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soijsnf JQJ JQJ adey adey suuuoi/\ suuuoi/\ — — Mrs. Phyllis Ellis Director Alberta Women's Bureau

The Alberta Women's Bureau is an information and referral service for Albertans. If you have concerns withwhich you require assistance and don't know who to contact, call, write or visit us at our new offices.

1402 Centennial Building 10015 - 103 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5J OH1 /dberfa WOMEN'S BUREAU CONTENTS

IN EVERY ISSUE Editor letters 2 Sharon Batt editorial Sharon Batt 5 Business law: Bape Logic Linda Duncan 28 Mary Alyce Heaton Design music: Discovering the Wheel Beverley Boss 32 Barbara Hartmann books: Morag Gunn - A Canadian Venus at Last? Art lona MacAlhster Laurie Bagley 39 Audrey Watson Margaret Laurence - More to her World Layout Marianne English than Facts Alison Hopwood 39 Diane Walton . . . and more books 41 Photography Alice Baumann-Rondez head way: When I Met the Lady Poets Diana Selsor Palling Anita Lerek 44 Fiction Karen Lawrence, Editor people in this issue 48 Candas Jane Dorsey Jeanne Perreault Helen Rosta FEATUBES Nonfiction Sharon Batt, Editor St. Joan in Silken Armour Susan McMaster 7 Marianne English From Atwood to Zaremba Peat Mary Alyce Heaton O'Neil 11 Jean Liebrecht Bape: Are We Paranoid? Jane Dick 30 Book Reviews Cruel and Unusual Punishment Helen Bosta 36 Karen Lawrence Law Conscience Came First Helen Bosta 38 Linda Duncan Public Relations Naomi Loeb WOMEN IN THE ABTS Susan McMaster Two Poems Bosemary Aubert 6 Administrative Nancy Caskenette Codpieces: Phallic Paraphernalia Karen Kohlman Tanya Bosenberg 13 Marg Sharon From the Other Paris Karen Lawrence 18 poetry: lions in the night sharks Mary Humphrey Baldridge 20 Image in Flux Toti Draginda 21 fiction: The Window Lygia Fagundes Telles 26 poetry: Black Bat Puberty Song Marilyn Bowering 46

Branching Out is published every two months by the New Women's magazine cover photo by Diana Society, Edmonton, Alberta Editorial office Selsor Falling located at 8627-109 Street, Edmonton, phone (403) 433-4021 Please do not send mail to the editorial office; send all cor­ respondence to Box 4098, Edmonton, Alber­ © Copyright 1976 by The New Women's Magazine Society, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. All ta T6E 4S8 Submissions should be typed, rights reserved. Unless used in a review, the reproduction of this work in any form, by any double-spaced and accompanied by a means, including photocopying, recording, information storage and retrieval systems, et stamped, self-addressed envelope. Adver­ cetera, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher. Second Class Mail tising rates are available on request Registration Number 3517. Vol. III. No. 1 February/March 1976.

Industrial Printing and Litho Ltd., Edmonton

February/March 1976 1 letters

"Women Who Won The West" was Men/Women inspiring. A baby in the rain in a tent! Ontario I like the magazine because women write the articles and manage its layout "Women Who Won the West" was too etc. I would like to see a broadening of simplistic. topics. Halifax Edmonton

I just didn't respond strongly to this Resist those who wish men included in issue. the magazine. We are a long way from Edmonton equality and this must be achieved first. Ottawa

Branching Out gives me the distinct This is the best issue you've put out so impression that the only way a woman far — interesting, positive, strong! will ever find herself is to become an Vancouver island or to surround herself with women who are also struggling. If we as The following are some of the com­ women are strong in ourselves we can ments from the November/ December draw on men's knowledge without fear reader questionnaire. of losing our freedom. Ontario November/December issue Feminism There should be less "up the female" Beaugrand-Champagne's pictorial es­ which to me is a putdown of females. say was worth more than a thousand I perceive that women are growing and Women should not be so small minded. words! their situation is changing. It's time to Calgary direct ourselves to the subtleties. The Ontario changes won't be made through anx­ I Less wailing please, especially in the I like the expansion of the book review ious pleas — we've made as much poetry and fiction. One would think men section. ground as possible that way. From here were the enemy. Quite a number of our Texas on in it's the cool, thorough approach that will do the trick. ills have seen self-inflicted. Edmonton I never agreed more with an article than Ottawa with "Enough" by Karen Lawrence. Articles of wider interest and Amen. What she said about many not just Arts/Politics the old women's Lib issues. New women's magazines also applies to approaches to Branching Out. Must you accept only old problems. More emphasis on economic and Montreal articles, stories and poems from political issues, less on the arts. If women? women are to become truly equal they A more radical approach would give Edmonton must be at the top of the power structure Branching Out more punch. in significant numbers. Because these Ottawa Karen Lawrence is so right. There are areas are so foreign to most women times when an artist can use the things they are afraid to tackle them and stick around her to create really great, More articles for or by women who do to creative areas. imaginative work but this seldom not appear so radical in their "libera­ Alberta happens when "problems" are aired. tion." Many of us have come to terms Ottawa with our life and enjoy harmony. We have to stop moaning about our sad Manitoba lot and turn to action. Even letters to Most articles were too dry and with little M.P.s and M.L.A.s supporting legisla­ "people interest" from paragraph one I get tired of angry feminist rhetoric. tion would be helpful. Women need to on. Ontario agitate more! Edmonton Edmonton More items on women's progress and "What did you think of IWY?" was a less on the actual liberation aspect. More on social and political events good idea but didn't reflect enough Most women who read Branching Out concerning women rather than concen­ variety. are already liberated. trating on arts. Ontario Ontario Peace River, Alberta

Branching Out More information on women in the arts. Etcetera I'd prefer shorter articles. Keep up the book reviews. London, Ontario Brockville, Ontario Keep your integrity in advertising policy — avoid cosmetics ads, for example. The magazine is "samey" and perhaps Branching Out is my favorite magazine Willowdale, Ontario cliquish. because of its promotion of women's Bonnyville, Alberta arts. I recognize myself in experiences I really do object to articles that seem to and feelings expressed by your con­ revolve around bad language and More French. Layout generally good tributors. vulgarity. with some inconsistent lapses. High Ontario Manitoba gloss paper very distracting. Ottawa The magazine should broaden women's horizons not only on a social but a I would like to see more articles about political level. It should be more infor­ women in other countries and how they A past issue had a great short story mative than entertaining. It's not that are coping. about two women falling in love — so women's progress in the arts is invalid Montreal accurate. We chickenhearts need but I'm puzzled as to how it can benefit guidance about the manifold the oppressed female factory worker or The magazine needs more social con­ possibilities. The present categories are it be the single parent struggling for survival. science. It is too "high culture" — we so ironclad and exclusive. Won't Montreal are not all literary. nice when we can freely express our -St. John's feelings for each other without fear and More women in the arts, history and restrictions. Ontario literature. I like the poetry. More film Branching Out's high quality and all- reviews. encompassing nature commend it. The Ontario assumption that the reader is a mature, I feel I am becoming more liberated in intelligent, many-faceted human being my old age and your magazine certainly The poetry is absolutely meaningless to makes the magazine special. has its influence. Edmonton anyone but the poet herself. I've never Alberta read such a lot of stupid verbiage trying really disappointed to pass for poetry anywhere else. Edit your letters to the editor. Branching Out has Alberta Ontario me. For about the past six months the quality has dropped noticeably. The in such a boring Your poetry and photography continue Many of your articles are boringly wordy topics are handled controversy, to be first class. and some are too esoteric, especially unimaginative way — no Ontario book and film reviews. no new viewpoint. Can't you please, Ontario please put in a bit of freedom, a bit of fire? If the magazine continues to be so reading Regionalism The book review section seems without uninspiring and dull I'll just stop direction. Adult and children's books this golden opportunity gone stale Too much emphasis on western Canada should be clearly separated. How about through lack of courage. Edmonton (especially Edmonton) in the advertising selecting books that will make a real and some of the articles. contribution towards women's equali- Ontario ty? Newfoundland NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS Since I'm a western Canadian I'd like to of Branching Out was see lots more articles by and for us. Keep serious, not flighty. This issue Alberta Saskatchewan delayed one month because of dif­ ficulties caused by the postal strike. We More material from women gleaned Publish a humorous article or story — hope to produce six issues of the if this proves from all provinces. it's all so deadly senous\ magazine this year but Vancouver Montreal impossible subscriptions will be extend­ ed. More acticles from people in Quebec. Improvement in art work please. Some subscribers have written to Bring in as much variety as possible. Ottawa say they did not receive their last issue. Montreal If you are missing one or more issues I think your feature articles could be you should have received, please notify Articles on women in Newfoundland. more in depth than they are. us, including your full address. St. John, Newfoundland Brandon, Manitoba

February/March 1976 Here's what some of our subscribers are saying about Branching Out

"One of the finest Canadian magazines on the market today."

". . . good editorials."

". . . A very honest portrait of women. It puts the women's movement in perspective."

". . . consistently getting better."

"Monotonous, predictable, whiny."

Well, most ot them are glad they subscribed.

Shouldn't you give us a try?

6 issues for $5.00 12 issues for $9.50

Make cheques or money orders payable to Branching Out, Box 4098, Edmonton, Alberta, T6E 4S8.

Branching Out editorial

"I guess the women's movement is pretty well uncertainty rather than depression. I agree that the over," someone said to me the other day. He had major obstacles to women's equality still remain. heard, with apparent relief, that 'libbers' had gone Yet few of us are likely to return to our former the way of 'flower children', 'ecology freaks' and passivity and "female" roles. Not everyone has other period personae. An outsider's view perhaps, "run out of things to say" if recent publications by but not, I think, without validity. Take for example women's groups are any indication. And those the fact that Myrna Kostash, Maclean's columnist women who are still active seem to be working on women, wrote her last column in September with a quiet efficiency and effectiveness. This style citing the fact that her own passion as a feminist of operation may not be flashy, but I think it will was gone: "we pushed and we shoved. But nothing bring tangible results. For example, a group in moved." Or look at American journalist Nora Toronto, after a year of research and preparation, Ephron who notes in the preface to Crazy Salad, recently established a women's credit union, her recent, bestselling collection of essays about geared to the special needs of an all-female women and the movement, "It has become more clientele. For these women, talking about their and more difficult for me to write about women . . . difficulties motivated them to work collectively on a I'm afraid I have run out of things to say. "A similar solution. sense of depression and resignation has set in with In our last issue, fiction editor Karen Lawrence some of the staff of Branching Out expressed a wish to see women's writing reach Most women I have talked to recently into areas of wider interest, to see fresh ap­ recognize this change of mood. While they do not proaches to the overworked "women's issues." say the movement is over, they say it is "shifting Her viewpoint is shared by others on the staff and gears" (presumably downwards), or it "needs new was echoed by many readers who replied to our blood" (not theirs). As a feminist, I've spent some recent questionnaire. Clearly, Branching Out will time wondering how all this will affect me. As a have to satisfy this desire if the magazine is to member of the staff of a women's magazine, I sustain the support of staff and readers. As editors wonder how it should affect our editorial policy or, we want to expand the scope of our content while indeed, if a magazine like Branching Oui is still retaining the identity of Branching Out as a needed. women's magazine (which we believe is needed — It's hardly surprising that so many women as a group women are still underdogs). have lost the fresh energy and enthusiasm they In this issue we introduce two columnswhich had several years ago. The early idealism of any explore new areas. Linda Duncan begins her series movement is sparked by a sudden realization of on the law by proposing how to prosecute rapists in injustice. This awareness can be reinforced a startling — but legal — way. Future articles on the through communication, as it was for women who law will cover such topics as the environment and joined consciousness-raising groups and dis­ creditors' rights. Write to her if you want to covered a sense of community with other women, contribute other topics or write an article of your who shared their fears, their anger, their frustra­ own. The second column, head way, was conceiv­ tion. More reinforcement came from the reams of ed by Karen Lawrence as a space for contributors studies and articles that suddenly flowed from the who have broken a habitual pattern in their ways of pens of academics, the typewriters of journalists, responding, who have expanded their self- the computers of government offices, the minutes awareness. Our first contributor, Anita Lerek, of ad hoc committees. This barrage of information describes how her ideas about art and politics increased people's awareness of women's changed during a conference of poets held in problems, but its impact paradoxically diminished. Toronto. The facts of discrimination were always the same; The two columns are examples of how we new responses seemed impossible. In a situation would like to change the magazine so that the new that was no longer dynamic, we lost our energy for directions women are taking will be a vital part of making changes. I think a desire to seek new ways Branching Out's content. We want to be aware of of responding to now-familiar problems is turning the changes in women's lives, to find out whether many women away from organized feminism. they are still active in the movement or are trying to My personal reaction to all this is a sense of explore their strength independently.

Sharon Batt

February/March 1976 Lovers like two great circles crossing. One is red or yellow or orange. One is blue or green. Or they are different shades of one colour. But where the circles intersect they flash all the wild spectrums of light and become indefinable colours or no colour or invisible or they are one shade I found of one colour. a cockroach in the washroom, the first one since we came here, and tears made me weak again. It is two a.m. I think of you racing through the rain alone or trembling with a reed of a blonde in some suburban motel room and I want so badly Rosemaru Aubert to talk to you. w I don't want to say how I used to love you or how I could always catch the light falling across your face like a breeze, making you beautiful. I only want to tell you about that sordid invasion of the place where we used to brush our hair together, where I would look up and catch my smiling face over your shoulder in the mirror. Branching Out St. Joan in Silken Armour an interview with Lorraine Monk

