h . -I ■ñ b f m l for Serf n o m n SAN FRANCISCO DAUGHTERS OF B ILIT IS statement of Purpose ...a women's organization to aid the Lesbian in discovering her place in society and to educate s i s i m society to understand and accept her, without Cm>0 *14». «4 • «C (.y prejudice, and I500 1. To encourage and support the Lesbian in ».-I »ât,wnMcim r her search for her social, economic, personal, interpersonal and vocational identity within society by maintaining cuid building a library Volume V, NiM)er e on the themes of homosexuality cund women; by providing social functions where she can communi­ cate with others and expand her social world out­ BOARD MEMBERS side the bar scene; and by providing an organized structure through which she can work to change President.....................Liane society’s limitations upon her lifestyles; by Vice-President .............. Millie providing a forum for the interchange of ideas Treasurer. ................... Meli.nda and constructive solutions to women's problems. Speakers' Bureau ............ Linda B. Secretary.....................Paula 2. To educate the public to accept and Art Coordinator.............. Laura understand the Lesbian as an individual, thereby leading to the breakdown of taboos, prejudices, and limitations on her lifestyle by sponsoring public discussions; by providing individuals as speakers and participants in various forms de­ signed to educate the public; by disseminating o educational, and rational literature on the Lesbian. 3. To encourage, support and participate in responsible reseaurch dealing with homosexuality. 4. To investigate the penal code and to pro­ mote changes, in order to provide equitaJale hauid- ling of cases involving homosexuals, with due process of law and without prejudice, TO SAY AND BELIEVE THAT GAY IS GOOD SAN FRANCISCO DAUGHTERS OF BILITIS, AN AFFILIATE OF SAN FRANCISO) WOMEN'S ŒNTCRS P.O. BOX 40247 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94140 q : why d o e s a woman c r o s s t h e r o a d ? CONTENTS A Why Does A Woman Cross the Road? . 3 O N E W AV P o e t r y ............................... A: TO GET TO THE OTHER S ID E Cale n d a r............................. The Most CourageousAthlete of the Year 19 A Tale of Three Sisters: A Feminist F a b l e ............................. -20 Congratulations Judy! ................ 23 The case for lesbianism? You're it, George by Judith Nielsen Broader News From Far Out Lesbians . 24 Local Lesbian News . ..................28 When Greg was 22 his fiancee of two years jilted him for a 35-year-old executive who made $40,000 a year, drove a red MG, and quoted T.S, Eliot. Greg was recovering swiftly from this af­ SISTERS magazine 1974 by Daughters of Bilitis, front to his sensitive ego when he discovered San Francisco, Reproduction by permission of another disconcerting fact: the smooth executive S.F. DOB Board Members, vdio had charmed Greg's fiancee into infidelity was another woman. Greg is now involved in psychotherapy where he is being treated for "loss of self-esteem and Cover thanks to Judith Tinkler, titled "Upon ego devastation," His story was cited ba a lesbian Reflection" see page 23 for more details. member of DOB as an example of the potential threat of lesbianism to the male heterosexual community. Although the threat is real in s<xne cases, it is not as simple as the story would imply. The writers, Th e d a t e y o u r subscriptiom e x p i r e s now a p p e a r s orators and philosophers at the vanguard of the next to the label on the envelope your SISTERS lesbian movement have constructed a complex theory arrived in. CHECK NOW — renew earlyI i 1 about the seldom-recognized fears and hostilities directed toward gay women by straight men. @ The topic of lesbianism is difficult from any physiology, but it nevertheless remains. Lesbians, aspect because it remains hidden behind a shroud of however, are acutely aware of female needs and are ignorance and distortion while male homosexuality of course familiar with the female body, complete becomes increasingly accepted and understood by a with its erogenous zones. They can, therefore, fill more aware public. When a leading evening paper a gap left sadly empty by a male society that pro­ in the midwest recently published a series of art­ claims that the size of a man's penis and his abil­ icles on homosexuality, the publisher c^u:efully ity to keep it erect for an indefinite length of deleted all references to female hcxnosexuality, time, are the prerequisites for his partner's ful­ in spite of the fact that the series of articles fillment. As scientific investigation and plan old was written by a woman. open conversation begin to reveal the widespread Although straight men will snicker