300 Years & Counting 1H KILLS - On The Issues Magazine

T H E P R O G R E S S I V E W O M A N ' S Q U A R T E R L YVol. XXIII SUMMER 1992 $3.95I'D 1300 Years & CountingWHEN A"BAD"WOMAN1H KILLSThe Trials ofAileen WuornosSEX, LIES& SUSPICIOUSSOURCESHow the News Becomes^the NewsDANGEROUSLOVE"Our Mother wasa Childbeater"

Too often, kids get the worst off their parents' bad day at work.In the form of verbal abuse at home. If that's been happening to you,you've got to work to change things. Words can hit a child as hard as a fist.And leave scars you can't see. Think about what you're saying.Stop using words that hurt. Start using words that help.S%\> U{ir\$ works tfvrf hurtFor helpful information, write: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, Box 2866E, Chicago, IL 60690.CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION CAMPAIGNMAGAZINE AD NO.CA-2767-90-7" x10" [110 Screen]Volunteer Agency: Lintas: New York, Campaign Director: Beth M. Pritchard, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.GOUKH

CONTENTSSUMMER 1992F E A T U R E S8TALKING FEMINISTEXCISED — Reflections on My UterusBy Lois Green StoneWhat happens when you buck the medical establishment's view of this importantpart of your anatomy11-27HUNTING WITCHESTHEN AND NOW:From Salem to TodayOn Hie 300-yearanniversary el Hieinfamous Massachusettstrials, threeauthors examine ourattitudes, past andpresent. Has anythingchanged?11"BITCH WITCHES AND HYSTERICAL GIRLS"By Fred PelkaWhat really happened during those dark days in the Puritan colony —and why are we celebrating?16BLACKLIST, BLACK DAYS: Stalking the "Red Menace"By Patricia LyndenA survivor remembers America's most recent major "witch hunt"22FEMINIST WITCHCRAFT IN TODAY'S WORLDBy Ann ForfreedomA real wise woman challenges the stereotypes and reveals the on-goingpersecution of "witches"28SEX, DEATH AND THE DOUBLE STANDARD: Wuornos on TrialBy Phyllis CheslerIs it possible for a poor woman who is also a prostitute to get justice in Florida?Or anywhere?32HOW THE MEDIA SLANTS THE MESSAGE and Other Reportorial SinsBy Laura SydellWhile the press bombards us, the real news is suppressed37YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN: An Interview with Melissa Fay GreeneBy Eleanor J. BaderFrom VISTA volunteer to National Book Award nominee, a white writer finds her creativepower through Southern Blacks40BREAKING THE LETHAL CIRCLE: A Personal Account of an Abusive ChildhoodBy Paola D'EllesioThe author describes the violence of her early years and how she found the strengthto turn her life aroundDEPARTMENTSFront Lines—2Merle Hoffman—3Win Some • Lose Some—5Choice Books—46Feedback—58

FRONT LINESMEMORIES OF AWITCHHUNT11 was a drama major in the early '50s whenSenator Joseph R. McCarthy was at the height ofhis witch-hunting frenzy. I remember circulatingpetitions (a daring thing to do in those days) toreinstate professors who had lost their positionsbecause they refused to take the loyalty oath. Iremember watching former heroes fall from graceas they named names to save their own skins,and forever loving people like Lillian Hellmanwho refused to knuckle under. I remember, too, aman named Ronald Reagan who was then presidentof the Screen Actors Guild and in thatcapacity, in 1947, had fed names to the F.B.I of those in the Guild he believed tobe communists."Believed" was enough to finish off a thriving career.Most of all, I remember where I was on June 19,1953. My friends and I werewalking down Thompson Street in New York's Greenwich village when we heardthe news that Ethel and Julius Rosenberg had been executed. We stood there inshock, tears rolling down our faces.tears as much for us as for the Rosenbergs.Until that moment,we hadn't believed it could happen—not in our country, not inthis day and age. The horrors of World War II were just a few years past andsuddenly we knew how people in Nazi Germany must have felt. This was beyondpetitions or buttons or speaking out: Our own government could kill us and wewere helpless to do anything about it. At the invincible age of 21 we realized howvulnerable we were. In short, we were terrified.This was a harsh learning experience for those of us who came of age in the '50s,the era of Mom-at-home-and-apple pie-and-Father-knows-best-and-shinyfloors-and-sparkly laundry—and now, death to two people who hadn't killedanyone or, from our point of view, perpetrated a heinous crime. For if it were truethat the Rosenbergs had given secret information to the Russians (and many ofus didn't even believe that!), it was done when the Russians were our allies.Certainly the witch-hunting years of the '50s left most of us politically-involvedyoung people with a healthy skepticism and cynicism that has lasted all our lives.This extends to anything fed to us by the government, industrial polluters of ourworld and, most definitely, the media. "All the news that's fit to print" reallymeans "All the news we want you to know," and we see through their half-truthsand cover-ups.So now Salem, Massachusetts is celebrating the 300th anniversary of the witchtrials: Celebrating the persecution, disenfranchisment and sometimes death ofinnocent people. Cutesy signs are everywhere; drinks are "amusingly" callednames such as "Witch's Brew "; miniature gallows are a hot-selling item. It's alljust one big joke—and a neat lure for tourist dollars. Meanwhile I can't helpwondering whether in 2053 there will be a commemoration of the McCarthy eraand, if so, whether the best sellers will be diminutive Blacklists and tiny electricchairs.There is one unfortunate certainty that goes along with death and taxes: Thatas long as there are people who don't play by society's rules or who hold unpopularbeliefs or who are different in some way, there will be witch hunts.Beverly Lowy Executive EditorVOL. XXIII SUMMER 1992PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEFMerle HoffmanEXECUTIVE EDITORBeverly LowySENIOR EDITORPatricia LyndenASSOCIATE EDITORLaurie OuelletteASSISTANT EDITORKaren AisenbergEDITOR AT LARGEPhyllis CheslerCONTRIBUTING EDITORSEleanor J. BaderJill BenderlyCharlotte BunchVinie BurrowsNaomi Feigelson ChaseIrene DavallRoberta KalechofskyFlo KennedyFred PelkaHelen M. StummerART DIRECTORSMichael DowdyJulia GranADVERTISING AND SALES DIRECTORCarolyn HandelON THE ISSUES: A feminist, humanistmagazine of critical thinking, dedicated tofostering collective responsibility for positivesocial change.UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTSAll material will be read by the editors. For return,enclose self-addressed, stamped envelope with properpostage. Articles should not be more than 2500 words.All editing decisions are at the discretion of theeditors. Feminist cartoons are also acceptable underthe same provisions.ON THE ISSUES does not accept fiction or poetry.Advertising accepted at the discretion of the publisher.Acceptance does not necessarily imply endorsement.PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The opinions expressed bycontnbutors and by those we interview are notnecessarily those of the editors. ON THE ISSUES is aforum where women may have their voices heardwithout censure or censorshipON THE ISSUES is published as an informational andeducational service of CHOICES Women's MedicalCenter, Inc. 97-77 Queens Boulevard, Forest Hills, NY11374-3317 ISSN0895-6014Subscription Information1 year $14.75; 2 years $25.75; 3 years $34.75.Institutional rate: Add $10 first year; $5 eachadditional year. Add $7 per year for Canadian orders;$7 per year foreign (surface mail) or $20 per yearforeign (airmaill. Send to ON THE ISSUES, PO Box3000, Dept. OTI. Denville, N.J 07834ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