by Susan McMaster photos by Vivian Frankel

Lorraine Monk is the Executive Producer of the Still employees you supervise, the size of your division. Photography Division, National Film Board. Recently she "Our ten people are the core of four exhibitions a year in talked to Susan McMaster about her job, her life and her Ottawa. We have ninety exhibitions travelling in Canada and aspirations. around the world. We have 2,000 freelance photographers * # * and an audience of literally millions for our shows and our "Nobody has done more for Canadian photography than books. But still photography is apparently a low priority for the Lorraine Monk." She laughs with surprise, perhaps em­ board. I have to get sponsorship from other sources to put out a barrassment. "Oh, you mean Still Photography?" No, I am book; they haven't funded even one of them." quoting a prominent Canadian photographer who referred The Secretary of State supported Photography 1975 specifically to Lorraine Monk, the Executive Producer of the Photographie, the book of the Ottawa IWY show. Impressed by Still Photography Division. "Well, yes, I guess that's true .. ." earlier successes, commercial publishers often buy the rights We are sitting in Lorraine Monk's sunlit living room, to the books:Photography 19 75Photograph/e\s now available drinking Perrier water and lime juice. Sketches, photographs as The Female Eye. Her current project, Between Friends/ En- and paintings on the walls were done mostly by friends. An tre Amis will be published simultaneously by the Film Board antique toy — a cast-iron coach and horse set — is whimsically and McClelland & Stewart. at home among the rich rugs, occasional panes of stained She recalls the days when a government agency would glass, and deep, soft furniture arranged for conversation. phone to request a photographer for 10 o'clock the next "I think the most important thing I've done is be a kind of morning. She would send somebody over who would be told to dragon protecting the still photographer in this country. I have wait, as they weren't ready yet. At 11 o'clock, the photographer set standards of price and treatment. Now nobody is going to might be told to come back at 2:00. Finally he would be let in, push a still photographer around. A good photographer is told to take a picture, told where to take it, and to take it fast, worth as much as a good bank president, because he affects because they were very busy people. the world we live in. He affects our lives, our way of seeing, our That happened a couple of times; then Monk stepped in. whole way of responding to the world and interpreting reality." She told her photographers it didn't matter what level of Since her appointment in 1960, Lorraine Monk and her government they were dealing with, "when you go in there, division have produced eleven books, including Call Them you're directing a film as far as I'm concerned. You're in charge Canadians, A Time To Dream, and Canada, which won the of that room, and everybody there will sit, stand, or co-operate 1973 Leipzig medal for the most beautiful book in the world. for you." She insisted that photographers begin work when Canadian exhibitions and slide shows include the Inter­ scheduled, and that clients be billed for waiting time. Her national Women's Year exhibition in Ottawa in 1975. Over photographers were artists, and were to be treated with ninety exhibitions of Canadian photography are presently respect. People who weren't prepared to accept her terms showing around the world. Monk's division buys the work of were told to find their own photographers. thousands of freelancers annually. Her projects are commer­ She feels that photographers have been their own worst cial as well as aesthetic successes; Canada, first published in enemies; they were so anxious for assignments, they allowed 1967, is still in print and has sold 100,000 copies. Monk has themselves to be pushed around. "I knowthe weakness. When received the Order of Canada, the Centennial Medal, the you're hungry and the rent is due, you think $14 a day is better Excellence of Service Award for the Federation International than nothing. It's a tragedy." de I'Art Photographique. She feels very strongly that it is vital to set standards and Today, Lorraine Monk looks more prices for good photography and stick to them. She is infuriated friendly than formidable. In a long white dress, with her blonde by the government information officer who wants to prepare a hair coiled around her head, she appears as serene as the booklet and thinks a few photographs would give it some spice. Sunday sunshine. Where is the woman who has fought some When the officer hears the cost — $150 per day, plus film, of the bitterest battles in Canadian bureaucracy, who has been processing, and expenses, and $50 minimum per photograph called'arrogant'by some and 'ruthless'bv herself? Who is — the response is often, 'Well, that's incredible. I'll buy a called 'dragon lady'in some circles? camera and take my own pictures.' I get my first glimpse of that woman when I ask why the "And I say, listen, buster. You go right ahead, you give up NFB spends only two per cent of its budget on the still your $18,000 a year job where you sit with your feet on the photography division. desk to read the Globe and Ma/1 and drink your coffee, You "Less than one per cent!" she exclaims. "Including me, leave early when you want to catch a plane or watch a football there are fewer than ten permanent employees in my division. game, You get paid whether you work or not, whether you're I'm trying to give local power to the regions, to spend my money sick or not, you get paid for holidays. No photographer in this on photographers rather than on bureaucracy. Unfortun­ country earns $18,000 a year. Most of them are grubbing ately, in the government, all that counts is the number of along on three or five thousand a year. So you take a camera, February/March 1976 and I'll send somebody I know who can write andtake pictures What has happened to the woman who told me earlier, to take over your job." "Nobody takes me lightly. Nobody." I can't reconcile this self- Monk believes that people will pay for good photography if effacing image with her impressive track record; it seems an they have to. A bank called one day to request the rights to a impossible contradiction. What is the source of her energy, her photograph from Year of the Land. She told her secretary it drive, her success, if not ambition? would cost $300. They refused to pay 'that kind of money for a "I have a stronge sense of perfection. If I'm scrubbing the black and white photograph' and kept calling back. Finally her sink in the kitchen, I will do it as though my life depended on it. I secretary refused to deal with them anymore because they don't divide the world into what's worthy of being done well were so rude. Monk took the nextcaM'.The man said, 'we want and what isn't. If you have to do it, you might as well make it the to do this .little brochure'." 'Are you going to run it for internal most important job in the world." use?' Well, no. 'That'll be $600. Are you going to run it For a minute she sits, considering her answer, and seems nationally?'Yes. 'Well, that'll be $1200. Do you see the to find it inadequate. Her next words are less dogmatic, more possibility it could ever be run outside the country?' It could. reflective. 'That'll be $1500.' 'Fifteen hundred dollars for one black and "I think I've always been somebody in search of a cause. white photograph — you must be mad!' 'Yes, lam mad. I don't Maybe I have a Joan of Arc complex. Maybe I've always care if you buy that photograph or not, don't ever be rude to my wanted to die for something, maybe I have a religious fever secretary again.' Two days later the cheque was on my desk, that I needed to translate into something and found it in still because they wanted the photograph." photography. But she doesn't always win. In 1970, as a result of the "Not that I want to go out in a blaze of glory and have a federal task force report To Know and To Be Known, the Still military funeral with crosses and flags. I want to feel, in my Photography Division was partially disbanded. The advisory own mind, that I gave something back to the world I live in. That and public relations functions, as well as the library of prints sounds corny, theatrically religious, yet I don't know a more and slides Monk had been collecting for ten years, were turned honest way to put it." over to the newly-formed Information Canada. The staff was She explores the idea, trying to locate the exact source of cut from twenty employees to ten. her energy, unwilling to let the question drop until it is "It was a disaster for the still photography community of satisfactorily answered. this country. I fought a bitter battle right to the wire, I fought it "I have an intensely passionate nature. If I'm making an with every bit of political manoevring and manipulation I omelette, somehow I manage to make it a thunderingly could. I didn't give up easily — I did not'go gentle into that good dramatic event. night' and I have raged many times. "I think it's something that's born in you. I'm a very "It was a tragic decision. There are very 'in' words that theatrical person. I love the excitement of doing something, impress people who control money in government — pushing myself to the ultimate. I love to set almost impossible centralization, efficiency. So somebody could prove on paper.. standards, and then try to reach them, try to get higher and "In fact, they wanted to take everything I had. I said I would higher. It's an affliction. Maybe I'm just a compulsive burn every negative in my collection, would chain myself to the perfectionist. Why do I do it? But I do ... Parliament buildings rather than turn them over. I insisted on "Maybe that's why I don't believe in the hereafter. I was my right to keep what I called 'the creative work,' whatever that reared to believe there was a God who was going to reward me means. I think it's been a disaster, because we were building if I did something well, that there was an eternity I was going to up an invaluable, irreplaceable, priceless photographic live in afterwards. But when you come to the conclusion on documentation of this country, and we lost a large chunk. your own that there isn't anything else . . . there's today, "I think that was the low point of my life. I became very there's no tomorrow, there's what you can do with today, and depressed as I watched the people I loved go. It wasn't just the there's having to look in the mirror at the end of the day and money or the photography, it was the people. I felt like Saint- respect yourself or not. And that's my own, ultimate standard. Exupery — sort of this little band of men who had created a kind Living with myself, feeling that I don't have to be ashamed. of magic place on the edge of the world, and now it was being "If I were a typist, I'd probably want to be the fastest, best, destroyed, it was over in a flash." most efficient typist in the world. Lorraine Monk has a strong sense of loyalty and affection "In some way I have to justify the fact that I'm on this for her staff, feelings which are returned. An ex-employee says planet, polluting it, sucking in the little bit of air that's left, I she is one of the few bosses whose staff misses her when she have to put something back into it. I happen to be in this job, goes on a trip. Perhaps that is because she doesn't think of and I want to do the best I can and give it all the energy I feel I herself as a boss. She relates the story that once someone have." asked her if she worked for one of her employees, who had A deeply felt, active sense of responsibility toward her apparently been talking as though he were the head of the society, an idealistic love of her profession, a compelling division, and she replied that she did. "I don't have any sense of perfectionism — do these spring from her early years? Monk ego that required me to set the record straight. I work for all the was born and raised in Montreal, and had what she calls "a people in my office, I really do." happy and gently religious childhood." Is Monk saying she doesn't have the driving desire for "You don't realize that you're growing up in this funny, power and status that is behind many successful people, that warm, tiny little world. There were three girls and a boy — my she doesn't care for prestige and authority? "I don't give a father's only son died at the age of five of meningitis. I was six, tinker's damn for prestige and authority. For still photography, and I think buried somewhere in my subconscious was an yes, but not for me." incredible desire to do something for my father to replace the She claims to be unambitious. "We all have a desire to be son who had died. It was in the days when people were buried accepted by our fellow man, but to be singled out ... I really from the living room. He was laid out in his white sailor suit in very often find it terribly embarrassing. I'm gathering other the coffin, and I saw my father crying over him. It had an people's work and exhibiting it, and sometimes I think I gettoo incredible impact on me because men tended to think their much of the credit for what other people have done." sons were the most talented, and this son was the end of my

8 Branching Out father's dream. I don't think I've ever even verbalized it. over officially' — and there I was, eight and a half months "Any of us girls could have gone to university, but I was pregnant! So I got back in a hurry. the only one who did. No pressure was put on us to do anything "I've never taken more than a week off to have a baby, and but be good, and to be happy. But I could not be happy unless... that's because I'm very strong physically, although I get somehow I wanted to do something to make up for the image of pneumonia at the drop of a hat. I've had TB, and I know what it my father crying over my brother's casket. I know that when I is to lie flat on your back for a year. But apart from that, I have went to McGill I worked very hard to get high marks because I the most incredible energy and drive." wanted to please my father. I adored my father, he was an Has being a woman affected her in her job? Has it been a incredible influence in my life. He is really a great, great man, a handicap or an advantage? Does she handle her job differently great philosopher, very large of mind, very beautiful." than a man might? The last piece has been fitted into the puzzle. Satisfied that "I suppose inevitably, whether it's conscious or un­ she has explained the source of her energy, Monk moves conscious. You can't deny it. I have been known to burst into naturally from her own childhood to anecdotes about her four tears to get my own way — isn't that despicable? Except that I

children, three of whom are still at home. She is as really feel this passionately about still photography that when I passionately devoted to them as she is to still photography. see people putting it down, I cry, I really do. I don't know "Karyn (her youngest child) asked me this morning, 'why whether that's because I'm a woman or because I care so did you have your babies? What motivates women to have much." babies?' I said, 'I really love babies.' It's a very old-fashioned It's hard to imagine Monk in tears. I comment on her thing to say. I would love to have had more. I'd love to have reputation for toughness, for being able to handle anything adopted a Vietnamese orphan. that comes her way, including MCPs. "Oh, l£>u//ythem if I have "I've never felt a conflict between working and my to. Depends on how far their chauvinism goes." But she seems children. When I need more time, I simply go twenty-four impatient with the whole question of professional sexism, as if hours to create it. 1 come home, I put on my apron, I go into the it is something that has never particularly affected her — with kitchen, and I become their mother. I really enjoy that. I don't one exception. "I have wondered why it is that in the NFB I'm feel imposed upon, I don't feel unliberated. I love it! not part of Board management, I don't have any say in the "I went into the Board as a writer. Inevitably when you're creation of policy. There has never been a woman atthat level, in a small office, you don't have designers or layout people, and and there must have been women available. you have to start doing it. When the head of the off ice left, I had "I have often said I would like to have some impact on the three chi Wren and I was pregnant with Karyn. The last thing on creation of Board policy. I think sometimes I've had valuable earth I wanted was a lot of responsibility. I wanted a job that observations to make. There's never been a board director or would be interesting but that wouldn't sap all my energy, that senior management person who's been a woman. Makes you wouldn't intrude. I felt I didn't want to shortchange four wonder." children. She is enthusiastic in her support of International "They hired a man. He was on trial for six months, but he Women's Year. "It's had a great impact on everybody. I've didn't work out. I was ordered to take the job —'In the interim never felt particularly threatened because I'm female. In this you've been doing it, and on the first of January you must take country, women, many times, have equal opportunity of work; February/March 1976 9 it's very new though, and there's a long way to go. But in other publication on July 1, 1976. Monk predicts it will be a runaway countries ... I read about the conference in Mexico — it doesn't success. matter what was accomplished. It's the beginning of a change "We're printing 20,000 copies to be deposited in libraries in people's attitudes. Women are no longer a joke; you don't across North America, 10,000 in Canada and 10,000 in the put them down, you don't pat their bums quite so easily. I think States. McClelland has bought the commercial rights, and is women are going to be taken a lot more seriously, they're going gambling he can sell 70,000 copies, even though it's bilingual. to be more respected all over the world. He's selling this book on a non-returnable basis. I believe it will "Inevitably there are abuses. Token females are being happen, that the book will sell out before it's actually on the hired to do token jobs. That's horrible, but it's the inevitable market, it will be pre-sold. interlude before real change." "This is the biggest commercial publishing venture in Monk rejects the present emphasis on professional Canadian history. It's going to catch the public imagination and differences between men and women: her concern is quality. take off, no question about it. The first edition of Year of the "I don't divide the world into male and female, I divide it into Land was 25,000 copies; it's only now, after ten years, that good and bad. When I thought of Judith having a show, I didn't sales are approaching 100,000. We're printing 90,000 on our think, we must give a show to a woman photographer. I really first run and gambling they'll all be gone before the first one didn't think about it in those terms."(The reference is to Judith hits the bookstores — an act of faith. I predict that in the next Eglington's 1973 exhibition, subsequently published by the ten years, it'll sell a million copies. It'll be the first illustrated division as Earth Visions.) book to do it in this country." The woman who is the central figure in projects of this magnitude has a great deal of power over the success of Canadian photographers — commercial or aesthetic success. She buys work from thousands of photographers a year, paying professional rates. What makes a good photograph? The question seems difficult; the answer comes slowly, hesitantly. "I would normally say one that I like, but that's too off­ hand. A good photograph, like a good anything, has lasting qualities. It's a thing to enjoy, it's going to survive the test of time. The ones I buy, I'm gambling they are the great ones of today. "Why do we still love the cave drawings? Think about it. Thousands and thousands of years old, and you look at them and say,'Wow!'lt's almost an instinctive reaction to something that's really good, that really gets to you. And when I look at a good photograph, I hear bells. I do. I don't have any other judgment in buying photographs than if I hear bells." Does Lorraine Monk take photographs? She laughs. "Would you like to see my pictures? I'm very normal and ordinary in that I have a camera and I take pictures. Just pictures of my kids ..." We leaf through a few — Karyn on the couch, John and David in jeans and wide hats, slightly lop­ sided self-portraits, several of John Reeves, outstanding Canadian photographer, clowning in her kitchen. She sifts through the snapshots, smiling slightly when she comes to a favorite. She appears completely at ease, at home with herself, with the place, with her life. Is she happy? "Am I happy? No, I don't think I am. I think it's my curse to see, not what I've done, but what I haven't done. Tomorrow morning when I go into the office and see what has to be done before I leave (for the Frankfurt Book Fair) I won't be happy. I am just fighting a lot of battles for next year's programs, more galleries, for more — how can I be happy? You have to be really unaware to be happy all the time. "I'm happy when I'm with my children, I suppose. This "There are three outstanding women photographers in morning with Karyn, talking about life and why you have this country in terms of the volume of work they've done. Nina babies, that was a nice moment. Life is not a continuous Raginsky is very good, Clara Gutsche is outstanding, and process, it's incidents like that when you touch somebody's Judith Eglington is great. life. Photography is reaching out and touching somebody, and "There are some really splendid woman photographers communication is touching somebody. This morning Karyn coming along: Lynne Cohen, Claire Beaugrand-Champagne in and I touched each other emotionally, and it was a warm Montreal is fantastic, Sandra Semen uk on the prairies, super." moment. I loved it; I was happy. The IWY exhibition showed "that artists are now working with "You know, truth is the pursuit of truth; maybe happiness photographers, combining photography with other mediums is the pursuit of happiness. Once you think you've got it, that's like painting and print-making. It's a very exciting develop­ when you really delude yourself. I haven't got it. I'm still ment." pursuing it though, feverishly, relentlessly . . ." Monk's current project is a bilingual book entitled I gather up my papers and tape recorder, and she walks me Between Friends/Entre Amis. It is part of Canada's contribu­ to the car, looking anything but feverish with her graceful step tion to the U.S. bicentennial celebration in 1976. Thirty and her long white dress. Lorraine Monk: ruthless and Canadian photographers portray the people and places within sentimental; feminist and romantic; career-woman and doting thirty miles of each side of the Canada-U.S. border. It will be mother; idealist and Dragon Lady. Lorraine Monk - the most produced entirely by Canadians, and printed in Canada, for important woman in Canadian photography today. ***

10 Branching Out From Atwood to Zaremba founding a feminist bookstore

by Peat O'Neil drawing by Audrey Watson Paying the workers is one of the What brings two nursery school moving women inquire about the latest collective's two goals. Stabilize to the teachers, a librarian, a journalist and an Lessing shipment. And there are the point where members of the collective American teacher together? What could wierdos who apparently think a who work in the store receive a living motivate women without business woman's bookstore is a dirty bookstore wage and, when profits appear (in a experience to sink time and money into with a new name. Every visitor receives couple of years suggests Patti), they a venture that would frighten seasoned personal attention. Fora novice feminist intend to fund women's projects. In businessmen? they suggest a good anthology and for preparation for disposing profits, the Patti Kirk, Marie Hagedorn, Joy the misinformed misogynist they in­ group is being incorporated as a non­ Wilson and Pat Leslie are the current dicate where to shove the requested profit organization with the assistance members of thecollective that owns and sexist porn rag. The Toronto Women's operates Toronto Women's Bookstore at Bookstore staff enjoy their work. of a female lawyer who donates her efforts. 85 Harbord Street. Needing books about The first location in Toronto's "With a little help from friends" is feminist issues and suspecting that Kensington market district was cheap, the essence of how this group survives. other Canadian women would support a but ill-chosen. Customers were meager, Their bookkeeper, who wanted to work in bookstore owned by women, the group so when space was found on busy the women's movement, but didn't see founded Toronto Women's Bookstore in Harbord Street, near the University of herself picketing parliament, donates June, 1974. These women and some Toronto, the group decided to move. former collective members risked a few Putting their minimal advertising her time. A salesman from one small Canadian publisher shared business hundred dollars, lots of time and sweat. budget towards the increased rent, Toronto Women's Bookstore thinking that the good location would information about registering the com­ clientele are as varied as the booktitles. generate word-of-mouth advertising, pany name. Other Toronto booksellers help by sending customers who request Middle-aged women exploring their life was a sound decision. In the new feminist books. Toronto Women's goals visit, asking for guidance through location, they rely on university the morass of feminist writing. Soft- generated trade and off the street Bookstore reciprocates the favour by sending people who ask for books not in voiced college men browse through the browsers. Business is expanding to the the store, to the appropriate small store hoping to expand their newly point where "We can pay ourselves bookstore. raised consciousness. Bright, fast- now", smiles Patti Kirk ruefully. It could be said that they have succeeded in spite of themselves. Knowing nothing about how to run a business, or of retail marketing techni­ ques, or how to publicize the company, they still have somehow managed to succeed. One mistake sits in shiny splendor in the midst of make-shift brick and board bookcases. "Let me tell you about that cash register," says Kirk. "We didn't know how to keep good sales records in the beginning. So, our bookkeeper suggested getting a cash register. We asked a large cash register company for information and the next thing we knew, we had a life time contract . . . with interest!" The collec­ tive could have used an adding machine and cash-box system, but in purchasing the cash register they learned a lesson in business economics and its presence in the store augers well the future when the Toronto Women's Bookstore will have sales volume worth of that early expenditure. Women considering a retail business career on their own could ask February/March 1976 11 Toronto Women's Bookstore members for pamphlets come in from all over the lefebvre gallery to share their experiences. Part of the country," says Patti Kirk. The collective 12214 jasper avenue learning experience for the collective is issued a new mail order catalog in developing operating methods suitable January, 1976 (write TWB, 85 Harbord for a changing group of six or seven St., Toronto and send 25 cents for people. Many women's businesses postage). Women across the country encourage flexible work schedules and can have access to books about women Lefebvre Gallery the systems instigated by the bookstore through the mail order service. Orders could be applied elsewhere. For exam­ from the United States concentrate on Edmonton ple, to ensure that all store workers books by the two Canadian Margarets — maintain familiarity with new books and Atwood and Laurence. The collective Feb. 7 - 20 stock fluctuations, each woman works welcomes suggestions for additions to at replacing stock each day. All the the mail order catalog and can fill Paintings by women are familiar with the procedures special orders on request. of running the store, but havoc and There is no master list of books on Dave Maclagan duplicated effort is kept to a minimum by women's issues, so the group has made designating two coordinators to handle up stock lists. Some spend free time ordering, correspondence and work combing Books in Print looking for schedules. Currently, Patti Kirk and books by or about women. Another March 6-19 Marie Hagedorn share ,the woman in the collective takes notes on organizational work. what other bookstores or libraries are The stock takes time to peruse. If selling relative to women's issues. Batik by you can think of a book by a woman or Most publishers don't send Lee Beames about feminism not on their shelves, representatives to show the bookstore then it is probably sold out or not workers previews of books scheduled Porcelain Heads by available in paperback. The bookstore for publication. "We're too small; they collective keeps prices to a minimum so don't really care about the small Jean Mihalcheon that all women can afford to buy bookseller," sighs Kirk. "We'd love to feminist books. Pamphlets on feminist see an advance blurb on books by or issues are stocked specifically to meet about women, but our first order would the needs of women's groups with low be small and they have other priorities." budgets. "Five dollars will buy a group Some publishers do send represen­ one book, or we can send a stack of tatives and the bookstore has a lot of pamphlets and reprints." "Mail orders catalogs for special orders. People visiting the store can make suggestions for books they would like to see stocked. Certain books are runaway best sellers. where can you read these Our Bodies. Our Selves is constantly out of stock, and so is anything by Virginia Woolfe. Women are beginning western Canadian writers? to come to Toronto Women's Bookstore to purchase books by established female writers. Patti Kirk attributes this MARIA CAMPBELL HENRY KREISEL W.O. MITCHELL trend to a feeling that people would JAMES GRAY ROBERT KROETSCH RUDY WIEBE rather patronize the small shop-keeper MYRNA KOSTASH KEN MITCHELL than the big chain stores. The small businesswoman does have a chance. The work is shared by all members of the collective. They have torn out all in one magazine. walls and painted shelves. Theydiscuss the merits of new stock (Fear of Flying caused some friction in the group). They determine the arrangement of display ithe newest review areas and the profit margin per square foot of selling space vs. the esthetic effect of more shelves. They live (one of the group lives below the store), eat, subscribe sleep and talk books — women's books — their books. Their concern and energy INDIVIDUAL RATE: TEN ISSUES FOR TWO DOLLARS are the hallmarks of their success to INSTITUTIONAL RATE: TEN ISSUES FOR FIVE DOLLARS date. Information exchange about women in our society is the reason for MONTHLY FROM NEWEST PRESS 13024 - 109 AVE. EDMONTON ALBERTA their existence. To fulfill that ideal successfully, the members of the Toron­ to Women's Bookstore became compe­ tent businesswomen. And that is what brings them and keeps them together.

