and him twelve hundred dollars a ycat to be and walk and get very tired and not come very much. I .say, “There’s nothing the no more unacceptable in the eyes of God there for me to lean on. He too is peeping back until Monday. I want you to ring and matter with either of us that a year or two than any other childless marriage. Because but 1 think of the money and have no pity. ring my phone and lurk at my door. If you of happine.ss won’t fix.” we didn’t avoid children, we just couldn’t I am crying, I find. He makes me very ask Irene and Laura where I am, I will know You say, “This is terrible. I’m going to have any. Through no choice of our own.” young. 1 curry favor. there’s hope for you and me. fall in love with you.” “Where is she now?” I ask. “You’d better come up,” he says. I am “You already have. It’s all right. I won’t “She’s in Chicago.” to go to his house and we’ll talk it over. (Isabel Miller, frequent contributor to hurt you.” “Chicago! Then you saw her last He’ll meet me at the station. I suppose I am THE LADDER, is the author o f the “I’ll just want to make love all the month.” to see a healthy household and be given a popular Lesbian novel, A PLACE FOR time. ” “Yes. She said it’s definitely over.” pill and watched. A good enough way to US. Under her own name, she is an “That’s not terrible. That’s nice.” “Only last month!” spend a Saturday I have no possible use for. established novelist and short story “But 1 won’t want to work and I won’t “Nothing’s happened between us for From Grand Central I phone Irene and writer. Her story, “Hope Deferred”, get the good of my fellowship and it’ll be two and a half years but I always felt it Laura again. Irene answers, still asleep, appeared in the Eebruary¡March 1970 awful.” would again, you know?” although it is now eleven. But since I can be issue o f THE LADDER.) “And I’ll have to take care of you. 1 “But now you love me,” I say. “It’s all no other inconvenience all day, I am bold thought I was the baby and you were the right. I still loved Barbara until I began to and speak. Her voice brightens. She calls me grownup, but it’s the opposite. You’re a love you. It always overlaps. You can’t dear. (She would have done the same at little lost child and you need me and I’m expect to stop until you have someone else. ten!) I say I’m on my way to Connecticut. I say the ouija was right in saying I would BACK ISSUES OF here and I love you.” That’s why you went there, to be divorced, THE LADDER Something in you draws back. Have 1 so you could love me. And now you do.” have to be the one to start it. “Then it has ARE AVAILABLE offended you? No. I think I have said “That’s not the point. She can divorce started — how good,” she says. Prior to October/November 1968, THE I say, “Well, there are problems. What’s LADD ER was issued monthly for the most something you’ve heard before. J esus God, me, but 1 find I can’t remarry.” part; we now Issue six magazines a year. who do I look like? Who do I sound like? 1 shake my head and reach for my drink. the noise in the phone?” THE LADDER year begins with the Octo­ Does my kiss feel too much like somebody It is mostly melted ice, but it helps. It keeps “Pay phones always do this. It’s noth­ ber/November issue each year. else’s? Can’t we have fifteen minutes with­ me from saying this is a conversation too ing.” Where available, copies of each Issue In “What did you think of her?” I ask. Volumes 13 and following cost $1.25. out problems? surrealistic to keep track of. It keeps me Individual issues before that time are $1.00 Gently 1 press your side to lay you from saying, well, nobody can say you’re “Well, I’m not a quick judge. I liked her. per magazine. down. You resist and then go. I lie against one of these no-good, reckless, irresponsi­ I felt she’s .someone who doesn’t have to EVERY MAGAZINE IS NEW you, petting and kissing. Tigger leaps to the ble, amoral modem kids. 1 feel many such have everything her own way — who can UNTIL YOU'VE READ IT! reasonable, but it doesn’t seem to work. revolting skin condition. She has huge Betty in Burbank purple splotches all over her face, her arms, ? ? ? QUESTIONS for CASSANDRA ? ? ? Dear BB, and her legs. (I'm not sure about the rest of My dear, how absurd to think that you her body, but I’ll let you know after this By MELINDA L. BROWN could be reasonable with a group of people weekend.) My problem is this: all my like your father, your mother, and Alice! friends say that this girl is disgusting and Dear Cassandra, tions (in color) are provided with the Try the obvious solution to the problem: I am just desperate, I don’t know who to booklet. It should solve your problems that I should stop seeirq; her. I know you buy a gun and threaten the three of them. turn to. .Vly girl up and left me, my dog quite nicely. are a broadminded person who speaks the Pacificist though I am, still I must admit truth. What is your comment? died, my mother won’t let me in her house, • * ♦ that there arc times when violence is the and I think the boss is about to up and fire Dear Cassandra, * Hilda only answer. Besides, if worst comes to Dear Hilda, me. I don’t see no way out except suicide. 1 am so distraught that I don’t know what worst, remember that life in pri.son will be The girl sounds disgusting. You ought to Plca.se help me. to do. Four different times during the past infinitely more pleasant and peaceful than stop seeing her. month I have gone to McMurphy Bridge to Ugly To Boot is your present situation. « * « Dear Ugly, jump off into the bay and kill myself. Each « « « Dear Cassandra, You really are in sad shape. Luckily, I have time 1 lost my nerve and decided to live. Dear Cassandra, I am twenty-three years old, with green the perfect .solution to your problems. Sign Yesterday 1 went to the bridge again, and This girl I’m going around with, Elsa, thinks eyes, long black hair, and a good figure. My up immediately for a remedial English this lime I didn’t lose my nerve. Unfortu­ that I am a fellow. But I’m not. The thing parents are dead, and I live alone on an course. (Your grammar and punctuation are nately, someone had put a heavy wire mesh is, 1 am afraid that Elsa will find out that I inheritance my uncle left me. 1 think 1 may incredibly incorrect, dear.) Pray that you above the railing, and 1 couldn’t get through am a girl, because wc spend so much time be a Lesbian. How can 1 be sure? have an attractive female instructor. After it. WTiat shall 1 do now? I am determined to playing touch football together. In fact, Samantlia that, you need have no fears. The educated die. Please answer quickly. touch football brought us together to begin Dear Samantha. person always succeeds. Deirdrc of the Sorrows * * * Dear Deirdre, with. Don’t ask me to give up sports, I can imagine how worried and distressed because Elsa is very sports-minded and I’d you must be at this moment, and I am Dear Ca.ssandra. Not only are you distraught; as well, you’ve lose her if we stopped sharing athletic longing to help you. However, I will need What about joint checking accountsY We lost all semblance of common sense think­ interests. But I may lose her anyway, if she more information. Please send me (by air have been together for five years and can’t ing. Buy a pair of wire-cutters, dear. touches me in the wrong place and dLs; mail) your telephone number, your mea­ decide if we should have one or not. We ♦ * * covers the truth. Do you have any sugges­ surements, and the hours each day when argue all the time. Dear Cas.sandra, tions? you are free. I will do my best to assist you Rose and Lily 1 don’t know who the Ladies of Llangollen Bruno in this matter. Dear R and L, are. (I’m not even sure that I’m spelling it Dear Bruno, 1 advise against it. Ubviously the two of you correctly.) No one will tell me. Am 1 a Yes. Why don’t you take up croquet? If need something to quarrel about, and the failure? you have no lawn available, try tiddlywinks. Cassandra can clarify your questions! Write checking-account problem provides a .sub­ Terrified in Detroit * * * Cassandra, in care of tl'.Ls publication, stat­ ject for your arguments. J ust think, if you Dear Terri, Dear Cassandra, ing your problem and enclosing a sclf-ad- ever decided one way or the other, you’d Yes. I am very much in love with a girl who ha.s a dressed stamped envelope. probably break up. Don’t take the chance, # * * dears; money comes easily, but love does Dear Ca.s.sandra, not. 1 am 64 years old, with fourteen children, 5? * ♦ * By HOPE THOMPSON five grandchildren, and a great-grandchild SEXUAL POUTICS Dear (,'as.saiidra, on the way. Last night I sudderdy discov­ to pooh pooh the substance of the book are I am twenty and my girlfriend (I’ll call her Kate Millett presents sexual politics, ered that 1 have been a Lesbian all these perforce constantly reminded sotte voce Sadie) is twenty-two. We have been sharing what it is, its history, in a straightforward years. Do you have any words of advice for manner and almost entirely in the words of that they are reading what the great male an apartment for a year, going to bars, and someone like me? minds of the past 100 years or more have all that stuff. Yesterday, a friend of Sadie’s men. A short discussion of Henry Miller, Old And Gay Norman Mailer, and Jean Genet at the written. Ms. Millett has pieked her quota­ asked her what I was like in bed. When she Dear 0 and G, beginning sets the tone of the book. There tions with consummate skill and judgment said that I wore striped pajamas and slept Yes: better late than never. and has acquainted the reader with the like a log, the friend laughed. Now we think follows a section on the theory of patri­ content of these men’s thoughts in ex­ maybe wc are missing out on something. archy, that social structure that ensures the pository prose seldom equalled for clarity Could you fill us inY war between the sexes. Theory is examined Dear Ca.ssandra, from the points of view of ideology, biolo­ and honesty, an honesty that some of these Addled Adelaide I am really in a mess. My dad says that he'll men would find embarrassing. Wtm great Dear .Ad, gy, sociology, class, economics and educa­ kill me if I don’t stop fooling around with tion, force, and anthropology. A lorig, subtlety of wit and without distortion of Gracious but you two are so innocent! You girls and settle down and get married. My meaning she has quietly allowed the enorm­ do need help, and fortunately 1 am able to interesting section recounting the historical girlfriend Alice says she’ll kill me if I ever background of the sexual revolution from ous, subterranean humor of the whole provide just what you arc looking for. Send leave her. The thought of violence ab.solute- patriarchal system, its essential ridiculous­ four dollars ($4.00) in stamps (no coins, 1830 to 1930 is followed by a thorough ly terrifies me. To make matters even review of the counterrevolution from 1930 ness, to rise up before the reader. Her bills, checks, C.O.D.’s, or money orders) to worse, my mom says she’s going to kill me, to 1960. The last third of the book ex­ section on Freud and his pompous theory Cassandra, in care of this publication, and 1 my dad, and Alice if we don’t stop yelling of female sexuality (penis envy and its will .send you my new booklet, just off the amines closely the writings of Lawrence, at one another. Who shall 1 listen to? What Miller, Mailer, and Genet. Readers inclined consequences) is a gem of its kind. She presses, Sex for the Lesbian. Forty illustra- shall 1 do? 1 have tried to be patient and “Psychosexually . . • there is no differenti­ allows Freud, in his own words and with his all, an end of traditional sexual inhibitions is not betrayed by its occasional overstate­ ation between the sexes at birth. Psycho- own ideas, to do a takeoff of Freud. and taboos: homosexuality [which she else­ ments, by the weakness of its presentation sexual personality is therefore postnatal and Whether one is struek by the humor of where defines in accordance with usage as of female sexuality (still today in the hands learned.” (p. 30). Ms. Millett gives some .sexual politics, or only by the contorted meaning male only], ‘illegitimacy,’ pre- and of male researchers to whom women all too muddy heterosexual evidence for this state­ lengths to which men have gone to justify extra-marital sexuality.” (p. 62). Like readily listen, Ms. Millett included), and its ment in studies of gender identification, but the oppression of women, one cannot avoid Queen Victoria and later the Soviets, when lack of discussion of what women mean by the evidence falls far short of proof. We feeling how ominous it all is. Perhaps the Âey decided to legislate against homosexu­ “sexual freedom.” Its excellence lies in its simply do not knovv whether and to what horror into which patriarchy ha.s led us can ality, SEXUAL POLITICS passes over in bringing together all that has led up to the extent there may be already existing per­ be defeated only by a cosmic laugh that 1970’s and in thus clearing the way for sonality potentialities in the newborn. silence what heterosexual patriarchy finds ■shakes us all back into sanity. most terrifying of all: women who cannot further thinking in the years ahead. Even Babies do not behave alike, even at birth. The origins of patriarchy arc shrouded be bullied in the politics of the bedroom. the omission of Lesbianism, the total accep­ Recent work of Konrad Lorenz on the in guesswork. Perhaps the discovery of Sexual freedom means nothing if it does tance of which is fundamental to a radical possible biological inheritance of behavior paternity coupled with the human (as well not include, along with the variously quali­ and successful women’s movement, is not a patterns in animals speaks against the as animd) propensity to accumulate prop­ fied noes of heterosexual women, the un­ fault for by its very omission it becomes theory that all is learned. “For the sexes are erty and the female’s short and very preg­ qualified no of Lesbians. glaringly present. inherently in everything alike, save repro­ nant life conspired to bring it about. Ms. The excellence of SEXUAL POLITICS Millett defines patriarchy as the domination ductive systems, secondary sexual charac­ by all males of all females and a similar teristics, orgasmic capacity, and genetic and domination by older males of younger. The morphological structure.” (p. 93). This is an three components of patriarchy are: status, awfully big “save” and may well cancel out GEMSTONES: the political component; role, tlie sociolog­ the first part of the sentence. We had better ical component; and temperament, the withhold judgment until a good deal more A LOOK AT SOME MINOR WORKS OF DJUNA BARNES psychological component. In various ways, evidence is in. 1 hate to see Ms. Millett fall By CAROL LYNK these are all rooted in nature or biology, or into the method of mere assertion, that mind?’ ” In the poem she draws a clear so our male thinkers would have it. Views method that ultimately destroys any argu­ The novel NIGHTWOOD is, of course, picture of the three above-mentioned char- of patriarchy are examined in: the theory ment and that she so well exposes when the most brilliant of Djuna Barnes’ Lesbian acteristies and their relation to her adult of Engels, the “wisdoms” of myth, conclu­ used by others. works. Yet here and there throughout all self when she replaces the dog .she slept sions from male notions of female sexual- ' What Ms. Millett treats us to is a view of the literary gems she has produced we can with as a child with a girl “that lies on my ity, and the effluvia of some 19th century all humanity seen through male myopia. find more sapphires, if you will excuse the arm”. She replaces the need for her mother poets and novelists, among them Termyson, Without having to say so in so many words, pun, shining. Some are unpolished in sub­ to protect her from harm witli thoughts of Swinburne, and Wilde and representing rev­ she makes it clear that a wider vision is ject matter and we know only by fecUng self-inflicted hurt, and her camaraderie with olutionary, chivalrous, and fantasy aspects. necessary - the vision of the female to the cut of the jewel its nature. There are, boys in her youth with her loneliness. One The section on the counterrevolution correct the monumental blind spots of the though, several bright pieces she has offered could go deeply into this poem as a takes a good, no-nonsense look at the Nazis male. This is an enormous improvement, the casual miner for the taking. summation of Miss Barnes’ work and life, and Soviets, at Freud and his female dupes but hardly enough for the Lesbian reader. A NIGHT AMONG THE HORSES into its significance in a study of the (Helene Deutsch and Marie Bonaparte - Ms. Millett’s cultural mUieu is still limited, (N.Y.: Horace Liveright, 1929) i.s* a collec­ Lesbian as conceived by that writer; but excellent examples of women who find limited this time by a larger circle labelled tion of short stories and poems. Two of the there are other pieces to be mentioned. joining the enemy the way to status), Erik “heterosexual.” A truly human view is not poems and two of the stories are of Another poem in the same, collection is Erikson and how he thinks to soothe possible without incorporating the correc­ unquestionable interest here. dedicated “To the memory of Mary Pyne” and is called “Six Songs of Khalidine”. women’s ruffled feathers over Freud’s blunt tions afforded by the insights of the Les­ “Lullaby” is not one of Miss Barnes’ Many of Mis.s Barnes’ poems deal with y penis envy with “chivalrous” hokum about bian. best poems. It is awkwardly constructed, sorrow over a woman who has died (e.g. women’s “inner space” — replacing wom­ Patriarchy is not possible without a total beginning with a pattern of meaning, but “The Flowering Corpse” from this col­ en’s eternal and tragic loss of a penis with insistence on a heterosexual life style. The never establishing it enou^ to please the lection; “To the Dead Favorite of LIU her eternal and glorious possession of a two go hand in hand. Each male must own reader’s expectations. Its rhyme is forced CH’E” from DIAL magazine, April, 1920; womb, and finally with a discussion of and subdue at least one female. The homo­ with no constant rhythm to carry it. It is a “Crystals” from THE NEW REPUBLIC, m odern functionalism, that pseudo­ sexual is something of a problem, for, as welcome poem, nevertheless, because it is unusually forthright. Miss Barnes’ forte is a June 20, 1923). “Six Songs” may be the objectivism underlying the social sciences Ms. Millett points out, he is a deserter in the forbidding obscurity. Here one knows what only poem on this subject which indicates that insidiously move from what is (descrip­ war of the sexes. But as such he is still a she is saying immediately. She tells us of definitely that the woman mourned may tion) to what should be (prescription). part of the army, though forced to live out her youth as a tomboy, her closeness to have been a lover. Miss Barnes writes: “It is These thinkers of the counterrevolution, his life in hiding and always risking being animals, and her dependence upon her not gentleness but mad despair / That sets these brave and ingenious researchers into caught and executed. The Lesbian is no part mother. We see all three of these elements us lUssing mouths, 0 Khalidine, / Your the TRUTH, are what I cannot help but call of this patriarchal-heterosexual seheme. She repeatedly in her other work. In NIGHT- mouth and mine.” She calls her Khalidine “ball-thinkers.” has never been a part of it and is, for that WOOD, for instance, what is Robin, if not a “my little love”, and asks of the woman in SEXUAL POLITICS is so good, so reason, the ultimate key to the destruction tomboy stained with adulthood? Nora is the earth: “. . . has not the mountain’s thorough, so much a must reading for all of of that scheme. Ms. Millett follows the time base / Here trembled long ago unto the cry us in the sexual revolution, no matter how honored expedient of omitting altogether introduced with her dog as an integral part of her. And Miss Barnes asks in NIGHT- / T love you, all, I love you!’ ” The poem conservative or radical our stand, that I feel or tossing over as unimportant, the stub­ WOOD: “ ‘Love of woman for woman, itself, besides telling us more of Miss a bit of a traitor in saying 1 find errors of born phenomenon of Lesbianism. “A sexual what insane passion for unmitigated anguish Barnes, is a beautiful thing, full of strong overstatement and a crucial omission. revolution would require, perhaps first of and motherhood brought that into the emotions powerfully expressed. Its rhythm is regular and easy and the poem is filled Cudahy, 1962) with the title changed to with skillful rhyming. Miss Barnes’ ability as “Cassation” . Again a young girl goes to live Torsoaal Ä : l i m "^^rigiids By MARGARET FULTON a poet is proven here. with an older woman. Miss Barnes gives us, “The Dove” is a .strange one-act play in this story, a picture of Sapphic love in Some of my best friends are straiglit. In sion, to their expressed surpri.se, that with included in A NIGHT .AMONti I HE the sense that it resembles what our male- fact, with the exception of my beloved, all its flaws, .America was an OK sort of HORSES. It deals wfith two sisters and a oriented civilization knows as Platonic love. only one of my friends is not straight. This place to live. young girl, the Dove, who lives with the The older woman is teacher and lover, means that almost all of these fricndship.s For all her cool, however, Jennifer still sisters. The Dove resembles Miss Barnes’ sharing her view of life with the younger; reached a point at which, if the friend.ship carried with her considerable remnants of decea.sed lady love characters physically, finally .seeming to prepare the younger for were to grow and deepen, the friend had to her puritanical upbringing, and I ap­ and Robin of MGIITWOOD in personality. life without the teacher. The story’s impor­ be informed of tlie true nature of the proached telling her about Ann with con­ The three live in an apartment filled with tance is just that relationship. W'c do not relationship between Ann and me. siderable trepidation. Even if she wasn’t unused swords and guns which symbolize often see in literature women sharing the Since 1 met Ann when I was in college, shocked and/or disgusted, 1 feared that she their inaction. The sisters play with the same realms of intellect with men. That the my friends there were the first to know might well feel uneasy about continuing to thought of death by violence as .some sort writer should be a modem woman, still about how we felt about each other . . . shan! a suite with me. It was a sunny winter of consummation of their loveless lives. The embracing the high ideals of a culture in after we ourselves figured it out. My best afternoon when I finally summoned my Dove is their awaited lover, but will not many ways superior to ours, perhaps sug­ friend and roommate at school was Jen­ nerve. She was brushing her hair in her play her part until .she uses a weapon on gests a quality about ourselves of which we nifer. I have always had a secret desire to be room and I was sitting on the bed in my them. The reader swims in the sexual can be proud. tall and rangy (I’m 5’4”), and J eiinifer was room, watching her through tlie short con­ inferences of the play’s action and awaits a These four examples are only the more tall and rangy — perhaps that is what first necting passageway. I got up and went to resolution of the almost-plot in much the obvious of many of Djuna Barnes’ .short drew me to her. She had a well-earned the pa.ssage, leaned against the wall farthest same way as she would the happy ending of works which this reader has unearthed. reputation as a kook. A natural aetres.s, she from her, and cleared my throat. a more conventional love story. As always, There is more work scattered through old had a knack for making people believe the “Jennifer. . .” .Miss Barnes packs the work with magically magazines po.ssibly forgotten even by Mi.ss most incredible tall tales, and she enjoyed “Hmmm?” absent-mindedly. involving emotional turmoil. It is brief, yet Barnes, who now lives in enforced .solitude playing eccentric roles. She was al.so an “1 love Ann,” very .softly. tells the story of years. It is violent, yet a in New York. Her most recent appearance extremely intelligent and perceptive young “Yeah. 1 know you do,” again ab.sently, love story. It is sexual, even erotic, yet in print, after a lapse of many years, was in woman, however. Perhaps one of tlic many but with a small added note of puzzlement. painfully pure in spirit. It .should be per­ the December 27, 1969 is.sue of THE NEW' ‘Jennifer-stories’ wdl illustrate tliis. “No, you don’t understand. I really love formed. YORKER magazine. It is the poem of an Jennifer was invited for a drive by one her.” Even stranger is the short story in this aged woman fighting death. Barne.s- of the local young men who patronized the For the first time, she looked at me, collection called “A Little Girl Tells a Story worshippers await more beauty from the bar most-frequented by the students of our obviously still unaware of what I was trying to a Lady’’, al.so in SELECTED WORKS OF fight. women’s college. The ride ended up at to .say. DJUNA BARNES (N.Y.: Farrar, Straus & another bar, this one in the black ghetto. “ You know, the way you love someone Jennifer’s companion was well known in that you want to marry.” the bar, but as the ordy otlier white and a (Comprehension came. If with it came By Jules Feiffer stranger, Jennifer realized that she was any .shock or distaste, .she hid it well. probably going to cause unnecessary ten­ “Have you done anytliing about it?” sions among the other patrons. She decided, “What?” therefore, to be French for the evening. She “Anything beyond telling each other could easily affect a French accent, and by that you love each other . . . any of the doing so she was an immediate bit. Several usual things that go along with loving men, who would probably have regarded someone.” her with some distrust if they knew she was “Yes.” a white American, asked her to dance and A moment of consideration, then a grin, then joined her and her escort at their table. “Thank God. If you hadn’t. I’d be really The talk covered a variety of subjects, and worried that you were abnormal.” Jennifer realized even more than before Jennifer and I are still friends. that, as a foreigner, she was in a position to * « * « « tH Tusom ' learn things that it would have been diffi­ Telling Jennifer, and getting the reaction aeuR> $ from her that I did, made telling other war Ak) cult if not impossible for her to learn in her OPR?e55£P ordinary guise. One of the men at the table people somewhat easier. Allen was the MlGCeiTV. asked her how she liked America. She boy-next-door (actually he lived around the replied that she loved it, so much so that comer). We walked to school together all she had been reading about American his­ through grammar school, built forts togeth­ tory and the constitution, etc. Several of er, went down the railroad tracks to pick the black men expressed some disagreement raspberries. It was in the raspberry patch, and discussion ensued. By tlie end of the when we were both ten, that Allen ex­ evening, Jennifer knew something of the plained the facts of life to me. Just REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF black man’s feelings about his country, and explained, no demonstrations, because we thought of sex as another strange thing that JULES FEIFFER AND PUBLISHERS-HALL SYNDICATE the men present had come to the conclu- grown-ups did. Wlien I was in my freshman discharge from the armed forces. Jill and I had been friends at Girl Scout ness on Jill’s part because of my confession. year at college 1 decided that I wanted to About a year after I had moved in with Camp. When we were fourteen wc had a She wanted to know all about Ann. Her know what sex was all about and Allen Ann, and only shortly before 1 was due to crush on the same counsellor. W'hen we comparisons of aspects of my relationship seemed a likely candidate for instructor, so leave for the West Coast and graduate were fifteen we were both in the Coun.sid- to Ann to aspects of hers to Sam led me to 1 wrote to him. The next time 1 went home school, 1 went home to visit my parents. lor-In-Training unit and were rather close. be more open and frank about things than I for a vacation, Allen called for a date and .Allen was home on leave. For the first After that summer we exchanged Christmas had yet been with anyone other than my education began. Our sexual relation­ couple of days that I was there, although cards for six years, but no more. Then the Jennifer. Jill hasn’t met Ann yet, but I’m ship continued sporadically throu^out that we saw each other often, we really said year that I was not seeing Ann, my .senior sure she’ll like her when .she docs. ***** school year. It wa.s mutually pleasurable little to each other. 1 began to think that year at college, Jill called me while I was ph ysically, but no more than that. Allen our former closeness was a short-lived prod­ home for Thanksgiving and asked me why Finally, allow me to talk about Dr. and 1 had grown apart during our high uct of loncUness. But one evening he took the hell I didn’t come to visit her and her Simons. Talking about Dr. Simons is some­ school days, and we really had little in me to sec Romeo and Juliet. We arrived at husband. I couldn’t think of any good thing I do rather often, because next to common. He had flunked out of college, the theatre quite a bit early, and Allen reasons why not, .so 1 went. The only thing Ann he is the single most important influ­ because he had more interest in booze and suggested that we stay in the car and talk that may be better than finding a new ence in my life so far. When I went to broads than in books, and he was violently instead of going right in. He began to talk friend, is rediscovering an old friend. Six college I thought that I would probably anti-intellectual, perhaps to prove to him­ about himself — how he had changed since years are a long time when they fall major in English or History, and with an self that he had chosen to leave school. We I’d last seen him, what he now felt he between fifteen and twenty-one, but with eye to the latter 1 enrolled in Dr. Simons’ stopped seeing each other when I went off wanted out of life, and how much it Jill and me they represented a [leriod of introductory Greek class. In a little while I to camp in June, and when I came home in bothered him that we seemed to be wearing parallel evolution. Wc discovered that we forgot about Engli.sh and History and August, I met Ann. masks for each other now that wc hadn’t had read and liked the same books, favored steeped my.self in the glory of Classical Two years later Ann and 1 parted — with been wearing before. I agreed about the the same music and had developed very Greek. Dr. Simons bore a more than passing many tears, and suppo.sedly for our mutual masks and decided to contribute my part to .similar outlooks on the world. She told me rc.semblance to Neanderthal man, but when benefit. That Christmas Allen came home shedding them. about her fir.st love, whom she had lost he .started talking about Greek he was on leave from the Air Force. I could hardly “Do you remember my telling you that because of religious differences and result­ bc'autiful. His love for his .subject was believe my eyes. He had always been tall, I was involved with a girl a couple of years ant parental disapproval, and she told me infectious and 1 caught a severe ease of it. and had potentially good looks. Now, ago?” about Sam, her husband, who wasn’t first Dr. Simons was not a man you felt neutral thanks to the rigorous training he had He nodded. love but was the perfect mate for her. 1 told about. You either worshipped him or hated received as a paramedic, he was broad- “Well, we’ve gotten back together. 1 live her about Ann, but because I was a little him. My freshman year I worshipped him. shouldered and narrow-hipped, and smooth­ with her in Boston; she’s the reason I’m unsure of Jill, and Itecaus*- I thought it was My sophomore year he was on leave lo do ly muscled. And thanks to the self- Uving in Boston this year instead of going to all over anyway, I nderred to Ann as “he." research in the Aegean. My junior year I confidence that passing the numerous graduate .school, or living at home." I met Sam and agreed with Jill’s ap­ hated him, at least for a little while. But as selective tests in the .Air Force program had He nodded again, “I thought maybe that praisal of him. He wa.s easy-going and soft he forced me to work beyond what I given him, he was beautiful. This time was so, but I couldn't ask you, you know. 1 spoken — a good balance for.I ill’s ebulli­ thought was my ability, and as 1 found out around we were friends as well as, in the just had to wait and hope that you would ence. Throughout that year I saw a lot of that I could do the work he demanded, 1 physical sense, lovers. 