MERLE HOFFMANO N T H E I S S U E SIt was one of those defining moments: Iam watching the finals of the Miss USApageant and the tension is palpable.Dick Clark reaches into the large glassfish bowl and chooses the question, theanswer to which will decide the winnerfrom the six semifinalists. Miss Kentuckyis up — her blond hair cascading ,wildly down her shoulders as she facesher judges. "Would you rather be Presidentor First Lady?" I hold my breath —is it possible? Not a moment of hesitationas the young woman flashes a brilliantlytoothy smile and says, "FirstLady of course. We all know how importantit is for any man, especially thePresident, to be kept in line, and I thinkthat would be one of the most importantjobs in the world." Enthusiastic applausegreets her as she basks in the righteousnessof her response. Miss Kansas wasnext. "If it were a hundred years fromnow and you could look back at thiscentury, what woman do you thinkmade the greatest contribution andwhy?" Her answer, just as fast andbreathless, comes effortlessly: "BarbaraBush because she keeps GeorgeBush in line."I sighed the sigh of the damned, adefining moment indeed, "define andconquer" —just another reinforcementof the historical and collective realities.These young women have learned theirlessons well and fleshed the "myth" ofwoman — given form to the continualcreating and creation of the archetypesknown as female and feminine. For asSimone de Beauvoir has written: "Oneis not born, but becomes a woman. Nobiological, psychological, or economicfate determines the figure that the humanfemale presents in society. It iscivilization as a whole that producesLoyalty toone's husbandbefore honor loroneselfthis creature, intermediate betweenmale and eunuch which is described asfeminine." (The Second Sex)This "myth of woman," this "mark ofgender" that is placed on the femaleform is taught early and well and has atits core the concepts of derivative power,masochism, low self-esteem, sex, sexuality,self-effacement and the reproductiveimperative. It is by and throughthese vehicles that stereotypes of womanare realized and it is within these categoriesand qualities that women aredefined and judged.Both Miss Kentucky and Miss Kansas,along with millions of their sisters,started their education in "woman" veryyoung in a school system that has beenproven to systematically shortchangeand discriminate against girls. A newreport by the American Association ofUniversity Women (A. A.U.W.) presentsdata which gives lie to the myth thatboys and girls receive equal education."The wealth of statistical evidence mustconvince even the most skeptical thatthe gender bias in the schools shortchangesgirls."Among the findings were that "teachersdraw less attention to girls, thatreports of boys sexually harassing girlsare increasing, that textbooks still ignoreor stereotype women, and thatgirls learn almost nothing about manyof their most pressing problems, likesexual abuse, discrimination and depression."In a previous study, theA.A.U.W. reported that girls' self-esteemdrops markedly as they approachadolescence, as "students sit in classroomsthat day-in-day-out deliver themessage that women's lives count forless than men's."And it is not only in school where onelearns how to wear the subservientmark. Reinforcement comes through"NUMBER TWO"[Mrs. Bill Clinton]NUMBER TWO"[Mrs. George Bush]ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992PHOTOS AP/W10C WORLD

Dems'front-runnerlied to flmema, soyshis former loverfilms, media, pornography and eventoys. Mattel has created a new toy thatsimulates pregnancy, "My BundleBaby," that consists of a mechanicalkicking device and tape recorder thatthumps inside a pastel-colored knapsackcontaining one or more baby dolls.Worn around the waist, "it feels likethere is a real baby inside," teachinggirls at a very young age that there aretwo basic categories — good girls whoreproduce and have babies and badgirls who fuck.So Miss Kentucky doesn't want to bePresident. President is not what a reallygood girl should want to be. If MissKentucky wants role models to teachher how to be a good girl and get ahead,she doesn't have to look far. Indeed, theBarbara Bush, Hillary Clinton andMarilyn Quayle phenomenon attests tothe recent glamor and attraction of secondarypower for women. These women,all ambitious, intelligent and accomplished,have placed their achievementsand fortunes at the feet and in thehands of their husbands. They havecreated, formulated and scripted therole of "Number Two" in its penultimateform. Barbara Bush, the contestants'heart-throb, typifies this. Her extraordinaryself-effacement was described inPeople magazine in 1988: "Confrontedwith persistent rumors of Bush's supposedextramarital affairs and stung bymean-spirited gibes of her white hairand matronly figure, she deflected theattacks with breezy self-assurance, allthe while tirelessly tending to herhusband's reputation."Reputation tending is a major part ofbeing Number Two. Marilyn Quayle, anattorney and by most definitions brilliantand tough, in the Washington Postdescribes herself in equestrian terms:"I ride hard, I ride fast — there is noroom for error and if there is error, youhurt yourself very bad." Her fear offalling is second only to her anxietyabout failing to adequately protect herhusband's image.In 1988, when Dan Quayle was nominatedas Bush's running mate, RobertD. Orr, the then Governor of Indiana,confirmed that the Senate seat her husbandvacated was hers for the asking."It was mine if I wanted it," Quaylesays, but she could see that if she evervoted against the administration, shewould create a "big story" that would be"hard on the President." (WashingtonPost 1/27/92)Hillary Clinton also plays the NumberTwo slot—both are tigresses who guardtheir men and their families. Hillary,described as brilliant and a lawyer, is,according to the Wall Street Journal,"so accomplished and an advocate sopolished that she sometimes left audienceswishing that she and not herhusband was the candidate." Accordingto the Journal, Hillary was also a goodstudent of the "feminine." After herhusband lost his re-election bid partlybecause she had not changed her lastname from Rodham to Clinton, she publiclybecame Mrs. Clinton and the votersrewarded the Clintons with re-election.Hillary Clinton also practices thesubtler aspects of the supporting role:She beams at her husband on stage a laNancy Reagan and even changes theway she speaks to sport a southernaccent, to underscore the point that shehas absorbed and been absorbed by herhusband's persona. She also has learned,as Barbara Bush did before her, to bearher husband's public infidelities withgrace under pressure. Hillary's denialthat she "unlike Tammy Wynette wasNOT standing by her man," was obviatedby actions which proclaimed loyaltyat all costs.Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush andMarilyn Quayle have all taken the roadmore traveled to power — the supportive,derivative road. They are evaluatedonly in relation to how their husbands'careers are affected, and thereforejudged by a different moral standard —held accountable for their actions on apurely reflective basis. Unable to existcontinued on pg 54BOTTOM PHOTO:K.CONDVI£S/IMPACTV1SUALS ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

