Women Histories, Incest Sexual Abuse. Institutionalized. but What If
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OVIVIANN GORNIC KTH ON LOVE E• MOLL Y ISSUEHASKELL ON HENRY JAMESS THE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERLY • WINTER 1998 A large proportion ofwome V V W nI in psychiatric and other institutions have harrowing Ihistories, incest and childhood sexuaUUAUUIl abuseUlJUOUi.l probably why they are institutionalizedII IOII lillllll ICIII£.wtl .• Presumably, they are safe. BumS 11t1 wha¥ If I IUt1 iIfI the staff of the very place charged with your care, repeateI bUblllvldJ the same sexual assaultsyou experienced as a child. What if you had to continu1/ UI II IUev livinI if 11 IgU in the same small confined space as your rapist, in constant fear of future anltc assaults...Ah, friends, there is little "asylum" in America. $3.95 • CANADA $4.95 84> -- Phyllis Chesler 0 74470 78532 3 , the stir is the sowifL <rf me z&cki SLnyChf* it OS Lhtil>nsit€, W£mj/€htWhsil, Mhttwtfiny, Its 1 i/vLC€jfv^\/€ heard fvr twenty jmn uv the its AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 16 ON RED HOUSE RECORDS AT FINE STORES EVERYWHERE OR CALL 1-800-69 5-468 7 THE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERLY - WINTER 1998 - VOLUME VII - NUMBER 1 ON THE ISSUES FEATURES COVER STORY No Safe Place - Phyllis Chesler- 12 Our most vulnerable female patients are being raped by the very people hired to care for them. CREATIVE LAW My Body, My Choice, My Consent - Eileen McDonagh - 18 Consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy TRENDS A Whole New Ball Game - Anngel Delaney - 20 •>Mf "Playing like a girl" is no longer an insult. ENVIRONMENT Genesis II - Lynn Wenzel - 26 An Ecofemmist Reclamation Project PORTFOLIO Gaining Face: The Art of Judy Schavrien - Jennifer Kay Hood - 34 MEDICAL POLITICS The Bitter Pill - Leora Tanenbaum - 38 Bombarded by propaganda on Premarin, we can't trust our doctors and we can't trust ourselves RACE AND GENDER Not a Black and White Issue - E. Assata Wright - 42 For battered and abused Latinas and Black women of color, dialing 911 may be risky business HIDDEN TRUTHS Stop the Pain - Penney Kome - 48 America's workplaces (designed for men) are harming women COLUMN 27 Years, but Who's Counting? - Merle Hoffman - 5 Thoughts on yet another Roe v. Wade DEPARTMENTS Feedback - 4 Talking Feminist Teaching My Daughter to Yell - Anne Vilen - 8 Friends: Growing Up, Growing Apart - Theresa Alan - 9 Till Do Us Part - Martha Albertson Fineman - 10 Books and Film Vivian Gomick's The End of the Novel of Love- Reviewed by Mahin Hassibi, M.D.- 50 Who's Afraid of Feminism? - Reviewed by Eleanor Bader - 52 Lesbian Polyfidelity - Reviewed by Carolyn Gage - 54 Film: The Women of Henry James - Molly Haskell - 56 Back Page - Publishing's Hot New Trend - Joan Hilty - 62 • COVER: AMERICAN DREAM(TOP); DON'T GO (BOTTOM); CONTENTS PAGE: OTIANO (RIGHT) FROM GAINING FACE: THE ART OF JUDY SCHAVRIEN PAGE 34. feedback E-mail: [email protected] Not My Kind of Party Violence" by Patricia Murphy, Fall 1997]. The link between cruelty to Judith WitheroVs article, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Myself!" animals and cruel treatment of humans is documented only sporadi- [Fall 1997] was right on target. It was a pleasure to read such clear cally, yet every bit of printed information on this crucial subject is one and plain-spoken truths. Those of us who voted for Bill Clinton step closer to prevention. I first learned of the connection several years share responsibility for allowing him to continue to pursue his ago, reading articles on the link between childhood cruelty to animals regressive policies, no matter what the alternatives were. Maybe and subsequent abusive adult behavior. I am glad to see the topic now next time Ms. Witherow will publicize her campaign so we can all being covered in feminist literature as well. The tools needed to stop vote for her. emotional and physical violence towards womyn are many, and edu- Dan Friedman - Takoma Park, MD cation is one of the most vital. Thanks for providing it. Mary Clifford - Roanoke, VA I loved Judith Witherow's article, "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Myself." [Fall 1997]. She verbalized what so many of us are feeling. I was delighted to read Patricia Murphy's "Animals Escaping Bill Clinton, for all his intelligence, empathy, and heart, has failed Domestic Violence." For several years, Feminists for Animal Rights us. He's like a man who dumps his girlfriend twenty miles out of have been helping to start foster care programs for the animals of town, tells her to walk home, and then has the audacity to say, "But battered women while the women are in a shelter. We have issued a don't forget, I'll always love you."Talk is cheap, and for the most part