1 told him about tell me . . . that you’d trust me enough to them — going home more often than I began to respect him. By the end of the Ann, and he said he had experimented with tell me.” generally did. When 1 moved to Boston, I year I was back in the ranks of worshippers. homosexuality, but he hadn't liked it. He “1 wanted to tell you before, but it didn’t .see J ill for several months - not until When he asked me lo be his student said he was sorry that things had not didn’t seem to be the kind of thing to write I came home for a few days at Christmas. If assistant, I was overwhelmed with pride and worked out for me, and he meant it. in a letter, and then when I saw you again I I had been tempted to tell Jill about Ann with fear that I wouldn’t live up to his faith Despite the fact that neither of us was in wasn’t .sure 1 knew you.” before, 1 was much mort^ so now that Ann in me. love with the other, our mutual affection “I know. You don’t really know me, was no longer in th<' past but very much So senior year I was his assistant. Ann and need might have led us to serious you couldn’t. And 1 don’t know you, but 1 present. As we .sat in her living room, and I had parted in September of that year, commitments, but the .Air Force saved us want to know you. And 1 want you to talking about what t^aidi of us was doing, I and I threw myself into my work, com­ by .sending him to Cermany. know me, loo.” weiglied the pro and co n of telling her and plaining all the while that it was ordy in .Allen left in March, and in July, Ann “The most important thing to know decided for the pro. fiction that throwing yourstdf into your called and asked me to visit her. 1 flew to about me is that I’m very much in love with .So I said, “Rcmcmlrer that guy I told work did any good. But being around Dr. Boston, where she was in graduate school, Ann, I’m happier with her than I have ever you about?” Simons did a lot of good. He demanded a with many conflicting emotions and no been, and I plan to spend the rest of my life “Yes.” great deal of me both in cla.ss and in my clear idea of what 1 was doing. By the end with her . . . after a year or so of separa­ “Well, it wa.sn’t a guy, it was a girl. It is assistantship, but he was always cnomiou.sly of the weekend 1 knew exactly what 1 was tion while I go to school.” a girl. The same girl. I’m living with her now plca.sed when I gave him what he a.sked for. doing. A lucky series of events allowed me “If you’re happy. I’m happy for you.” and . . . well. I’m very happy, and I ju.st I started to know him as a person and my to put off graduate school for a year He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek wanted you lo know the whole truth.” respect for him grew, even as he was without too much static from my friends and wc got out of the ear and went to the “Why didn’t you tell me before? Didn’t fostering my own self-respect. and relations, and at the end of the summer movie. you trust nu ?” I’d never met his wife, although I’d seen 1 moved in with Ann. My letters to Allen When my vacation was over, Allen drove I mumbled somi'thing about 'you never her and knew her to be lovely and quite a became newsy and stilted, and 1 was unable me back to Boston and spent .several very could tell how people woidd react’, ‘why bit younger than he. She would occasional­ to respond to his elaborations on a motor­ pleasant days with Ann and me before he upset people unnece.s.sarily about past his­ ly call him at the office, and when he spoke cycle trip through Europje that we had had to leave for his new base. tory’, and other inanities. Despite my fool- lo her the affection in his voice was so half-seriously planned to ' take after his ish fears, there was no reticence or uneasi­ apparent as to make me embarrassed about 18 : 19 desire on the editor's part to change brill“ ill llic room, ttlini llir I'liH ol tlir visit. I told him I’d call him when 1 got to 1 am proud to know the four [wople the word “straigh t ” used in this article vi'iir caiiif and (In’ major (irojrct I bad brrn town and hung up. Then I beak^my head .sketched hi re, among others that 1 won’t to heterosexual or some other word norkiii" on lor liim wa.i not iiiiilr finislud, against the wall for a while, paced the room bore you by describing. Their acceptance of Ann and me is immensely iminirtanl to me. without the loaded connotations. be a.ikt'd nm to niovr into his hoii.n' tor a and cursed mysi’lf for three bloody kinds of However, there is, apparently, no oth conplr o( wci’ks after "radliation. to finish a coward. Ann, .sitting quietly on Ihe sofa as, 1 think my trust in them is important to them. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t er synonym for heterosexual, even in it ii[i. Asain ha|)p> but fearful, I aeeepted. O’adiug, .suggested I call him back. 1 did. "Ur. Simons'f” it? Acceptance and trust. such modern works as THE RA?^DOM Kearful. beeaiisi’ it\s one thiiif; to know HOUSE UICITONARY OF THE E!\‘- someone in aeadeinie siirroimdiiif;s and ■•Yes'r (VAilor's There was a stronf^ CUSH LAHGUAGE, 1967.) quite another to know him In his home, and “ It’s me again, Margaret. I just thought I beeause his wife was an unknown quantity. ought to tell you that thi're'll be someone My fears, as usual, were jtroundle.ss. Ur, with me. flh . . . the girl I’m living with.” Simons' wife was as eharmin“ and inlelli. "Oh, fine, fine. Girl'i I thought there ¡lent as he. A pianist, she spent hours each wiLs a young man.” DANCE LESSON day praetieiiiK or ¡nvin^ les.son.s. Ur. Simons “I'll . . . no . . . there was never a clearly repirded her (irofe.ssion as e(|ually as young man . . .” By THE CLASS WORKSHOP im|iortant as his own. He would no sooner "Oh . . . Margaret, is there something have asked her to type .somethin“ for him you want to ti'll me'f” On Friday, April 3, 1970, the women of following night at the “(¡lass W'orkshop” than she would have a.sked him to stand and "No." and I hung up. (¡ay Liberation Front held Ihe first All- meeting. We decided to write a public turn J>a¡Ie.s for her: and yet each of them Now I was feeling infantile as well as Women’s Dance. Previous to this there had statement of our responses to the dance. Both those of us who went and those w'ho had an active and informed interest in the cowardly , and I beat my head harder than been other “(¡LF” dances, but these were other's work. In .short, (heir relationship, at Ix'fore. .Ann got off the couch and came not well attended by wiimen. The response did not wrote about our feelings toward the dance. Here arc our responses; least to this observer, was ideal. If one can over to me and held me close. to this first .All-Women’s Dance was in fact feel part of a family after two weeks with "Uariing, call him back.” excellent. At peak then’ were somewhere D I D N ’T G O near 250 women dancing together. The A dance has connotations of all the them. I did. "1 can’t. I’ve already called him twice.” atmosphere was warm and close and for the normal (opprc’ssive) ins and ouis of male/ I had had sr'veral opportunities to tell "TIm’e times lucky. Call him and tell first time publicly, those of us from Wom­ female sexual relationships. Dancing is Ur. Simons about Ami, Oiiee, when I first him. You know you won’t .sleep until you en’s Liberation who attended realF/.ed a sexual. This is what 1 thought about when 1 started workint: for him, he mentioned that do.” fuller, more expanded meaning of what we heard of the women's dance, sponsor’d by the trouble with his a.-ssistant of the year "You’re right, of course.” (Redstockings, a Secretaries’ That weekend we did .see them. .Mostly bad, maybe beeause I told myself (they told advi.sed calling him and telling him the group and WITCH). .At the dance we who we saw Dr. Simons, hecausi' Mrs. Simons me) it feels good. I am afraid of making facts. So I called him and said Uial there came from the workshop were aware that a had to go lo a lesson. Ann and Dr. Simons love with women (this is where the idea of was a ride available to his area of the world turning [loint in the Women’s Movenu’iU found each other to he kindred spirits, and lesbianism takes me), 1 am afraid of my and would he he able 1« .««'e me this coming was implicit in the dance. We were excited I jinst .sat back and watched them appreciate Imdv; to think of going to the women’s weekend. He was delighted and urged the each other. to talk about its significance and did so Ihe dance made me think of all these things — Once before during my trip through became more palpable and natural to me. I the fears are laterally spread across my Women’s Liberation, I had come to believe mind, like the idea of climbing up some­ that relationships with other women had to don’t know how and I don’t know when, thing high when I know I am afraid of be a part of Women’s Liberation. 1 call this but I’m ju.st open. heights — I am the object of the lover, my bi.sexual stage. The short affair I had □ ID G O object of the fall. Afraid of the repetition ended not entirely as I would have liked to. I guess I’m naive but 1 had expected of these roles. A fraid of dancing with sisters The problems that opened up 1 wasn’t able Women’s Liberation to be better represent­ because it means “sexual.” It’s quite a list to deal with to my satisfaction. It’s dif­ n ed at the women’s dance. I mean, we have of abstractions — it’s pretty much what 1 ferent now and I see more what I think has an all-women’s movement; we have all­ imagine that scares me. 1 went home be­ to happen relating to other women, the women’s meetings; we had an all-women’s cause “I’m exhausted” and watched the single, most important thing being to traius- il mixed media show at the AU a month or so television. foim whatever “Male-Heterosexual” orien­ ago - it didn’t .seem to me like such a big step to go to an all-women’s dance. But D I D G O tations we have in ourselves. Lesbianism i.s the supreme insult and .At the .same time 1 declared myself a apparently it is. When 1 sugge.sted going to people in my .small group, I wa.s greeted in threat to the male. potential lover of women. 1 announced 1 some cases with shock, but mostly with It insults him because it implies that you would attend the “GLF Dance.” and a.sked rationalizations: “Lesbians are always put­ prefer another woman to him. He is indig­ if there was any one else who wanted to go. ting down heterosexual feminists” was one nant at the fart that you would compare One other member in the group said she of the more thoughtful ones; mo.stly it was, him to a “mere woman,” that you would would attend. “I don’t like to dance,” or “I’m too tired.” actually consider a woman his equal. Most of the other members objected to Well, it’s no surprise that lesbians pot us Sexually you are stripping him of his the idea of a “dance.” 1 also objected to the down — the movement has so far been age-old prerogative — he is not your only formal aspect of a dance, whicb I had pretty carefully anti-le.sbian, so what’s in it source of love and affection. You have a associated with “heterosexual” relation­ for them? It’s also no .surprise tliat many choice and implicit in that choice is that ships. But in spite of the label, 1 saw the possibility of having an experience that women don’t like to dance or think they your needs and pleasure are equal to or don’t — a dance with men is a parade, a have priority over hi.s. This is the reason the would counter the limited “dance” defi­ cattle auction, a drag. “lesbians” (and let’s keep in mind that the nition, and that was that there would be By W.B. EDMONDS Dancing with women is something else word lesbian is a male supremacist dis­ present “only” women in a social context again, it was one of the must Ireautiful only dance I ever went to. That was tinction which artineally defines love of “wanting” to relate to women, as op­ experiences of my life — a total high. And it thirteen years ago, but the vision remains among women as purely sexual) are ridi­ posed to relating through men. turns out that it was a big step. Because I and it stinks. culed and persecuted in our male suprema­ W hat 1 experienced at the dance was the am learning to love women, and the dance Any thing that calls itself a “dance” still cist, bourgeois society. This is the reason sense of reopened emotional feeling with­ was a first step. brings forth this same repulsion. I auto­ that the oppressor has called the Women’s out restriction, for women. When I danced □ ID G O matically transferred the feeling to the Liberation Movement “a bunch of les­ close to another woman the feeling of her In WL I have developed a closeness with “All-Women’s Dance.” I discredited women bians.” body flooded me with emotion. Thinking by thinking we would take on the values of about this afterward, 1 was aware of how women and found that I enjoy having All of us must recognize the political the other sex. significance of what is called by men much feeling for each otlicr we do have, yet women friends. Yet 1 always felt a fear of I’m not against the wall anymore. I “lesbianism.” We cannot afford to push arc told not to expre.s.s, and how this must expressing my feelings in a phy sical way by apologize to my comrades and to rny.sedf. aside this i.ssue because of cultural biases or really stultify our personal relations. For bugging or touching. The fears had lessened The oppressor already knows that if wc me the dance was my first public step in a.s the warmth and love I feel for other fear. Let’s face the truth: the. greatest threat unite we will have the strength lo win. They to men is .solidarity among women, and affirming total sisterhood. women have deepened. When 1 heard about the dance 1 felt that it was a chance to therefore do everything in their power lo “lesbianism” epitomizes this solidarity. D I D G O keep us in an antagonistic relation lo each Let us also remember that our political The All-W'omcn’s Dance wa-s an expan­ expres.s my feelings openly. The dance was other. Lesbiansim is a division among us views arc expressed in our everyday actions. sion of space for u.se by women in both a exciting to me because of the warm feelings that they arc particularly careful lo main­ They reveal both how we think and feci literal and psychological .sense. It aroused in 1 received from the women there, many of tain. They have imposed social and legal about ourselves and our sisters. Whom do me an incipient sense of posses.sion and whom 1 had never met before. The women penalties against it so as to make us afraid we in fact prefer to be with, to work and freedom men feel everywhere el.se. For once were open and expres.scd their affection to to love other women. They arc aware that if plan with, to play and dance with? I felt relatively inconspicuous and able to each other freely. 1 also felt a .sen.se of achieve the detachment neces.sary for free­ belonging since the women here also loved tliey can keep us from loving and respecting □ ID G O each other they have robbed us of our The Wednesday before the “GLF dom in action rather than the compulsive other women and showed it. I felt that I greatest .strength. The dance signifies a Dance,” 1 made a public declaration in my involvement women arc usually made to had broken out of an old shell and could turning point in Uic Women’s Movement, Women’s Liberation group that 1 would no feel. The dance impressed everyone from relax and enjoy myself at a dance, which I for we are beginning to recognize in a basic- longer relate to men in any kind of emo­ Women’s Liberation so well that this open­ had never been able to do before. way what “Solidarity” really means. tional relationship. Men, I said, had infected ing space will not be lo.st but will be fought DIDN'T GO ^ for as our right. 1 was standing by the wall - lined up us and the world with the disease of (Reprinted with permission from On a more subjective level I was moved with the other chickens — all waiting to be “lletero-sexuahty.” 