$3.95 • CANADA $4.50 THE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERLY NOUVELLE RELATIONSHIP! JILL JOHNSTON: RIFFS ON fidure>o/~ NADINE STROSSEN:THE PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY'S WET DREAM PIMPING: THE WORLD'S PHYLLIS CHESLER OLDEST PROFESSION TELLS IT LIKE IT WAS 0 I7AA70II78532 3 OGRESSIVE. CONFRONTATIONAL. INFORMATIVE. FREE-THINKING ABOUT ° U R PHONE BILL: Vtrange as it may sound, thousands of Sprintf And we offer plenty of built-in Americans actually look forward to receiving discounts. What's more, we'll give you their monthly phone bill. 60 FREE MINUTES of long distance These are not sad, lonely citizens, calls as soon as you sign up. desperate for any contact with the outside But we never compromise on quality. world. They are among the country's most We use major carriers' lines - so calls are progressive thinkers.They're Working Assets crystal clear. And our customer service is Long Distance customers. genuinely friendly and efficient. 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Last year, our customers made their voices WORKING ASSETS® Just a heard over 450,000 times - becoming one of few victories Long Distance the most powerful citizen groups in America. Working Assets' By joining I authorize Working Assets Long Distance to become my primary long customers distance catricr. Working Assets will mail me a certificate good fot 60 free minutes of intcr- In addition, our basic interstate rates are state calling at the 3.000-mile night/weekend rate. The certificate can be redeemed by helped win. enclosing it into any bill I choose. Then, on the following bill, the 60 free minutes ctedit will appear. Offer void where prohibited. Rate comparisons effective 5/1/95 and subject to competitive with those of AT&T," MCI® and change. AZ293-O1R-I page 24 COLUMNS DEPARTMENTS FOR TWO WOMEN HOFFMAN FRONT LINES SPECIAL SECTION: shot to death in 3 2 Brookline, Massachusetts THE FUTURE ABORTION 5 OF LOVE PROVIDERS: 19 A poem by Marge Piercy The New "Communists"? WIN SOME/ LOSE SOME PALESTINE AT THE STATE-OF-THE- COUPLE REPORT 6 CROSSROADS RAPPING 15 20 Relationship trends we'd 11 When worlds collide, POWER BABES & AGENDA X will women lose? like to see By Ronni Sandrqff VICTIM FEMINISTS By Deborah Horan Do the media know anyone we know? FIRST CHINESE, DEEP TAPIOCA FEEDBACK FIRST WOMAN 24 9 35 A riff on wedded bliss By Jill Johnston CHESLER Anson Chan may be 13 Hong Kong's TELLING IT LIKE BOOK REVIEWS PAYING HIS WAY first elected governor. IT WAS 48 By Marlene C. Piturro 28 Feminist foremothers By Laurel Touby recall their salad days LET THEM EAT CUTTING PROZAC PIMPING: THE SOME SLACK 38 60 By Mahin Hassibi WORLD'S OLDEST TALKING FEMINIST PROFESSION YOUR HYMEN: 32 UNCLEAR AND 42 THE INSIDE STORY By Kathleen Barry NADINE STROSSEN By Jennifer Gonnertnan PRESENT DANGER The ACLU president 41 defends pornography Our self-defense laws need GEORGE SAND changing to offer equal AT NOHANT by smearing feminism. protection to women. 45 By Diana E. H. Russell ON THE COVER By Leah Rose A Revolutionary's Retreat Painting by Jon Weiman By Erica Abeel for ON THE ISSUES contentON THE ISSUES * SUMMER 1995 •VOLUME IV NUMBER sTHREE FRONT LINES ON THE ISSUES THE PROGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERLY VOL. IV • NO. 3 SUMMER 1995 Publisher/ Editor in Chief MERLE HOFFMAN Editor SANDROFF RONNISANDROFF Executive Editors JULIA KACAN JOHN STOLTENBERC What's Love Editor at Large PHYLLIS CHESLER Art Director |OV TOLTZIS MAKON Got To Do With It? Special Projects Advisors ANNE MOLLECEN SMITH JOY SILVER Book Review Editor NINA MEHTA Production Editor BARBARA A. HERNANDEZ n progressive political circles,to speak of Assistant Editor love is to guarantee that one will be dismissed or considered naive," KAREN AISENBERG Contributing Editors writes bell hooks in an essay called "Love as the Practice of Free- JILL BENDERLY dom,I" published in Outlaw Culture. CHARLOTTE BUNCH VINIE BURROWS The conservative right has been less faint-hearted. They openly lobby to IRENE DAVALL keep the dangerous forces of love and passion safely enshrined in the traditional BELL HOOKS FLO KENNEDY marriage. Cleverly marketing themselves as the keeper of "family values," the FRED PELKA right promises to restore those mythic good old days when men were men and ELAYNE RAPPINC women their unprotesting helpmates. HELEN M. STUMMER Advertising and Sales Director For the most part, progressive forces have ceded serious