12 Branching Out Codpieces: Phallic Paraphernalia by Tanya Rosenberg photos by James Shavick

The codpiece: that crucial flap in tical bent used his codpiece as a wrapped meat package. Some of the the costume of the well dressed pocket for his handkerchief or for creations were worn by male models Renaissance man, now all but oranges which he would pull out in who paraded down a runway in a forgotten. Or repressed? Historical company and hand to the ladies. But parody of a fashion show. footnotes tell us that the codpiece was even useful fashion is ephemeral. "This show caused quite a stir" introduced by the church for Although many men fought its recalls one observer. Clearly the artist modesty's sake, when the abbreviated demise, by the late 17th century, this intended it to do just that. When male tunics of the day threatened to symbol of virility was passe. Branching Out discussed photos of expose too much. Puritanical intent But one footnote has yet to reach Rosenberg's codpieces at an editorial was subverted and the codpiece soon the history books. At Montreal's meeting, we learned first hand just became an ornamental fashion which Powerhouse Gallery in October 1974, how controversial the works are. spread to every Christian country- artist Tanya Rosenberg mounted the Witty social comment or sexual ex­ Countries developed their own exhibition Codpieces: Phallic ploitation? We debated, we argued. national shapes. Noblemen decorated Paraphernalia. The codpiece lived Finally we wrote to Tanya Rosenberg their codpieces with rich embroidery, again, briefly. The artist played with and asked what she, the artist, wanted jewels and bullion. Proud men of all classic forms to produce outrageous to say when she created Codpieces. classes stuffed their codpieces for variations a rabbit fur piece, a Following is her reply. sturdy appearance. The man of prac­ Batman, a chessboard, a plastic

First I'd like to give you a little background, because I think that terminology, but it's the best I can come up with!) I call it's relevant to the whole damned business of codpieces. these artists visual philosophers. I quit producing art after being told in art school that I This is, of course, a simplification. There are artists who didn't make "beautiful lines" and that if I really loved art so are both, sometimes one, sometimes the other. It is possible to much I should go into art history, because "women just don't be emotionally stirred by an abstract painting by Georgia make it as artists". For over four years I didn't even do a O'Keefe, just as it is possible to be impressed with the color drawing. I typed. Then a bit of the women's movement hit me in and form used in a painting by Salvador Dali. the face, I got a divorce, and I decided that I would do art no Obviously, I consider myself a visual philosopher. I am matter what anybody said. I didn't know what I would do, but I more interested in influencing the attitudes of people through quit my job as a secretary and went on unemployment, so that I my work than I am with esthetics. This is not to say that I feel could devote some time to finding out about my creativity. my work is not esthetic. I went to Powerhouse. I went to night school. I started to Codpieces is controversial. I think I am probably more look at people's work, go to galleries. I was very insecure aware of that than anyone else. Someone might be able to because I had been a secretary and everyone knows that walk by a painting of dancing nudes without a response,but let secretaries aren't real people, let alone artists. Anyway, do you me tell you, nobody walks by codpieces without responding know how I felt about 95% of the work I saw? I was bored. I saw strongly one way or the other. other people walking around galleries looking bored. I said to When I started making codpieces and showing them to myself, "Tanya, it's time to put some excitement and fun into friends and fellow artists, I received as much negative this art scene and you can do it." feedback as positive (perhaps a bit more negative, actually). I personally believe that there are two basic types of artists Women on the whole were more enthusiastic than men (for (I'm not placing a value judgment on either, just trying to give obvious reasons). But there were women who considered the you some insight into my head space.): work gross and exploitative, and even revolting. I was accused There are those artists that are concerned with the of being: 1) sexually messed-up 2) sadistic 3) sick 4) a "ball- physical elements of a medium. They place their emphasis on crusher" 5) a man hater 6) obscene 7) dangerous 8) insane 9) technique, formulas, form, shape, movement, color, balance. suffering from penis envy etc. etc. ad nauseum. Their approach is predominantly intellectual and academic. At first I was very intimidated by these negative The main product, whether abstract or realistic, is esthetic. I responses. I began to think that maybe these people were call these artists purists (not in the art history sense of the right, maybe I was "fucked up"; and frankly that scared me. Did word). I want to continue producing art that made people think I was a Then there are those artists who are concerned with terrible human being? Did I want to expose my sickness issues: social, political, emotional, psychological, etc. They publicly? Yes, there were times of apprehension. use the medium as a vehicle for expressing a point of view or Of course, not all the responses were negative. The an experience. Some people might call it a "message" (I hate positive ones were as strong as the negative ones. There were

February/March 1976 13 people (men and women) who felt codpieces were humourous, original, beautiful, fun, intriguing, practical and socially relevant. Along with these responses came questions of doubt (even from my closest friends!)... What did it all mean? Was it art? Could I bring it all together? Would it make sense? How would it work? At this stage I was taking night courses in drawing and involved at Powerhouse. I was advised by more than one person that to do codpieces as my first exhibition might prove to be detrimental to my career as a whole. It was suggested that perhaps I should start with something a little simpler and more acceptable, like drawings, establish myself as reputable and then do something more far out. Considering that I had only had one year of art school at the age of 17 (I was 25) and a few night courses here and there, some people were afraid that I was attempting to do too much too soon. True Libran that I am, I weighed all of these things very carefully. I suddenly realized that I had stumbled onto a very touchy subject — male sexuality — and that if I ever did publicly execute this exhibition I would certainly be opening up a gigantic Pandora's Box. Given the intensity of responses at this early stage (only about 4 codpieces had actually been made, I just rapped a lot about the total concept), I decided that I could not give up the idea merely becauseitwas unpalatable to some. I decided to go with my instincts. I had something to say and I would say it and take my chances reputation-wise. I trusted myself. As more and more people saw codpieces, I received more and more feedback. Once I had made up my mind that I was doing it come hell or high water I was able to evaluate feedback in a more objective way. This is particularly relevant to the question about dealing with the negative attitudes of some people (codpieces as exploitative; offensive). I realized that how other people reacted to my work was not my problem. I began to see that when they made strong abusive remarks towards me that they were actually projecting their own fears and insecurities onto me, the artist. My imagery was there for viewing, the viewer's response was not necessarily my intention. The viewer's interpretation of my motives for creating codpieces was more an indication of what his/her motives for creating them might have been, not mine. This is a game people play with artists all the time — they want to think that they know what the artist is thinking. For example, I'm feeling uptight about this piece of art, therefore the artist must have intended me to feel uptight; therefore the artist is sadistic! . . . but in reality I may have quite un-uptight feelings about that piece. It is only the viewer's reaction that is relevant to the viewer, not my intention, so that any effort on their part to "psych me out" so to speak is pointless. Just as any effort on my part to control the viewer's response is pointless. I found that people who were uptight about sex in general thought codpieces were dirty. Men who were of the opinion that "women's libbers" were into castrating males saw codpieces as castrating. Men who bought Playboymagazine to oogle at nude ladies saw codpieces as oogle material for women. Men who exploited women as sexual objects saw

14 Branching Out codpieces as a means for women to exploit men sexually. But men who had a consciousness about roles they were expected to play in society saw codpieces as stabs against those roles. Men who were aware of the sexual exploitation of woman saw codpieces as a statement against sexual exploitation altogether. People who were openly interested in sex and had a healthy attitude about it saw codpieces as enjoyable and refreshing. And on and on. Not everyone saw codpieces the same way — each viewer had his own favourite piece. And the pieces themselves changed depending on who wore them and what that model did with the piece. I would like to clear up a point here. The codpieces themselves were works of art, each had its own statement to make. I dislike calling the men who wore them models, but I can't think of a better word. My concept was that the body and the plastic art would combine to create a totally new form of art. This did happen. Each piece changed in meaning from body to body. Each male model felt differently wearing each piece. They looked different, they had different significances. This is why I cannot even conceive of them as being exploitative — I see it more as an internalization and extension of the wearer's personality. Some models refused to wear certain pieces because they could not relate to them, they did not become a part of the whole, the body sculpture. I would like to add that you haven't even seen the most controversial pieces. One piece was a styrofoam meat package with a hole cut into the centre so that the testicles and penis popped through. They were covered in saran wrap and labelled $1.69 Ib. Another was a small balsa wood box lined in green velvet with a lid that opened up so that the penis could be viewed lying quietly on the velvet. There was a yalmulka with side curls running down the man's thigh; and an embroidered cross in black and gold with a rosary used as the tie. Probably the most outrageous piece was of yellow acetate with a 3- hooked fishing lure on the inside. The metal portion of the lure lays on top of the limp penis and the hooks dangle about Va" off the tip. Needless to say this piece creates an incredible tension and quiet when worn. It is also remarkably un-obscene even though the acetate is see-through. The viewer's eyes become fixed on the hook (not the genitals). The light plays off the metal and reflects in the acetate. This piece makes men cringe with pain when they see it hanging in my living room. BUT— the models who wore that piece have an entirelydifferentattitude (it is one model's favourite piece incidentally). They felt that they were no longer human beings in the normal sense of the word. They felt a primal base. They suddenly became aware of the frailty of mankind in a way they had never felt before. They also felt that their bodies were actually pieces of sculpture and an integral part of creating a strong and significant artistic statement. They (the men) were art. One model admitted that he was nervous and somewhat afraid before he put on the acetate piece (he did so voluntarily) — partly because of the hooks and partly because it was transparent and he felt he would be uncomfortable if people were staring at his genitals. After he put it on, however, he felt an incredible calm and exterior tension — he realized that his penis was not simply a

February/March 1976 15 sexual or erotic thing. It was no longer a penis. Part of his body some men had to leave because they were uncomfortable ... — yes, but it was creating a new meaning for him. It made him some ladies were tittering away at one point about how feel his vulnerability as a human being. He said that wearing "disgusting" it all was, but they stayed to the end! I won't go that codpiece was one of the most extraordinary emotional and into great detail about positive reactions, but the following intellectual experiences he has ever had. were the most frequent: You must also realize that when you see a codpiece - from women, "It's about time!" hanging on a wall it seems one way; when you see it on a - from men, "For the first time in my life I know what it model in a photograph it seems another (it loses its movement, feels like, really feels like, to be a woman." for example), and when you see a man wearing it in person it I think the most moving comment came from a young man changes again. who grabbed me by the arm as I walked through the crowd. He My exhibition opened on a Sunday night. I had six men looked me straight in the eye and said in dead seriousness and modelling. The intention was that they would wear a piece for with much emotion, "Thank you, thank you." a while, mingle in the crowd, and change. As it turned out this Codpieces can be seen on many different levels. The was impossible. Over 500 people showed up to see what was following are some of the ways I see them: going on — all sorts of people — artists, straights, • Codpieces are satire. They not only satirize male sexual businessmen, gays, couples, singles, wierdos, teenagers, etc. stereotypes, but male domination of religion; male intellectual We set up a makeshift runway and the models walked to and superiority. from the dressing room. There was a strolling mandolin player • They are a de-mystification of the male body and cause a re- (without much room to stroll) and taped 15th and 16th century evaluation of the validity of society's expectations of the male Elizabethan music when he wasn't playing. The codpieces ego. were mounted on the walls in different ways. There were 6 life • They treat men as truly sexual beings; as approachable size blow-ups (nudes) with codpieces mounted on them; some sexual beings. (I don't think women object to being treated were mounted on drawings of male torsos; some were sexually — we're all interested in sex — but they do object to mounted on board with photographs to show how they were to the double standard). be worn; some were hanging on a coat rack (the feather and fur • They eroticize the male body and make them enticing, fashion pieces.) intriguing and appealing. They are sensual. They counteract a The crowd was incredible. The atmosphere was ecstatic common feeling that penises are ugly and unattractive. and electrifying. The responses were as varied as the people. • They provide men with the freedom of sexual expression. No Some women cat-called and whistled (so did some men!). . . longer must they hide behind grey flannel suits! They can be

16 Branching Out peacocks. Check out the animal world, it's the males that are colorful. Look at men in more "primitive"!?) cultures, they too are much more colorful. • They are liberating. More male sexual liberation means more female sexual liberation by eliminating narrow sexual role playing. • They question the psychological roles that men are forced into by society. • They are political "feminist" statements about the male role in society and the woman's relationship to those roles. • They are emotional statements about the female/male roles. • They are dead serious. • They are funny and fun to touch and wear and see. • They are a new concept in men's fashion. Wouldn't you just flip out if some guy invited you up for coffee after a date and said, "Excuse me while I slip into something a little more comfortable" and came out wearing a luscious white rabbit fur codpiece? • They make people think. • They treat sex as a healthy, normal part of life. • They have the potential to change men's views of their own bodies (If they'd only put one on!) • They attack the myth of male superiority and the sacredness of the male phallus as a superior, strength symbol. (Men are just as vulnerable as women.) I could go on. As you can see, codpieces can mean many things. They don't all mean all things. They can be everything or nothing. They focus on many different taboos and attitudes. They can be superficial or profound. It all depends on you, the viewer. On top of all the personal controversy, there's the artistic controversy. The Montreal Star art critics came out with "But is it art?" About six months later in another article about Montrea I art, however, they wrote that they were a product of a "highly creative will." So — I'm used to the questioning. I know that the codpiece exhibition was unlike anything that they had ever seen or read about. It was original. It didn't have a predecessor. It wasn't a happening, a painting, a sculpture, an environment. It wasn't conceptual, Dada, surrealist, pop. It wasn't straight static art, it wasn't theatre. It wasn't any of those labels. Most of all, it bloody well wasn't boring. I'm now working on a couple of new ideas that I hope will be just as mind boggling. You haven't heard the last of me yet! I don't think codpieces could have been produced by anyone but a woman. I would also like to add this one last thought ... I sometimes wonder: If I had produced a series of breast plates and chastity belts in the same satirical vein, using female models, would I have had to face such criticism and controversy? I don't think so. What do you think?

February/March 1976 17 From the Other Paris

interview with Mavis Gallant by Karen Lawrence photo by Alice Baumann-Rondez

It always seems to me an unex­ pected gift to read an evocative, moving story, and an extra bonus to find that the writer is a Canadian woman. I first encountered Mavis Gallant's 'My Heart Is Broken' in a college anthology several years ago, and after reading more short stories and her novel, A Fairly Good Time. I wondered how such a provocative woman writer had escaped my attention for so long. Part of the reason may be the scant attention paid to Canadian novelists when I was in school; in addition, Gallant has lived and worked in Paris for many years, and her stories, published mainly in The New Yorker', and praised highly by critics the world over, have largely escaped the notice of Canadian readers. Gallant, along with several other prominent Canadian writers, attended a short story writer's conference at the University of Alberta last January. Reading a story to a large crowd, mostly students, her delivery was rushed and somewhat nervous, and I had the impression that she was unaccustomed to public readings. Afterward, she expressed concern about her reception, which had been good, and about whether the needs of the students were being met at the conference. Her committment to helping younger writers is strong, and was one of the reasons she came to Edmonton from Paris for the student-oriented con­ ference. Mavis Gallant is a high-energy personality; her conversation is a rapid fire of questions, laughter, anecdotes, and serious opinion, and she speaks with ease on a great many topics. I asked her about her working life, her difficulties as a woman writer, her views on feminism, men, male/female social roles.