1 had concluded that RAT. Originally entitled WOMEN'S but experienced no great upheaval. It was picked out by the Almighty ROY who tlic only potentially “healthy” emotional UBERATION.) relationships that could take place were not anything like a religious conversion. would choose YOU and give you some with other women. The idea of women loving each otlier just reason for feeling you had a right lo live. That is the one memory 1 have of the Lutheran Church in America in Minneapo­ the next Olympic Games. that many a sympathetic minister, often lis, the delegates voted for the first time to OF THUS PURE BUT IRREGULAR gay, would privately marry male couples or allow ordination of women as ministers. PAS-SION: VILLAGE VOICE: July 2, Lesbian couples. It is also being done KARATE NO MEDIA JOKE: Coast-to- The Mis.souri Synod of the Lutheran 1970. Jill Johnston, who has made her publicly but without legal sanction in coast coverage: June, July and August Church (second largest Lutheran body) felt Lesbianism patently dear to all but the churches such as METROPOLITAN COM­ 1970. Many areas oi the country have this move would imperil Lutheran unity. most obtuse in past VILLAGE VOICE MUNITY CHURCH in Los Angele.s. The available low-cost or free training in self- Women were recently granted the vote in Í columns on the dance of life, now publicly time has come, however, to make it possible defense for women, and more and more the Missouri Synod at church legislative states the fact for us in this column. for two men, two women, or whatever, to women arc taking advantage of these sessions, but Rev. l5f. J..A.0. Preus of the. Unfortunately, .she al.so introduces a con­ marry and take advantage of the many courses. Rapes and assaults, frequently with Missouri Synod pointed out that since Eve f glomeration of theoretical philosophy that institutions designed to benefit couples in vicious mutilation and death as the end was formed from Adam’s rib, women have a will confuse anyone who is not ihorouglily our society if they wish to do .so.) result, are increasing nationally and partii:u- lower place of distinction in the creation familiar with Lesbian literature. More un­ TRACY KNIGHT AND MARJORIE larly in our larger cities. Beverly Koch, (does one laugh or cry here?). fortunately, she includes a public attack on RUTH JONES: COURIER-JOURNAL: writing in SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, KANSAS CITY WOMEN’S LIBERA­ a famous — and rightly .so — woman in July 9, 1970. This LouLsville, Kentucky July 27, 1970, about the Stanford Univer­ TION: July 1970. The Kansas City group, women’s liberation whose personal repu­ paper report.s that Jefferson County Attor­ sity course in self defense for women, divided into some nine .separate areas of tation for kindness and compassion is na­ ney J. Bruce Miller has ordered that a covers the basics and points out the serious interest, has common quarters at the tionally known. Inexcicsable had manners, marriage licen.se not be issued to these two need for this sort of training to begin in EC.STATIC UMBRELLA, ,1800 McGee, Jill, no matter what excuse you might give. women. They had applied for a marriage higll school, when **the heaviest socializa­ Kansas City, Mis.souri 64111. This address Tacked to the end of this column is a license because they felt they had, as a tion of women takes place . . . they get the supersedc.s any you may have seen in either lengthy look at Colette’s magnificent THE Lc.sbian couple, the right to the same legal idea they can’t defend themselves.” group or national media in recent months; PURE AND THE IMPURE and the even ri^ ts and tax benefits that heterosexual BITE THE H.4ND THAT FEELS YOU; the former address is not valid- They i.ssucd more important study of the celebrated couples have. Their allomey. Stuart Lyon, New York City: June 20, 1970. Sixty their first new.slettcr in July — short hut LADIES OF LLANGOLLEN, including a concluded that they would not fight the young women from a New York women’s literate, and not outstandingly noLsy. Good. wonderful excerpt from the cclebrati:d case to win their rights. liberation group held an “ogle-in” on June MORE ON APIIRA: WASHINGTON diary of Lady Eleanor Butler. Recom­ MORE TRACY KNIGHT AND MAR­ 9th at a construction site on the comer of POST (July 1970): A small article buried in mended reading, with a lot of “eye” editing JORIE RUTH JONES: COURIER- Park .Avenue and 57th Street. They ogled the “woman” section, unsigned (and, un­ an you go along. JOURN.AL: July 11, 1970. Jefferson Cir­ men, whistled at them, and made the sort fortunately, on my copy not dated/ and NUN POLICEWOMAN ELEANOR NEID- cuit Court was asked on July 10, 1970 to of comments about the men that men at headed, “It’s No Cosmopolitan” gives a WICK: BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA DES­ force County Clerk James P. Hallahan to such job sites customarily make at all good review to the new literary periodical, ERT DISPATCH: July 7, 1970. Eleanor issue a marriage license to these two Louis­ passing women, whether fresli from the .APIIR.A. However, it is not the “first” such, Niedwick is a nun and a policewoman in ville women. Stuart Lyon, attorney for the cradle or ready to tumble into the grave. “It just the second: we won in that ra(;e by Washington, Ü.C. She is 25, and she is lesbian couple, said the women had recon­ seemed,” said my reporter, “to make the some 14 years. No hard feelings, however — happy with her work. She is a member of sidered their previous decision to not force men very, very nervous ...” very happv to .see APIIRA around. the Order of the Daughters of Wisdom, the i.ssue in court. Mr. Lyon and David WOMEN’S LIBERATION CANDIDATE MORE CHURCHES CATCHING LIP TO founded to work with the poor. There are Kaplan, his law partner, argued in the WINS IN NEW YORK: UP: June 25, 1970. THE W'ORLD: July 1970. At the 1970 about 5,000 today, and they work as action filed: “Concurrent mores, customs Bella Abzug, 49-year-old lawyer, trounced General Assembly of the Llnitarian- nurses, teachers and social workers . . . and and practices do not indicate a public incumbent Leonard Farbstcin, 67, for the Universalist Church, a number of state­ policewomen now. policy which is contrary to the marriage Democratic Congressional nomination in ments were made concerning homosexuals THE RIGHT TO MARRY IN PUBLIC between parties of the .same sex. The New York’s 19th Congressional District. and bisexuals. .Among these, item number AND NOT IN PRIVATE PLACES . . . consenting parties to this marriage are The 19th is heavily Democratic, .so that four: there are Unitarian-Universalists, OPENLY . . . SAN FRANCISCO CIIRON- taking no action detrimental to the interest primary victory is tantamount to election. clergy and laity, who are homosexuals and ICLE: July 7, 1970. In what must be the of any other party or parties, nor will their She will be mnning in November against bisexuals. (No kidding!) The assembly made most unusual editorial this not-unusually marriage do injury or violence to the person Harry Färber, a Republican-Liberal candi­ the basic resolutions supporting an end to liberal newspaper has ever done, entitled “A or property of any other party or parties.” date. all discrimination against homo.scxuals in New Look at Homasexual Marriage,” we Tracy Knight is 25; Maijorie Jones is 39. LONG-HAIRED HARD HATS: Wallace, employment or anywhere else and the usual find the following: “Marriage is the public LABOR OF A DIFFERENT SORT; Idaho: June and July 1970. This summer a consensual adult recommendations. Unlike announcement of a civil contract between Burlington, Iowa: July 19, 1970. Charlotte group of women from 18 to 25 arc earning other church bodies reported previously in I two people showing binding intent to share Bixenman, 29, has become a card-carrying their summer educational money working this column, they add no trailers — no if’s, their lives. It is also a personal contract, member of a construction and general as a “slash crew” for logging camps. They and’s or conditions. We are grateful, only showing intent to share their mental and laborer’s union local. .She is believed to be make $2.22 an hour minimum and are, wish the hard rock groups (and I do not s emotional resources. Members of the heter­ one of llic first women members of such a obviously, in it for the money. Everyone, mean music) would follow suit. osexual majority derive great .security, pride group. including the men on the logging crews, is CHI CHENG OF TAIWAN, SUPER and social acceptance from this “rendering MELBOURNE .SUNDAY OBSERVOR; pleased with the arrangement, all having GIRL. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: public” of an honest social commitment in July 19, 1970. Australia is many years had .severe doubts at first. Slow proeess, this July 1, 1970. Watch for this name, as this the eyes of ‘God and Man.’ It would seem behind even llie U.S. as far as liberal views education bit. 26-year-old seems destined to become one only in keeping with the times that consid­ on sex orientation. It is gratifying to find LUTHERANS VOTE ORDIN.ATION of the greatest athletes of all time — not eration be given to allowing the homosexual this newspaper (and from its size we would OF WOMEN: WASHINGTON POST: July women’s athletes: athletes. Chi Cheng is a minority the same rigtiLs to this sense of guess this is a .Sunday supplement sort of 1970. At the biennial as.sembly of the ninner and is said to be destined to star at fulfillment.” (It has been known for years publication that belongs with some rcgidar Ihougl), to see if his views damage his career asked not to become embroiled and added, puhlislicd newspaper) produeing a relatively hey-Owens-Ford employs 20C women and in the future. If not, then it is safe to say “I am not a very interesting person any­ calm and not too stupid look at a s<'ries of 5.200 men in its Toledo area plants. that his views are held by the majority of way.” l.esbians. They do cite (bul do not identify) MEN.S LIBERATION??? NEW.SWEEK: men, and if this is so, then there isn’t room THE SPOKESWOMAN: This is a new some survey that found out of 12T Les­ .July 20, 1970 reports on men’s liberation on this planet for both sexes. Dr. Berman news .service from the Urban Research bians, one in four wished to be heterost^x- groups openly wishing to act a.s “Gents’ on women: Corporation, 5464 .South Shore Drive, Chi­ ual. This seems impossible, based on various .Auxiliary” to women’s liberation. They 1) Referring to Patsy .Mink’s request cago, Illinois 60615. Cost is $6 per year for studies that have appeared in the li.S. and naturally include the fact that many homo- that he be fired for sexist views, a neatly printed, stapled news sheet cover­ years of dealing in this field, but this was a .sexual men are included but also cite the publicly stated on the grounds that if ing major national events concerned with all British study and possibly there are differ­ many who are not. Bo.ston, Berkeley, San he held similar views (i.c., congenital aspects of women’s liberation (more accu­ ences. [Not good, not really bad — encourag­ Francisco and New York are said to have physical and mental inferiority) on rately, with women’s rights). Editor Susan ing otdy becau.se it i.s something that could groups. negroes, he would nut be allowed to Davis is doing a good job, and if you want not have appeared a .short while back, ■SMALL CON.SENStJS: WASHINGTON hold public office. Dr. Berman said to know what is happening that will affect WOMEN’S JOB KIOIIT BECINS: KAN- POST: July 25, 1970. Forty women attend­ your “feline ploy of equating my your future, this is a good over-all look. SAS CITY STAR: July 20, 1970. The II.S. ed a coordination meeting with Representa­ dissent with racial prejudice certainly Example of its usefulness can be seen by government went to court for tlic first time tive Edith Green (D. Oregon) on unifying does not reflect even male congres­ this: I have been getting and reading PUB­ to fight for equal employment rights for efforts to end discrimination against wom­ sional standards of debate.” He LISHER’S WEEKLY for fifteen years of women since discrimination against women en. Elizabeth Boyer, representing Women’s called Mrs. Mink’s letter (to Hum­ my life, but 1 hardly ever look at the was banned by the Civil Rigiits Act of Equity Action League (W'EAL), spoke of phrey asking that Dr. Berman be children’s book section of this periodical. 190T. Suit was filed again.st labbey-Owens- her group as the far right but added that fired) “a typical example of an ordi­ But in the J uly .30, 1970 SPOKESWOMAN Ford, Inc., and United Gla.ss and Ceramic they were most willing to go through narily controlled woman under the (Vol. I, No. 3) I found an announcement Workers of North .America, .AFC-C.IO and establishment processes to gain their goals. raging hormonal imbalance of the that sen! me scurrying to the July 13, 1970 its local No. 9. The J usticc Department .said She also said that some “men were referring periodic lunar cycle — thus proving PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Thirty-eight women workers in the company’s Toledo, to women’s liberation as the ‘Women’s the point against which you rail.” book publishers (children’s books) were Ohio plants were di.seriminated against. The Mafia Movement’ ” — charming. Most of 2) “In fact,” he wrote, “the .same glan­ queried by PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY about department .said l.ibbey-Owens-Kord hires the groups attending were, in fact, the most dular secretions producing the reac­ the effect women’s liberation was having on women production workers in only one of riglit wing (establishment-oriented) groups. tions which you say do no! exist, their editorial considerations. Sixteen said its five Toledo plants, a.ssigns them to less DR. EDGAR F. BERMAN SEXIST EX­ endow most ‘real women’ with their the current movement was not affecting de.sirable and lower-paying jobs with the TRAORDINARY: WASHINGTON POST: most endearing and genteel their editorial deci.sions; sixteen said it lea.st opportunity for adv.incement, and July 29, 1970. Nancy L. Ross, reporting in charms ...” definitely wa.s, and many of thc.se cited subjects women to a liiglier frequency of the Post on Dr. Berman, who frankly feels 3) “Genes are our fates and hormones titles. The other six gave less specific layoffs. The union is being cited because that women are extremely inferior to men our masters. You can’t break with answers. Several publishers said they were union management contracts deprive female and is happy to say so in as many ways ircstinct. Living on a farm, 1 find wc issuing books reflecting the new surge of employees of an equal opportunity to p«s.sible in public as can be managed, are not too far removed from the interest in the rights of women. And most compete with their male contemporaries for doesn’t betray in her article a shred of animals. You only have to watch a interesting of all, publishing house Crowell, the more desirable, better-paying jobs. Lib- loathing for the man. It will be amusing. sow suckle her young and the boar which launched a WOMEN IN AMERICA wander off to realize we live more by series in 1969, has scheduled a book on the our reflexes than our intellect.” life of Rachel Carson called SEA AND The events that began the furor over Dr. SKY, and for 1971, TO THE BARRI- CANDI McGONAGLE Berman actually took place on April 30, CADES: THE ANARCHIST LIFE OF 1970, when the Democrats’ Committee on EMMA GOLDMAN. (.See “My God It Hap­ National Priorities was meeting. Dr. Berman pened to Me Too” in August/September recalled for Nancy L. Ross that they were 1970 issue of The LADDER.) discussing “vital issues like Vietnam and the GLADYS GUY; Sealtle, July 31, 1970. Middle East, and Pasty Mink brought up The first woman to hold the job of area women’s rights.” Dr. Berman challenged director for the Labor Department’s wage Mrs. Mink, .saying that “women’s physiolog­ and hour division, Gladys Guy, was ap­ ical and psychological characteristics, es­ pointed to that post for the Washington, pecially the menstrual cycle and meno­ Alaska and Northern Idaho area on July 30, pause, limit their potential for leadership.” 1970. Previously she was a Nevada field A number of Washington area phyacians examiner for the Veteran’s Administration, have stated there simply is not .scientific or a job cau.sing her to cover seventeen coun­ medical basis for this supposition, intruding ties and 11,000 square miles of sagebrush. Dr. Thomas Wilson, gynecologist at George Speaking about sex discrimination, she .said, Washington University. “The law has provided us with a good basis, When asked her views of her husband’s but it’s women’s responsibility to complain behavior and statements, his wife Phoebe, about .sex discrimination when it happens who is a Baltimore real estate broker and to them. 1 think someday we’ll sec com­ the owner-publi.shcr of a small newspaper. plete equality but it won’t be very soon. UHy fto- ny RtKr.t^HTi Afta neiSK. ^untulfL. /tOouT 0 « y P/!/6a/o S Í The besi we ean hope i had some unsthuified jiod-;:ivcri show that women are doing many jobs that testified on women’s rights. 1 think wom­ did not suffer from storms of female to hold women slaves. (!hief eiieiiiy have previously been eonsidered male terri­ en's lib has its place, hut not in that class.” .steroids, but it is well known that he did and a man we i’eel will not ^e^l ea.