WIN SOME c LOSE SOMEA Compiled Adaptation of News Itemswith Editorial Commentary by Beverly LowyTHE HIGH COST OFPOLLUTIONFrom the Baltimore Sun:In less than 36 hours inspring, 1990, three childrenwere born withoutbrains at Valley RegionalMedical Center inBrownsville, Texas.Two of the babies were stillborn.The third hung on forthree days, doomed by a gruesome,fatal defect that leavesinfants with an open skulland only the rudiments of abrain.The deaths from the raredefect, known as anencephaly,puzzled Margaret Diaz,an occupational health specialist.She thought the threecases could have been a statisticalfluke. Then she had achance conversation with aradiologist.He had recently performedultrasound examinations onseven pregnant women.Each, he said, was carrying achild without a brain. Doctorssoon learned of at least10 more cases, most of themclustered in this city of 98,000along the Rio Grande. Theoutbreak here and in a surroundingcounty may be thelargest ever in the UnitedStates.Across the river inMatamoros, Mexican healthofficials are worried, too. Twoanencephalic children weredelivered at the general hospitalin 1990, but 10 wereborn last year.Diaz' alarm prompted fullblowninvestigations by thenational Centers for DiseaseControl, three Texas agenciesand a local group of lawyers,doctors and chemists.So far, they have few answers.But some have their suspicions.Long uneasy about theheavy pollution in their sistercity of Matamoros,Brownsville residents nowfear an environmental timebomb has gone off.Like other Mexican bordertowns, Matamoros is strugglingunder the residue leftby years of unchecked industrialgrowth. Its open sewerscontain toxic wastes and humanrefuse. Its factoriesspew fumes and leak chemicals.While CDC experts are consideringenvironmental factorsin their investigation ofthe outbreak, they say thatthe inquiry is in its earlystages and that they do notyet have any evidence linkingthe strange deaths to thechemical stew in Matamoros.And in 1990 in Pampa,Texas, an unusual numberof Down syndrome birthspropelled an investigation ofpollution and set up thecountry's first legal test of anemerging medical theory thattoxic chemicals could causethe birth defect.Separately, a lawyer suinga Hoechst Celanese chemicalplant where a 1987 explosionkilled three workers and injured37 others has uncoveredevidence that the plantfor years spewed toxics intothe air and contaminated theregion's principal source ofdrinking water.But Brent C. Stephens, theplant manager, said there wasno scientific evidence supportingthe assertions that illnessesand birth defects werecaused by the enormous plant,which was rebuilt and reopenedin 1989.And if they think we'll buythat, THEY have anencephaly!ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

DISPOSABLEPEOPLEA news dispatch in NYNewsday: Police in Bogotasaid they had found the remainsof 30 bodies at a Colombianuniversity, thoughtto be victims of a gang thatmurdered down-and-outsand sold the bodies to a medicalschool.The macabre discovery wasmade after a badly woundedgarbage collector escaped andtold police he and severalother garbage collectors hadbeen attacked by securityguards who lured them tothe campus of the Free Universityin the Caribbeanport city of Barranquilla.The police searched theuniversity and found the bodiesof seven men and threewomen in the school as wellas 20 skulls, 15 lungs, 20brains and 15 limbs, a policestatement said.Hundreds of down-andouts,known as "disposables,"are killed or disappear mysteriouslyeach year in Colombia.Many are shot dead by"social cleansing" squads targetingstreet children, beggars,drug addicts and sexpeddlers.In our civilized country wejust cut off financial andmedical aid and let naturetake its course.TRIANGLE SHIRT-WAIST REVISITEDBy Brian Murphy, NY DailyNews: Decades after labor reformswiped out so-calledsweatshop factories, somegarment shops are throwbacksto another time, expertsand officials say.In New York, the hub of theU.S. "needle trade," state inspectorsreport an apparentrise in the number of illegalshops — dingy and dangerousplaces where elderlyworkers may toil alongsideschool children for wages wellbelow the $4.30-an-hourminimum wage.Some of the problems aretraced to low-paid foreigncompetition, which has reducedNew York's garmentwork force to about 100,000from more than 150,000 inthe late 70s. But the stumblingU.S. economy also haspushed clothing retailers anddesigners to cut costs, andgarment-making shops havefollowed suit by droppingwages and increasing hours,KIDS FOR SALEAn AP dispatch: The fear ofAIDS is increasing demandfor much younger prostitutes,contributing to a worldwideincrease in the sale of children,said the author of aUnited Nations human rightsreport. Vitit Muntarhorn is alaw professor in Thailand.Vitit said that children nineor 10 years old were frequentlyforced into prostitutionand the numbers are increasingdaily.In some areas, he said, customersare opting "more andmore foryounger prostitutes,particularly virgins, in thebelief that they will protectthemselves from the threatofAIDS."But Vitit noted thatmany child prostitutes in India,Thailand and the Philippineshad tested positive forthe HIV virus.Boys are being increasinglyused for prostitution, but girlsare exploited first, becausefamilies in many societiesprefer to keep boys, Vitit said.In past centuries the samething was believed about preventingsyphilis. Suffer thechildren!LICENSE TO KILLAn AP dispatch: Ajudge gaveback a chronic speeder hisdriver's license on the conditionthat he drive only American-builtcars.Alexander Zelikov, a 25-year-old professional testdriver, lost his license to suspensionin July after gettingtoo many speeding tickets inhis own car.When he appeared theend of January in OaklandCounty Circuit Court inPontiac, Michigan, JudgeHilda Gage called Zelikova "menace to the county."But she restored his licenseon condition that he driveto and from work on asingle route, carry increasedliability insuranceand test only Americanbuiltcars for his employer,the Dalkin Clutch Corporation,which suppliesmanual-transmissionclutches to the Big Threeand foreign automobilemakers.The order was prompted "bya sense of patriotism and aconcern for the economy,"said Gage, who drives anOldsmobile."What can I say," saidZelikov, "except that I haveto drive and I'm not going tocontest it. I have to go towork."So in an American car he'snot "a menace?" We thinkwe've missed somethinghere.6 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

officials said."The quest for cheap laborknows no bounds," said JeffreyNewman, executivedirector of the New YorkbasedNational Child LaborCommittee. "Six-, seven- andeight-year-olds are sweepingfloors and sewing on buttons."In more than 5,000 investigationssince 1987, the taskforce has uncovered about2,100 unregistered shops andmore than 600 child laborviolations, according to staterecords. There have been 500minimum-wage violationsand about 2,000 reports ofunsafe working conditions.Each violation carries amaximum $1,000 fine."But the bosses just closeup, move down the block andopen under a different name.As long as there is work,they'll find a way to stayopen,'' said task force supervisorCharles DeSiervo.And as long as there's a buckto be made, poor women andchildren will be exploited.TEACHING THERUSSIANS OURWAYSFrom Wendy Sloane, AssociatedPress: Like a growingnumber of Russians, a 20-year-old student is turningto sex for profit to survivesoaring prices and a worseningeconomy. The country'sopening to the West helpedthe sex business blossom.Several nights a month,Viktoria Galkina goes toNight Flight, a Swedish-rundisco frequented by Westernbusinessmen. She accompaniesa man to a hotel room —for a minimum of $200. Atthe current exchange rate,the $200 per trick is far morethan the average annualRussian salary of $115.20.COMMUNICATIONIRON CURTAINAn AP dispatch: A janitoraccused of tricking a womaninto making a night visit toher doctor's office, then rapingand stabbing her, has ahistory of sexual assaults andhad been ordered to undergopsychotherapy after his releasefrom prison.But the local police and thedoctor's office where ElbertHarris, of New Haven, CT,had worked for a year and ahalf, had been unaware of hisviolent past, the Police Chief,John Ambrogio, said. Harriswas arrested on charges ofattempted murder, kidnapping,sexual assault and recklessendangerment.Ambrogio said a day of researchfound Harris had ahistory of violent crimes datingto 1969, mostly involvingsexual assaults. The statewas under no requirement tonotify the local police abouthis presence, the Chief said,adding: "Something needs tobe changed. It's a classic caseof a lack of communication."This comment receives our"Understatement of the Year"award.Many young women arenow working as hard-currencyprostitutes or nudedancers in nightspots, includingclubs frequented byforeigners.The trend is helped byRussia's opening to the Westand the weakening of itsprudish mores. Pornographicbooks and newspapers,strictly forbidden in the preglasnostera, are now sold onstreet corners.In a country where the localcurrency is all but worthless,prostitution offers women thechance to earn fast dollars. Italso gives them a glimpseinto the lives of Westerners.It doesn't take long to proliferateour values, does it?SHADES OFTHE '50s!An AP dispatch: Officials ofSenator Jesse Helm's 1990re-election campaign signeda consent decreee to settle aJustice Department complaintthat the campaign wasinvolved in a mailing intendedto intimidate Blackvoters.The Justice Departmentbegan its investigation afterpostcards were sent to125,000 North Carolinians,most of whom wereBlacks eligible to vote, suggestingto them that theywere not eligible and warningthat if they went to thepolls they could be prosecutedfor voter fraud.Senator Helms, Republicanof North Carolina, wasopposed in the election byHarvey Gantt, the Blackformer mayor of Charlotte,N.C. The race had beenconsidered close but Mr.Helms won a third term bya comfortable margin, receiving1,080,208 votes toMr. Gantt's 974,701.The Justice Departmentcivil complaint, filed inFederal District Court inRaleigh, NC, chargedSenator Helm's re-electioncampaign, the North CarolinaRepublican Party andfour campaign-consultingand marketing firms withviolating the Voting RightsAct.The complaint assertedthat officials of the RepublicanParty and the Helmscampaign planned themailing after a poll publishedby The CharlotteObserver showed Mr.Gantt with a lead of eightpercentage points and afterstate election officialsreported a 10.6 percent increasein Black voter registration,compared with a5.3 percent rise in whitevoter registration.What's next? Police dogs andfire hoses?ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