On her early career — — 'I began working as a subaltern for a Montreal newspaper when I was twenty-three. I soon realized that a male co-worker with less responsibility and doing less work than I, was making $18

18 Branching Out a week more, and at that time $18 was a Men writers marry women who are thing is, it's the women who do this. lot of money. When I went to my boss, I going to type for them, answer the Women suffer a lot from women.' didn't ask 'pay him less' but 'pay me phone, take care of the laundry, and say more', and was told that the man "He's working, I'm sorry, he's working", On her critics — — needed the money more, "He's a man, and after she types the book and he's There was a review published in a he'll have a family to support." At that making a bit of money he sheds her, and prominent American magazine, after time I was the sole support of our family, gets a little woman who can't type, and one of my books came out, reviewing my my husband was a student. It broke my won't. I think a woman writer often has work along with that of Mary McCarthy heart. I saw that's how it was in to make a choice between one or the and another woman with whom I had Canada.' other.' nothing in common except that we were women. They called it 'Good On the formation of the Montreal Press On feminism and men — — Housekeeping'. I never bought the Club — — 'Would I describe myself as a magazine again and I mention this in They began to talk of forming a feminist? Well, if you mean would I reviews whenever I can.' Press Club and I was very excited; there march down the street and throw was lots of speculating about where stones, no, or that I hate men, no. I like Mavis Gallent is a masterful short we'd have it, and the bar and so on, and I men, I like the company of men, that's story writer. The title story of one of her looked forward to the camaraderie. But why I live in a country where you get the collections (My Heart is Broken Paper- the women were excluded — I realized company of men and where men like Jacks, 1974) is perhaps her best-known that they didn't want our company, we women, which they don't in Canada. I story. Two other collections are in print; were pests to them. One of my friends don't think men in North America like The End of the World and Other Stories said "Look Mavis, we can't have you women. I think they like to go to bed with (McClelland, 1974) and The Other Paris because we don't want our wives here." women, but they don't like their com­ (Books for Libraries, 1970). One of her Then I realized that these men never pany. Even in France, where women novels, A Fairly Good Time (Random went home, they got married and left still have a great many legal problems, House, 1970) is a compelling portrait of their wives in the suburbs. Once a year, there's a great deal of what I would call a transplanted Canadian woman trying at an office party, they were allowed to moral respect. And in terms of jobs, to make it on her own in Paris. Gallant is come, with their hair done, their little there is none of this "That's a good job a mannerist — she studies people's black dress and pearls, all alike, and for a woman" "Not badfora girl" kind of lives and habits in the manner of Henry they were pests — then they'd retire to talk. I think that the Ministry of Women James, and her characters are not to be the suburbs for another year, have is doing great work; they now have a forgotten. If you haven't read her work, another baby named Ronald or Gary or board which screens all television do so — her witty, sophisticated voice Nelson. And I thought then, whatever advertisements and eliminates those has earned her a special place in God does with me, that's one thing He's which are sexist — I think this is Canadian letters. «»* not going to do, I will not be the little important.' woman in the suburbs, waiting at home while he has his fun and hisfriendsand On marriage and social roles — — his career... It had an enormous effect 'Whenever I've come close to on me.' marrying again I've had to ask myself "What kind of a life would this mean? Is On women writers — — his life larger than mine — because The married women I know who mine is large. Will my life take in his, or write have an extremely difficult time. . will his take in mine?" If I had lived in they seldom have men who will put up Canada I may have married just because with the time and effort this consumes. of social pressure — here an unmarried The men are uncomfortable with woman is somehow odd, an extra solitude. Simone de Beauvoir is one of woman; it's hard for a woman to live the few women I know who has worked alone here. It still seems to matter this out. They have never lived together, socially that people be matched up — but every afternoon she goes to see hostesses begin cock-counting, he's MOVING? Sartre and they work, at different desks, with her and she's for him; if you're Please let us knowsixweeksinadvance in the same room. There is no jealousy, having an orgy, fine, but for chocolate what your new address will be. no separation, no competition. souffle" what does it matter? The awful February/March 1976 19 lions in the light the backyard is filled with airy lions lying on their backs pawing the trees they sometimes crouch in beautifully imagined outlines their extended nails pierce the lawn leaving mysterious sharp holes they leap the house claw upward to the sun! each morning their eyes like shafts of light return behind the trees

I have not dared to touch their shimmering fur sharks I hear their purring smell their heat this social ring of smiling faces ringed in red

watch their mouths move

their teeth their rows their hidden red smiles in the air they move they circle stir their precise jagged teeth

see the sharks smile

Mary -umphrey Baldr'dge

20 Branching Out image in flux

etchings by Toti Draginda

February/March 1976 21 22 Branching Out February/March 1976 23 24 Branching Out February/March 1976 25 The Window

by Lygia Fagundes Telles illustration by Barbara Hartmann

The woman put forth her hand and smiled. The man didn't seem to have noticed the gesture. He stood motionless in the middle of the room, his arms hanging, his eyes fastened on the window. "There was a rosebush overthere." Slowly she tied the belt of her Japanese silk robe around her waist. She closely scrutinized the tall, thin, slightly stooping man, his greying hair with silver reflections. "A rosebush?" "A rosebush," he said in a veiled tone, his eyes roaming the room. "Once it yielded over one hundred roses. Big, red roses . . . " "How come you know about it?" "My son died in this room." She sat down on the edge of the bed. The smile gradually faded on her thick lips, besmeared with lipstick. "Your son?!" "This was his room," said the man, turning his weary eyes to the woman. They were a pale blue and he spoke in a whisper, as if afraid of being overheard. One eye was much larger than the other. "His bed stood exactly where yours stands." She uncrossed her legs and glanc­ ed self-consciously at the bed, full of colorful cushions. She forced a smile: "Is that right? . .. When was that?" "I don't know." She stared at him. She held out a pack of cigarettes: "Would you like one?" "I don't smoke." "Very smart of you. People say that tobacco causes that disease I don't even like to mention by name. I'd like to quit, but whenever I do, I start putting on weight like crazy," she complained, pouting. The front of her robe had fallen open. She held it together, but loosely, so that it would come open again. "Won't you sit down, senhor?" she asked, pointing to a small, red chair by the dressing table. "Make yourself comfortable, darling." He sat down, drawing in his legs to avoid touching the woman's. He clasped his hands. He was neatly dressed but his clothes seemed too large for his body. "I had to see this window again." "Just the window?" "My son died here." 26 Branching Out "That must have been terrible," she empty." amidst giggles. "But it's in the back; at said after a moment of silence. Dreami­ A door banged loudly. The woman times it hurts too, damn it." ly, she blew upon the live coal of the started. "Spring starts today. You would cigarette. She looked hard at the man "I always flinch when a door have had beautiful roses." and then tried to chuckle: "It's my good bangs," she explained. "I get nervous The woman knelt on the bed. She luck that you picked this room or I easily ..." looked pale, her lips quivered. She was wouldn't have met you ... I like your "i'm sorry," he said, lowering his now speaking like him, softly. type, you know." voice even more, "but I had to see this "Listen, wait a moment and I'll get "He used to tend to the rosebush." window." us a cold drink, O.K.? Nancy made a In the room next door someone "Make yourself at home. Ah, well, delicious drink with berry juice and lots turned on a record player. The music suit yourself, if that's what you like ..." of sugar. Ice-cold." drawled on softly, it was a samba-song. "It was very important for me to He unclasped his hands and stared Clearing her throat constrainedly, the come back here." at his long fingers which were fanning woman shrugged. The front of her robe "I know, I understand those things. out in bafflement. His voice, husky, fell open down to her nipples. Crossing . . Are you a foreigner?" cracked: her legs, she letthe golden slippers drop "My father was a Dane." "A small window, that's all that's to the floor. She uncovered her plump "A Dane, "the woman replied flatly. necessary. Then it would be possible to knees. She bent over to reach for a cigarette. breathe. And maybe a rosebush "Well . . . ? Do you work around "As soon as you came in, I thought you shoot. . ." hire? Give me your hand, let me guess must be a foreigner. What's your Still on her knees, the woman what you do ... I can read hands; once I name?" began noiselessly to slide down to the told a guy, you're going to win in the He hung his head. The veins on his floor. She opened the door. lottery! And would you believe it? He did. forehead, gnarled, swelled. He looked "Be good, O.K.? I'll be back in a Give me your hand and I'll tell you right old with his head bowed like that. moment." away what you do, come on, darling ..." "Houses should have more win­ Night was falling. The purplish "I don't work," he murmured, his dows." shadows of the sunset gave the red of eyes searching the ceiling of the room. Footsteps echoed heavily in the the bedcover an old wine tinge. The They rested on the window. "Strange, room next door. The music on the record breeze blew stronger, rustling the tissue isn't it? It looks, smaller without the player had stopped and the needle was paper tutu of the little doll hanging from rosebush." scratching the record. The woman drew a thread before the mirror. On the Stretching her naked arm, the in her legs and covered her naked feet record player, the needle stubbornly woman stubbed the cigarette out in the with a cushion. She fastened the front continued scratching the end of the ashtray. She buried her hands in her of her robe. record. The man, as much part of the curly hair, pulling it backwards. She "Brigitte is crazy about this record, twilight as the objects around him, sat inspected the man, intrigued: she must play it a hundred times a day. motionless on the red chair. "There wasn't any rosebush when I Now she's going to play the other side. "Have I been away long?" asked the moved here." Would you like me to go and tell her not to?" woman, entering stealthily. "I had to go "It died exactly a month after he out for some oranges, we were out of did." "Don't bother," he whispered, his that cold drink, I made some more, it's in "Well, when I moved here, there open hand reaching out towards the the fridge," she said breathlessly. She wasn't even the trace of a flowerbed. woman. He quickly withdrew his hand remained at the door, her hand twisting That was three years ago, I'm from Rio when he saw her flinch. "Have I the knob. "I'll turn the light on, geez, it's Preto, did I tell you?" frightened you?" too dark in here!" The man took a small injection box "Oh, no! It's just that I'm too jumpy. "No, please, it's fine so," he asked out of his pocket and started to turn it I've been nervous lately, I think it's the gently. He was speaking almost in- around his fingers. He twitched his heat, it's quite hot today, isn't it? But I audibly. "This is the time when the mouth sideways. can ask her to turn it down, I'll be back in scent begins, we can smell it better in "Before he died he would ask me to a minute ..." the dark." open the window, he wanted to breathe "The button to turn down the "What scent?" in the scent . . . While he was strong volume is right here," he said, pointing "The scent of the roses." enough, he would lean over it; later, to his ears. "All buttons are inside us." She leaned her head against the when his strength was gone, he would The music started over again, now door, gasping, her eyes wide open. From gaze at it from the bed. A shoot of the accompanied by a woman's voice the hall came the sound of shuffling rosebush kept getting inside the room. It crooning absent-mindedly. footsteps. Male and female voices were was such a harsh, impetuous shoot that "Do you have the time senhor ...? I crisscrossing hurriedly. The door open­ I had to keep pushing it out, but it would have an appointment with Mines." ed. A male nurse strode in, followed by come back full of thorns and leaves ... I "I don't have a watch. But why did another one. Three astonished-looking never had the nerve to cut if off." you call me senhor?" he wanted to women stood watching from the out­ The woman began to slump into the know, examining her with an affec­ side. Someone turned on the light. bed until her back was against the tionate expression. He attempted a The man got up and covered his corner of the headboard and the wall. smile: "We used to gather before the eyes with his hand. Gradually he raised She pulled a cushion towards her and fireplace. I saw snow for the first time at his head, his eyes still shut tight. Finally rested one elbow on it. She narrowed my grandfather's. It covered everything, he was able to look at the nurse who her eyes and began to nibble at her one couldn't even open a windowpane. was unfolding a straitjacket. Serenely, thumbnail. She was speaking softly Then we'd stay in the living room, he put out his hands. On his face there now, in the same muffled way as the playing by the fireplace. There was a was an expression of deep sadness: visitor: little hunchback in a yellow outfit and "Is it necessary?" "What do you have in there? An cap and bells. He had gold teeth. I'd The nurse's smile was em­ injection?" tumble with him on the rug and tickle barrassed; he shrugged as he folded the "Nothing," he whispered, opening him just to see his teeth . . ." straitjacket. And he went up to the man, "I also the box. He raised his face, baffled. "It's have a gold tooth," she said cont. on p. 47 February/March 1976 27 law