pamphlet about how to start a foster care program in a community both Republicans and Democrats have stopped even talking about Of course, one of the things that is necessary is for shelters to include the issues that affect those of us who aren't wealthy, middle-class, or questions about companion animals in their intake questionnaires: white men. "Are there any pets at home?" "Has your partner ever threatened or People of color, feminists, unionists, and low-income citizens injured a pet?" "Do any pets need shelter while you receive shelter?". must unite to make our voices heard. We demand better than what My own article on the subject, "Woman-Battering and Harm to the Republicans and the Democrats are offering. Tom Wicker, in his Animals," appears in the anthology Animals and Women: Feminist insightful book Tragic Failure, suggests that a third party might be Theoretical Explorations (Durham: Duke University Press 1995). necessary. I agree. And I don't mean the Ross Perot kind; I want and Domestic violence practice has traditionally classified "destruction of need the Judith Witherow kind. pets" along with destruction of property as a single type of battering. Jesse Winter - Seattle, WA In this article, I explain why destruction of property and injury to (or execution of) a pet must be seen as separate forms of battering. Our Right to Make the Wrong Choice Moreover, harm to animals exposes the deliberateness of battering. I am surprised that a feminist, class-conscious magazine such as On Batterers often claim they 'lost control" to explain their violent The Issues would print the classist, self-absorbed piece by Kristin Bair behavior toward their partners. However, the ways in which batter- ["Take No Prisoners: My Right to Legal Abortion" Fall 1997]. Bair ers are violent toward animals demonstrate their extreme control: seems to suggest that because she has degrees and muscles, listens to they often make preparations, stretch out the animals' suffering, jazz and eats Thai food, her life is more valuable than the lives of haul the children in to witness the injuring of an animal, and in other those who shop at Sears and live in low-income suburbs with second- ways exercise deliberate control. hand furniture. Further information is available by writing to Feminists for I'd hate to imagine what anti-choice protesters would do with Animal Rights, PO Box 16425, Chapel Hill, NC 27516. A videotape this article. I'm glad that Bair had access to legal abortion. But as she about battering and harm to animals has been created by Don ranked thirty-second in her class, she should have had the sense to Jennings. For more information, write him at 422 East King Street, take advantage of the birth control that was widely available in the King, NC 27021. early 1980s. Abortions may be necessary to prevent women from Thank you for all the timely articles that appear in On The becoming parents before they are ready for such a responsibility, but Issues. they should not be justified as a means for women like Bair to become Carol J Adams - Richardson, TX cultured, meditate, and wear sexy dresses. Liza Feldman - Albany, NY On The Issues welcomes letters and considers them for publication in the magazine and on its website, unless otherwise specified. Letters Animal Rights and Wrongs may be edited for clarity and space. Send to On The Issues, Merle I am so thrilled to see coverage of the plight of companion animals in Hoffman Enterprises, Ltd., 97-77 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, NY a magazine devoted to womyn's issues ["Animals Escaping Domestic 11374-3317, or email to [email protected] winter 1998 - 4 on the issues 27 Years, but Who's Counting? I used to celebrate it differently—very differently In the begin- Thoughts on yet another I remember one January in particular in New York City's ning I was not political. Roe V. Wade Bryant Park. In the midst of the blinding snow and howling winds I became political by of what the papers termed "the worst blizzard of the decade," I was when I counseled my Merle Hoffman part of a band of dedicated pro-choice activists who were passion- first patient. Like so ately celebrating the anniversary of floe v. Wade—and just as pas- many others, she came from New Jersey because abortion was still sionately attacking those who opposed it. Despite, or perhaps illegal in that state. She was 24 years old—white, married, terrified. because of, the freezing temperatures, my blood was up. I knew the I don't remember her name or a word of what passed between us. battle was joined, the troops were marshaled, and I was feeling It was strangely irrelevant. I do remember that her hand stayed in nothing but transcendent. mine the entire time she was with me, throughout Years ago on another anniversary, I debated Nellie Gray, the her abortion.