I J XTALKING FEMINISTA 34-Year Problem Was Treated (by malephysicans) With Pats On The Headby Lois Greene Stone^^M ^^M ow docs this remark grab^^H I you? "Myomectomy is the^ J I operation of choice whenI it is necessary to save theI uterus for reproduction, or^^H I for sentiment." (TextbookH i H I of Surgery, 6th Edition,1956)Okay, men can't really understandwhy some women are reluctant to havea hysterectomy, but why make femalefeelings seem irrational?Occasionally, when I was younger, I'dbeen content to play "Me Tarzan, YouJane," but the feminist movement,coupled withmy own agingprocess, hasgiven me freedom at least to have aswing on Tarzan's rope. Though I lostthe war, I did put up some pretty goodbattles.In 1943, when I was nine, a bookletcalled Growing Up and Liking It instructedme to not get chilled, washhair or walk in the rain during my menstrualperiod. My mother prepared mefor its onset with positive philosophyand wonder about my body eventuallyhousing a human.In 1945, secondary ovarian failure thatbecame a 34-year problem was treated(by male physicians) with pats on thehead. Iron-deficiency anemia from prolongedperiods was met with pills. Inhigh school, the swim teacher wouldn'tbelieve anyone could "normally" bleedfor more than 10 days at a time, so asympathetic physician had me dropswimming to spare me humiliation; atleast 10 days, for me, was normal.Allergic to my own progesterone, Imonthly vomited, sweated, bled. Mymother, however, did such a superb jobwith my attitude about being female, Iaccepted, coped, and didn't give in to thedisability of twisting cramps or excessiveblood flow.In college, tampons represented freedomto swim, and certainly more comfortduring classes when combined witha protective pad. Painful cramps wereendured."When you get married your periodswill be within average normal limits,"a patronizing internist stated. Hethought my cramps and irritability wereproducts of my active mind. Later, Iheard "when you have children," then,"when you're older." Even my husband,a medical student when we married in1956, was taught dysmenorrhea wasmental and some menstrual problemsa product of penis envy.Three planned times, with temperaturechart and drugs, my uterus swelledwith life. Again, grateful to my mother,I went through many physiological problemsbut was emotionally high. Givingbirth without anesthesia, unusual in1959, was an incredible act my aware8 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

ody performed. Every cycle was worththe excitement and privilege to beardown and see an infant's head in amirror while most of its body was stillhoused inside me. The transition betweenfetus and baby, done with anexplosive push, showed the sex of mychild. Why, this pain was productive!I had an endometrial biopsy, also aD&C to shock my body to cease prolongedbleeding and secretly continuedto smile at the wonder of being female.I also refused advice for surgical removalof my uterus.Endometriosis planted itself in myuterus, and for 14 years I'd been stubbornas I heard "What do you need it for?You aren't having any more children."But the choice was still mine, I quietlyconsidered; I MAY not have any more,but I CAN....An operation threatened as, whenprone, my growing-with-fibroids uterusON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992collapsed my bladder. My husbandasked if I'd feel less like a woman, andwas this a reason to reject surgery. He,too, couldn't comprehend why I wantedto hold on to my uterus. What a mixedmessage men give, depending upon awoman's age!Why did I want to keep it within me?I was nearly finished with my predestinedcycle and, oddly enough, the bleedingwas more regular than ever. If Icould just make five more years, I questioned,might it shrink? We'd been dealingwith one another since 1945. It hadgiven biologic immortality to generationsthat preceded me. It withstood aplacenta hole once, and a possible placentapraevia another time, action frompitocin, yet still housed-nourished-issued-by-contractionthree humans whosee, hear, think, feel, smell, taste. Whatdid I want it for? It was a friend, not acurse. It gave me an edge: I may notcommand salary for service a man gets,but/'ye given birth. Some men must feelthreatened by this, though none wouldever admit it.Sentiment? Maybe. Its action governed35 years of my life, 35 years of circles oncalendars savoring the few comfortabledays a month and accepting still therest. There was a harmony, an order, aroutine, that began with a body messageI'd hoped would end same way.Why hold onto it? Did I really need togive a reason? It took over a year toadjust to the emptiness after the inevitablesurgery. Now, almost 12 yearslater and with three grandchildren, Itouch the slender scar and rememberthe cynical surgeon's words "get rid of it;it was just a baby carriage."Just?•Lois Greene Stone has been a freelancewriter I poet for over 30 years.

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W I T *6What Really Happened DuringThose Dark Days In The PuritanColony—And Why Are WeCelebrating?o to Gallows Hill Park in Salem and youI will findno indication that 14 women andfive men were hungthere as witches. Therolling terrain is punctuated by grey boulders, coveredwith graffiti and the shards of broken beer bottles. Anasphalt basketball court and a children's playgroundcover the most likely site of the executions. An Americanflag snaps in the wind, over the faint sounds of traffic onProctor Street.From this spot the sisters Rebecca Nurse and Mary Estyproclaimed their innocence, and George Burroughs, in afinal effort to save his life, recited the Lord's prayer,knowing that common wisdom held a witch incapable ofuttering those sacred words. When the confused crowdthreatened to stop the hangings, Boston minister CottonMather rode up declaring, "There will be no reversal ofjustice in this place." And here too, Sarah Good wasdefiant to the end, telling Salem Town minister Rev.Nicholas Noyes, "I am no more a witch than you are awizard. If you take my life away, God will give you bloodto drink."ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199211