Rape Logic: Hit 'em where it hurts by Linda Duncan

This article is the first of a series on into account the high percen­ Because of the nature of rape however, women in the law. Hopefully the articles tage of those who receive proba­ outside testimony is rarely obtainable. will spur discussion and feedback. Both tion or suspended sentences, his Consequently an accused rapist ap­ the author and editorial staff would chances of escaping incarcera­ prehended by the police and positively appreciate hearing your opinions. tion are in the vicinity of 98 to 99 identified by the victim will, in the vast Please forward your reactions and out of 100. Forcible rape has a majority of cases, be acquitted. suggestions for future topics to Linda lower conviction rate than any There is a further insult to the Duncan c/o Branching Out. other crime listed in the Uniform woman's integrity. Generally, at trial Crime Report. 1 the victim will be cross-examined on her Discussion of the problem of rape previous sexual experiences, with the has centred around antiquated criminal Canadians have dismissed these rapist or otherwise. This is the most laws and proposed amendments. reports of a high incidence of rape and obvious point in the legal process where Whether it is because of ignorance or low conviction rate as an American the victim is on trial. Although misdirection, women who are victims of phenomenon. Yet in the city of Edmon- amendments to the criminal code in rape have not been making use of their ton, a police department statistical relation to the relevance of evidence of rights inherent in civil law. Hopefully report states that for the year 1974, only her sexual history have been in­ thisarticlewill cause women to reassess 21 cases went to trial and only 6 troduced, the right to cross-examination their thoughts and channel their convictions were obtained out of 149 will remain. energies into a new form of action reported cases of rape. For the city of Red tape, probably public em­ against rape. Toronto, it is reported that only ten barrassment, and vested societal myths Women have been fighting rape for percent of women raped make a report combine to ensure that the negligible centuries. In Against Our Will: Men, and of those cases that do go to court, rape conviction rate continues. Those Women and Rape, Susan Brownmiller the conviction rate is only 30 per cent. few convicted spend a relatively short has documented the historical develop­ These statistics show that the term in prison and undergo no ment of society's attitude to the act of existing criminal sanction is blatantly recognizable rehabilitation, evidenced rape in different cultures throughout ineffective in combating rape. Police by a high recidivism rate (62% have a the centuries. While at one time rape policy, court procedure and evidentiary previous record, 21% have been was an acceptable form of behavior and laws have been major deterrents to the previously convicted of a sexual a method used for gaining a woman's initial reporting of the offence. Through offence). The only deterrent created by property, most societies evolved mores police interrogation of the complainant, the criminal law system is the effect on against rape. Because women were many reported cases are labelled un­ the woman's freedom of movement. considered the property of fathers and founded. The reasons may include Women continue to be inhibited by their husbands, severe punishments were seductive appearance of the complai­ fear of the rapist roaming at large, inflicted on the rapist and often on the nant, relation of the rapist to the unlikely to be apprehended or convicted. raped woman. Eventually, control of the complainant, and ingestion of alcohol or There are more palatable alter­ problem evolved from purely paternal drugs by the complainant. Victims of natives for the rape victim than the concern to state concern for the public rape who are aware of the interrogation criminal law. Some larger urban centres good. Consequently, Canada developed procedure are justifiably leery of repor­ have been able to establish rape crisis criminal law provisions. ting the offence. centres to encourage initial reporting who passes the The criminal sanctions which The complainant and aftercare. Most of the centres are must undergo two Canada has adopted from English law initial interrogation ineffective or inoperative because of further interrogations at the preliminary presently appear to be the major form of lack of funding; attempts to seek hearing and at trial. Once in court, the redress. It has become increasingly government cooperation and financial evidentiary rules weigh strongly against evident from legal and public criticism assistance have been fruitless. Incredi­ that the criminal law system has failed a conviction. ble as it seems, governments have criminal trials there is a to combat the incidence of rape in any While in all looked at the high incidence rate, low substantial way. high standard of proof for the protection conviction rate, lack of aftercare of the Assuming that the rape com­ of the accused — proof beyond a victim and rehabilitation of the offender plaints are valid, a man who reasonable doubt that the accused and have chosen to take no action. rapes a woman, who reports the committed the offence — in a rape trial A number of rape victims are rape to police, has roughly 7 the accused is afforded the additional seeking financial assistance from the chances out of 8 of walking away protection of the requirement of cor- Criminal Compensation Board in their without a conviction. Assuming roboration. Corroboration means that a province. This compensation, however, only one woman in five reports rapist cannot be convicted unless there is strictly limited to immediately iden­ the rape, his chances increase to is outside evidence and testimony other tifiable financial loss including medical 39 out of 40. If these figures take than the testimony of the victim. bills, prescriptions, taxi fares, am- 28 Branching Out balance fees and any other costs arising drunkenness, hitch-hiking, or voluntari­ from mental shock, humiliation and directly from the rape incident. In a few ly keeping questionable company — she embarrassment. The amount of cases the woman will be granted a does not necessarily lose her case. It damages will vary with the cir­ monthly sum for the period she cannot has been held to be "unfair to penalize cumstances of each case. work. No substantial or general the victim of another's much more A further remedy available in a civil damages can be awarded under the reprehensible conduct by an out-and- action and perhaps the most effective so covering legislation. out denial of redress on account merely far as the public is concerned, is A remedy with more potential has of a momentary lapse in self- exemplary or punitive damages. Ex­ been used surprisingly infrequently. protection." 2 Judgment may be in her emplary damages have been granted in Under tort law a woman can take her favour, but damages reduced in propor­ cases of gross negligence to deter attacker to court and sue him for tion to her assessed responsibility for others from acting with wanton and damage for assault. While actual court the resulting rape. reckless disregard for the rights of cases are rare, the right exists. The Most important, the plaintiff/victim others. Punitive damages have been advantages to the victim in this form of will benefit financially from her legal more readily obtained in those cases legal action are manifold. action. In bringing civil suit, the plain­ where the wrong complained of is In a civil suit it is the woman who tiff/victim can claim special damages "morally culpable or actuated by initiates the action as plaintiff. In the which may include the cost of clothing, reprehensible motives, not only to criminal trial the woman is merely a medical expenses, including psychiatric punish the defendant but to deter him as witness for the prosecution, and in most care,and loss of earnings. She is also well as others who might otherwise be cases receives no legal advice as to her entitled to claim general damages. so prompted from indulging in a similar right to speak or not to speak in court. In These encompass compensation for conduct in the future."3 There has been the civil trial the plaintiff, through her long-term physical disability and psy­ some dispute as to whether allotting legal counsel, is in control of the chological damage; more recently, punitive damages amounts to double proceedings and has the benefit of her compensation has been granted on the jeopardy (being tried twice for the same lawyer's guidance throughout the case. basis of medical evidence of suffering offence) where criminal action is being The onus of proof in a civil case of assault is much less than in a criminal case of rape. While in the criminal trial the crown must prove the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt, in the civil trial the victim/plaintiff need only persuade the court that it is reasonably probable that the defendent/rapist assaulted her. Proof of penetration of the penis into the vagina, a fact necessary to a criminal conviction, is not an essential element in a successful civil suit for assault. The victim/plaintiff need only prove to the satisfaction of the court that she was physically assaulted in some way by the defendent once having identified the defendent/rapist as her attacker. What weapon the rapist uses and where he puts it is not crucial in a civil trial. In fact, the actual act of rape need not have been carried out. Attempted rape or mere threat of imminent rape may be determined by the Court to be an assault. In a criminal case, if the Court finds that the victim contributed to the rape, the rapist will not be convicted. In a civil case where the victim/plaintiff is found by the Court to be partially responsible for the asault — for example, February/March 1976 or has been taken. There are cases where punitive damages have been allowed. Practically speaking, there appears to be little threat of double jeopardy, considering the improbability of obtaining a criminal conviction. On the legal costs of bringing a civil RAPE! suit, some lawyers will, as in other cases, enter into a contingency agree­ ment. The lawyer and client simply agree in writing that the lawyer will receive a set percentage of the judg­ ment. This figure can include court costs. Legal aid may also be available. At this point it is worth considering another of the unfounded myths about rape: why bother to sue at all, since all rapists are strangers, sex maniacs and transients? According to the Edmonton City Police Department, the majority of reported Edmonton rapists are employed labourers; moreover, in Toronto the rapist is reported to be the white-collar educated male. Both classes of rapist can be hit where it hurts. Civil litigation is not the perfect solution to the problem. Most rapists should be tried, convicted and jailed or hospitalized. Civil procedure is often as antiquated in practice as criminal law. The victim must still suffer through trial and pretrial interrogation. Yet, as Brownmiller has said, "in making rape a speakable crime, not a matter of shame, the women's movement has already ARE WE PARANOID? fired the first retaliatory shots in a war as ancient as civilization"."Criminal law serves society only when it is drafted in by Jane Dick a way which enables convictions, provides effective penalties, and is illustration by J.P. Nourry-Barry enforced to the highest degree possible. Rape is a form of mass terrorism, Montreal has the The existing criminal sanctions, en­ third highest for the victims of rape are incidence of rape in Canada. forcement policies, and court 1100 rapes chosen indiscriminately. But the a year. One-tenth proceedings are not deterring rapists. of these rapes are propagandists for male The rape victim can carry the fight reported. That's 110. Probably only half supremacy broadcast that it is of the accused men will be located by to the rapist by rising above the rape women who cause rape, by the police, and maybe a dozen of mythology, facing the problem squarely, them being unchaste, or in the wrong will make it to court. Chances are they'II and taking effective action. Through place at the wrong time — in get off scot-free. Chances are that out of civil litigation, the victim can fight back essence by behaving as though 1100 rapes only three men will be and hit 'em where it hurts. they were free. convicted. References — Susan Griffin (from a poster) While researching rape in Mon­ Three times a day, every day, treal, I encountered many authorities — 1. Camile and Legrand, "Rape and Rape someone in Montreal is raped. doctors, lawyers, police — who cared Laws: Sexism in Society and Law", Someone is forced to submit to some little about the existing rape situation California Law Review, 61, 919, 1973. form of sexual intercourse. This and/or knew almost nothing about it. someone is usually a woman, and she Chief gynecologist at one hospital was 2. J.G. Fleming, Fleming on Tons. will never be the same again. confident that rape was decreasing. He Toronto: Carswell, 4th edition, 1971. Three times a day. This estimate is wondered if rape was possible these based on statistical percentages, which days with women's liberation and the 3. R. Childres, Equity. Restitution and in turn are based on the estimate of new sexual morality. He had never seen Damages. Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation many rape authorities that only one out a rape victim himself. Press, 1974. of every ten rapes is reported. That Hospitals in Montreal tend to send means there are about 1100 rapes victims to the police. If a doctor ex­ 4. Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: every year in Montreal; that total does amines a rape victim and she decides to Men, Women and Rape, N.Y.: Simon not include assualts and attempted press charges, the doctor has to testify and Schuster, 1975. rapes. And rape is on the increase. in court. That costs time and money, and Add to this the fact that few women it's kind of a drag. It's best not to get / would like to extend my thanks to are raped more than once. Think about involved. This situation exists only in Brig Anderson for her patient editing of it. By process of elimination, the circle is greater Montreal. Hospitals in the rest the article. getting smaller. of Quebec will examine victims. 30 Branching Out Montreal police turned out to be an beforehand. A check is made for is to be stopped. Many women today interesting crew. Some were very physical marks of violence and to know how to fight off attackers, but understanding, some sarcastic. Neither determine the time the violent action knowledge does notguaranteesuccess. position had anything to do with the occurred — a bruise might be a week Armed with the above facts, I individual officer's experience with old. The state of the hymen is checked to approached numerous Montreal males victims. When I phoned one local station see if the victim is a virgin, or has had about their understanding of rape. tc inquire about their rape experience, recent intercourse. This evidence is not Reactions ranged from 'But women like the officer I spoke to chuckled, "If you necessarily conclusive, since a hymen it' to complete inability to understand find me a willing victim, I'd love to do the may be very elastic or the rapist may not how any man could rape. One man job." The police must thoroughly ques­ have penetrated. The presence or confessed that he'd like to rape 'just to tion victims, as they would for any absence of sperm is determined. Again, see what it would be like' and another crime, though one wonders what this is not conclusive, since the rapist proclaimed vehemently that all women prompts some questions. Just over a may not have ejaculated. should be allowed to carry guns and get year ago a Montreal woman was taken The state of mind of the victim is a medal for every rapist they shoot to police on a stretcher, bleeding badly, generally assessed in order to ap­ down. Many men merely said 'you almost unconscious. They asked her if preciate the state of her will. If she is a women are obsessed with rape.' she had had an orgasm. Montreal has minor, mentally retarded, heavily In spite of the Rape Crisis Centre on record documented statements from drugged, or drunk at the time of the and the Institut Medico-Legal, the rape women who received phone calls from rape, her consent to intercourse would situation in Montreal can inspire the'officers investigating their cases, not be valid. Most victims seen at the paranoia. The statistics are frightening. inviting them to have further sexual Institut are young women (many But rape education in Montreal doesn't relations. hitchhikers); there are also many child seem to reach enough of the right A victim must decide immediately if victims. people. It is directed to professionals, she wishes to prosecute, so that she can Unfortunately, the Institut is not institutions, and women. Women are be examined at the Institut Medico- equipped for treatment of victims. The being educated to express anger, and Legal. She can be admitted there only Rape Crisis Centre is the only resource that's fine. But my conversations with within 24 hours of attack, and only at most victims can turn to for help, some of the male populace have con­ the request of the police. Afterwards, counselling and support, 24 hours a vinced me that the average man needs with a signed document in her hands day. The staff keeps files on doctors, the same information as the average stating that the legal physical examina­ lawyers, and police, and can give advice woman. Highly sympathetic men are tion has been conducted, she may go to on whom to trust and whom to avoid. baffled when indiscriminately labelled a hospital for treatment. Some weeks The Centre has been in operation since 'enemy' by militant women. Given the later she will return for VD and pregnan­ March 1975. It is a bilingual volunteer facts (three times a day is the scariest), cy tests. service operating on a very small even the most flippant of men pause for The doctors at the Institut are budget. The Centre offers courses in thought. I've witnessed informal rap trained to deal with victims of rape and self-defense, consciousness-raising, sessions wherein men — even classic assault, and it is their job to testify in and volunteer training programs, and male chauvinists — began to question court. Five forensic pathologists are on conducts consciousness-raising and challenge their own and others' the staff headed by Dr. Jean-Paul sessions with the police from time to attitudes about rape and aggression. Valcourt (the only non-female I en­ time. Somehow sisterhood against rape must countered who had full comprehension Surprisingly however, I met women foster brotherhood against rape. Maybe of just how deplorable the situation is). there who told me it was not important peoplehood will result. Otherwise He explained the examination to raise men's consciousness about women will get angrier, men more procedure. A woman is present at all rape, only women's. Certainly women defensive and violent, rape will con­ times and the entire procedures and must be fully informed, but it seems to tinue to increase, and the circle will get reasoning is explained to the victim me that it is men who will stop rape if it smaller and smaller.

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February/March 1976 31 music

Discovering the Wheel

interview with Beverly Glenn-Copeland

32 Branching Out by Beverley Ross photos by Diana Palting

The night before my interview with Do you consider yourself a Canadian? Is it getting easier to find women to Beverly Glenn-Copeland, I went to see A Canadian-American. I consider play with? her performance at the Hovel, an myself both. It's typical of Americans, I don't know. There are more Edmonton coffeehouse. I introduced typical of the latest class of immigrants. women playing out there. It would be myself, and we chatted a few minutes I'm from Philadelphia originally. nice if I could run into a really funky lady before she went on stage. She showed Are you living in Montreal now? bass player. Well, I already have, but she me the Senegalese drum she was No, Toronto. There's lots to keep me just hasn't finished developing her warming up on. The conversation was busy there, radio and television shows chops yet, so I can't play with her. But punctuated by the rhythms at her and miscellaneous concerts. But I think one of these days . . . fingertips and her zany, infectious for me Toronto is mostly just a good Women have limited what they've giggle. As I soon discovered, neither is head office and a good place for played so as to be able to work. They've eve» very far from the surface. media because of all the shows coming been playing guitars and pianos, but On stage, she was as real and out of there. Last spring and summer I now they're really stretching out. Like unguarded as she had been in the back played there a lot, but then I just decided this woman in Toronto who's part of this room. Her physical presence was one of that's enough of it. There are not that quintet, Kathy Moses, who is just ease and motion, manifesting itself in many places there that I want to play. phenomenal on flute, but recently she's an unhurried pace that flowed from The present form of my music and started playing sax as well. She's just as song to song, space to space, as Beverly the fact I haven't yet formed my band good on sax. switched from guitar to piano and back limits the kind of environment I can again. Are you looking specifically for successfully carry to concerts, media, Her songs were varied, light and women for your band? and some sorts of coffeehouses or heavy of mind and spirit. The lyrics No, I'm definitely not looking places that are oriented towards stage spoke positively of potential growth and specifically for women. I'm just looking presentations rather than en­ understanding. Rhythm was for the funkiest musicians I can find. vironments where the music is the everywhere: in her voice, her instru­ Musicians who playfromtheirguts, and background for getting together with ment, and her body. At one point, for that can be anybody. your friends. several magic moments, she played her What about drumming? Last night you Senegalese drum and sang with it, in Did you take part in the women's very modestly said you didn't do the same language of past and power festival in Toronto? much, but it was really fine . . . and dance. I like to drum. I like rhythm and I like The next day, we sat on the floor Yes. I took part in a joint concert of harmony. I like Europe for its harmony. and talked over a tape recorder and cups about six or seven ladies and a concert In my head, I've started moving towards of mint tea. of black ladies doing a history of being a drummer. I marched in Hawaii womanhood from one particular with a fife and drum corps, with a tenor Where did you come from musically? culture. It was like a review. Someone drum, as part of my Buddhist practice, I was in a family that was oriented came up with a script that had and that was what got me thinking to music. My father used to play piano everything from dancing to narrations about drumming seriously. for hours and hours a day, so I was very and poetry and slides —kind of a mix- involved from the beginning. I ran into it and-match bag. I participated in that as Would you like to be the drummer in somewhere along the way. I discovered a drummer and as a singer, playing your band? that I had a nice voice, so I went out and some of my own music toward the end. No, but I'd like to be a drummer in a trained it. I did that by enrolling in a band. If I could do that, I'd be very happy. Bachelor of Music course (at McGill What about your relationship with I'd just sit back and be the drummer. University). I went to New York and Daisy DeBolt? I'd like to have the type of band studied with an opera singerfora while. She's my musical buddy. It's very where I do what I do, and the band is an I had been studying and performing special in the sense that I really love her entity of itself. The musicians would classical music, then in 1 968 I decided work and I really love her as a person. also write and there'd be a whole other that it wasn't relating to my contem­ That cortibination makes it lots of fun to section to the concert of music from the poraries. So I just switched. I went out be around her, so we do it as much as rest of the band, of which I'd be the and bought a guitar, and started playing we can. Sometimes I go down to her piano player. I'd like to be good enough it and writing songs on it immediately. house in the Quebec townships and we futz around for a couple of days. She's very eccentric. She likes to have parties consisting of a few friends all dressed up in their finest rags. It's a salon, you know, Daisy's salon. It's an eccentric salon. All her friends appear at various times, and proceed to party, which usually means forced labor in the garden. Inevitably, you arrive either at planting or harvest.

February/March 1976 33 to be the piano player... or maybe the Where did you . . . ? drummer. I can't imagine what the real Bump into it? In L.A.You bump into drummer would do. Maybe he'd sing. everything in L.A. I went to L.A. to make my fortune. I thought, nothing's seems The album you made with GRT happening, so I'll go to L.A. and be the to be closer to classical roots than discovered, or something like that. I music I heard last night. went down there and I really wasn't Well, I had only been not perfor­ ready. I wasn't prepared I ended up not and a ming classical music for a year singing once the whole time I was there. half at that time. So it was fresh off the I could do it now, but I wasn't ready then. Classical Press. But that was five years But what I found instead wasthischant. ago, and I've had the opportunity to play I was working in a flower shop to for a lot longer, to find my own voice. keep myself alive. I was really going There are still classical roots in it, but it backwards, 'cause there I was in L.A. doesn't sound classical. I've left all the and I was stuck, I was trapped, and I old "pearly tones" behind. couldn't get away. One day four ladies Your rhythm comes out in so many walked in. It was very interesting that it places. I notice it with you even more would be four ladies. It was like they had than with Daisy, a sort of drive you clued in on my feminist vibes and sent might call "masculine". me four ladies. They were all colors of It comes out of Africa, that's all. the rainbow. There were two black That makes it not more masculine but ladies, an oriental lady and a Caucasian more dominant. The emphasis is really lady. They were radiating some kind of on making sure thatthe rhythm is there. beauty and confidence I had never seen Rhythm is for dancing in Africa. There's before. I thought, wow! They handed me usually no solo drumming inthatsense. a little card with a meeting time on the The minute anybody drums, it's dance back of it. time. There's no dissociation between I'd been reading Buddhist literature those two things. They are a part of each a little bit over the years, and I'd been other, dancing and rhythm. meditating on my own for several years. Madame DeBolt is coming from I think my concept of Buddhist practice Europe, basically. Her harmonies are so was along the lines of Zen. I think I was incredible and shifting. Her music is looking for a Zen master. than mine. But much more water-like I went to this meeting and there and I'ma Capricorn, then she's a Cancer were all these young people as well as you know. middle-aged people and one or two old I think of my music as music to folks. They looked like typical move bodies of people from one space to Americans, but they were full of energy. music another, or around in a circle. But They were bouncing off the walls — I to move bodies with. Some of it is music couldn't believe it.Therewasn'tanybody to move heads with, but the with a shaved head. The only thing characteristics that stand out are the mystic about it was this scroll they were incessant, relenting motion and pulse. chanting to and this incense floating What about your Buddhist practice? around. Then the meeting began and It's been very instrumental in my they started doing all these non- life in the last two years. I've been a Buddhist things, from my point of practicing member of the Nichiren view. I was appalled. I kept sending Shoshu Academy. It's a chanting prac­ messages to my friend like, how do we tice. The chant is Nam-myoho-renge- get out of here? But the chant was so kyo. That's the basic practice. That's the strong. foundation of my whole liferightthere, I Finally I started chanting for would say. The foundation existed, but something concrete, which is how they that's what gives the foundation mean­ suggest you check it out, because faith ing. in Buddhism doesn't mean a blind Everybody has dreams, everybody giving up to those things which are not seeks happiness. The key to realizing proven. It was suggested that you set a dreams is to be able to weed out the goal and try it. (Beverly's goal was an negative functions in your life that stop improvement in her finances. The result you from attaining those dreams. I was was so dramatic that she was convinced aware that I needed a practice and I'd of the value of the practice.) been looking for one for years, but it In Buddhism, there's this wasn't until two years ago that I found philosophy that if you're practicing the one I could trust, that I felt was the right thing, two kinds of things will show highest and most idealistic and at the themselves to you: incredible benefits same time most realistic combination. and incredible obstacles. The obstacles The chanting seems to help you are like the negative functions of your solve the problems of why you're not life coming up to prevent you from able to achieve the things you want. It overcoming. But the first thing that connects you with a larger rhythm. It's happens is this incredibly positive force supposedly the rhythm of the universe. rushes down the line to snow you you're