< ars. never held fully sealed 20,.T20-foot Mount McKinley in by Edith Efron. Quite rightly, site eoneen- of destiny then. Dr. Berman'f hearinpy on th<' ami'iidmenl. It wasn't im ­ .Alaska. 1’os.sibly the most publicized break­ trati's on the issues of eoneern connected All of this clarifies to .some degree why portant enough to i onsider. Mr. (^ellrr. in through was that aeeomtilished by the iiv«* with TV advertising, the portraying of we Democrats lost the 1968 election. If Dr. his last ditdi haltir lo .slop the passage, female aquanauts who lived underwater for women as mindle.ss slobs . . . However, Berman’s (he formerly was personal (ihy- said, "‘There is no equality exiepi in a two weeks near St. ,|ohn. Virgin Islands. .she also names most of the leading spokes­ .sieian to 11.11.H.) political advice to lluln-rt cemetery," which pn‘sumahly means wom­ Their two-week stay was part ot a .seven- women and cites their over-all dissatisfac­ Humphn-y was as sound as his knowledge en can look forward to i‘«|iial ri^hl.'^ when month program ealhd Tektite II. involving tion with media coverage, the distortions of of medicine, the whole enterprise was they die. a total of .seventeen underwater rt'seareh statements in particular. We hope most of doomed from the start. Tlll'SK MRN, AI.ONC \VITIH:i:i.l.Kli. missions. The majority of the women are TV Guide's audience mad i t . . . we hope. Dr. Estelle R. Ramc:y VOTKI) TO KKKP VOti A SI.AVK: lirp- already qualified seienlists. and the rest are EINAI, /AFTO DK. BERMAN: WASH­ Professor resentalive I'homas 0. Ahernelhy ol Mi.<- engaged in aeademie ivrograms toward that INGTON .STAR: .Sunday, Augu.st 9, 1970. Department of Physiology & Biophysics .sissippi, John D. [)in^<'ll of Michigan. end. The following liTter appeared in LETTERS Georgetown iJniversity Medical School I/Ueien N. Nrd/i ol MiduAjan. W.K. Poajie ol BE.ACHllE.U) REVIEW: l..\mES TO THE EDITOR: EROM EOlIRTRENTIl TO NINE­ Texas and Jerome K. U'aldie ot (ialilornia. HOME JOIRN.M.: .August 1970: Six SIR: Dr. Edgar Berman’s (lop Demo- TEENTH TO NOW', MERELY 102 all Demoerats; and John W. IK rues ol months ago a group of feminusts installed eralie Party planner, who has resigned his YEARS: WA.SII1NGTON, D.G., August 10, Wiston.sin, (denn K. I)avi.< of Wiseoiisiiu themselves in EAHIES HOME J01:RNAI. (larty po.st after saying a woman shouldn't 1970. The House of Repre.sentatives, by a David W. Dennis of Indiana. Karl I' Land* offices, demanding the resignation ol the !»■ President) hysterical terror of “raging vote of 3.50 to 15, voted today to amend of Indiana, Paul N. Mrtdoskey. | r. (d editor, and a few other things. In return for .storms by female hormones” illuminates a the constitution to prohibit discrimination California. W illiam M. .Metailloiieh of Ohio, vacating the premises, EHJ gave the groiqi lot more about his own hormonal inade­ on the ba.sis of .sex. The 14th amendment, John P. Saylor of Pimnsylvania. John (i. right pages of a “future” issue. 1'inally in quacies than it does about human physio­ ratified in 1868, states clearly that no state Schmitz of Califoniia, and Charhx'; K. Wijr- August 1970. eight pages of basic women's logy. As an endocrinologist in good stand­ shall deny to any person within its juris­ gins of (California, all Repuhlieaiis. liberation dogma appeared. Reading it from ing, 1 was startled to learn that ovarian diction the equal protection of the law. M U C H M O R K T O BK l)O ^ K : ^ow that the vicw[H)int of having been reading the hormones are toxic to brain cells. In Dr. Some women thought that included them, the House has passed this ess<‘nlial a« !, the field for two or so years thoroughly, none Berman’s (vhysiologieal demonology the.se but in 1872 when they tried to register to .senate must pass the legislation h\ a two- of it .seems new. For this magazine, Ihis nasty little .sex .steroids poison the human vote in the presidential election, they were thirds vote, whieh it has done lwi<-i' in the audience, however, it is very new, and the brain and reduce it to a pitiful caricature of rebuffed and the courts held that the states past. Pollowing that almost aulomalie .«t< p. results should be excellent. We were amused its potential com|M-tence. could make such a “REA.SONABLE” ex­ each of 38 state legislatu«‘.s must ratify it lo to note The l.ADIlEiR left off the li.st of This would make the human female one ception of the law. Fifty years later, the put it into thf‘ constitution, and there K no publications, though interested in .seeing of evolution’s sickest jokes: and for one 19th amendment finally gave women the time limit on the state aetion. So the hattle that the New York City group R.ADIC.AI. mad moment I thought that tlie good vote, after quite a fight. Today ’s vote is the is not yet won. (NOTE: Opposition has I.E.SBIAN.S got listed under the organiza­ doctor was recommending universal cas­ first time the Housi- has ever voted on the risen in the Senate. More news next i.^siie.) tions. tration of female infants to preclude the amendment which has been INTRODUCED PROMINENT SUPPORT EOK SAME the power to literally take over the world S K \ MARKIAGF, FROM RITA E. able social policy at all to legalize marriage CHANGING YOUR ADDRESS? tomorrow if they will band together to do HAUSER: St. Louis, August 10, 1970. between members of the same sex,” she so; all they have to do is accept all women. If you are planning to move, Laws prohibiting marriage of two persons said; “a very strong argument can be made” (A FULL REPORT ON THE EVENTS of the same sex are unconstitutional, Rita for such legalization if the Equal Rights please let us know six weeks before OF AUGUST 26, 1970, WOMEN’S LIB E. Hauser, New York lawyer and U.S, •Amendment becomes law, she emphasized. changing your address. Please send ERATION DAY, WILL BE IN THE representative to the United Nations Hu­ The UPl story reported in this column did your old address and your new man Rights Commis.»ion, stated today at not, of course, mention the Equal Rights NEXT ISSUE OF THE LADDER. PRE­ the American Bar .4s.socialion’s panel on Amendment discussion, and Mrs. Hauser LIMINARY REPORTS FROM ON-THE- address, clearly marked. You MUST SCENE OBSERVERS IN BOTH WASH­ women’s liberation and the constitution. felt her remarks were taken out of context, include BOTH your old and your INGTON, D.C. AND NEW YORK CITY “Such a requirement,” Mrs. Ilau.ser said, and actually she had made them facc- WOULD INDICATE THAT THE NA­ new zip codes. REMEMBER, third “predicates reproduction as the legal con­ tiou.sIy. Confronted also by the report of TIONAL NEWS MEDIA DELIBERATE­ class mail is not forwardable. Send sideration of marriage, and that view, I White House press secretary Ronald Ziegler LY PLAYED DOWN THE ENORMOUS submit, is no longer reasonable or consis­ that President Nixon “docs not support nor to CIRCULATION DEPART­ NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IN tent with fact. Indeed, one can argue that has he supported nor will he support MENT, P.O. Box 5025, Washington marriages between the same sex,” .she at­ THESE TWO CITIES . . .) limiting reproduction has become a social Station, Reno, Nevada 89503. goal and 1 know of no better way of tempted to clarify her statements by em­ accomplishing that than marriage between phasizing again the ominous implications of the same sexes. 1 am not arguing this as a the Equal Rights Amendment which pri­ marily concerned her: In respons»' to her social policy; 1 am arguing that the right to To a Girl on a Swing marry, a right guaranteed by law, cannot be repudiation of her statements. Hays said, P o e ’b'T i^ premi-sed on sex distinctions which serve to “Maybe ,she’d better quit making silly argu­ ments like that, even facetiously, in pub­ The sun breaks over her head deny equal protection of the law to all Breaks out the banquet of an afternoon persons, whatever their tastes in life may lic.” WOMEN’S LIBERATION: August 26, Afternoon Libation be.’’ Swing, little girl Mrs. Hauser went on to say that she 1970. PREPARATORY PARTY AND JILL feels men should not jbe compelled to JOHNSTON: August 10, 1970. At a party icy sunlight drips on the sidewalk Alone in the park support women to whom they are not held to drurn up funds for the August 26, 1970 women’s strike, VILLAGE VOICE and I stand here waiting Her shoes kick out a valley of dust married except where minor ihildren are beneath the swing. involved, and that women should be drafted columnist Jill Johnston stripped to her for the bus underpants and went swimming in the pool. wondering on an equal ba.sis with men. The sun in a slow roll DIRTY POLITICS ALWAYS WITH US: Various papers carried the story: The NEW did I ever have a life? Stirs up the dust DPI, August 11, 1970. Representative YORK TIMES writer Charlotte Curtis gave has it always been Traces a fine sweat on her face Clement Zabloeki, Democrat-Wiseon.sin, such a confused and venomous accounting like this? said today Vice President Spiro Agnew or that it is hard to tell precisely what hap­ (three pills/day & I Swing, all your afternoon. another spokesman should state whether pened. .AP write-up which appeared around guarantee you’ll never the Nixon administration endorses the the country seemed more to the point. feel depressed) Time enough to learn the ways of men Some 200 women attended the party at the statement of U.N. delegate Rita E. Hauser Splayed-out hands that marriages should be allowed for mem­ home of Mrs. Robert Scull. The sponsors last night I watched Eyes like steel-tipped quarrels in the bow bers of the same sex. In a floor speech, were Betty Kriedan and Gloria Vanderbilt Cocked and aimed Zabloeki said, “Mrs. Hauser’s speech to me Cooper (the latter failed to show up, the stars in their vaguely Greek dance Time to learn the walk of a deer repre.scnts an example of the moral rot reportedly because her husband forbade through the gantlet it?). Representative Palsy Mink, heroine of and infecting the nation.” He said “such non­ Of hunters on the street sense” did not come from a radical but the hour for having put Dr. Berman (see I felt the old sorrow from a “responsible official” of the admini- elsewhere in this column) out of a job and again will it go on If I could stay in the park with you .stration. Mrs. Hauser is the U.S. Representa­ info hot water, spoke on the need for And listen to the slow creak of the swing tive to the llnitcd Nations Human Rights educating the public to the presence of .sex like this? (last summer I thought And the sparrow's song of victory Com mission- discrimination. Journalist Gloria Steincm And the silent orchestra of summer fire .. . RITA CHANGES HER TUNE A BIT: prophesied that the 1972 elec tion campaign I lived — yes, I lived would concentrate heavily on women’s lib­ once - once beside the SINGING UNDER PRE.SSURE? WASH- The click of a bolt in breech eration. During Misi Sfeinem’s talk, Jill blue-green waves of INGTON PO.ST: August 13, 1970. Appar­ Is our sunset Johnston took her swim. .She identified some then hysterical ently alarmed at the responses to her Brings down the day herself as a writer and a l-esbian and said now calm sea) ■statements at the .American Bar As.so- Brings me to my feet ciation’s panel, with Representative W'ayne her swim was in protest of tliose in the Hays (D-Ohio) a.sking for her resignation movement for women’s liberation who alas that I did not die Ophelia Go home. (a.s.serting that she was “promoting homo­ don’t like Lesbians. While not advocating (sheltered by sexuality and lesbianism”) and the unorthodox swims, this episode does drama­ The dust is down. tically illustrate the one major weakness in my madness) homosexual .segment cheering her on, Mrs. A night breeze rides in the empty swing. Hauser attempted to repudiate thoa- re­ the women’s liberation movement Unlike Kathleen (VIcKInnon Martha Shelley marks. “I personally don’t think it’s desir- any other “minority” group, women have r TI

Lovesong THE UNSHAME And Everyone . . .

”1 loved you, Atthis, long ago, when my own Though you and I both know "Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment; chagrin d'amour girlhood was still all flowers, and you - soon weTI be walking i^w n dure toute la vie." you seemed to me a small, ungainly child."-Sappho the street holding hands, I must make you understand I am the one When snow lies heavy (please, take my hand) whom all love SEPARATION and I am old, ., . they're staring at us. one will you recall instant. M y soul goes astray half-filled ashtrays I do not blush from shame. Once a dove in separation down the corridors I only wish to be held tighter now grey sparrowed I am not I and tavern rooms lyes, it's true we're gay. stabbed and I know of your million homes? Turn our cheeks? One f.ing finger by you are not you to you, Dearie, and you and you.) shyness Will you, I met Lois — Something comes between: being much older, But we'll hold hands in silence guitar-playing a sharp steel wedge, remember the young girl and walk on. I do not know Lois hammered hard who stood before you what they said to turnt-backs (incidentally always clefts a log in midnight bars only that I kept steady pace wearing a blue windbreaker that was a tree and plucked strings with you. Love, at my side. manager of the softball team of an invisible lyre jewelry-artist Anne Hayden while awkwardly singing I love you. I do not lie. i sign-painter to you alone (Can't you tell by the smile gift-shop owner) hymns of some special on our faces? And by our hands Lois moonlight, and fingers that are entwined!) was intrigued submerging the evening Our hands have grown together by the silence in the water-fire of & understand the clutch of the other. I offered her POTTED PLANT one personal mortality? only. Paul Mariah This new pale stalk Perhaps you, One one infinitely cool of half-born leaf being so very old, summer night from this silent room will forget the gifts she AN INVITATION TO DANCE Lois tries to coax offered you? took me in her arms — passion's mingled breath There are those who do next morning like ours that unfurled Or will you recall and there are those who talk we were the jungle-full leaf fondly about doing. strangers. below. that she was just another awkward young girl, never I ain't the latter. Kathleen McKinnon Anne Hayden having realized that But the Ladder she sideswiping the structure consecretated more than trying to balance your cigarettes, the ball-going belle HEADSTART your beers, and all-Jawjaed up O U T TO SE A the minutes of your time ready to swing Because I came out of the womb with the godhood and be swung. head first I only know the dounting does not mean I got a of her presence? of moments Let's blend simultaneously head start until I can kiss you Kathleen McKinnon on the world; and counterpoint and feel you tight for when my feet hit the ground, the stars, our nights, against my thigh I found and know that love's waters that pigeon-toes walk beyond our being. from our burdened love on each other: are mixed and are abundant (Paul Mariah, poet, u editor o f MANROOT, Come on, let's ball, hence, no progress. a San Francuco bared poetry joumoL His commingle and let go - The scars on my ankles Anne Hayden list o f credits would fill two pages. A true and dance are the only badges I have. liberationist, Paul is a supporter o f Women’s Liberation, Gay Liberation, Lesbian Libera­ Inside one another. Paul Mariah tion. Or, more properly, he loves free people.) Paul Mariah SO M E T IM E EMPTINESS I walked alone at daybreak Kind sleep evades her in this midnight hour — No, Daddy, I'm not ashamed Some time I shall lie still and think of you. along the beach, Her heavy lids, rising and falling Of staying in her bed last night. M y scheme of nerves shall rest like a small town and came upon two seagulls Like closing curtains, review again Last week, last month — all the times At night, beneath the moon, while up and down resting at the water's edge. Kaleidoscopic closed circuit memories. You knew and never guessed. The byways move the servicers: those who At my apprach they flew Attend the sleepers’ needs, yet scarcely stir away up into the sky. Cold cream lines the pores of a youthful face Now I think my body quite complete: The silence — thus, serene as darkened streets Watching them I Where old age stood upon it hours ago Woman’s parts, a woman's heart. The thought of you will move. Till bell-tower greets reached for your hand, To play a woman far beyond her years Blood as quick as any man's. The light. I’ll hug the fireside warmth, and purr . . . and clutched instead emptiness. A character not too unlike herself. And restless, as you are now.