Between March and November of 1692, 22accused witches lost their lives in easternMassachusetts. At least 150 were imprisoned,with accusations outstanding againstsome 200 others. In the town of Andover, atleast 50 out of its estimated 600 inhabitantswere arrested. Fields stood abandoned duringplanting season as families trekked to Salemcourthouse to watch the trials, or were jailed,or fled to escape the bailiffs, until the authoritiesbegan to fear a famine. The vast majorityof the accused were women.This year marks the 300th anniversary ofthe Salem witch trials, and a number of commemorationsare planned — by the neo-pagan/wiccacommunity, by feminists, by theofficial Salem Tercentary Committee. But themainstream response to the witch hunt remainsambivalent: Part self-righteous condemnationof Puritan "superstition," partHalloween hucksterism. Salem Village (todaycalled Danvers), where the witch huntbegan, marks a few of its historical sites withunobtrusive plaques, others are ignored entirely.Salem Town, by contrast, calls itself"the Witch City," and local bars offer a "Witch'sBrew" of Kahlua and Bailey's Irish Cream.The logo of the Salem Police Dept. is theprofile of a witch on a broomstick, while thehigh school athletic teams are called "theSalem Witches.""Witch business," writes Wilma Bullard, ofthe group No More Witch Hunts!, "has becomebig business. This must be the only townin America that has built a major touristindustry around the abuse of women."The history of the witch hunts is primarily ahistory of women's oppression. It is estimatedthat anywhere from several hundred thousandto nine million people were tortured todeath in the massive European witch hunts ofthe 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, 85 percentof them women. In "The Burning Times,"Donna Read's excellent film documentary,this era is called "the women's Holocaust."The causes of "the witch craze" are variedand complex: The desire of the urban Catholicelite to suppress the mother goddess/pagantraditions of peasant culture; the nobility'sefforts to deflect blame for plague and waronto suitably powerless scapegoats; the riseofa male medical profession with its need toeliminate competition from women healersand midwives; the disdain of women too old tobear children and too poor to fend for themselves;the expropriation of women's property;male fear of women's sexuality; and soon. Carol F. Karlsen, author o£The Devil in theShape of a Woman, believes that to understandthe witch hunts we must "confront the12Court recordstell us oflower-incomewomenarrested forwearing silk,other womenfor "walkingdisorderly"deeply embedded feelings about women —and the intricate patterns of interest underlyingthose feelings — among our witch-riddenancestors."The witch hunts in North America neverreached the murderous enormity of those inEurope. And in the English, French, and Dutchcolonies, the notion of a vast satanic conspiracywith women as its primary agentstook hold only in Puritan New England. Herea radical religious sect had fled persecution inEurope, only to found a rigid theocracy whichby the 1690s was under pressure from theAnglican royal government and an increasinglysecular merchant class.Sally Smith Booth, in The Witches of EarlyAmerica, describes Puritan Massachusetts asa place "where almost every facet of anindividual's life was closely regulated by churchdogma., .games, dancing, social gatherings, andphysical recreation were all forbidden as evilpractices. Repression of sexual activities...wasstringent and open display of affection wasfrowned upon." It was considered eccentric,even suspicious, to name and show affectionfor a pet, or to enjoy a walk in the forest. Courtrecords tell us of lower-income women arrestedfor wearing silk, other women for "walkingdisorderly."In this Puritan patriarchy, women were seenas "helpmeets" for men: Docile, obedient, andabove all uncomplaining. This standard wasrigidly enforced. Immigrating Quakers, whobelieved in the equality of women and men,were arrested before they could leave the boatin Boston harbor, then imprisoned and expelled.Those who persisted in returning werehung. When Anne Hutchinson questioned theorthodoxy, she was tried for heresy and drivenfrom Massachusetts.The traditional Christian notion of womenas the "daughters of Eve" also played a centralrole in Puritan thought. Women were seen asmorally and intellectually inferior to men,sexually depraved, continously dissatisfiedand thus easily tempted by Satan. Any exerciseof women's power was suspect, and sohealers and midwives were especially vulnerableto charges of witchcraft. Under Puritanlaw, women were the chattel of their fathers,husbands, or brothers, and a woman withoutmale supervision was regarded with suspicionand dread. For a woman to voice dissatisfactionwas immoral, since God Himself hadblessed the social order. When church eldersaccused Anne Hutchinson and her followers ofheresy, they also began a whispering campaigncharging them with fornication, adultery— and witchcraft.It was in this context that several girls fromON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

Salem Village began, in November 1691, tomeet at the parsonage to have their fortunestold by a slave named Tituba. Eight-year-oldBetty Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williamswere the daughter and niece of the Rev.Samuel Parris, a failed merchant turned ministerwho had alienated half his new congregationwith his insistance that the parsonagebe deeded to him in perpetuity. Tituba hadbeen purchased by Parris in Barbados, andshe brought north with her beliefs and customsconsidered little more than "devil worship"by white Christians. She cared for thegirls while their elders worked or went onvisits to Parris' far-flung congregants. Usingeggwhites in a glass bowl as a crystal ball,Tituba tried to answer what for Puritan girlswas a question of maximum importance —what sort of man will I marry?Though the girls tried to keep it secret, wordof their seances spread, and Tituba's circleexpanded to include girls and young womenfrom nearby Salem Town. By some accounts,the younger girls became frightened whenthey saw floating in the eggwhites the imageof a tiny coffin.Sometime in January 1692, Betty Parris 'and Abigail Williams began to suffer seizuresso violent that eyewitness John Hale believed :them "beyond the power of...natural disease ito effect." The sickness spread to others inTituba's circle, chief among them 12-year-old | ;Anne Putnam Jr., and the symptoms prolifer- ,ated—intermittent blindness, deafness, and Iloss of speech and appetite, amnesia, choking,hallucinations. "The afflicted," as they cameto be called, cried out that they were beingstabbed, bitten, pinched, burned, mutilatedby specters only they could see. Several developedstigmata — actual bruises or welts — asif in response to these invisible assaults.Modern medicine might use terms like "hysteria"or "conversion reaction" to describewhat was happening, but Salem physicianWilliam Griggs told Parris that "the evil hand"was upon his girls. When Betty cried out forTituba, Parris took this as an accusation. Hebeat the slave until he had a "confession."Tituba admitted to being a witch, implicatedVillage residents Sarah Good and SarahOsborne (whom Betty and Abigail had alsocried out against), and spoke of other witchesand "a tall man of Boston" whom she couldn'tidentify. Tituba, Good and Osborne were arrested.Accusations, hearings, trials and executionsfollowed in rapid succession. Bridget Bishopbecame the first accused witch to die on GallowsHill on June 2,1692. On July 19, RebeccaNurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe,ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992In this 17thcentury"FatalAttraction,"the ultimatepersecutorsare womenSarah Good and Sarah Wilds were executed,followed on August 19 by George Jacobs,Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, JohnProctor and John Willard. On Sept. 19 GilesCorey was tortured to death in a nearby fieldfor refusing to cooperate with the court. OnSept. 22 came the turn of his wife Martha,executed along with Margaret Scott, MaryEsty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, WilmottRedd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker.By November, the witch hunt was spent. Inpart, this was due to the behavior of theafflicted girls. By accusing "respectable"women like Rebecca Nurse and ElizabethProctor, and men (not to mention a formerjustice of the court and the governor's wife),they made the ruling elite itself vulnerable toaccusations of witchcraft. Governor Phips orderedan end to the sessions of the specialcourt he had appointed, and within months anew court, using different rules of evidence,acquitted almost all those still in jail awaitingtrial. Those convicted were pardoned, butsome of the accused, too poor to pay therequired fees for their imprisonment, wouldremain in jail for years. Lydia Dastin diedthere. And the Commonwealth ofMasschusetts would not exonerate those executeduntil 1954.As with the European witch craze, the reasonsfor Salem are diverse and complex. Puritansociety was under great strain, its verysurvival in doubt. The original Massachusettscharter, which had given the colonyunprecedented freedom from the crown, wasrevoked in 1684, the new charter imposed in1692 lessened this autonomy and doomedPuritan hegemony. For the first time, non-Puritans would be allowed a role in government,and there would be no more hangings ofQuakers. This threat came at a time whenNative Americans, allied with the French,were making successful attacks on Puritansettlements, and both Salem and Boston werefilled with refugees from the threatened frontier.Salem Village itself was torn by thechoice of Parris as minister, and by commercialand property disputes.Little of this figures in contemporary accountsof the trials. The first of these was byBoston minister Cotton Mather, the leadingcleric of the day. Although Mather privatelyopposed the court's reliance on the versions ofthe afflicted — so-called "spectral evidence"— he also feared that public revulsion at thetrials' excesses would undermine an alreadytottering Puritan theocracy. His book TheWonders of the Invisible World was rushedinto print in late 1692, or early 1693, despitea ban imposed by Governor Phips on works13

