Dec Jan. 1971-1972 Vol. 16 No. 03-04
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‘THEIiftDDER ECEMBER/JANUARY, 1971/1972 $1-25 VOLUME 16 No. 3 and 4 'JT f- fT 7 THE LADDER, published by Lesbians and directed to ALL women seeking full DECEMBER/JANUARY, 1971/1972 human dpity, had its beginning in 1956. It was then the only Lesbian ^ ^ publicatioa ia the U.S. It is now the only women’s magazine openly supporting Lesbians,« fafceful minority within the women’s liberation movement. LADDER Initially THE LADDER’S goal was limited to achieving the rights accorded THE LADDER STAFF heterosenoi women, that is, full second-class citizenship. In the 1950’s women as a whole were as yet unaware of their oppression. The Lesbian knew. And she Editor ................................................................................................. Gene Damon wondered sdcstly when her sisters would realize that they too share many of the Director of Promotion........................................................................ Rita Importe Lesbian'sloadicaps, those that pertained to being a woman. Production Editor ......................................................................Hope Thoinp.son Circulation Manager ...........................................................................Ann P. Buck THE LADI^R’s purpose today is to raise all women to full human status, with Production A ssistants............................................... Lyn Collins, Kim Stabinski, all of the rights and responsibilities this entails; to include ALL women, whether Jan Watson, King Kelly, Ann Brady, Lesbian orheterosexual. Phyllis Eakin, Robin Jordan Staff Cartoonist...................................................................................Ev Künstler OCCHATIONS have no sex and must be opened to aü qualified persons Art C olum nist............................................................................. Sarah Whitworth for tbelcaefit of all. Cross Currents E d ito r........................................................................ Gladys Irma Staff A rtis t.................................................................................. Adele A. Chalelin LIFE STYLES must be as numerous as human beings require for their persoarf happiness and fulfillment. ABILITY, AMBITION, TALENT - CONTENTS: THESE ARE HUMAN QUALITIES. Editorial: What Can You Do? by Gene Damon.................................................. 4 Cousin Shirley’s Complaint Afickic Burns ..................................................... 5 THE LAUDER, though written, edited, and circulated by volunteer labor, Victory at Los Angeles (A Report on the NOW Convention)............................14 cannot m a m without money. We Lesbiant are perhaps more anxious than Woman in Sexist Society, A Review by Hope Thom pson.................................17 other women to make our views known. We wish we could blanket the country Warning . May Be Dangerous to Your Health! by Carol D w yer.................... 27 and the wmii with free copies. But stem reality tells us that, more important Poetry by Rochelle Holt; Jane Kogan; Adele A. Chatelin; Lynn Strongin; even than mass distribution, is the need to keep alive the only real Lesbian Alicia Langtree; and Nathaniel Jane Harrington ...........................................28 magazine m the world. Therefore THE LADDER will no longer be sold at Journeys in Art by Sarah Whitworth .................................................................32 The First Sex, A Review by Hope Thompson.....................................................36 newsstand We will survive only if there are enough o f you sufficiently Ladies of Llangollen by Ellen Cold .....................................................................38 concerned the r^hts and the liberation o f ALL women to spend $7.50 a with Games, Short Story by F. Ellen Isaacs .............................................................. 39 year to ssdacsibe. (Sample copies are always available at $1.25.) Letter to a Friend by Anita Cornwell.................................................................. 42 Cross C urrents....................................................................................................... 45 ADVERTISING RATES Lesbiana by Cene Damon ................................................................................... 49 Readers R espond.................................................................................................. ,53 Back C over............................SlOO Half Pi t ................................. Q u artrrh g e ............................125 Full Page .............................. S 80 COVER: Audrey Flaek. Self Portrait. 1958. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Artist. See Journeys in Art, page 33. Repeated Advertisements at Reduced Rates Unless otherwise credited all illustrations are by staff artist Adele A. Chatelin BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE. WRITE FOR COST. and all cartoons are by staff cartoonist Ev Künstler. THIRD CLASS MAIL IS NOT FORWARDABLE. Published onthly at Box 5025, Washington Station, Reno, Nevada, 89503. When moving send us your old address and ZIP as well as new address and ZIP. All rights ed. No part o f this periodical may be reproduced without the written cn t o f THE LADDER. EDITORIAL: sell ourselves when we arc seen, but we haven’t the money to provide the kind of I believe Mademoiselle and Clamour publicity we need. You must be our magazines make titillating claims that the “word-of-mouth” campaign. Cousin Shirley's big city is chock full of exciting new What Can You Do? Help us by being careful about sending lifestyles for our young lady neophytes. By in your address change the instant you There are, in fact, two. One can choose to By GENE DAMON have a new address . we must use 3rd Complaint M ICKIE be either a Ixiwer East Side Chick or an class mail and this is a dubious means of BURNS Upper Ea.st Side Swinging Single. If you live Many of >«• reading this are new circulation at best . you can help us “Had we but world enough, and time. in New York and seem to fit neither readers of THE L\DDER. You haven’t, by making sure we know WHERE YOU This coyness, lady, were no crime.” category, you are probably Ia;sbian and pt'rhaps, heard o « prior pleas for help in ARE. Another simple thing is RENEWING can’t really be considered wholly female. various areas. YOUR SUBSCRIPTION R.APIDLY. We “Come on you groupie — piece of trash!” Both lifestyles are equally, cheaply, and We are always in need of writers. As provide you with a “first notice” and a drearily subsidized through a hasty post THE LADDER iafroves in quality there final notice. If you can possibly afford to "An hundred years should go to praise grad acquisition of typing and shorthand is a tendency t* assume that we have do so, resubscribe with the first Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze.” skills and through shoplifting, the distinc “enough” of all the talents any good notice . and if not, then the instant tion being that Upper East Side Swinging magazine needs t* survive. We do not; we you receive your “ final” copy and last “She’s not the kind of chick you can like Singles live with five other airline steward are always in nr*d of ¿ood non-fiction notice . Every issue we get a lot of stay with — a good shag and that’s it.” esses in a luxury high rise and the Lower articles on Lesbian and on women’s liber “late” renewals whidi means we must go East Side Groovy Chicks live relatively ation. We would ^ f e r that these articles to the expense of cutting your subscrip “The grave’s a fine and private place alone in a five floor walk-up tenement. deal with all woian since the battle to be tion off and then putting it back on. This But none, I think, do there embrace.” Under the Lower East Side category there won must be won by all women. We also costs money and time. are a number of interchangeable subdivi need short fiction, cartoon ideas, clippings Many of our skilled workers simply “He took me into the toilet. ‘Baby, I’d sions. There are acid-rock groupies, radical from everywhere aftout anything connected came to us, came asking to help, and we like to make love to you,’ he said. I didn’t revolutionary groupies, and psycho witli women’s Beration and Lesbian are delighted to have them. Most of them know he meant right then, right there." encounter Reichian analysis groupies. Tfie rights. are worked to death. Can you draw . male counterpart of a groupie is called a When we toA the step of removing could you help staff artist Adele A. “Let us roll all our strength, and all guru. The gurus therefore are rock stars, THE LADDER fcom newsstands, many Chatelin? If so, won’t you let us Our sweetness, up into one ball: revolutionary leaders and psychoanalysts. It criticized us for Jwig so. The reason was know . ? Do you know of any art And tear our pleasure with rough strife. would be an amusing experiment if the simple survival . .. this magazine costs us work about Lesbians or with strong Through the iron gates of life. maternal antecedents of all Swinging Singles so much to prodme that we cannot afford feministic overtones? If you do, Sarah Thus, though we cannot make our sun and Groovy (hicks came to live a few to .sell it at the nnrsstand rates. Since then, Whitworth would love to know about Stand still, yet we will make him run.” months, invisibly perhaps, with their daugh we have nm into m curious phenomenon: a this . won’t you write and tell us? Do ters — to see how well their provincial or few bookstores *e buying us at our you have an idea for an art column for “Come here with your va-gina. Di-ana.” suburban philosophies