But not just now! Times Square on New Year's Eve Lyn Collins And the still-sprayed hair, sagely grey Can you remember what it meant Were some vast morgue compared to me tonight Like brittle hay in winter snow, marks off The first time you slept with your girl? Seething with sentience, every exit tight The pointed nose and full round lips Were you ashamed to be a man? With traffic mad for home yet cannot leave . . . Beneath the sleepless, vacant flickering eyes. Then why would you shame us?

Some time I shall lie still and think of you, Her restless body shifts from left to right. For twenty years, her figure, dressed But not when hunger’s charge has run me through, Turning away with a questioning sigh In tattered levis, mocassins. To try to separate herself again - And ragged sweatshirt, stalked along Carol Wilde The actress from the acted - in her mind. Not knowing what it feared or sought.

She turns once more, but sleep evades her still. Now our naked bodies stand QUESTION And she will turn and turn until the dawn: Above the cluttered clothes we will Not wear again: Rejoice with us — EARLY MORNING Reviewing what she was and is to be, We would not change things if we could. As a child I walked Deciding how to meet the coming day. When the sun was just up, and the air cold streets of cement. Robin Jordan Robin Jordan was sharp and as clear as crystal, The sunshine fell on others, I walked alone slowly, dejectedly, and nothing touched me. kicking the ground of my stubborness. When I was twelve Leaves fell on me, but I did not feel them, my body changed and I came to a dead log and kicked it away, boys looked at it. and where it had been lay an object. A question arose in my mind. I picked up the dead robin of my dreams, When I was thirteen my only namel and remembered yesterday. Andrea kissed me in the girl's bathroom, Lyn Collins and my question was answered. in the dark arms of this fragile night Lyn Collins i cannot find you; the you that Is me. yet deep within INSPIRATION i see the real morning and in this lonely moment. "Som e day," I said, out of that mauve-edged lull I know what it was Left in the pulsing wake of passion spent, that made "Som e day, my exquisite one. I'll write some lines me in this shape. That are worthy of you; delicate, powerful, warm - i reached out A play, it may be; wonder, come to life. to touch every surface of life, And breaking in a strong pentameter,.." defacing myself in the mirror A N E N D IN G but She turned her soft sweet body over against while in that terrible center, M y bones. Her great dark eyes came open wide She sat there, lost from me, something With black stars down in them; her nostrils flared belonging to no one but herself. spoke to me and said, A little, and from between those sculptured lips Alone, as I knew myself to be "you are not alone." There came a whisper, sliding along my flesh. I could see no reason for staying. and the truth of Thrust to the core of me, sudden and deep. So I got up, walked out, this thought By her loveliness, by her lifted breast: and shut the door of the house raised me from my death. "A n d sell it?" where I used to live. Georgette Morreaux Carol Wilde Lyn Collins changes that smack of socialism, but they I_,E3SBI-A .3>T-A . By GENE DAMON other hand, that there is little else in the article that remains true today, so some are, only nibbling at the edges (i.e. day care this pair are the vulture children around the The discovery of Lesbian titles, especial­ things must be better. Nancy Love, it must centers for children and like projects). .A ly those where no mention is made of the dving bedside. be mentioned, was uncommonly good in few of the groups reject males totally in the The downfall of all is timed to the death fact in reviews, is a ehaney business. For her work. At the time of writing, she could sense of rejecting anything unfit, but the.se many many years it was difficult because of Lily, on whom little blame should rest, be considered unusually brave. There is the are the exception rather than the rule. It is unattractive though .she becomes before the reviewers would take almost any out to usual tendency to find the more unusual immediately clear that it takes less than 100 avoid mentioning Lesbians or implying such novel’s end. Every character in this book is laisbians and concentrate on them, but the pages of a paperback book to see that each might exist in a book. Now, with the recent real and believed . . . alone enough credit handling is not unkind. For this reviewer and every one of these groups is making “liberation” of our literature, it is old hat to the novelist. Daughter Frances, seen there was some real shock in finding the identical mistakes to those made in the first . . . and no one bothers. earlier in the novel before Lily and Andrew, distorted life story (seriously and errone­ 20 years of the Lesbian and homosexual But the search method.s remain the same who actually began it all, is as classic an ously changed) of a dear and close friend rights movements. There are too many of . . read the reviews, beg people to tell example of repres,sed Lesbianism as litera­ and long time LADDER contributor, Jody them, they do not communicate well, they you of things they find, and, best of all, ture has to offer. Most will like best the Shotwell. The disparity in the, account of are not well formed, they are not only not wateh for nuances in one book that let you early third of the book, but it’s a good Jody’s life (supposedly an interview and well led but reject the idea of leadership know that sooner or later llic author is story and Mi.ss Elliott is most talented. therefore presumed to be accurate) is se­ entirely. Some seem to feel that “leaders” likely to write in the field. Looking further into her work, it seems she rious enough to possibly cast doubts on the means men . . . for some rea.son women This worked out beautifully well for has written seven novels, only three of them integrity of the reporter from tills stand­ are equal but aren’t allowed to be varied in Gene Damon until she also became editor out in this country or to come out here. point, but again, there is no question about the sense that some lead better than others. of THE I..4DDER, which cut down on Included is a new one, THE KINDLING, the .sympathy of the writer. It’s hard to There is a “no-no” woni, elitist, which they reading time and made review reading a which wdl he watched. I’d be grateful if imagine who will buy this book, outside seem to want to avoid. It is, however, not frantic and cursory matter. So, 1 apolopze some kind English reader might check her perhap.s of the Philadelphia area. But for a |)OSsible to keep talent from shining, and for mi.ssing what is surely one of the finer earlier titles out for us, all published in nostalgic look at tlie way tlie wmrld was .Miss W'are is herself an excellent ex.imple minor .studies in recent years, Janice El­ England by .Seeker and W'arburg as follows: some few four? five? six? years ago ...... so from thc.se pages come some power­ liott’s ANGELS FALLING, N.Y., Alfred A. CAVE WITH ECHOES, 1963; SOMNAM- o-k. ful names, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Shulamith BHLLSTS, 1964; BUTTERCUP CHAIN, Firestone, Jorcen Freeman, Naomi Weiss- Knopf, 1969. And worse, 1 probably never Cellestinc Ware has contributed an would have found it if a kind reader in 1967; THE SINGING HEAD, 1968. enormously important basic examination of tein, Pamela .Allen, Ellen W'illis, Ann Koedt, Columbus, Ohio, had not written to a.sk Reprints finally got checked out and so WOMAN POWER: THE MOVEMENT FOR and on and on. why there had not been a review in this we have the very early Kingsley Amis 1961 W'OMEN’S LIBERATION, N.Y., Tower, After documenting today’s action. Cel- novel, TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU, out from lestine W are goes on to cover black women, column. It was chagrinning to run to my 1970. Though 1 have faithfully followed the Signet, 1970; Ernc.st Bomcman’s THE .MAN political possibilities, media treatment (bad, files and find the “watch” card made for movement publications to an extent I sus­ WHO LOVED WOMEN, Signet, 1970; Su­ bad) and comparisons between the 19th Miss Elliott back in 1966 over her novel, pect far surpa.sses the general reader inter­ THE GODVIOTHEK, which is not pertinent san Sontag’s THE BENEFACTOR, Avon, est, this book provided to me my first century femini.st.s and today’s women’s lib- but which made me feel she would enter 1970; and VERY .surprisingly, a reissue of step-by-step look at exactly WH.AT hap­ eratioriLsts. In her 176 pages, including .Ann Bannon’s second novel in the famous cursory bibliography and references, slie the field .someday. pened on a daily level in Boston, Chicago, ANGELS FALLING is a family chroni- series, 1 AM A WOMAN, Fawcett, 1970. New York, etc. . . . after Betty Friedan’s manages to mention the word “homosex­ ual” twice . . . the forbidden “Lesbian” elej novel with none of the flaws usually For tho.se of you who have NOT read Ann NOW got the current resurgence of interest found in this very enjoyable and very Bannon, don’t deprive yourselves any long­ in the liberation of women off the ground. never comes up . . . Horizon Press, New York, has done the popular genre. The mother of them all, Lily er. Her almost classic scries of paperback Cellestinc Ware, herself one of the founders Garland, is dying, and the family gathers to Lesbian novels arc collector's items these of the organization known a.s THE NEW literate world an honorable and loving watch and wait . . . and while they do, we days. YORK RADICAL FEMINISTS, in Chapter service by republishing Margaret Anderson’s hear all about it. Lily, bom Lilian Candish There is something intensely shocking One of this book outlines the entire hi.story first two autobiographical titles and pub­ in 1901, grows up to Join the heroic ranks about reading “The Invisible Sorority” by of the major “national” (in terms ot pub­ lishing her third portrait of her distin- of the first feminists . . . to burn with the Nancy Love in THE IMPROPER PHILA­ licity and media interest) groups, NONE of gui.shed life . . . MY THIRTY YEARS zeal to free women, and to fall under the DELPHIANS, N.Y., Weybright and Talley, them older than 1967 . . . and all begun WAR, first puhlcshed in 1930, THE FIERY spell of Maud Weatherby. Maud is a roman­ 1970. This book is a collection of “in- after NOW'. However, NOW' has literally FOUNTAINS, first published in 19.91, and now THE STRANGE NECESSITY, 1970. tic opportunist and women’s rights, the depth” articles from PHILADELPHIA nothing in common with the many other Faithful readers will recall that in the .suffragette movement, just one of her roles MAGAZINE, and the verso of the title page women’s liberation groups. NOW is interest­ July, 1968, i.ssue of THE LADDER 1 in this book. But Lily is brought to Maud’s includes dates back to 1964 . . . which ed in shifting the pre.sent balance of power discussed the book, L.ADIFiS BOUN111 UL, side by the awkward and strangely beautiful must not be far from the original publica­ from totally MALE to equally male and which was mrxst reticent about the pensonal Connie Garland, with whom she falls ar­ tion date of this article . . . which refers to female (which does .seem the most reason­ DRUM as if it existed, and to the possible able, if it Ls possible to do — IF). The other life of Miss Anderson and her most famous dently and totally in love. Connie, in an ^friend, Jane Heap, while heaping much anguished scene that .surely must be imply­ beginnings of the short-lived Philadelphia groups, most of them NOT leftist (no chapter of Daughters of Bilitis some many matter what you read, they are primarily praise on her head over tlie magnificent ing more than the novelist cares to ex­ LITTLE REVIEW. Margaret Anderson plicate, rejects Lily. Some time later, acci­ years ago. The shock is two-.sided — the apolitical in terms of the male version of relative reassurance that yes, indeed, still politics and they are not radical except in founded and published, virtually alone, the dentally, Lily sees Connie kissed by the evil most famous and most prestigious of all the Maud Weatherby; and off she runs to the today, many Lesbians live bar-oriented lives their own choice of nomenclature), want (the milieu study begins with the inhabi­ radical changes only in the ways in which little magazines. For fifteen years THE waiting arms of Connie’s brother, weak and LITTLE REVIEW was the magazine that stupid Andrew Garland. The children of tants of a gay bar for women); and, on the women live in the world. Some want carried the writers who mattered, there author, but when one is Margaret Anderson, Address is 339 Lafayette Street, New York, being an overdrawn and poorly understood were others, but none before, during, or one is allowed much space. It is also a N.Y. 10012. The cost for five issues is Kansas school teacher. There is a brief bit since THE LITTLE KEVTEW have been necessary book, for it tells happily that $2.50. No fiction, no frills. . . just articles of Lesbian interest in that two of her quite as important to the over-all enormous Margaret was not doomed to be alone after about the nitty gritty of life. friends, the arts and crafts teacher and the, phy.sical education teacher (no, no, not field of literature. If Miss Anderson had the end of Jane Heap and the death of ICONOGRAPHS, May Swenson’s latest been, had done, nothing else, she would be Georgette Leblanc. In June, 1942, eight collection of poetry, N.Y., Scribner’s, 1970, those two again!!) arc said to be lovers . . . they live together, and another teacher assured her crown of stars. months after the death of Georgette, succeeds