34 Branching Out on the right track. In a week and a half, I cleaner. commercial about it, and approach it had actual monetary results. Now, the from the commercial point of view.in the reason Iwasmonetarilyouttolunch was "We are what we think we are/ you can discover the wheel". Your lyrics sense that I'm going to make the stuff the causes I had made over a long period I'm singing sound as commercial as of time. I didn't change from being really are now full of this hope. That comes from the practice. necessary, while at the same time, I poor to suddenly wealthy in a week and have to like it. Commercial for me just a half. I was just given enough money to There was a lot of hope in my stuff before, but there's just more of it. It's means funky as hell. I'mgoing inthat get my shit together to start making the direction as much as I can. I'm going to right causes towards having better been compounded. I'm ecstatic, in fact, over the practice. get it all on tape and take it to them and finances. say, "this is what I'm talking about. Do How has this experience related to Does it give you an insulation from the you think anybody could dance to that your music? business of music? kind of thing?'! know it's what they want. Well, first of all, from just a practice I No, it does exactly the opposite. My But two or three years ago I would never point of view, it has really helped my business chops are really starting to have been able to go out and operate as rhythm tremendously. My rhythm was come out. Before I started chanting, I a businesswoman. could practice my music and I could there all the time, everybody's rhythm is What sort of direction do you see there, it brings it out in everybody's life, really get into that side of things, but I just couldn't get the business end yourself moving in next? that tkind of rhythm. But for me, that's I'd like to get into comedy in a few specifically in the music. together. I just couldn't co-ordinate my energies. Whereas now, I'm busy years. That's my challenge, after I get studying corporate structures. I'm in the the music thing going. A slapstick artist; I chant as much as I can before I go I'm a buffoon, basically. on stage and it adds an energy level. process of incorporating myself. I've just That's been one of the most obvious gone out and gotten backing for me to What about your songs? It seems that produce the benefits. I just have so much more music myself. your images are mostly interior vistas. energy. And confidence — it's increased For a number of years, because I Do you think you'll try to place the was insulating my confidence a lot. I chant to try to be in myself, I didn't go a round images out there? looking for the right space. I've become more album contracts. I didn't I don't know if I have any talents in approach anyone for a period of five relaxed on stage. that direction, or maybe I haven't years until just Most importantly, it's given me last spring in L.A. I developed them. To be abletotalkabout realize because what I'm doing is hope because I've seen people changing a "little old man who went down the different, I have to give them a master around me. All my friends that got street" — that kind of thing where as an turned on to it, their lives have started tape which is exactly what I want to observer you talk about things and changing so I'm actually able to look present because its very difficult for reactions physically. Sort of a short around me and see the results of the them to imagine. For the last little while story song. I'd like to move from a practice. I don't want to live a life where I I've been chanting to get the confidence subjective complaining into a more feelapatheticand there's no way I can to go out and say to people who have objective cosmos. bring about change. But it's obvious that extra money, "give me that money." I've Beverly Glenn-Copeland's album is on if I'm going to do that I have to change just started doing it, I'm in the process of myself first. I now see something that fundraising now, and I think possibly in the CRT label, 9233-1001. If you can't does that. a month's time it will all be consolidated find it in your record store, ask. Beverly Just as an example, I never listened and I can go into the studio and produce also appears extensively on Bruce to the news and I never wanted to read it myself. Cockburn's newest album, "Joy Will I'm not going to do an album. I'm the papers. I went for years without Find a Way", True North TN-23. It's a going to do a single. I'm going to be very knowing anything that was going on. I beautiful album. *** just insulated myself entirely. I did it because I felt so what, what's the difference. I'm going to turn on the news today and the news will be exactly the same as it will be three weeks from now. Only the names will change. Such and such got murdered, there's a war here, people are starving, and what can I do about it? Nothing. I felt like I think most peopie feel, which is, my God, how do I even get a handle on this? How do I relate my life to all that's going on? I couldn't figure it out, so I just insulated myself. And now, I haven't gone out and changed any great things in the en­ vironment, but at least I'm not afraid of reading about the painful things. Because I can see that, very slowly, one person to one person, it's going to be possible for people to get a grip on it. A politician who practices this philosophy or another philosophy that is as effective will be a better politician, a musician will be a better musician, a street cleaner will be a happier street February/March 1976 35 Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Pelrine reports on Morgentaler by Helen d. Rosta

I recently interviewed writer she didn't think the Crown would press punished for sexual activity." Eleanor Wright Pelrine, author of the other charges. "They are just using In her book, Pelrine quoted the Morgentaler — The Doctor Who them to harrass him. I don't think they Prime Minister as calling Morgentaler Couldn't Turn Away, by telephone. She would dare to bring him to trial. They'd "a fine humanitarian," I asked her about was in her office in Toronto; I, in look pretty ridiculous to carry through the context in which he spoke. She told Edmonton. I had never met her in on another charge and have another me that at a public meeting in Kingston, person, but when the conversation jury acquittal." Trudeau was asked why he had not ended, I was left with the feeling that Joanne Cornax, Dr. Morgentaler's pardoned Dr. Morgentaler. He replied, indeed, I had just met a tremendously nurse, also had been charged and was 'Dr. Morgentaler's a fine humanitarian. committed, dynamic, and eloquent to come to court in the fall of 1975. What He's been my friend for twenty years, woman. had happened to her? Pelrine told me but he broke the law and must pay the Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who suf­ the Cornax case had been postponed to price.' "Trudeau,"shecommented, "did fered a heart attack in June, 1975, she January 5, 1976, and again to March, not say a jury had found Morgentaler told me, is presently serving his 1976. The charge against her is procur­ not guilty, and that this was the first sentence in a Montreal convalescent ing an abortion. "This is the first time in time an appeal court ever had reversed a home. He was brought into court on Canadian history that a nurse has been jury'decision." Monday, January 5, 1976 in Montreal, charged when working with a doctor." I asked if perhaps pressure had for the opening of the January assizes Dr. Morgentaler's assets are still been applied to keep Dr. Morgentaler in and The Crown asked for a postpone­ frozen and the Quebec government jail. Pelrine thought so; she mentioned ment. "They're waiting for the decision refuses to bring the matter before the the National Parole Board's denial of of the Quebec Court of Appeal on the court, stating that he must bring civil Morgentaler's application for parole, in Crown's appeal against Morgentaler's action. Morgentaler's debts are now spite of the fact that the probation second acquittal." Pelrine said that the around $200,000.00. "His expenses officer and the area supervisor had Crown's appeal is based largely on the are mounting with every court recommended parole. She quoted position that in an abortion case, the appearance." Pelrine estimated that the chairman Bouchard's remark, "We did defense should not be allowed to call letters, telegrams, and petitions sub­ what we had to do." "I also consider it expert witnesses. "You will recall that in mitted on Dr. Morgentaler's behalf disgraceful that he (Dr. Morgentaler) my book, the expert witnesses who numbered in the hundreds of has never been told officially that his appeared on behalf of the defense, were thousands. "An enormous number of parole application was turned down. He somewhat more credible than those letters were submitted from Montreal had to read it in the National Press. Nor who appeared for the Crown. In this day alone. The issue was not only that of has his lawyer (Sheppard) been provid­ and age it's difficult to find sympathetic, abortion but the reversal of a jury ed with reasons for the rejection." human, and intelligent medical people decision. All of us concerned about the Pelrine stated that there is presently a who do not consider abortion as a viable jury system are concerned about this private member's bill before the House alternative to unwanted pregnancy. The case." of Commons, sponsored by Stuart whole question of expert witnesses was I told her I had written to Prime Leggart (NDP), Gordon Fairweather(PC) settled a long time ago, but this is an Minister Trudeau on Dr. Morgentaler's and John Roberts (Liberal), recommen­ attempt to prevent the defense from behalf (and sent a copy of my letter to ding Morgentaler's parole. calling witnesses who carry a lot of Otto Lang). I got back a form letter from Pelrine believesthat in many cases, weight with juries." In her book she the Prime Minister's office, the essence especially in Montreal, it was easier to quotes a spectator who called the of which was, "I understand your get an abortion prior to the 1969 Crown's witnesses "a group of people feelings but there are two points of amendment. "Amended Section 251 with nervous tics and twitches that view." "Anything that went to Otto states that abortions may be performed were beyond belief." Lang," she said, "went into a great void. only in an approved or accredited Pelrine believes that before han­ However, Otto Lang has not been the hospital, after having been approved by ding down a decision, the Quebec Court only villain. I think the Prime Minister is a therapeutic abortion committee of at of Appeal is waiting to see what will the greatest villain of all. He purported least three doctors, none of whom may happen to the Criminal Code amend­ to be a civil libertarian, but especially perform the abortion. The majority of ment which would prevent a Court of where women's rights are concerned, the committee's members must certify Appeal reversing a jury decision. The he is extremely reactionary, extremely that continuation of the pregnancy amendment was reluctantly introduced cynical. It was Trudeau who introduced would or would be likely toendangerthe by Otto Lang "to put an end to what he the 1969 amendment to the Criminal life or health of the pregnant woman." called 'the silly campaign' that had Code, and who said that the government In her book she says the amendment did sprung up around the Morgentaler has no place in the bedrooms of the little more than bring the law upto what case." Ten charges are still outstanding nation. What he didn't say was that was then standard practice in a handful against Dr. Morgentaler, but she said women would have to go on being of metropolitan hospitals. During our 36 Branching Out conversation, she quoted the Toronto them put us in a defensive position. The of us have to stand up and say, 'I have doctor who said, "The law is designed to Knights of Columbus finances the broken this law. I have had an abortion keep us all out of jail." Pelrine told me billboards and full-page advertisements in Canada. I have referred women in the amendment makes no reference to which appear as anti-abortion Canada for abortions; and I will continue fetal defects (definite or probable). propaganda. One year I surveyed the to do so.' We have to ask our Member of "Things are tightening up again. advertisements in Edmonton and Parliament 'How do you feel about the Statistics Canada (1975) lists 258 Calgary and estimated that ap­ Morgentaler case? How do you feel hospitals doing therapeutic abortions proximately $8000.00 per month over a about the reversal of a jury decision? but in fact, there are considerably fewer period of several months was being How do you feel about abortion?' hospitals which have operative com­ spent on anti-abortion propaganda." Politicians, being politicians, do respond mittees (the three-doctor committee I asked Pelrine about the stand, or to public opinion. The forces against the demanded by the amendment). We lack of it, that legislators were taking in rights of women to have safe, legal must realize abortion is no panacea. But regard to abortion. "The condition of abortion are well-organized and well- the government has failed to live up to employment for being a legislator," she financed. Women who are for freedom its responsibility in the area of family said "is that of suffering from some form of choice have to stand up and be planning — it's understaffed and un- of 'chickenshit'. People do not engage in counted. ,.. derplanned. It is important that when full-time political activity unless they we write or speak about abortion, we want to be all things to all people. In think of it as a necessary last resort. addition, there are damned few women However, until more research for effec­ in the House of Commons and no tive contraceptives for both men and women in the Supreme Court. When I women has been done, there will saw the faces of the Supreme Court continue to be a great demand for judges who were deciding the fate of Dr. abortion." Morgentaler, I knew the case was lost I asked Pelrine who she thought because of the women's issue. They just was responsible for the great outcry don't understand; we might as well be against the right of women to obtain speaking Hindi or Swahili. In addition, safe, legal abortions. "Who is responsi­ there is a feeling that pregnancy is the ble for the spate of letters to the editor, woman's responsibility. You'd be sur­ the vehement denunciations of abortion prised at the number of people who — many of which are made by women?" have said to me, 'If a woman gets herself She believes this reaction is the result of pregnant . . .' and I have had to reply, 'I a last-ditch stand of the hierarchy of the don't think it's physically possible for a Roman Catholic Church. "International­ woman to get herself pregnant. We ly it has lost out on everything — from don't have self-pollination yet'." I told eating meat on Friday to birth control. Pelrine that an Edmonton MP speaking Women are being exploited and to a group of university women had said, brainwashed by those in authority. And, "If a woman doesn't want to get traditionally, women have been made to pregnant, she should keep her legs feel sinful about sexual activity. Every together." Pelrine replied, "If we were woman is regarded as being inferior and to tote up all the insulting comments unclean. In the Roman Catholic Church which have been made on the and in the Orthodox Jewish religion, a municipal, provincial, and federal ceremony is conducted to cleanse a levels, we would be writing for the next woman after childbirth. I think these 200 years." women (the ones who are so vehement­ Pelrine told me that before she ly protesting against abortion) are being started her book Abortion in Canada exploited, and I feel sorry for them. In a (which will be issued in a new edition democratic, pluralistic society like ours, this year), she began to make a list of all one should not expect to force one's the women she knew who had had an attitude on others. It is ironic that those abortion. Within a short time, the list who were most opposed to abortion are, numbered fifty. "I knew I had to write in the majority of cases, also opposed to that book." I asked what she thought any effective contraceptive. The anti- women could do to help Dr. Morgentaler abortion forces are extremely well and to give all women access to safe, financed and as women we have let legal abortion. She replied, "Many more February/March 1976 37 Conscience Came First

Morgenta/er — The Doctor Who agreeing with abortion on request, the accused has, m effect, forced the Couldn't Turn Away, by Eleanor Wright agreeing with the right of women to authorities to prosecutewith more vigor Pelrine. Gage, 1975, $9.95. safe, medical abortion, yet refusing to and the courts to punish him with more I hope that this book will be widely do it ... Abortion was against the law. I severity than would have been the case read; it is a timely one which deals with could lose my licence and my practice in if he had simply initiated one test case abortion law in Canada, its injustice, medicine, which I had built up with a for the pursuit of the ideals which he and one man's struggle against it. great deal of sacrifice and hard work. I claims." The truth is. Dr. Morgentaler If we were honest, most of us would could lose my reputation, my source of not only tested the law; he helped admit that we have had an abortion or income for my family and myself. I could women. know someone who has. When I was in go to jail for five to ten years, even for life The fault I find with Pelrine's book university, a young woman of my ... I tried to send women elsewhere for regards the inclusion of Morgentaler's acquaintance got the name of an help . . . Finally, I decided conscience writing. These verses may be legitimate abortionist, a physician who had lost his must come first, the law must be outpourings of feeling, but they are not licence, from her family doctor. He confronted." poetry. Furthermore, we don't need performed abortions in a large, In 1969 Morgentaler terminated them to convince us of Morgentaler's northwestern American city and for his general practice in order to begin sincerity. Even Mr. Justice Hugessen years his name went the rounds of full-time work in family planning in­ granted him that. And after reading university women in need. But one cluding abortions. He researched Pelrine's book, one is convinced not only woman who couldn't afford the trip (and procedures and concluded that the that Dr. Morgentaler is sincere, but that the fee) went to a local non-medical vacuum aspirator was the best and he is a humanist and an idealist. He person. She paid $200.00 and got an safest method. Morgentaler became an could have played it safe, continued his injection of green soap which didn't expert and published his findings on this family practice, turned away from the work. At least it didn't kill her. As a child, method in the Canadian Medical needs of women entirely. Or as one I once overheard my mother and her Association Journal in 1973: the com­ judge said, he could have continued to friend discussing the death of a young plication rate of 0.48%, based on 5641 operate his clinic quietly and the woman who had used a coat hanger to cases, was very low. This was of authorities probably would have looked abort herself. The coathanger technique particular interest to me since an the other way. But that would not have seemed unbelievable to me; but in acquaintance, a self-avowed 'anti- challenged the abortion law, which he Margaret Laurence's novel. The abortionist' who saw me reading found cruel and inhuman. Therein lies Diviners, Eve uses that method, so I Pelrine's book, commented that the law his humanism, his idealism, and the expect it did gain a certain popularity in had really gone after Morgentaler reason for his present suffering: "I do folk medicine. And in the line of self- because his operations were not an­ not like to give up my freedom, and I help there is still slippery elm, t/ge tiseptic — which shows, I think, the kind believe that what is happening is lamina/re which, Pelrine says, sells over of propaganda the anti-abortion forces injustice. It may be legality, but it's the counter in a large Montreal phar­ are using. In truth, aside from providing certainly not justice. I hope the day will macy. a safe medical procedure the Morgen­ soon come when justice for women in It was desperate women such as taler Clinic also provided a warm, Canada will arrive. I hope that my these that Dr. Morgentaler helped, not supportive atmosphere. Pelrine men­ sacrifice of my freedom will spur people as a doctor on the fringe of the medical tions that professional and personal into action, so that the barbarous cruel, profession, but as a competent, respect among the members of the and unjust law which limits and vic­ professional who offered a safe medical medical team was extended to the rights timizes women when they seek abortion procedure in pleasant, antiseptic sur­ and dignity of the patients. will be repealed from the Criminal roundings. Pelrine describes how he Although Dr. Morgentaler had Code." *** first began to perform abortions as a openly operated his clinic for several Helen Rosta result of his participation in The years, it was not raided until June 1, Humanist Fellowship of Montreal. On 1970. He and his staff were taken to the behalf of The Humanist Fellowship, he police station where they were rudely appeared before the Canadian interrogated. It was on this note that government's Health and Welfare Com­ Henry Morgentaler's long battle began. mittee, where he urged the repeal of Pelrine is very close to her subject, Canada's restrictive abortion law. He but I came away from the book feeling was immediately beseiged with re­ that I did not really know Henry Morgen­ quests from women who pleaded with taler, the man. Abortion is the real issue ATTENTION him to help them. Initially, he attempted and the book only starts to come alive Librarians — Pack Rats — Historians to refer these women to two doctors when Morgentaler becomes the victim complete sets of back issues are who performed abortions, but when of the law. (I use those words deliberate­ available. Write to Branching Out, Box these doctors were no longer available, ly.) Before sentencing Morgentaler, 4098, Edmonton, Alberta. he had to come to terms with his beliefs: following the reversal of the not guilty "I had declared that restrictive abortion verdict by the Quebec Court of Appeal, law is cruel and immoral, because it Mr. Justice Hugessen stated: "By his exposes women to danger ... I was massive and public flouting of the law, 38 Branching Out boots

Morag Gunn: A Canadian Venus at Last?

