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An Oral History of Everywomans Books in Victoria, BC, 1975-1997

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An Oral History of Everywomans Books in Victoria, BC, 1975-1997 Books By Women, For Women, About Women: An Oral History of Everywomans Books in Victoria, B.C., 1975-1997 by Taylor Antoniazzi B.A., University of Victoria, 2013 M.A., University of Waterloo, 2016 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History ©Taylor Antoniazzi, 2020 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. Books By Women, For Women, About Women: An Oral History of Everywomans Books in Victoria, B.C., 1975-1997 by Taylor Antoniazzi B.A., University of Victoria, 2013 M.A., University of Waterloo, 2016 Supervisory Committee Dr. Lynne Marks, Supervisor Department of History Dr. Annalee Lepp, Departmental Member Department of Gender Studies ii Abstract Everywomans Books was a non-profit feminist bookstore established in Victoria, B.C. in 1975. The store closed in 1997 due to financial problems, but it was the last remaining non-profit feminist bookstore run by an all-volunteer collective in Canada. From the beginning, the collective pursued its vision to create a comfortable, safe space for women to access vital information that was hard to find anywhere else. Though creating and maintaining the bookstore was a thoroughly feminist endeavour, the bookstore itself was not a centre of political activity in the community. Its animus was to provide the literature that would raise women’s consciousness, impel their identity formation, foster bold, independent thinking and jolt women into political action. This thesis draws on oral history interviews with collective members and customers of the bookstore and the Everywomans Books archival materials housed in the Women’s Movement Archives at the University of Victoria. It analyzes how the bookstore’s location in a smaller, more racially homogeneous and less radicalized city allowed the collective to avoid many of the tensions that divided feminists in major urban centres. This thesis argues that the project of running a feminist bookstore mostly involved mundane tasks, yet the ordinary, everyday work of the women who poured their time and energy into keeping a small, local bookstore open and making feminist literature available in their community was life-changing for many. iii Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................................ii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... vi Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter Summaries ................................................................................................................................. 13 Chapter One: Historiography ........................................................................................................ 15 The Women’s Movement in English Canada .......................................................................................... 17 Feminist Bookstores ................................................................................................................................ 29 Summary.................................................................................................................................................. 40 Chapter Two: Lifelong Readers and Life-Affirming Literature ...................................................... 44 The Origin Story ....................................................................................................................................... 44 The Customers ......................................................................................................................................... 47 The Bookstore ......................................................................................................................................... 55 The Books ................................................................................................................................................ 61 Summary.................................................................................................................................................. 71 Chapter Three: Collective Interests and Collective Frustrations .................................................. 73 The Collective .......................................................................................................................................... 73 Navigating Differences, Obstacles and Tensions .................................................................................... 88 Racism...................................................................................................................................................... 97 Voice Appropriation .............................................................................................................................. 104 Summary................................................................................................................................................ 110 Chapter Four: Taking a Stance on Pornography and Censorship ............................................... 113 The Sex Wars ......................................................................................................................................... 114 Little Sister’s Struggles with Censorship ............................................................................................... 118 Everywomans Enters the Debate .......................................................................................................... 123 Summary................................................................................................................................................ 135 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 137 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 147 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 153 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................................ 153 Appendix B............................................................................................................................................. 156 iv List of Figures Figure 1. Members of the collective march with the Everywomans Books’ banner ................................. 12 Figure 2. Ann Hillyer photographed inside Everywomans Books in 1977 for a newspaper feature ..........47 Figure 3. Stained glass sign in the window of Everywomans Books handmade by Heather Hestler .........49 Figure 4. Everywomans Books, Oak Bay location, 1975 .............................................................................57 Figure 5. Everywomans Books, Johnson Street location, 1987 ..................................................................57 Figure 6. Bulletin board inside Everywomans Books ................................................................................ 61 Figure 7. Members of the Everywomans Books collective in 1989 …………………………………........................77 Figure 8. Members of the Everywomans Books collective in 1996 ...........................................................88 Figure 9. Members of the Everywomans Books collective in a parade …………………………………….............146 v Acknowledgements I would first like thank Dr. Lynne Marks for her endless support and understanding. I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn from Dr. Marks and to work with a supervisor so patient and capable of guiding me with kindness and calmness as I chaotically fumbled through the process of completing this project. A truly great supervisor like Dr. Marks knows exactly when to push their students and when to pull them back. At different times, I desperately needed both. I would also like to thank my second reader, Dr. Annalee Lepp, for her thorough and incisive feedback. It made all the difference. I am deeply grateful to all of the protagonists of Everywomans Books for their ambition and hard work and especially to Debby Yaffe and Susan Moger for founding the Victoria Women’s Movement Archives. I left every conversation with these interesting women dazzled and inspired by their passion, conviction and fierce cleverness. I survived the drudgery of many long library sessions thanks to The Raincoats and PJ Harvey, who performed the soundtrack to my writing. Of course, I am also grateful to my family and friends and my partner, who never intimated
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