elated to witchcraft.Mather takes every opportunity to excoriatethe accused. Bridget Bishop, for example,was "notorious to all beholders," as a womanof loose morals. Phrases such as "old witch,""old hag," and "ignorant old woman" pepperthe manuscript. The accused, said Mather,had conspired with Satan to achieve nothingless than the destruction of that one commonwealthon Earth founded in accordance withGod's law: Puritan New England. He notestoo how many witches made "most VoluntaryHarmonious Confessions," not mentioningthe use of sleep deprivation, psychologicalabuse and physical torture during interrogations.The accused had the added incentive ofknowing that confessing would save themfrom immediate hanging, their executionsstayed as long as they agreed to implicateothers. In her letter to the court "confessedwitch" Margaret Jacobs wrote how "they toldme if I would not confess, I should be putdown into the dungeon and would behanged, but if I would confess, I shouldhave my life..." One accused wizard, WilliamBarker, alleged that 307 fellow residentsof Essex County were minions ofthe devil.The confessions, especially those by children,make for pretty sad reading. Boothrecounts how "seven-year-old Sarah Carrierfreely admitted she had been practicing witchcraftsince age six and announced that shepreferred to afflict people by pinching them."Children often had "no idea what they wereconfessing to, and may have accused otherssimply on the basis of whether or not theirnames were familiar." Among those imprisonedwere five-year-old Dorcus Good(daughter of Sarah), eight-year-old AbigailFaulkner, and 11-year-old AbigailJohnson.Still, Mather has had many sympatheticreaders. Chadwick Hansen, for instance,makes much of the fact that Tituba did indeedengage in "white magic," and concludesthat it is "extremely probable that BridgetBishop was a practicing witch." He admitsthat the "evidence" — the discovery by workmenof dolls "with headless pins stuck inthem" in the walls of her house — is "circumstantial,"but asks us to consider how "evidenceis hard to find in witchcraft cases."Hansen's book, Witchcraft in Salem, waspublished in 1969.A more widely accepted explanation of Salemis that the afflicted, motivated by malice,boredom, or guilt over their meetings withTituba, were simply lying. For Puritans thiswas a much safer way to criticize the trialsThe afflictedare describedas "hysterical,""restless andresentfulwildanddestructive.than attacking Chief Justice Stoughton, theclergy, or the court. George Jacobs may beexcused for calling one of the afflicted "a bitchwitch" — he was after all accused and hung.But the refrain of the "bitch witches" recursthereafter with remarkable consistency. RobertCalef, in his vitriolic response to Matherpublished in 1700, described the afflicted as "aparcel of possessed, distracted, or lyingWenches, accusing their Innocent Neighbors,pretending they see their Spectres..." Manyhistorians note with pleasure how John Proctortemporarily cured the afflication of hisservant Mary Warren by threatening to beather and setting her to work at a spinningwheel. Thomas Hutchinson wrote that "thewhole scheme was a fraud and an imposture,begun by young girls..." while Charles Uphamspeculated that the afflicted wanted "to gratifya love of notoriety or of mischief by creating asensation..."Upham dismisses the possibilitythat the afflicted might themselves be "victimsof the delusion into which they plungedeveryone else," because of their "deliberatecunning and cool malice."There may have been "deliberate cunningand cool malice" at Salem, but the afflicted,especially the youngest in Tituba's circle, seemhardly the principal culprits. It is true thatMary Warren told the court that she and theothers "did but dissemble," while one witnesstestifed he heard one of the afflicted cry out"There goes Goody Proctor! Old witch, 111have her hang." But consider this excerptfrom the notes taken by Parris at the trial ofthe same Elizabeth Proctor, as the court questionedthe afflicted witnesses."Q. Mercy Lewis! does she hurt you?/Hermouth was stopped/Q. Ann Putman, does shehurt you?/ She could not speak/ Q. AbigailWilliams! Does she hurt you?/ Her hand wasthrust in her own mouth." At this point JohnIndian, Tituba's husband and one of the fewafflicted males, testified that Proctor "came inher shift and choked me." (Indian's afflictionbegan after Tituba's confession. His motivationseems obvious — the husband of a confessedwitch, and a slave himself, he facedcertain death unless he could distance himselffrom his wife's guilt. He became one of thecourt's most articulate accusers.) Quizzedagain, Parris records how the girls couldn't"make any answer, by reason of dumbness orother fits." It is only when questioned a thirdtime that 12-year-old Ann Putnam Jr. finallygave her inquisitors the answer they so obviouslywanted.A post-Freudian version of "the bitchwitch" theory appears in Arthur Miller's"The Crucible," without doubt the most widely14 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