and ex­ dissatisfaction of female lovers, the American male change cruel jokes about "purse carrying fags" the is forced to recognize that somewhere along the line topic of lesbiémisro is seldom treated as a laughing he has failed to understand his woman's anatomy — matter. Although the ignorant jokes directed at and where he has failed another woman might be able male homosexuals reflect little understémding of to succeed. In fact, one lesbian teacher at San the situation, they at least reflect a certain Francisco State University suggests that any husband recognition that the situation exists, more than having problems fulfilling his wife's sexual needs is offered their female counterparts. should not talk to a doctor but should talk to a If lesbiauiism is being ignored or scorned by lesbian because "no one knows a woman's needs better.' the male community it is probably péurtly due to Aside from the purely physical aspects of sex, what gay women insist are the sexual and social there seem to be emotional needs left unfulfilled threats presented by female homosexuality in a in many heterosexual relationships as well. The society controlled and oriented toweurd male sexist polarized differences in attitudes toward sex be­ theories. tween men and women may well have forced many un­ To begin with, psychologists and scientists satisfied women into lesbian encounters. To begin in the Masters and Johnson vein have concluded with, sex is not considered as an achievement to women as it is to men. Many prostitutes claim to that lesbian sexual fulfillment is greater than have converted to homosexuality because they have heterosexual fulfillment. In other words, lesbians are more likely to engage in sexual activity where both partners experience complete orgasms, in con­ trast to the pitiful percentages of female orgasms in heterosexual relationships. The majority of heterosexual copulation is satisfying only for the male, the instances of faked female orgasms and female "frigidity" being incredibly high in this country. Many women supposedly withstamd entire Sexual ignorance is not bliss lives of marriage and sex without ever knowing S.A,\ FK.-WCISLX) Sl:\ IM ( )RMATIU\ what an orgasm is. ■\ Non Frotil ( i)mmunil\ t’lioin-Scrui r This unfortunate phenomenon has probably re­ sulted from ill-conceived definitions of male ^41 7 M P'umr IiiUit s I (it ’> m M»m. thric,u;h 1 i prowess as well as misconceptions about female witnessed the separation of emotion and sex in he average American male. Men may be surprised to alize that many women care less about sexual per­ formance and more about affection, assuming as t)iey do that the perfect sex is synonomous with the per­ fect orgasm. Masters and Johnson found repeatc ’ instances of women who faked their orgasms to "pacify" the men who seemed incapable of viewing sex as an extension of emotion rather than as a separate event. Because most women define an adequate lovei as one who is sensitive, imaginative and affection­ ate, they may easily be forced to look for that adequacy elsewhere in a society that hardly recog­ nizes such assets in its definition of the ideal Casanova. As long as society continues to suppress these emotions in the male while encouraging them in the female, "elsewhere" may continue to be an­ other woman. As Ingrid Bengis, author of the can­ did book entitled Combat in the Erogenous Zone, says: "As for skills, no woman wants a technocrat in bed next to her." The inability of women to relate to men on an emotional and spiritual level is the threat of which men are only recently being made aware. Their hos­ tility toward the lesbian is the male ego reacting once again to a rival who has managed to achieve a level of competence he himself cannot even under­ stand. Bengis, who speaks openly about her lesbianism as well as her "man-hating" tendencies, has gone so far as to suggest that "every woman who is depres­ sed, before killing herself, should have an affair with another woman," She al,so says that "every time a man was inside of me I felt I was being used. I was there for his pleasure." This is a feeling unde ibtedly experienced jy most women at some point in their lives and in spite of the theory set forth by chauvinist j -an­ tics, the feeling of power often exeiv,ised by ^os durinc sex is not alway; the turn-o it's clai^.f-i to be. Lesbians are ofti making a conscious a.;- sandy madera cisión to opt for an emotional involvement rather than superficial sex thrills promised by a hardy Adonis, Ihey're rejecting male definitions of what The lesbian has rejected the entire pattern set it is to be a woman along with the conditioned lack for her at birth and has also refused to identify her­ of sensitivity in American men.