by Laurie Bagley

The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence. portrait of an unusually strong person. relationship, is marred by his in­ McClelland and Stewart, 1974, $8.95. Morag is a new kind of Canadian creasingly patronizing attitude towards Also available in paper. Bantam, 1975, heroine. As Margaret Atwood points out Morag. He gets into the habit of asking $1.95. in Survival, most female characters in her whether she's been a "good girl" Canadian literature fall into one of two before they go to bed; presumably sex is Margaret Laurence is the creator of mythological categories: the Diana, the to be her reward for cooperating with some of the most memorable characters weak and innocent young maiden; or his game. Making love with Brooke, in Canadian fiction, among them the Hecate, powerful and cold, the once a joyous "unworded conversation Rachel, the sensitive and frustrated negative old crone. While these pale and connection," becomes only "an schoolteacher in A Jest of God, Stacey, virgins and sinister hags dominate the attempt at mutual reassurance." one of The Fire Dwellers, a discontented literary scene, a third type of character, For awhile after her divorce, Morag housewife and anxious mother, and the Venus, is conspicuously absent. allows herself to be "fixed up" by Hagar, the irascible old woman in 7776 "The question we must ask," writes friends and occasionally ends up in bed Stone Angel. In her most recent novel, Atwood, "is why no Canadian writer has with her date. She finds the casualness The Diviners, Laurence gives us seen fit — or found it imaginable — to of such encounters disturbing, although another of her distinctive heroines, a produce a Venus in Canada." In Morag the physical experience itself is satisfy­ middle-aged writer named Morag Gunn, we at last have a genuine ing. With Chas, whom she scarcely Gunn. There are other strong Canadian Venus. knows and doesn't much like, Morag characters in the book, and theme, Like Venus, traditionally a fertility spends an enjoyable hour "screwing structure and plot are handled with symbol, Morag is a mother. She cares like animals all over the livingroom." Laurence's usual skill, but the central for her daughter Pique responsibly and But when she asks him to leave, he character must dominate any discus­ lovingly. And if we extend the concept of suddenly turns vicious, threatening and sion of The Diviners. Morag Gunn is fertility to include products of the mind then strikes her. Even after the pain and important because she is the kind of as well as the body, the characters fear are over, Morag faces the awful independent and loving woman that we Morag creates in her novels prove her possibility that she is pregnant by this too seldom meet in literature — or in doubly fertile. man she now despises. She concludes life. Another of the Venus attributes that Morag has is her fully-realized sexuali­ It may not be fair — in fact, it ty. Uninhibited by false modesty, guilt or seems damned unfair to me — other hang-ups, Morag enjoys sex both but I'll never again have sex with as an expression of love and for its own a man whose child I couldn't sake. Her initiation into sex is signifi­ bear to bear... It is not morality. cant, revealing her attitude towards her Just practicality of spirit and own sexuality: flesh. Morag is astonished to find she Circumstances force her into celibacy, is not scared. She takes her but such a life is neither natural nor clothes off quickly, expertly, as agreeable to a woman who has, as though she has been ac­ Morag has, the sexual temperament of a customed for yearstodoing so in Venus. front of a man. She feels no Besides her fertility and her strong shyness at all. Only the need to sexuality, Morag fits the Venus feel him all over her, to feel all of stereotype in another important way — his skin. Her own body, her in her capacity for mature love. breasts and long legs and flat Although she often worries about the stomach, all these seem people she loves and sometimes can't suddenly in her own eyes resist offering advice when she thinks Living quietly in rural Ontario, busy beautiful to see, and she wants it's needed, Morag has too much with friends and her writing, Morag him to see her. wisdom and personal integrity to try to recalls her past in a series of flashbacks After this single experience with Jules possess or control another person. entitled "Memorybank Movies." She Tonnerre, who later fathers her child, Deeply involved though she is with her remembers her miserable childhood in Morag goes off to university. On oc­ friends, family and lovers, Morag a Prairie town, her disappointing casional dates there she "feels herself always allows them the same in­ marriage to a college professor, her burning up with a sweetly un­ dependence she maintains for herself. developing career and eventual success complicated lust the moment she is She loves not only well but wisely, too. as a novelist, her love affairs, her touched by a man," and only her fear of Like its central character. The difficult years as the single parent of a pregnancy keeps her from becoming Diviners is a success. The entire book is small child. These flashbacks, combined sexually active until after her marriage. distinguished by its author's acute with narrative passages that describe Sex with her husband Brooke, at first perception of the joys and anxieties of Morag's present life, result in a vivid one of the best aspects of their the human, particularly the female, February/March 1976 39 situation. Tough and wise, often felt of it into a created fictional world." suggest that she is (at least so far) her humorous and always real, this novel But this transmutation of experience own best critic. Thomas makes some cannot be too highly praised. It es­ into literature is frequently lost sight of pertinent observations which could well tablishes once again that Margaret in a mass of facts and dates. have been amplified; among these are Laurence, writing so well about Consequently, the book conveys references to the importance of towns characters hunting for some truth and information rather than insight. Life and in Canadian fiction, to the fact that meaning in their lives, is herself the literature are both treated as ac- Laurence is particularly skilful in the most sensitive of diviners. cumulationsof facts,and Thomas writes development of individualized voices about both in exactly the same fashion. and is "a 'literary' writer."Theexplora­ Of Laurence's maternal grandparents, tion of such topics would have been she writes: "The couple moved to the worth much more than the many pages burgeoning little town of Neepawa, given to telling the stories, which are far where John became an undertaker . . . better read in the original. A detailed The Simpsons had seven children — comparison of Manawaka and "Elgin, Stuart, Ruby, John, Rod, Margaret, Mariposa, Horizon, Deptford, Salterton, Verna, and Velma." The chapter on The Crocus, and Jubilee" would Margaret Laurence: Fire-Dwellers begins: "Stacey MacAin- demonstrate Laurence's strong grasp of More to her dra is Rachel Cameron's sister . . . the social and historical realities. Discus­ wife of Clifford 'Mac' MacAindra, a sion of the characters whose voices are World than Facts salesman, and the mother of Jan, an important contribution to our fiction Duncan, lan, and Katie, ages two to would emphasize the truth and fourteen." This kind of writing implies sharpness of her representations of that the Simpsons and the MacAindras how people think and act. Thomas might have the same kind of existence in the also have considered the influence of by Alison Hopwood same kind of world. It obscures the other writers; in particular, the relation divergence between life and literature, of Margaret Atwood's work to The and does nothing to expand our un­ Diviners seems to me both obvious and The Manawaka World of Margaret derstanding of either. To see Laurence's interesting. Morag's rueful dialogues Laurence, by Clara Thomas, McClelland novels as fairly simple-minded with Catherine Parr Traill, her inability and Stewart, 1975; $10.00/hardcover. transcriptions of life is to do them very to gut a fish or plant a garden, seem to In The Manawaka World of much less than justice. They are worthy be ironic echoes of Surfacing, in Margaret Laurence, Clara Thomas of attention because in them she has Survival, Atwood identifies the heroic provides a compi lation of facts about the transformed the personal into the with the tragic, and suggests that "the life and work of Margaret Laurence. An typical; because she has made patterns pull of the native tradition is not in the introductory chapter and further infor­ of national and human significance out direction of individual heroes at all, but mation throughout the book give the of the random events of life. rather in the direction of collective history of her family, marriage, children, The book is certainly thin as literary heroes." Atwood's discussion may have sojourns in Africa and England, criticism, though it contains a con­ affected the development of Morag publications, and honorary degrees. siderable number of quotations of some Gunn, for Margaret Laurence has Each of her works, in order of publica­ length from Margaret Laurence's own written a comic epic with a woman as tion, is summarized in detail — scenes, comments on her writing. These "hero". »»* characters, events, and the relation of these to the life of the author. And yet, all this does not add up to the achieve­ ment of Margaret Laurence, the novelist. The datable, public events of her life do not account for the fact that she is our most distinguished Canadian novelist; re-telling her stories does not communicate the impact of her fiction. Fifth Business The title suggests that the centre of the book will be an ana lysis of the kind of world the novelist has constructed, and BOOKS the relation of Neepawa, Laurence's home town, to Manawaka, her fictional town. The Manawaka World, however, says little about Neepawa's history or social organization, except to relate the 10457 Jasper at Fifth Street stories of the Simpson and Wemyss families, the novelist's immediate 4291160 ancestors. Thomas observes that Edmonton though "Manawaka is not Neepawa," its existence depends on Margaret Laurence's "ability to store in memory and to transmute what she knew and 40 Branching Out ...and more books

Show Me!, by Will McBride and Dr. and two double-page spreads (close-up is no need to be scared. People don't Helga Fleischhauer-Hartdt. St. Martin's andcloser-up)of a couple in coitus. Why sleep together like that until they're Press, 1975. these two pictures deserve so much older." But the idea one gets from most space is anybody's guess. Is the of the pictures and text isthata// sexual photographer afraid that witr, ^ut these activity is pleasurable and quite alright graphic illustrations people won't be for any age. How old is older, and why able to figure out how it all fits together? don't you do that until you are older? Or are they put in for the novelty of It may be old-fashioned to bring up seeing coitus up close from the rear (a the ideas of responsibility, contracep­ viewing angle most of us find impossi­ tion and venereal disease when talking "This book is aimed at open- ble to achieve in real life)? Most of the about this book, but I think it would have minded people who are prepared photographs do at least have basic been more realistic to mention some of to rethink and perhaps even informational content, though the qual­ these things in the main part of the book question their own attitude to ity is questionable. But I would be instead of saving them for the small text human sexuality .. . The primary reluctant for my children to view many portion at the back. Scattered through aim of this book is to finally do of them because it might turn them off the book are not-so-subtle pictures of justice to the sexual needs of sex altogether. prune-faced older adults, which convey children and adolescents. This In general, the book has an un­ the impression that if you don't like this goal can only be reached by natural exhibitionist appearance. The book, you must be a sexless, dried-up instructing adults thoroughly captions introduce negative ideas prude. In spite of this pressure to and realistically." which might not be in a child's mind if approve of the book, I don't. I want my So states Dr. Fleischhauer-Hardt in the an adult didn't suggest them, such as children to grow up understanding that afterword to Show Me!. Most parents or wishes to kill the father and marry the human sexuality is a great source of joy other adults would like to be open- mother, or envy over the fact that and mutual pleasure, a very personal minded and would welcome a useful mother has bigger breasts or father a and rewarding way of sharing with and well done supplement to their own bigger penis. And the wording of these another person. I also want them to communications with children about captions is banal. know that caring for another human human sexuality. Unfortunately, Show Overa picture of a girl masturbating being involves responsibility and some Me! falls short of its goal, and in my we read "My older sister told me that degree of commitment. It is possible opinion, does great injustice to the sometimes she rubs inside her VULVA they would see these values reflected in sexual needs of children and on her CLITORIS and thinks about nice Show Me! but I think they will have a adolescents. things and then she gets excited and better chance of growing up with a The explanatory text, which has an or... she has an ORGASM then. healthy, happy, and loving attitude appears at the back of the book, is That's BEAUTIFUL." Or with the about sex without this book. generally informative, but it seems to be photograph of a mother breast-feeding The positive result of reading Show added on in an effort to make the book her baby: "Boy, he sure has a great Me! was that I did rethink my attitudes saleable, rather than being an integral feeding station." about sexuality and questioned what part of the whole. The photographs are A more serious criticism is that values I want to instill in my own the important part of the book. They are reading this book and looking at the children about sex. Perhaps this is the intended to portray a range of normal photographs might cause some children book's major redeeming feature. sexual activity from early years to to feel inadequate. One picture shows a Diana Palting adulthood in a natural, unrestricted young boy touching a girl's breasts. The manner. But the method of presentation caption reads "When I touch your is itself very unnatural. The breasts my penis gets all stiff. photographs were made in a sterile Whenever I see girls breasts I become advertising studio style with white HAPPY AND EXCITED." If your son The Par/our Rebellion, by Isabel seamless paper background and strobe didn't get a stiff penis easily, would he Bassett; McClelland & Stewart, 1975, lighting. The resulting photographs are feel something was wrong with him? Or $10.00 cloth. flat, grainy, and washed-out looking. the picture of the girl supposedly having In The Par/our Rebel/ion, Isabel The style and quality of the photographs an orgasm from masturbating. How Bassett refers to "the hundred years of implies that there is no depth or many girls (or grown women) can struggle — from 1840 to 1940 (that) richness to the sex portrayed in them. achieve an orgasm in that way? Are they witnessed woman's liberation from the Why not use a natural setting and light sexually inadequate if they can't? female ghetto of the nineteenth century rather than an artificial studio set-up? The book is also confusing about and saw her win the vote". The women The photographer states that most of his what is normal sexual behavior for she has chosen to represent this period models were friends: wouldn't they children and adolescents. Many pic­ are an odd combination. They range have been more comfortable in their tures depict sexual activity between from notables such as Nellie McClung and Emily Murphy to the almost un­ own or his home? children and adolescents. But the The range of photographic material caption over a picture of an adult couple known, Anna Gaudin and Peggy Shand. is extensive. There are pictures of a baby making love says "Mommy, I'm sort of Anna Gaudin worked as a nurse among being held, a girl having an orgasm, a scared. I don't want one of those things the Indians in northern Manitoba for 39 boy masturbating, a woman having a sticking in my vagina." Over another years, and is said to have operated on baby, an old man frowning at all of this coitus photograph the answer is "there herself to remove a tumour from her February/March 1976 41 "sane". throat. Peggy Shand hiked the Chilkoot devastating effect of white civilization and, as he suggests, his style and wryly Pass to the Yukon during the gold rush on Inuit life and the inadequate Throughout the book, lend readability to of '97 and eventually ran a roadhouse measures taken to correct the situation. amusing anecdotes been a boring mass of there single-handed for 29 years. Their The story of Lutiapik (the name with what could have figures. For those who wish to stories read like fiction and are just as which the Inuit christened Dorothy facts and into the many studies gripping. A section on Quebec women, Knight) is not one of a heroine but of a delve deeper have been done on food prices, namely Claire Martin and Therese capable, sensitive woman, who is a little which is a comprehensive series of Casgrain, seems to have been tacked on easier for us to identify with. Her story there There are two guides at the end of the book. Neither woman is a sympathetic and moving account of reference notes. prove practical and help­ really fits the 1840-1940 time span both the beauties of northern isolation which should the first, a list of 'rules for Isabel Bassett has set for herself. Their and the failure of government medical ful: shopping' has been significant contributions to Canadian programs. In an epilogue, Knight points supermarket should have more society came later. out that until 1970, northern health presented before, but the chapter on Despite'its shortcomings, the book services were manned essentially by impact after reading the other is a diet and sheds new light on the role of women in non-natives. Unlike the World Health retail stores; which should help its our history. The Parlour Rebellion Organization in Africa, where there are shopping guide the best way of allotting would be an interesting addition to a health problems similar to those in the users to find survey course on women in Canada. Arctic, the Canadian government has money for food. Julia Berry not worked at educating the Inuit in In contrast to Stewart's point of health care. view as an angry and frustrated con­ Julia Berry sumer, Mitchell writes as a relatively dispassionate observer. His book con­ tains no sensationalism but is instead a Don't have your baby in the Dory, a detailed and carefully-prepared biography of Myra Bennett by H. Gordon analysis of the food industry, concen­ Green, Harvest House, 1974 $3.50. Hard to Swallow by Walter Stewart, trating on its intertwining with federal, provincial, and agribusiness politics. It Lutiapik, by Betty Lee, McClelland & MacMillan of Canada, 1974. Mitchell, also includes a look at the national and Stewart, 1975, $10.00 cloth. The Politics of Food by Don James Lorimer & Co.., 1975. international situation, farmers, and but also presents in-depth In keeping with the recent flood of oligopolies, studies of three important and basic books about women, publishers have foodstuffs: bread, beef, and dairy suddenly sought heroic women, products. Unfortunately Mr. Mitchell's whether famous or not. Harvest House book reads like a text, and it is not until and McClelland & Stewart have chosen the final chapters that a bit of emotion nurses as their heroines: ordinary shows. Regrettably, this limits its women whc took on challenging tasks. appeal, and much excellent and Don't have your baby in the Dory! has a valuable information is losttothe casual crisis on every page. Myra Bennett, the reader. British nurse who set out for New­ You stand bewildered in the gleam­ In spite of the differences in foundland in 1921, handles them all ing supermarket trying mentally to emphasis and delivery, the authors with extraordinary coolness. As the only compare whether "two for 39C" or arrive at many of the same conclusions. medical help along 200 miles of isolated "19C each" is the better buy, or you They advocate land control laws and coast, she had to act as dentist, surgeon, trudge dazedly homeward with two light land banks, guaranteed farm incomes, diagnostician and cure-all. In the early bags whose contents total $50.00. Why and replacement of glittery super­ years, her only anaesthetic was a swig are food prices so ridiculously inflated? with discount stores, co-ops, of rum. Her most dramatic surgical job The food industry, from farm to store, is markets farmer's markets. They stress was sewing on her brother-in-law's a maze of agribusiness, marketing and/or restructuring, consumer education, and severed foot on her kitchen table with boards, double-ticketing, and other use of money, so that decisions no anaesthetic. wonders that make most consumers better future food prices and policies will Author Gordon Green tends to get shake their heads, sigh resignedly, and about not be made solely by governments and off on tangents about Newfoundland's fork over the price without complaint. agribusiness to the further loss of the history. He is overly kind to his subject, Hard to Swallow starts with a look producer and consumer. In Mitchell's who at the age of 84 is still pulling teeth at the present situation, both national words: "Their record . . . should leave in theoutports. Myra Bennett is certain­ and world-wide, then propels the reader no one in any doubt about who will gain ly an incredible example of female through the food chain, from its begin­ — and who will lose — if they (govern­ stamina and ingenuity. For someone nings on the farm to the over-priced ment and agribusiness) have their with a medical bent who can stomach stock on the supermarket shelves. Each way". stories, this is a fine book. link is examined and assessed, along horror Donna Crowe However, I found myself wanting to with its attendant bureaucratic know more of her discouragements and bunglings, corporate rip-offs, and im­ failures. Heroines have them, don't plications for consumers. The they? revelations presented are startling: vertically integrated companies Lutiapik is a less sensational (agribusiness) control all aspects of the Women Loving, Ruth Falk, Random adventure story. Dorothy Knight, a industry from land to supermarkets, House/Bookworks, New York, 1975, nurse in the Arctic for one year, handles including related enterprises such as $7.95. the inevitable crises well, but has fertilizer plants and machinery. By the trouble coping with the isolation and last chapter the reader is ready for help This is a book which one would very lack of facilities. She is a more "real" in finding a way out of the maze. much like to like. Wholly without art or person than Myra Bennett, and Betty Stewart's proposals for possible style, it is meant to be the painfully Lee, the author, lets the reader see the solutions to the food crisis are welcome honest record of a "journey toward 42 Branching Out becoming an independent woman" in bisexual women, and writing the book social change, she remains supremely which the author holds nothing back in itself. In the end she concludes that her indifferent to and even unconscious of her attempt to document her search for confusion has been to a large degree the struggles of women who do not have sexual identity. Yet, rather than coming self -induced by her obsession with sufficiently privileged a position to away from the book exhilarated by Ruth definition, that she is comfortable with a permit them the luxury of working out in Falk's openness and courage, the self that she defines merely as "sex­ endless detail the precise quality of their reader is left depressed and irritated at ual," and that she can work out a style of feelings. What is worse, she does not the shallowness of what she ultimately life for herself that allows her to relate seem to know that this is luxury. reveals. sexually with whoever turns her on. She is attracted to and can take Her situation is a fairly common Although Falk assures us that she feels seriously only women like herself who one. Raised in a conventional, middle- much better, objectively her life seems have style, nice apartments, important class family and fully assimilating its to have changed rather little, since at jobs, who are, as she says, conventional expectations for women of the end of the book we see her again "professional." Although she tries hard marriage and family, Ruth Falk was involved in the same triangular relation to relate her personal struggle to horrified to recognize, well along in her with a man and a woman with which feminism, her book remains almost twenties, that she was deeply sexually her quest began. wholly non-political in any but the most attracted to women. This realization Ruth Falk is cursed with total recall. superficial way. Because she avoids the precipitated a crisis which took the form She can remember and record what she serious questions of her relationship to of a several-year search for a sexual ate, or didn't eat, in what restaurant, at class privilege, to power, to the definition — was she homo-, hetero-, or what address, and what she was patriarchy, she condemns herself to bisexual? If she was bisexual, what did wearing at the time for any date over the repeat endlessly her initial confusion. that mean in terms of the number, kind, last ten years. The result is an expensive Women Loving is a glossy trap. Its and quality of the relationships she book of more than five hundred self- title refers to a subject about which too should have? Could she be bisexual and indulgent pages, in which, because few books have been published and relate mainly to men? to women? or everything is important, nothing is. appears tailored to cash in on the must she be careful always to retain Although Falk declares her book is legitimate hunger of lesbian women to simultaneous relations with both for the about feelings, she cannot find the find out more about themselves. It sake of balance? If she related only to language which will make us feel. Her promises to support women in their women did that make her, horrors, a style is a deadening mix of sociological struggle to find new ways of being and Lesbian? To resolve these questions, and movement jargon, ungrammatical ends by suggesting that such a struggle, she tried various kinds of therapy constructions, and plain embarrassing even if undertaken with the single- (traditional, with both male and female errors which betrays a contempt for her minded intensity of a Ruth Falk, will end therapists, rolfing, non-verbal therapy, medium and an unwarranted demand precisely nowhere. Its chief value is in and, I would guess from her language, a for indulgence on the part of her reminding us how rare and difficult an little transactional analysis), a variety of readers. It is, moreover, a class-ridden accomplishment Kate Millet's Flying sexual relationships, a new job in book. Although she announces from the really was. California, feminism, interviews with beginning her life-long concern with - Yvonne M. Klein