consideration of love CAROLYN HANDEL and family values to the right, ignoring the fundamental human importance of Circulation/Business Consultant domestic partnerships and pair-bonding—of the small city-states that exist in ANNE S. KEATINC the home. The state or "the system" (be it capitalist or socialist) is seen as the only source of (and solution to) the social problems that grow out of our indi- ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly: a feminist, humanist magazine of critical vidual failures to sufficiently love, treasure, and care for each other. thinking, dedicated to fostering collective responsibility Feminist thinkers have long analyzed the political aspects of personal life. But for positive social change. ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly the tocus has often been on the negative aspects of pair bonding (marriage as (ISSN 0895-6014) is published quarterly as an legal prostitution; "second shift" exploitation of working mothers; incest, rape, informational and educational service of CHOICES battering, and murder in the home). This approach has focused the public spot- Women's Medical Center, Inc., 97-77 Queens Blvd. Flushing, NY 11374-3317. Fax: (718) 997-1206. light on many ignored problems. But it has also distanced many family-cen- World Wide Web: 741113,[email protected] tered women and men from a movement that seems to eschew the possibility Unsolicited Manuscripts: All material will be read of the positive love relationships which most of us crave. by the editors. For return, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope with proper postage. Articles should For the most part, feminists have not articulated an image of a positive future. not be more than 2,000 words. AU editing decisions Celebrating the caring couple—straight and gay—and the functional family as a are at the discretion of the editors. Feminist cartoons starting point for a continuum of love radiating outward to the community and are also acceptable under the same provisions. ON THE ISSUES does not accept fiction or poetry. larger society has been a missing piece in the feminist vision for the future. Advertising accepted at the discretion of the Well, at ON THE ISSUES we believe in going where few women have gone publisher. Acceptance does not imply endorsements. Publisher's Note: The opinions expressed by before. Our special section on "The Future of Love" takes a sometimes contributors and by those we interview are not humorous, often bittersweet view of today's beleagured couple relationships. necessarily those of the editors. ON THE ISSUES The This issue offers some other boundary-pushing pieces, including a feminist Progressive Woman's Quarterly is a forum where women may have their voices heard without censure analysis of Prozac by psychiatrist Mahin Hassibi, and a telling decade-by- or censorship. decade account of feminist battles with the mental health establishment by Subscription Information: 1 year $14.95; 2 years Phyllis Chesler. For a walk on the dark side, don't miss "Pimping: The World's 824.95; 3 years $34.95. Institutional rate: Add $10 first year, $5 each additional year. Add $4 per year for Oldest Profession" by Kathleen Barry, and Diana Russell's (page 32) and Mark Canadian orders; $7 per year foreign (surface mail) or Hussey's provocative deconstructions of Nadine Strossen's controversial book $20 per year foreign (air mail). Send to ON THE ISSUES Defending Pornography (page 48). The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, P.O. Box 3000, Dept. OTI.DenviUe, NJ 07834. Second-Class Postage Welcome to our many new subscribers. Remember, we love to hear from Paid at Flushing, NY and additional mailing office. one and all—see the masthead for how to reach us by mail, fax, or our new e- Postmaster: Send address changes to ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, mail address on the World Wide Web. • P.O. Box 3000, Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ 07834. ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1995 MERLE HOFFMAN ON THE ISSUES Abortion Providers: The New "Communists"? knew that things had changed when I was handed a button that read "I'm Pro-Choice and I shoot back" at a recent abortion-providers conference in WashingtonI, D.C. I also learned that a physician in Nevada had built a million-dollar clinic outfitted with strategic military defense protection and six .357 magnums. He calls it Fort Abortion.