to the extent of its intentions, for MY THIRTY YEARS’ WAR is mostly aboard an ocean liner bound from France it is frankly experimental even for the not provides possibly the novel’s only funny about THE LITTLE REVIEW . . . and to New York, Margaret met Dorothy Ca­ easily classified Miss Swenson. The explana­ line, “ they seem as happy as honey- about the electric and fascinating Jane ruso, widow of Enrico, and in very like tory note in the rear of the book is literally mooners.” Typecasting is tiring. A reader Hi*ap, who was Margarol’s ronslant com­ story book fashion they lived together from necessary to fully see what she is doing. recently pointed out that many of the panion and co-editor during most of these then until Dorothy’s death in 1955. Hover­ This makes me think that if it were wholly Lesbians in fiction have grey eyes . . . even early years. Many of you will have already ing about the edges of her life, always, is successful in its own right, the note need cited Jane Rule as having been guilty of giving grey eyes to her heroine in her earlier read this book, but it is more than worth the enigmatic figure of her nurse-com­ not have been added. That quibbling aside, novel, DESERT OF THE HEART. Colored reading again . . . and it is astonishing how panion-housekeeper, Monique, who lived to there are some delightful moments for eye very many of the distinguished writers she be 92, dying in 1961. The memoirs stop in and heart. The marvelous Lesbian poem, “A contacts, anyone? discovered are our “classic” contemporary 1961 except for a “happy” preface note Trellis for R,” is included . . . along with Recently, in writing for a review copy of authors today. THE FIERY FOUNTAINS, dated 1968 about finding a publi.sher. Since some very special “views” of ordinary a Lesbian novel and indicating an interest in by prejudice of this reviewer her finest this is 1970, and this reviewer knows the things: a visit to a James Bond movie in any material the publisher might he issuing book, covers her love affair with Georgette books have been scheduled for well over a “The James Bond Movie” and immediately that concerned women’s liberation, I re­ Leblanc, which lasted from their meeting year before their final appearance, there is a following the patiently bored “It Rains.” ceived a review copy of BEYOND IHE about 1920 until Georgette’s death in 1941. gap . . . the years from 1961 until now. Miss Swenson, one of our mo.st prominent LOOKING CLASS, by Kathrin Pemtz, THE FIERY FOUNTAINS is about that life Perhaps they arc recorded . . . perhaps not. living poets, has mostly pleased her all time N.Y., Morrow, 1970. I did not expect to, together. For those of you who will write We are lucky if they arc and if they will fans here, but it’s an interesting collection. but I found it more comiielling than the to ask if I did not know about this book .someday appear. Haunted by Emma Goldman (see Cross novel I’d requested . . . found myself before (in its original edition back in 1951) Horizon Press, however, deserves the Currents this i.ssue and “My God It Hap­ reading in fascination just what .American I answer happily that, yes, it was given to vote of thanks now . . . from us all. Don’t pened to Me Too!” in August/September, women (and to some extent, American me as a gift by a hook dealer many years miss reading about the world of Margaret 1970 issue), the woman who was uncere­ men) DO to “enhance” their attractiveness. ago , . . but it is not a whole book in a Anderson. Few arc privileged with her gifts moniously tossed out of the U.S. in 1917 Miss Perutz is a novelist . . . indeed, I ve .sense, and is, while being best, still left . . . few bright enough to work to enjoy and is now being described as “the greatest had the pleasure of reviewing two of her improperly illuminated until you reach her life as well as she has. The illustrations, by lady anarchist of them all,” Beacon Press books, the fairly major Lesbian novel, T HE third, and possiblvf?) last, volume, THE the way, are magnificent. has issued a quality paperback reprint of GARDEN, 1%2, and her minor male STRANGE NECESSITY. This, one im­ More Genevieve Taggard, from the same REBEL IN PARADISE: A BIOGRAPHY homosexual title, A HOUSE ON THF. mediately senses, is the real Margaret An­ source as that cited last month, the poem OF EMMA GOLDMAN, for $3.95. This SOUND, 1964. It is said that most areas of derson. She no longer po.ssesses tlie very “ Monody in Monotone” from LONG very obscure biography was first issued in factual writing can be done by hacks. A.s a powers of prose that fascinate in her earlier VIEW, N.Y., Harper, 1942. It’s as pertinent 1961 by University of Chicago Press. It is hack 1 agree, but it is delightful to read books; but the passing of years, and the . . . or more properly variant, as any of NOT a comment on the biography contents non-fiction written by a good, imaginative hardships of World War 11 and the things hers. or the biographer, Richard Drinnon, to call and professional writer with a solid back­ that have happened since, including the Dell reissued its $1.25 edition of THE it obscure. As most of you know, university ground in creative writing. The bodk is long wait for this magnificent publishing FEMININE MYSTIQUE by Betty Friedan, press publications aren’t likely to become divided into sections on makeup, hair, enterprise to happen, color her most recent no doubt in honor of the current flood of best sellers, aren’t likely to be much re­ remaking the form from a to /., diet in every autobiography. books on women’s liberation, women s viewed . . . and certainly, it’s unthinkable sense of the word, models and celeblities, So they are not separate . . . though it rights. that many of them sell. We are still planning unisex as a style and life form, w l^ it is is undoubtedly true that when the first was New movements, however old in terms an article on Miss Goldman for a future like in a beauty retreat. . . etc. It S'comes written the second was not yet eon.sidered, of time, inspire new magazines, and wom­ issue, but it is amusing to see everything clear that the 17th and 18th lentury and the first two were long done when the en’s liberation has inspired several. We have from TIME MAGAZINE to the publishing limericks on the composition of the bride third was attempted. Name collectors will already covered W’OMEN, A JOLIRN.AL OF houses rally round the flag, girls (apologies (and, to be fair, sometimes the groom) are only too accurate today. There Me some be happy, for most of the best of the best LIBERATION, a very ambitious not liter­ to Max Shulman!). But it is an election few women in this country who can avoid arc included. Her friends were, are all the ary quarterly; APHRA, the magnificent year, women; and it is said that 3,000,000 makeup and still function in the sy^em and magic names in literature . . . and painting literary quarterly; and RADICAL THERA­ more women will vote in 1970 than men. earn money, but very very few. If’^oii arc and music. J anet Flanner, NEW YORKER’S PIST, which only somewhat covers this With a little help from our friends, we could only a lipstick and powder slave to the famous “Genet,” contributes a very moving area. Another new one is UP FROM run the country. world, and then oidy on the job . . . this is preface the the reissued FIERY FOUN­ UNDER out of New York City, which is GOOD LUCK, MISS W'YCOFF, by still a book to read. The torture, hideous basic, down to earth, practical and sensible noted dramatist William Inge, Boston, At­ TAINS, citing the reasons for its greatness, beyond belief, to which human beings . . . and very interesting. They describe lantic-Little, Brown, 1970, is a disaster. the magic of Georgette Leblanc with Mar­ willingly and eagerly submit themselves for garet Anderson . . . a very special union. themselves as a “new magazine, by and This is sad, for Mr. Inge is a wonderful writer in his field, but he should not, the pathetic returns has to be read in THE STRANGE NECESSITY is full of about women.” The publishing effort is documented form to be comprehended done by an independent group of women in apparently, have attempted a novel. Miss loving flaws . . . much space given to the Wycoff of the title is of no interest here. . . , and even then you aren’t really going eccentricities atid personal ta-stes of the the general women’s liberation movement. to believe it. Women who starve themselves ployed and hardly ever with this degree of glue, bottles of Mandarin Red and Glossy and cotton stuffing billowed from gashi-s in nearly to death, sit up in bed to avoid succe.ss. Out interest is in Dave’s long time Black paint, sandpaper, and an X-acto knife the leather-covered seats, The terrible utuI wrinkling their complexion that already friend, Madge. Joseph Hansen handles set, with ten different blades. An open inexplicable damage to my summer's work owes its existence to being scrubbed with Madge convincingly and even provides her Samsonite suitcase, spread across a luggage was so complete that Mom .silently removed pumace and similar abra.sivcs . . . opera­ with an ironic happy ending, though he bench, served as my work table. the blue ribbon and put the toy ear in a tions that, with the exception of anesthe­ deserves a swat on tlie wrist for his neat Soon the Sam.sonite was pock-marked trashcan a.« we walked bark to the motel. tics, rival tlie Dauchau experiments in terms reversal of typecasting in having Dave the with glue droplets; but to my relief the I refused to even look at tlie blue of human suffering . . . this has to do with faithful, true and non-promiscuous lover of framework of the Model T began to resem­ ribbon. .Mom tucked it in her cosmetic ease life, with love, with success? Rod for years and Madge the partner- ble the instruction diagrams, give or take a and later pasted it into one of her .scrafe FADED UT, by Joseph Hansen, N.Y., changing type who has had perhaps 10 girls brace or two. I remedied the defects, for 1 books. Fortunately for my knuckles, school Harper and Row, 1970, is a glorious “main­ in 20 years. Good book, good mystery, was a perfectionist then; my miniature car began a week later. We even managed to stream” debut for Mr. Hansen, who is very highly recommended. would be the exact copy of the gari.sh find a house, though it looked more quon- well known under a pseudonym. In the model on the cover of the hobby kit or else. set-huttish than ranch style. my.ster)' writing world, having Joan Kahn of CHANGING YOUR ADDRESS? As I was applying nearly the last coat of Last year my mother died. I visited her Harper’s choose your book is a high honor, If you are planning to move, please gold trim. Mom read that a hobby show was last and most Gontemporary ranch housi' in and F.ADE(HIT richly deserved being let us know six weeks before going to be given at the neighborhood Palo Alto and nimmaged through her chosen. Dave Brandstetter, recently de­ changing your address. Please send YMGA. We decided to enter my Model T in hoardings of a lifetime like a ’49-er. Some­ prived by death of his lifelong lover. Rod, is your old address and your new the miniature car contest and filled out the how, 1 came aero.ss that first pri'/.i’ blue an insurance investigator looking into the address, clearly marked. You entry label “J. Alden, 11 Yrs.”, rather than ribbon from the V MCA, .still a cheerful death (?) or disappearance of Fox Olson, a MUST include BOTH your old and betray my feminine .status to the judges. We bright blue, though smelling of mold. He. johnny-come-lalely folk .singing radio per­ your new zip codes. REM EM BER, were sure they’d be prejudiced in favor of side it in Ihe .sera|ibook, my mother had sonality success. The heart of the matter third class mail is not forwardable. “Y” members and Boy Scouts. Even then. written, “For merit or as an apology ?’’ Tvi- lies in the hearts of the characters, itself an Send to C IR C U L A T IO N D EP A R T ­ The final day of the contest. Mom and I sometimes wondered about that, too. Main unusual approach to mystery writing, where MENT, P.O. Box 5025, Washing­ threaded our way through the trousers and prizes are for both. this much characterization is seldom em­ ton Station, Reno, Nevada 89503. the tee-shirts and eventually found my Model T. A bright blue first prize ribbon (Jane Alden. hiofirapber and shttrl was Scotch-taped to a badly tom fender. story writer, freiiiienlly contributes to Vou’re Stepping on Mg Model T Headlamps dangled over the bent bumper. the Ladder.)

By JANE ALDEN out traffic on the Bayshore Higliway, Dad decided that Something had to be done. He GOOD OLD GOLDEN RULE DAYS We stayed in a .small motel in Burlin­ gave me a $2.95 miniature Model T Ford By DIANA STERLING game, California, that entire summer of hobby kit and told me to have fun building 1947. I was eleven tlicn and Very Tired of it. I couldn't hai>€ been less cut out for a Moving. W'hile my parents scoured the Bay The hobby kit contained three thinly class in cooking than I was^ so it may be Area in search of a two-bedroom ranch sliced pieces of balsa wood, dye-marked for unusual to say that / signed up for cooking style they could almost afford, 1 sunbathed cutting, and an instruction sheet somewhat in my sophomore year in high school: but / and read dozens of Nancy Drew mysteries. more complicated than Ford’s original blue­ say li, because / did. The class offered Then I got bored and became a knuckle- print of the Model T. I soon doubled Dad’s nothing but respite from one's academic cracker. When my knuckles began drowning investment in my therapy, buying tubes of pursuits, ¡t was an unnecessary interlude in the business o f school life. But when I found Silt'' had signed up for it, I joined the class.