ead account of the Salem trials. Miller modernizedUpham's thesis by adding femalelust and jealousy to the list of motives. Specifically,he purports to show how a sexualaffair between John Proctor and AbigailWilliams turned sour after John spurnedAbigail to return to his wife Elizabeth. Out ofspite, Abigail accuses Elizabeth, and thenJohn, of witchcraft. In this 17th-century "FatalAttraction," the ultimate persecutors arewomen, their victims wrongfully accusedmen like John Proctor, or well-meaning butgullible clerics like the Rev. Sam Parris. Ofcourse, to make all this plausible Miller hasto raise Abigail's age, from 11 to 17. Shebecomes a conniving temptress, a true"daughter of Eve," while her 19-year-oldfriend Mercy Lewis is described as a "fat, slymerciless girl."Historian Carol Karlsen has a different viewof the afflicted and their role at Salem. Pointingout how it was the authorities, spurred onby Parris, who first insisted that the girlsname names, she then describes how SarahChurchill, coming out of her fugue, sought tostop the trials—until threatened by the courtwith trial and hanging. We should also rememberthat the maj ority ofaccusations camenot from the afflicted girls, but rather from"confessing" witches bargaining for their lives,while all of the corroborating evidence —accounts of spoiled milk, vanished beer, sickenedlivestock and murdered infants — camefrom adults not among the afflicted. The trialsbecame a way for these adults, most especiallythe elder Putnams, to settle long-standingscores against the Nurse/Esty clan overporperty, politics and status.An affidavit filed with the court by oneSamuel Barton gives us a clue as to how thisworked. "I being at Thomas putnams a helpingto tend the aflickted folds...I heard themteel mercy lewes that she Cryed out of goodyprocter and mercy lewes said that she did notCry out of goody procter nor nobody...andThomas putnam & his wife & others told herthat she Cryed out of goody procter andmercy lewes said if she did it was when shewas out in her head for she said she sawnobody..." This troubled adolescent, badgeredby the adults around her, bears little resemblanceto the "sly and merciless girl" of "TheCrucible." The court ignored Barton's swornstatement.Instead of seeing the afflicted girls as maliciousliars, Karlsen describes their "possession"as "a special, altered state of consciousnesswhich some women enter as an involuntaryreaction to profound emotional conflict.This conflict emerges from the need simulta-ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992The Rebecca Nursefarm in Danvers(Salem Village) ispretty much as itappeared the day in1692 when 71 yearoldRebecca waspulled from hersickbed to answercharges of witchcraft.This must bethe only townin Americathat has builta major touristindustryaround theabuse offwomenneously to embrace social norms and to rebelagainst them...With no legitimate way to expressthis conflict directly, the unbearablepsychic tensions are expressed physically —through women's bodies." The afflicted couldhave done no harm to anyone had it not beenfor Parris, Noyes, Mather, the court, and thewillingness of Puritan society in general toaccept an essentially hateful view of women.Had their elders been less repressive, and lessmisogynist, the girls might not have beenafflicted at all.Still, the "bitch witch" and "hysterical girls"theories remain the most popular explanationfor Salem. It is, for instance, the line taken atthe Salem Witch Museum. For four dollars,visitors are led into a darkened room, with ared lit circle at the center of the floor inscribedwith the names of the martyred. After a "Phantomof the Opera" type organ fanfare, a VincentPrice sound-alike begins his monologue. Onemoldy diorama after another is illuminatedwhile the afflicted are described as "hysterical,""restlessandresentful...wildand destructive..."To hammer home the point that thewitch trials were simple insanity and notrepression, we are told that Gallows Hill todaystands "in sight of a mental hospital," managingin one breath to blame the afflicted anddemonize the mentally ill.After the show, the doors open into themuseum gift shop. Items on sale include "GoodLuck Kitchen Witches," "Stop By for a Spell"T-shirts, "Witch Travel Mugs," "ScootingSkulls," and "Brewing Bucks"—witch-shapedceramic piggie banks. Witch-dolls, (like thepoppets that condemned Bridget Bishop?) area popular but relatively high-priced item:$16.95, tax not included.The afflicted eventually recovered. As anadult, Anne Putnam Jr. publicly apologizedfor her role in the trials, telling the congregationat Salem Village, "I desire to lie in the dustand be humbled for it." Only one of the justiceswho presided at the trials, Samuel Sewall,was as public in his repentance, and no judgesuffered politically for his part in the witchhunt. Booth points out that in 1693 everyone of them won a seat on the Governor'sCouncil, the highest elected post in theCommonwealth. Samuel Parris was forcedout of his pulpit in Salem Village anddisappeared from history, his only monumenta stone-rimmed hole which todaymarks the site of his parsonage. Titubawas sold south. And Nicholas Noyes,taunted from the gallows by Sarah Good,died years later of a throat hemorrhage.Perhaps God (or the Goddess) had indeedgiven him "blood to drink."•15

Richard Lynden,the author's lather,being sworn in as anunfriendly witnessbefore HUAC in 1953.\

I******Recent Major "Witch Hunt"by Patricia LyndenThe House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hadbeen in existence since 1937, butit was not until 10 years laterthat it came into its own. WorldWar II was over and the SovietUnion and the United States hadbegun their "cold war" for the restof the world.was drawn up by the Justice Departmentas an internal guidelineto help administer Truman'snew loyalty oaths and to screenprospective government employees.It held the names of all organizationswith ties to communism,fascism or other "subversive"ideologies. Later that year,in a serious breach of civil rights,the Justice Department allowedthe "Blacklist" to be published.

It wasn't long before the public, made increasinglyanxious by Washington's propagandablitz about the Communist "enemywithin," came to see the List as a guide todangerous people and groups. Blacklistssprang up in many industries and they carriedthe names of anyone who had become taintedby the donation of money or attendance at ameeting of "un-American" organizations evendecades before. Those included civil rightsgroups, peace groups, anti-fascist organizationsand socialist groups. Guilt by associationwas established and the witch hunt wason. By 1950, Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republicansenator from Wisconsin, saw the opportunityto make his name and, as chair of thesenate committee that investigated "un-Americanactivities," announced his first batch of"subversives." Soon he was out of control,casting suspicion on anyone who disagreedwith him. His rabid pursuit of communist"witches"gave the era its name.In 1953, the United States had its modernversion of a burning at the stake. Ethel andJulius Rosenberg were electrocuted forgivingsecret information to the Soviets during wartime.It was a sign of the times that those inpower overlooked the fact that the Russianshad been our wartime allies. Had theRosenbergs committed their crimes in peacetime,by law they would have received a lessersentence.Throughout the McCarthy era, many peopletestified against friends and neighbors to safethemselves; others seized the opportunity tosettle old scores. At great personal cost, somepeople refused to incriminate others in order toprotect themselves. They used the privilegeunder the Fifth Amendment. One was writerDashiell Hammett who chose instead to go toprison. Playwright Lillian Hellman told theCommittee that she would answer any questionsabout herself, but would not talk aboutanyone else. In a memorable letter to the Committeeshe wrote, "I cannot and will not cut myconscience to fit this year's fashions."By 1954, McCarthy's rampage had peaked.The senator himself was under investigationfor using his influence to procure favors fromthe Army for his young friend, G. David Shine,and President Dwight D. Eisenhower made itclear he had had enough of his fellow Republican.But by then many lives were ruined,careers were finished, families broken.The legacy of a witch hunt.Throughout my childhood, a profile of Stalin,hammered in relief out of copper, stood atopthe china closet of my maternal grandparents'dining room in southern California. As a child,LillianHellman said:"I cannot andwill not cut myconscience tofit this year'sfashions''A Family UnderSiege: Janet Ades,lop left, with father,Bernard, motherand sister.Jokinglycalled"red-diaperbabies" by ourparents, wegrew upoutside theAmericanmainstreamI wasn't sure if it portrayed the Soviet leaderor my Russian-born Jewish grandfather as ayoung man. I never asked, I suppose, becauseto me my grandfather and the USSR were oneand the same. My grandfather was the embodimentof the Soviet ideal and the love I hadfor him mirrored the admiration that mysizeable left-wing family, as well as the largeAmerican left subculture that we belonged to,had for its "great socialist experiment."My generation was born in the 1930s and'40s to parents who either stayed in the Partyafter World War II when it was no longer safeto do so, or who left the Party before the coldwar began but remained sympathetic tocommunism's version of a just society. Jokinglycalled "red-diaper babies" by our parents,we grew up outside the American mainstream.That was partly through our ownchoice — we had been raised to reject muchthat capitalism had wrought — but in largemeasure it was because, during the scary anddepressing post-war decade of the Blacklists,doors were closed to us and our parents.In the 1930s and early '40s, when they wereyoung, my parents, and virtually all of myaunts and uncles, were either CommunistParty members or "fellow travelers" — toborrow a favorite phrase of Joe McCarthy.But by 1950, all except my late uncle ArchieBrown, a fiery, dedicated life-long Communist,and one aunt, had left the party. Theydidn't do it dramatically. There were no denunciations,no wallowing in self-pity overyears ill-spent, no rush to embrace the moresof capitalism. They simply dropped out forreasons I never heard about. They never becameRed-baiters. Most of them continued tobelieve in socialism, and a number of them,including my father, continued their work forradical social change in active and visibleroles.In 1956, the year I started college at Berkeley,the bust of Stalin mysteriously disappearedfrom its place on the china closet. Imade no inquiries, figuring that I wouldn't geta straight answer anyway, but I was impressed—times were changing. That was thesame year that Khrushchev made his historicreport to the 20th Congress of the SovietUnion to acknowledge what the world alreadyknew: That Stalin was a paranoid and murderoustyrant. It was also the year the SovietUnion invaded Hungary. Because of that,30,000 people left the American CommunistParty in a last-straw response to years ofcreeping disillusion. Those who remainedloyal were a very few thousand unshakablebelievers. Finally, 1956 was a year inwhich McCarthyism at last was on the wane.18ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