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February/March 1976 43 head wan

When I Met the Lady Poets

by Anita Lerek

Canadian poetry has habitually festival was decidedly masculine. Of the been consumed in silence by a small thirteen major non-Canadian readers, minority of literate followers. Oc­ only two were women — Diane Wakoski casional readings to captive CanLit from California and Lilliane Wouters of audiences have been the only break in Belgium. Thirteen appeared to be the the largely solitary and passive poetic magic number, for there were also experience. The week-long Inter­ thirteen major Canadian readers in­ national Poetry Festival held in Toronto vited. Five were women: Nicole at the end of October considerably Brossard, Cecile Cloutier, and Anne altered the status quo. For the first time Hebert from Quebec, as well as ever, Canadian poets left the shelter of Margaret Atwood and Paulette Jiles studies and entered the glittering world from Ontario. In fact, the strongest of international showbiz. female presence was felt not in the At noon, 2 p.m.,4 p.m.,7:30 and 10, prestigious major readings during the all you heard was poetry, poetry week, but in the concluding marathon everywhere. And it wasn't the old style Saturday evening. solitary, philosophical stuff either. No, Initially, the only quality the female on the contrary — the crusty halls and poets appeared to share was that they salons of Hart House resounded with were women; it was impossible for me theatre, mime, movement, chanting, to link them up in any other way. What and every conceivable refinement of on earth could a shy, ex-hillbilly like sound. Paulette Jiles have in common with Contact was the name of the game sophisticated, tough-talking Diane head way is a new feature in all week. Local poets who had never Wakoski from Michigan State Universi­ Branching Out. We hope to hear from published met established ones. Our ty? Diane strides confidently into a readers whose awareness — about stars — Layton, Atwood and Birney room; her words have the ring of a themselves, roles, relationships, reality among them — matched the finestfrom lecture delivered by an authority. — has changed. It can happen in abroad. Internationally-acclaimed poets Paulette complains about an imperfect­ confrontation with a friend, while such as Octavio Paz of Mexico, Robert ly developed persona which renders her playing a game, making love, watching a Creeley of the U.S., Yehudi Amichai of pathetically vulnerable before an movie; a shift takes place and we are no Israel and others got together with audience. Both Anne Hebert, the stately longer the same. We are experiencing in distinguished counterparts from lady of Canadian letters now residing in a new way. English and French Canada, as well as Paris, and Lilliane Wouters, a reserved The first head way column "When I from the non-official cultures. Over elementary school teacher from Met the Lady Poets", was submitted by 5,000 members of the public attended Brussels, fiercely guard their in­ a Toronto writer, Anita Lerek after she the festival. With the poets, they ex­ dependence from matrimonial ties in attended an international poetry plored the most intimate aspects of the order to guard their creativity. On the festival. poetic craft. other hand, Wakoski takes the opposite The picture wasn't so rosy on the stand, asserting that she is looking for women's side. The murder of prominent another husband to replace her fifth. west coast poet Pat Lowther had been Brossard, equally emphatically, announced just shortly before the declared her alienation from men and opening of the festival; apparently she her infinitely stronger identification had not been invited to read. Soon after, with women. Atwood, a Ph.D. in English there ensued a heated battle between drop-out, speculated on the possibility 'rejected' poets and festival organizers, that her art was retarded by education, played out — of all places — in the whereas 45-year-old Cecile Cloutier is editorial sections of the Toronto press. on her tenth poetic publication while The omission of some notable English- retaining a tenured position as Canadian women poets — among them professor of French at the University of Dorothy Livesay, Miriam Waddington, Toronto. Margaret Avison, and P.K. Page — In neither attitude, life style or prompted the most scathing attacks. performance did any of these poets The predominant tone of the converge. This initial observation dis-

44 Branching Out turbed me greatly, especially in light of I began to question the possibility of gardening and screaming as more my constant search for signs of uniquely forging a uniquely female cultural effective antidotes for those needs. female ways of performing and perceiv­ base. Maybe it is all rhetoric, and in the And that was why Wakoski kept ing the world. Their poetry disturbed me end we are all separate entities with no tilting attention away from her as well. The topics and treatment discernible links to draw on! For a while biographical givens and toward her diverged widely, and in none of the I felt like I'd lost not only a slant on a personal mythology — a world totally of works did I sense the voice of an story but also a mode of ordering reality. her own creation. Slowly it was daw­ indignant woman questioning the op­ By chance I picked up Virginia ning on me that only by inserting a pression around her. Woolf's classic — A Room of One's strong artistic presence into the poetic Own. As I flipped through the pages I felt tradition could women achieve full an impulse mounting through my body equality with men in that realm. Untitled Poem 'til bang — it exploded into con­ As Diane Wakoski put it, the explicit Faim d'amour et faim de viande, sciousness. It was Virginia Woolf who advocation of rights can be much more faims du ventre, sans merci, finally helped me to piece together what effectively carried out in the political et les autres qui commandent the women poets had been trying to tell realm: "Poems don't change laws". aussi. me all week:

Faim pour la faim, o fringales, It is fatal to be a man or woman . . . George Washington, I need your faim pour rien, faim par plaisir. pure and simple; one must be love; George, I want to call you Father, C'est ainsi qu'on vous regale, woman-manly or man-womanly, Father, my Father," desir. (p. 102) Father of my country, that is, Faim de I'ame. Et j'en oublie. ... if we face the fact . . . that me. And I say the name to chant it. To Elles m'ont coute trop cher. there is no arm to cling to, but sing it. To lace it around me like weaving Je t'assume avec ta lie that we go alone and that our cloth. Like a happy child on that shining ma chair. relation is to the world of reality afternoon in the palmtree sunset with and not only to the world of men her mother's trunk yielding treasures, Lilliane Wouters, "Untitled Poem" from and women, then the opportuni­ I cry and La Marche Forcee 1954 ty will come and the dead poet cry. who was Shakespeare's sister Father, My first reaction was anger. Diane will put on the body which she Father, Wakoski kept insisting she was not a has so often laid down. Drawing Father, feminist and that the only significant her life from the lives of the have you really come home? thing about her was the 'mythology of unknown who were her Diane'that she had created. I saw her as forerunners, as her brother did Diane Wakoski, from "The Father of my a sell-out. When both Lilliane Wouters before her, she will be born.(p. Country" in Trilogy, 1974. and Cecile Cloutier clearly informed me 112) that the spirit they wished to express in their poetry was that of an asexual It was the desire for independent creature — the human being — I and pure artistic expression that However, by troubling the order of instantly wrote off their poetry as the brought all the disparate women poets language and meaning in the artistic ravings of an outdated generation. Even at the festival together. Odd that I didn't domain, the poet can shake up the Atwood and Brossard's poetry annoyed see this sooner. Now I understand why elements of another order —the value me. Here were two poets generally Atwood and Wakoski so strongly order of the reader. And after all, isn't regarded as feminist writers of a sort. denounced the tendency of readers and that where any profound change But in neither of their most provocative critics to weaken the effect of their art begins? works — La Partie Pour le Tout or through the imputation of Not women's rights but universal Sexual Politics — were there any direct autobiographical factors. Atwood truths, daringly exposed in a way allusions to women's oppression or elaborated on how hard it was for males exclusively reserved for women whose salvation. to believe females capable of making lot it has been throughout history to Both journalistically and personally artistic choices. Contrary to the rules of have singular contact with the I came to a halt. I felt I'd lost the angle for sexual stereotyping, she perceived mysteries of creation and all the a distinctive women's poetry. And after poetry as a vehicle for evocation rather paradoxes of unity that the process all, that was the main reason for my than for mere self-expression and implies: that was the lesson I gleaned coming to cover the festival. In addition, emotional release. She recommended from the festival lady poets. *** February/March 1976 45 Black Rat

In the cold shade of the eclipsing moon, black rat. His cold body in the black dawn graven, upright, still eyes at my eyes.

Ai! I am old! One night — one one night — 10 at my bier.

Strike! Ai! — the throat! Black rat, my teeth are bloody, so many.

Puberty Song

I saw the way you looked at me, forbidden one; the blood connection makes you furious and strong.

I would not touch brother or sister, mother or father — but you! n My eyes are listening to your eyes. ee-mah! go away! My grandfather fathered you — I'll leave you like winter.

I saw you in the water moss woods, your face as pale as lichen. The trees' green hair brushed your skin and I ran before you knew it was me.

My real lover found a midden and made me buttons of shell. He is so fine, sea-foam women are after him.

I'll leave him like spring.

Branching Out THE WINDOW cont. from p. 27

gently. "Let's go then." A NEW KIND OF TELEVISION He gazed at the window one last EXPERIENCE! time. Then he turned to the woman, barefoot and huddled up in a corner. He spoke so softly that only she could hear him: "Why?" The second nurse took his arm and in silence the group began to walk out into the street. As if obeying a secret signal, the three women rushed into the room, surrounding their companion, who remained glued to the wall, clutching at the front of her robe. "Wasn't that dreadful!" said the woman with a red kerchief tied around her head. "Weren't you scared to death? Locked in with a lunatic? I get gooseflesh just to think of it. Look!" "He sure was rather good looking," said the blonde with the earrings. "He looked like that movie actor, that oldish one, what's his name . . . James . . ." "Ah, I don't even want to know, REALISTIC • BOLD • DRAMATIC heaven forbid me from running into a lunatic," interrupted the woman with the kerchief. "And how did you ever find out that he had run away ? My, my . you could work for the police. This HELEN: shows that we should have a gun in our possession. A machine gun, my dear." "Poor fellow, I felt so sorry . . . And he didn't do anything, did he?" the A WOMAN of TodAy blonde asked, addressing her friend. "He could have taken advantage of the situation, but he didn't. I swear I felt so sorry, he reminded me of that actor, we A young family ... a troubled marriage . . . and a search for went to see that movie together, his independence! A frank, revealing, adult portrayal of conflict name was James something ..." within a family unit sets the scene for ... Suddenly the woman seemed to wake up in the corner where she had REACTION • REACTION • REACTION taken refuge. Fuming, she glared at the three women. She pushed them out of Hostess WENDY GLADDERS and concerned guests examine the the room: key issues raised in each of the thirteen segments and discuss "That's enough, do you hear? solutions relevant to Albertans today! That's enough. Get out, leave me alone!" "You don't have to be so rude! We Guests include Don Storch, Executive Director, only wanted to ..." Family Service Association of Edmonton; Judge Norm Hewitt, Family Court, Edmonton; "That's enough!" she yelled, Jean McBean, lawyer, Edmonton. clenching her fists. "Get out, all of you, out! You too, out . . . out!" She slammed the door shut. The WEDNESDAYS 10:30 AM voices of the women talking excitedly at Then the same time went on for a while. Calgary chart 2 the women tramped out into the street. cable 7 She saw herself in the mirror, unkempt and barefoot. Quickly she Edmonton chan 13 averted her eyes from her own reflected cable 8 image. She turned off the light. Then, taking the chair the man had occupied, she sat gazing at the window. *#* Alberta Educational Communications Corporation — Translated from the Portuguese by Eloah F. Giacomelli February/March 1976 47 people in this issue

TANYA ROSENBERG TOTI DRAGINDA PEAT O'NEIL

Tanya Rosenberg is presently director of Toti Draginda had formal art training in Peat O'Neil is a freelance writer now Powerhouse, a cooperative women's art Canada, then studied for three years in living in Ottawa. She has studied gallery in Montreal. For the gallery's London, England on a Canadian design English literature but her current in­ recent toy show she created a life-sized scholarship. She became interested in terests are sports, medicine and the jack-in-the-box. She is currently work­ etching and had her first one-woman arts. She worked for several years in ing on a multi-media sculpture environ­ show in London. She now teaches preventive medicine at the University of ment which will be completed fashion drawing in Edmonton. She is Toronto and has written articles for sometime in the fall. also working on a book of etchings of womenSpons magazine. Canadian women in historical costumes. LYGIA FAGUNDES TELLES HELEN ROSTA

Lygia Fagundes Telles is a contem­ SUSAN McMASTER Helen Rosta is a social worker with the porary Brazilian writer who has won public school board in Ottawa. She is major literary prizes. In 1973 she took Susan McMaster was editor of also a writer and fiction editor with part in a symposium on women in Branching Out from the time of the Branching Out. Her plays and short Brazilian literature at Indiana Universi­ magazine's inception until last April. stories have won numerous prizes; she ty. Her first collection of short stories She is currently a freelance writer and a is currently revising a play she wrote was published in 1944 while she was graduate student in the school of this summer while studying at the Banff attending law school. Translator Eloah journalism at Carleton University. School of Fine Arts. Giacomelli grew up in Brazil and now lives in Vancouver. DIANA PALTING BEVERLEY ROSS

JANE DICK Diana Palling teaches photography and Beverley Ross is a songwriter and co-ordinates the photography program musician. She is presently doing Jane Dick graduated from the University at Grant MacEwan College in Edmon­ freelance work for CKUA radio in of Winnipeg with a bachelor's degree in ton. She has also taught photography in Edmonton and is continuing her music dramatic studies and has since taken Washington D.C. and has exhibited her studies at Grant MacEwan College. Her film courses at Concordia University in work in various cities in the United music reviews have appeared regularly Montreal. She is presently doing States and Canada. She has two in Branching Out. freelance work in films and journalism. children. She began her research on rape in Montreal in October 1974. ROSEMARY AUBERT MARY HUMPHREY BALDRIDGE Rosemary Aubert has given many LAURIE BAGLEY Mary Humphrey Baldridge is a Calgary poetry readings in and around Toronto. playwright and poet. Her productions A chapbook entitled An Even Dozen Laurie Bagley is a mother and include "Tonight at Calgary Theatre Poems was published by Missing Link housewife and a part-time freelance Hall," "The Photographic Moment," Press in 1974 and several of her poems writer. She was one of the founders and and "Bride of the Gorilla". A book of will appear in the forthcoming original co-editors of Room of One's poetry, Slide Images was published by Stormwarnmgs II edited by Al Purdy. Own. Her book reviews have appeared Retort Press, New York. She is a book editor at McGraw-Hill in that journal and in the Vancouver Ryerson. Sun. She now lives in Winnipeg where she is teaching a class on women and MARILYN BOWERING literature at the Free University. VIVIAN FRANKEL Marilyn Bowering has published one book of poetry, The Liberation of Vivian Frankel is an Ottawa freelance LINDA DUNCAN Newfoundland (Fiddlehead), and her photographer and frequent contributor poems, prose and reviews have to Branching Out. A recent series of her Linda Duncan is a lawyer presently appeared in a number of magazines, photos appeared in the Information working as a social planner for the including Canadian Fiction and Canada publication "Federal Services Edmonton Social Planning Council. She Malahat Review. She is currently work­ for Women." She also worked on the is also on the board of directors for the ing on a Ph.D. in Canadian Literature at book "To See Ourselves" published Rape Crisis Centre of Edmonton. the University of New Brunswick. recently by the IWY Secretariat. 48 Branching Out

We've got a lot ?oing for peopl< who write.

We're here to help writers write. That, in a nutshell, is the function of the Literary Arts Branch of Alberta Culture. Naturally, we are concerned with Alberta writers, but if you live anywhere else in Canada, we will be pleased to send you, upon request, copies of the following aids to becoming a published author; * Best Chance Markets for Breaking into Print * Manuscript Rights * How to Submit a Manuscript * Alberta Authors' Bulletin, a bi-monthly newsletter If you're an Alberta resident, getting a typewriter-hold on a writing career, we have correspondence courses that could be helpful. Ask about them. For old hands on the Alberta scene, there is a program of financial assistance, for which you might qualify. And there are awards: * $650 Regional History Award for a published manuscript by an Albertan or group of Albertans, detailing the history of a town or area in the province. * $1,000 Non-Fiction Award, to a published book by an advanced Alberta author, which may be submitted by author, friend or publisher. * Search-for-a-New-Alberta Novelist Competition for Alberta authors who have not previously had novels published. Part of the award is the publication of the manuscript. For full details on the programs for Alberta authors, write us. Alberta Culture Literary Arts Branch 11th Floor, CN Tower Edmonton, Alberta T5J OK5/dlbcrra CULTURE