Xlll:6 February 1991 enls Vanderbilt University Margaret crosses the very rigid class lines that Cuninggim often exist in West Indian culture. Women·s Center West Indian women want to talk about their relationships to their islands; about how the island and the New voices from the West Indies: lives of women are intertwined in ways which are foreign to those of us Women writing women's lives who live in this part of America. Essential to their development as When yuh succumb to certain lings in silence yuh build up the power women, West Indian women, is an of di oppressor to exploit a next person. Me starts boots meself fi talk up. awareness of the history, the life story of the island upon which they live. This personal identification Margaret Kent Bass, assistant have often received from fathers, with the island stems from the professor of English companions, and employers. They African notion that we must know want to talk about the devastating our ancestors before we can know Critic David Williams notes that in effect that their collective silence has ourselves, and that the earth, the the "West Indian literary conscious­ had upon their lives, and how the piece of ground upon which we were ness, indeed, the idea of the Author, articulation and sharing of a common born, is woman and mother to us all. and more particularly the idea of the condition of suffering has encour­ But colonialism has done to the is­ author of an autobiography, continue aged a sisterhood among them that lands \vhat the patriarchal society to be associated largely with the male has done to woman: it has abused imagination, despite the presence of their natural resources, wiped out novels by women that employ the their history, refused to grant them autobiographical mode.... " In other autonomy and independence. So words, men write tme stories about West Indian women protest against ren/lives; women write fictions about the colonial presence in their lives their lives. I would suggest that "novels" and in their countries. For example, like Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John are Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John pities also autobiographies, and that West the little English girl in her class Indian women are simply forcing us to because her "ancestors had been the change, among other things, our no­ masters, while ours had been the tions about what autobiography is. slaves. She had such a lot more to be The autobiographical act, the writ­ ashamed of, and by being with us ing of one's own life story is, for the everyday she was always being West Indian woman, an act of self lib­ reminded." eration. West Indian women are recre­ Annie later remembers disliking ating themselves in their own images, Christopher Columbus and delight­ becoming the subjects of their own ing to find that he was once "fettered discourse, and breaking the silence that in chains" and sent back to Spain. has made them what Erna Brodber Annie takes great pleasure in defac­ calls "accomplices in their own op­ ing Columbus' picture in her text­ pression." book and feels no remorse when her What do West Indian women want teacher accuses her of blasphemy. us to know about them? One of Ja­ There is a most powerful so­ maica's "lionheart gals" from the cial protest in the autobi­ Sistren Theater Collective says ographies written by that women want to tell people - ... West Indian about how they suffer and women, but the ---·~ -r-1-\ E=" about "how men treat us ~'y-,/(3:_S.~ protest bad." Women want to talk ---r , A/:r:>I.. ~ _s lies within about the physical and (continued mental abuse that they page 2) West Indian women In crime, too, some gender-related reality they arc living, changing (continued from page one) inequities. tissue. By one measure, at least, violent Throughout life, our bodies replace the mere telling of the story and in crime seems to be declining. But as in old bone tissue with new. During the acknowledgement that I exist, my so many other things, the trend childhood, new tissue forms faster life matters. West Indian women appears to be benefi !ling men more than the old tissue breaks down; move in their own stories from object than women. therefore the bones of children grow, to subject, from invisibility to visibil­ According to a new study by the Around age thirty-five, bone tissue ity. Each autobiography is a personal Justice Department's Bureau of breakdown speeds up and bone loss declaration of independence from the Justice Statistics, about 2.5 million begins. In time, this bone loss may bonds of patriarchy and imperialism. women a year are robbed, raped, or lead to osteoporosis, which means Women are triumphant in their dis­ assaulted, and about a quarter of "porous bones." The bones become covery of themselves and rejoice in such crimes are committed by family less dense, more fragile and weak, so the new existences that they have members or men they have dated. that minor falls can cause fractures. created for themselves. It is for these The study, based on interviews Crush and collapse fractures of the reasons that I offer kudos to Jamaica with about 50,000 households a year, vertebrae are also common and can Kincaid, Erna Brodber, Paule found that violent crime, reported cause back pain and noticeable Marshall, and all of the courageous and unreported, against people over decrease in height. autobiographers, these Lionheart twelve years old had declined from Women are more likely to develop Gals. And as they say in Jamaica, 1973 to 1987, but that most of the osteoporosis than men because their Respect due everytime! II decline had been in crimes against bones are less dense and their cal­ men, which dropped about twenty cium reserves lower. Moreover, percent. women lose calcium during preg­ Harvard to offer conference "The trend is that the men's rates nancy and breast feeding and at on campus men and women. A are coming down closer to the menopause because of lowered levels two-day conference, Women and women's," said Caroline Wolfe of estrogen, the female hormone that Men on Campus: Inequality and Harlow, who wrote the report. "But helps prevent bone loss. Its Remedies, will be held at the main lesson is that violent crime In fact, until recently, estrogen Harvard College, Cambridge, against women is different than with calcium was a treatment Massachusetts on March 7-8, crime against men because it's six prescribed for osteoporosis. In the 1991. Registration is $195 and is times as likely to be committed by spring of 1990, however, the Nw due by February 25. their intimates." England journal of Medicine reported For more information contact Violence against women has on a new therapy in which Women and Men on Campus, become the focus of increasing Etidrona te (pronounced eh-TID-ro­ 339 C Gutman Library, Harvard concern throughout society, with nate) is administered in two week Graduate School of Education, new fears about campus date rape, cycles every thirteen weeks to reduce Cambridge, MA 02138. and law enforcement authorities the breakdown of bones. Calcium is seeming powerless to stern a pattern taken either in diet or in supplements of assault and murder.... Feminist along with Etidronate and for there­ Girl's self-esteem groups argue that it is a troubling maining eleven weeks of the cycle. (continued from page 4) reflection of how much less political In a study of more than four "This survey makes it impossible and economic power women have hundred post-menopausal women, to say that what happens to girls is than men. the regimen reversed the gradual simply a matter of hormones," said from The New York Times, loss of bone that characterizes osteo­ Carol Gilligan, an adviser on the January 20, 1991 porosis. Women taking the treahnent development of questions asked in had half the number of spinal the survey. "If that was it, then the fractures of female patients who did loss of self-esteem would happen to not receive the drug. Etidronate all girls and at roughly the same altered the bone loss by slowing the time. lfs your health natural process of bone removal; the "This work raises all kinds of calcium helped build bone mass. No issues about cultural contributions/' Charlotte Frankel significant adverse affects of the she added, "and it raises questions treatment were found. It apparently about the role of the schools, both in can increase bone mass more than the drop of self-esteem and in the New treatment for hormones can and reduce fractures potential for intervention." more than an experimental treat- from The Nw York Times, osteoporosis ment, sodium fluoride. II January 9, 1991 We tend to think of our bones as Page 2. Womens VU, February 1991 hard, unchanging structures, but in Speaking of women . • • 'eanne Peck, A&S ]r. The group will also try to clear the sexist air which has polluted the en­ Coco Weiss says being a feminist vironment of so many college won't stop her from running for po­ campuses, Weiss said. litical office someday. "It's hard to show where sexism "A staunch feminist could not suc­ actually occurs," she said. "Some of ceed. Any extreme view isn't going to the fraternity T-shirts are just so de­ win," said the twenty year-old presi­ grading to women." dent of the Women's Political Caucus. Weiss cited a photo printed in last ''If a woman came out and said, 'I'm year's Commodore which featured a a feminist and fln1 running for office/ young woman in a bathing suit many people would see her as a bra lounging on Peabody Lawn.