Previously sh<* had been i‘v’. But that was adolescent thinking tips to that neck when she wanted to get a county road to ask directions. A draft of one reason being, I think; boys like to eaL and I don't think 1 relegated that much point across. And when she let go, there cold air-conditioned air toted a blended and another being: girls like boys. It all fit space to thinking it as I did to feeling it — were five imprinted dots that lingered so smell of wooden mild crates and colored in perfectly. Almost. I liked to eat, but I which covered universes and included my long I was never able to get her point, ink from Sunday comics piled onto each could not cook. class in cooking. having watched too intently those dots other in the racks and the metallic smell of As a concession to our last day of The first day in cooking class necessi­ gradually move into invisibility. Miss Moss stacked cans of tomato sauce and fruit school. Miss Moss let the choice of what to tated a seat next to HER which was looked like Aunt Ethel, who raised me, and cocktail. A gigantic cardboard female cook be ours individually, and being part­ accomplished by letting her choose her seat talked like Uncle Morton, who helped. greeted me at the door with a cardboard ners at the stove we had planned together. first and sitting down next to HER second. Standing tall at the head of the class coke in her cardboard hand. SHE and I. She, being the expert fried egg We shared the oven! with a recipe book splayed open at her The storekeeper had a purple face with cooker in her family, decided on frying She had a dark and immaculate com­ stove. Miss Moss instructed the lot of us to puffy eyes flanking a bulbous pocked nose eggs, and I, being hung up on her, decided plexion with small beads of freckles at the use one half teaspoon salt or a half cup that moved when he talked - and he talked to fry eggs too, which promised positive cheekbones. Her eyes were infinite brown, sugar or whatever else the recipe “called at length - delighted to give me directions, disaster. But I couldn’t be concerned about the incredible eyes of Indians. She was for,” to work in union, and not deviate by a as a man is delighted who knows the that. I was miserable. Scotch-Irish and something else. I don’t sprig of parsley. It baffled and frustrated answers. His delight could noL even so, I came with four eggs, four slices of remember. me to come out with a glop unlike anything exceed my own. At his direction I arrived at bread, six strips of bacon and a peanut The room, abundant with stoves, was a else in that class or anywhere else: an a stately large house that stood under a coat butter jar filled with coffee. I did not drink kind of bastard classroom: a great bright originality inevitably achieved without the of blinding white paint. The green window coffee then but it was during that period in room boasting a million muUioned win­ slightest effort on my part or of anyone frames held windows so dazzlingly brilliant life when the taboo of things, such as dows. Each student had a small worktable else. And believe it or not the finest dishes they appeared about to explode. Three cars coffee, had so recently been lifted, they where we kneaded and pounded and made that came out of that group were HERS! were in the drive and I turned around and waxed big in importance. the stuff for which we were graded. I never Once I got to class late, which put pumped the eight miles back. That mortung I felt I had made a serious ate my own concoctions and no one else everything off and the whole room had to My next attempt to see HER out of mistake in signing up for that class in the ever ate them either. I do not now remem­ come to a standstill while I mixed the stuff school I had to go less than half that: to the first place when I saw HER with the boy ber how I was graded in that class or how I for com bread. I th o u ^ t if it hadn’t been county library. It was in the spring of the she had invited. He had a case of acne ever got rid of the results, waste being one for her I’d never have made it. SHE, being year when the water turns from stiff ice to which did not annoy me so much as the of the sins. my oven partner, greased my pan and set soft wet again and the trees tingle with good looks that came through despite the Our teacher. Miss Moss, tall and greying, the timer and did little odds and ends for buds. She told me she would be there and problem. Perversely, as a means of revenge was at indeterminate middle age, which, to me that had me aquiver while I beat the she was. And though we did mostly what or something, I offered him my peanut adolescence, because of a lack of con­ concoction that, I knew in advance, we went there for (a pretense at reading), butter jar while we waited for Miss Moss to geniality and love for that generation, often wouldn’t come off even as HERS did. we occasionally caught each other’s eye. take the roll, immediately upon which we looks the same on everyone that age, even One Saturday in late October when the Here were as beautiful a pair of eyes as I set about making breakfast. as blacks often look alike to whites and light was a condensation of red and gold would’ve guessed all infinity to be in a Skinned Elbows spied the light of his whites to blacks. Her face was blotched red. like mulched leaves pureed, liquefied and {dance. There was a richness in them, as one life at another stove and gravitated to it like The creases that developed at the neck were turned invisible for breathing, I felt red and in love. Had they been edible, I think I’d a sappy moth to flame while HER boy white like an albino tattoo, and the red gold in the infinite corners, and I hiked have glutted myself to such a degree I’d came over to my side (it was that peanut blotches made her face look sore by con­ eight miles into the country from where have died of it in less than an hour. But I butter jar) where I peeled the bacon from trast to the white tattoo of her neck lines. SHE was bussed in to school everyday. I was not BO fortunate. I could do nothing the bacon, which was nerve-racking because about the pain and I could not die, and it I had already got the eggs on, and they were lingered on into the semester. bouncing and snapping and it didn’t occur J ust before summer vacation. Miss Moss to me to turn the heat down under them said we were each to come with ingredients because I was busy with bacon. HER boy, THE LESBIAN for a breakfast for two and a boy from whose name I forget but for the sake of woodshop. At Miss Moss’s announcement, clarity ITl call him Rupert (a name 1 hate IN LITERATURE that uiunanly class burst into applause. although he was nice enough when I got to a bibliography Damn! I was heartsick, first and foremost, thinking about it, which wasn’t till I found because SHE would have to invite a boy out what 1 found out). Rupert said he could By Gene Damon and Lee Stuart and, second, because I would have to. (In split the strips better than anyone, and when the bacon exchanged hands I noticed AN ALPHABETICAL LISTING BY AUTHOR OF ALL KNOWN BOOKS IN the rich soil of adolescence, despair and the skin was peeling at the periphery of his THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, IN THE GENERAL FIELD OF ecstasy grow easy.) right thumbnail. As a child, I had been told LITERATURE. CONCERNED WITH LESBIANISM. OR HAVING I got the boy. He happened to be LESBIAN CHARACTERS. drinking at the water fountain ahead of me. by Aunt Ethel and Uncle Morton that this He had greasy hair that looked to have been was a sign of having told a lie. I never THE L A D D E R combed with a fork, and skinned elbows. believed it but when I saw it on Rupert my P.O. Box 5025. Washington Station. Reno. Nevada 89503 He didn’t seem overanxious at the invita­ thinking took a different turn and, for a moment at least, I was convinced that kid $2 pius 25c handiing charge. tion. Perhaps because I had not anxiously given it. But when food was mentioned, he was an inveterate liar. But the moment accepted raveiiously. didn’t last because there were other things relief. How satisfying it is therefore to be friends on behalf of some intimate obses­ to think about, like buttering the cold toast When 1 saw the breakfast SHE had able to express his true feelings in a popular sion, whether it be snowmobile racing, which had popped up minutes before. When made, I couldn’t believe it Hers came out art form while making excessive amounts of Australian wines, wife swapping or Zen.” finally I got the slices buttered, there were just as mine! She had ruined her breakfast! money. Many homosexuals are truly gifted -from the 7/13/70 (p. 31) “Time Essay” little islands of congealed butter left on Oh she must have been upset, his mooning in the arts; none has any conception of By Douglas Auchincloss each piece of toast which was not so over me instead of her. How could that boy what a woman is like. He sees her in offensive, I thought, as the black showing make her do that? How could any boy? I caricature only and often enjoys imitating Growing up in the midwest always left through around the islands. was heartsick. Could 1 have been so wrong her at her most ridiculously “feminine.” me a bit starved for a little color, a little Rupert had succeeded in dividing the about that special magnetism between us? Playing at feminine frivolities can be fun daring, a little originality, a little astonish­ bacon .strip.s, 1 knew, because he was telling That summer when her father received a when one is equipped with balls and is ment, most of which I contrived (being a me by that time that I ought to get at the government appointment, SHE moved with flirting with another man. clever little dyke) to supply for myself. eggs and he would see to the toast for me, her parents to Wa,shington, D.C. And three Why do heterosexual males go along Insipid indeed is the most vivid impression I like scraping the back.sides of each. I kept years later my aunt, who kept track of with this sickening portrayal of women in have of back home. That dull people can be wondering why Rupert was fussing over me everyone in town, including those who had advertising? It tickles their male suprema­ dangerous as well as unamusing I discovered so much when SHE had been the one who been gone for years referred to HER as that cist egos and feeds those inner fantasies later. had invited him to the breakfast. Had I “awful creature.” they dare not allow their women to suspect. Back home they listen to Billy Graham a been in his place. I’d have pupped my “Awful?” 1 said. How nice to let the gay male do this for lot and I used to watch the people sitting buttons with joy. But he chose to ignore “Lives with another woman who’s like them! Despite the loud cries to the con­ there taking it all in and he told them a the honor by nosing around my part of the that too.” trary, there is a secret bond between homo­ bunch of slogans like “Get with J esus,” and stove as 1 prepared for Skinned Elbows who I was eighteen and I knew when my sexual and heterosexual males. To be sure, “This is a Great Country, God’s Country,” was, as 1 said, off somewhere nosing at one Aunt Ethel circumvented euphemisms what the homosexual ranks lowest in the male and “Keep your Nose to the Grindstone,” of the other stoves at the back of the room. topic she was on. hierarchy, behind all other minority males. and “Brush Twice a Day,” and “If you have Rupert said as a way to put me at ease, 1 “Oh, good lord, no,” 1 said, and 1 must To him therefore falls this meanest of tasks Jesus in your Heart you will find Salva­ think, he wouldn’t mind how the breakfast have sounded sick when 1 said it because in the male establishment, the blatant de­ tion,” which all the people watching and came o u t Food was food and “It all goes to Aunt Ethel took my hand gently and said: piction of the male’s uncon.scious and re­ listening to Billy (except me) took to mean the same place on earth anyway.” 1 did not “Never you mind. This town is rid of pressed contempt for the female. And he the two cars, the little sub-division ranch much care for this philosophy and 1 tried the likes of HER.” does it gladly for he is all too anxious to house, the dairy freeze business, the ex- particularly not to burn the bacon. Turning ingratiate himself with the ruling sex — his cheerieader housewifie, the 4 cute kids, and tile eggs over, each yolk collapsed, sliding Too late. 1 knew those damned eggs of sex. the early American furniture that they down along the pan like molten lava. 1 got a HERS were ruined not over being upset Perhaps I am wrong to think that already had got. You know, not the kind of fork and worked yellow and white (both that Rupert might’ve felt anything for me Lesbians should know this. Lesbians are people to quibble about moral com­ now more than half cooked) together. It but over what / might’ve felt for Rupert. I blinded by the fact that gay males are the mittments in Southeast Asia. looked like something my dog had eaten had not been wrong about the magnetism. only group who do not condemn them for Now 1 am not back home anymore and brought up. .\nd as 1 looked at it the “Oh, lord, no,” 1 repeated, and Aunt their Lesbianism. In their humble gratitude forever. 1 am rather sitting in New York bacon burned. Ethel patted my hand. for this acceptance they fail to see the where people listen to the Black Panthers contempt in which their homosexual and the Chicago Seven and the Beatles a lot. THE LADDER’S writers would point out “brothers” hold them by virtue of their And they are taking it all in and the Black Readers Respond why the advertising media are so demeaning being women. Panthers and the Chicago Seven and the to women. Straight women can be forgiven M. de P. Beatles and Maharishi Yogi and the Young Dear Gene Damon: their ignorance here, but surely not Les­ N.M. Lords and the Grateful Dead and the Hell’s 1 realize that any suggestion that a song bians. The “creative” side of the advertising Angels tell them a bunch of slogans with is particularly relevant to Lesbian love is business is under the stewardship of male Dear Gene Damon: heavy head messages like “Having a Mean­ heavily biased by the wishful thinking of homosexuals, than which no group has ingful Relationship with the Cosmos,” and “Relating to the needs of the Black Com­ the Lesbian listener. But having admitted more contempt for women. “Cigarettes are The New Lesbian: Now We Can Be Just Like Everybody Else munity,” and “Digging It” and “Being that, 1 nevertheless .suggest that you con- like women . . .” expre.sses the gay male’s “Even if it were somehow possible to Beautiful” and “Together” and “Doing .sider Laura Nyro as a possibly relevant opinion in a nutshell. The sophisticated escape all these public and visible affronts Your Thing,” and they “Throw Out” a artist. 1 am thinking in particular of two homosexual enjoys oecasionally escorting a to the sense of delight and surprise, there is little encounter rap you see and a little New songs on her album ELI AND THE THIR- female of the species and what better sets Left-ese and always refer to themselves as TEENTH CONFES,SION, both wirtten by him off than one who is “thin and rich?” still the common-or-garden bore to contend with . . . The jargon-droppers waving “woricers” although real workers don’t and sung by Miss Nyro. The songs are What better impresses the straight male who about words like “viable,” “feed-back” and much want to be “liberated” and in fact “Timer” and “Emmie”. The back of the ■Stubbornly refuses to grant full supremacy wear hard hats and beat the shit out of album jacket for ELI AND THE THIR­ to the poor, downtrodden gay male who, “ param eter,” or those who groove anybody with long hair carrying on about TEENTH CONFESSION is a rather beauti­ after all, sports a penis too? excessively on a Now vocabulary of “rap,” Marx and things. It makes you feel kind of ful silhouette photograph of Miss .Nyro In his enormous self-pity the homo­ “uptight,” “right on” and “f—,” Rare kissing an unidentified young woman on indeed is the American who does not sorry for the peaceful violent overthrow kid sexual has a great need to look down upon trying to “Reach you on a Gut-Level.” But the forehead. .some group of human beings. He cannot number among his near and dear someone K.A., Los Angeles who a) has just discovered the mystical that Guevara style hippie machismo just very well look down upon Blacks, for isn’t making it with the real Brooklyn bulls. example, for many of them are as gay as he virtue of analysis or Esalen or macrobiotic By the way and now there, my friends, is Dear Ms. Damon: is. That leaves only women, people he has dieting b) cannot refrain from enlisting 1 have wondered when you or one of absolutely no use for, not even for sexual M one gigantic ease of acute latency. Every First we had Vanessa Redgrave (who lower east side flower boy ha.s got a picture happily finds breast feeding more fulfilling of Che Guevara on his wall with which he than acting) as Isadora Duncan as the NEW IMPROVED! . STRONGER! LuWan« W rap — can have a non-threatening relationsitip, and “Original Hippie.” And Now, Baby, we’ve Press — groove on his rap and not be uptight. And got a “relevant” Sappho. näqiciUßBOß* Presto! in New York everybody enjoins everybody Oh Hell, is nothing sacred before the C lings to itself! to “get their beautiful thing together” hackneyfrying embrace of the now genera­ keeps your No fasteners! which means having a chick who bakes her tion? hair-do own bread and having Paul MacGregor hair Nowadays in New York we have lots beauty shop and lots of Lesbians who belong to the now fresh much like everybody has already got if they’re longer. beautiful anyway. generation and look just like any other BRANSON GIFTS What happened first you know the hippie and who in fact rather seldom sleep 50 1619 Lincoln Place - DOB blacks figured out all these sort of penis with girls. I went to a DOB meeting the symbol phrases like uptight and hung-up other night and there was this new style Brooklyn, New York 11233 and thc.se W'ASP kids have been “into” Lesbian from GLF who we can call Lois P'reud and want to get “onto” this groovy Hart who talked quite a lot and here is what new thing and they start coming down to she said and 1 quote exaetly because 1 the East Village absolutely screaming actually wrote it down, “We’ve got to find “ Right On” everytime they look at you. out where everybody's head is at, we’ve got •And then the next thing you know the to get our thing together and like wow Indians at Alcatraz and the lsraeli.s are really be beautiful and relate to each other getting with it and inteijeeting a few “Right and be real in a meaningful way.” On’s” into their non-negotiable demand.s. I was struck with how deeply, or rather, Then there’s Jane l-'onda ego-tripping “from how superficially her wisdom resembles within” and Lenny Bernstein getting all Billy Graham’s own back home lyric va­ power for the people. And Women’s Lib pidity. At least the emptiness was off there starts having Right On’s (I thought they At one time I preferred the company o RENEW YOUR SUBSCRIFT!ION AT THE might have been embarrassed to plagarize other gay women to that tedious cunt-men BO heavily from the male chauvinist organi­ tality I had associated with straight women REGULAR RATE OF $ 7 . 5 0 FOR ONE YEAR AND BUY A G IF T zations but they rap right on, right on.) 1 once thought we each had gone our And finally as you can see I was about separate ways and when we met had ready to strangle and spit and behave in a reached rather varied conclusions, we each SU BSCRIPTIO N FOR YOUR F R IE N D (S ) AT $ 5 . 5 0 FOR EACH most unbeautiful way and then oh my god had an uncustomary idea, an inspiration or the Gay Liberation Front every other word two. I had slowly come to think of myself ADDITIWAL SUBSCRIPTION Riglit On. Look, Just look what they have not as an “oppressed minority” but a done to Sappho, subtle, imaginative, member of an Amazon elite. Now I find Sappho! Too Much, Oh W’ow! Too Much! Lesbians wearily parroting that funda­ f r mentalist groupie catechism — just like “Thinking Back Lesbian anybody else. And before you say I am nasty because 1 THE LADDER e If i were to call upon the phoenix belong to the over 30 establishment, let me P.O. Box 5025, Washington Station, Reno, Nevada 89503. ft to recover my late ashes advise you that I am quite under 25. Oh the would i have come from the ‘mysterious’ mindless eclectic of my generation. island of Greece? -P.B. Valkyrie Far flung as time thi;ougli space Please send THE LADDER f o r ...... year(s) to the address below. follows relativity must only be a wink (Dedicated to o f New York ”for i 1 in that lady’s eye— her letter to the editor in the June! I enclose $ ...... at the rate of $7.50 for The love of the arts was worth more July '70 issue o f THE LADDER.) each year ordered. to her than the sharpness of Diana’s darts. NAM E...... But i suppose we are all sisters of some nature of those reincarnation . . . ADDRESS But to them we are probably just incantation. C O R R E C T IO N ; The article, "T he Wom­ an-Identified Woman" run in the Au- CITY ____ State Zip However, Sappho you must have been gust/September, 1970 issue as by Rita a ‘Right On’ woman,” Mae Brown was written by these women, (Signed)...... -Sue Schneider in addition to Rita Brown: Cynthia Ellen, ALL CHECKS MUST BE MADE PAYABLE TO THE LADDER (from GLF publication “Come Out!” Ellen Bedoz, Lois Hart, March Hoffman, vol. 1, no. 4;p. 11 June/July 1970) and Barbara XX.