The following year, Joe McCarthy died, formallyending the dismal and infamous decadethat took his name.Nearly 40 years have passed, but the emotionallegacy of those days remains deeplyembedded in my psyche and the psyches ofeveryone I have ever known who was a kidfrom a left-wing family in those days. And thelegacy is powerful.On the positive side is the pride in a politicaltradition that stands for egalitarianism, therights of minorities, economic justice and civilliberties. But we are also a subculture thatwill always feel vulnerable to the powers thatbe. We will always believe that we are irrevocablyoutsiders; we often wonder when thegovernment will, once again, need politicalscapegoats and choose us. As a consequence,we have very little faith in, or regard for, dulyconstituted authority. We also know thatfriends are often friends only to a point. I'msure many of us wonder from time to time —as I do — whom among our good friends wecan really trust; which of them, if pressed,would point a finger at us to save their ownskins as, for example, choreographer JeromeRobbins, director Elia Kazan, actors Lee J.Cobb (who even named his ex-wife), JoseFerrer and Lloyd Bridges, and playwrightClifford Odets (to name a few famous ones) alldid before the Un-American Activities Committee.One of the most central and sobering lessonsof my youth occurred in the early 1950s andwas the result of my uncle Archie's CommunistParty membership. It was my first andmost dramatic experience of being an outsider.One afternoon, when I was about 13 andthe McCarthy era was at full tilt, I was calledinto our living room by my father. Archie wasabout to "disappear," he told me; in fact, hewas probably gone already. "What do youmean 'disappear'?" I asked. "The Party haschosen some leaders to stand trial and go tojail, and others to stay free. But they have togo underground so they won't be arrested,"was my father's reply. "Where's he going?""There's an old revolutionary principle," myfather said quietly, "that you should neverknow more than you have to about what yourfellow revolutionaries are doing. If they arrestyou and torture you, you can't betray anyonebecause you can't tell what you don't know.It's better that way. I don't want to knoweither." Few conversations have impressedme more.That night, as my father predicted, the FBIshowed up. There were two agents, in fedorasno less, sitting in a pale blue car parked infront of the house. "They'll be tapping theON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992Janet Ades •arguing with herfather near the endol his life."They'll betapping thephone," saidmy father, "sodon't use it todiscuss anyonein the family,and be carefulof neighbors nphone," said my father, "so don't use it todiscuss anyone in the family, and be careful ofneighbors who ask too many questions becausethe FBI has probably found stoogesamong them." Even at the rebellious age of 13,I knew enough to listen well and do as he said.Such conversations were universal amongparents and children of the left in those days.We all recall the gratuituous harassment, sofrightening to a child, of strange, unfriendlymen in dark suits ringing the bell and askingto speak to our parents, tailing family mem-bers, sometimes even us, bugging our phonesand making spies of our neighbors. One of myfriends remembers an awful night when theFBI shone a powerful beam of light throughthe windows of her house, and with it scouredevery piece of furniture, the floors, and wallsof every room that wasn't curtained. "Eventhe ceilings," she later said indignantly."Maybe they thought we had the atom bombsecret hidden in the chandelier?"The biggest fear, though, was whether yourfather would lose his job. My father, RichardLynden, was an elected official of the InternationalLongshoremen's and Warehousemen'sUnion, the small, independent, politically radicalunion founded, and for many years led, byHarry Bridges. His job was safe, but that wasnot enough to make us feel secure—even if weput up a pretty good front.The night the FBI came to camp in front ofour house, my father grandly announced thathe was taking us all to dinner at Amelio's,then one of San Francisco's finest restaurants.He took a long, out-of-the-way routethere while my sister and I, in our finery,made faces and stuck our tongues out at thetwo agents in the car that never got more than20 feet behind us. Playfully, my father droveas though he were being elaborately courteousto two nitwits, very, very slowly to theoutskirts of the Mission district and then up alonely dirt road. At the crest of the hill, whichwas flat and just big enough for two cars, hedrove around and around and around in acircle. You couldn't tell who was followingwhom, and my father played the game for 1019

minutes, chuckling as he occasionally slammedon his brakes, forcing the agents to do thesame to keep from rear-ending us. Finally, hetook us to dinner. The blue car stayed with usfor a month, and left.For those kids whose parents did lose theirjobs, the feelings of persecution and terrorwere a constant in their lives for years. "Dangerous,"is how my friend "Marcus," now atenured professor, sums up his view of theworld. "I still have a very strong sense of it."That is why he requested a pseudonym forthis story. He was once a member of the LaborYouth League, the youth organization of theCommunist Party, but these days he keeps alow political profile. Both of his parents wereonce Communists. "I still have, even today, anintrinsic notion of myself as a minority personwho is an easy target for persecution." Marcus'parents were blacklisted in the late '40s, hismother from the New York public school system,where she was a teacher, and his father,a well-known Party intellectual, from theliterary profession. Marcus' father finally gotwork thanks to a "resume ring." "Someonelike my father had to create an entire historythat would stand scrutiny," says Marcus, "andthe resume rings were friendly businessmenwho would say, "Yeah, he worked for me 10years.' My father worked in Manhattan underan assumed name never knowing when hemight come to work and have his boss call himin and say 'We know who you are,' and canhim. Why couldn't it all happen again?" And,he adds, "That's the kind of baggage I carry."Bettina Aptheker's father was too famous todisguise himself. He was the Party's starintellectual. Columbia-trained in Americanhistory, Herbert Aptheker was blacklisted in1938 after which he could find no work outsidethe Party. Except his World War II service inthe Army. For that, the U.S. governmentpromoted him to the rank of major and let himlead still-segregated Black troops in the Europeantheater. Bettina, a lesbian feminist whois professor of women's studies at the Universityof California's Santa Cruz campus, recallsthat her mother worked as a travel agentto meet the family's financial needs. "After thewar my father went to Columbia for employmentbecause he had graduated from thereand been one of their top students and theuniversity had published his dissertation onslave revolts. But they told him right up front,'As long as you're a member of the CommunistParty, you'll never get a job anywhere.' And henever did." That is, not until 1965. That year,recalls Bettina, who was herself a young,nationally-known Party activist at the time,"some Black students at Bryn Mawr con-20• Blacklistedand Unemployed:Herbert Apthekerwith his daughter,Bettina.We are asubculturethat will alwaysbelievethat we areirrevocablyoutsidersducted a sit-in and got him a job. He was avisiting professor there for a couple of years."By that time the Blacklist, which outlived theMcCarthy era, had finally run its course.The social consequences were tough for someof us, catastrophic for others. My father, whohad been radicalized while he was an undergraduateat Stanford in the early '30s, helpedorganize the workers in his father's wholesalegrocery business. My grandfather was a bedrockconservative who disagreed violently withmy father's politics, although he never disownedhim, as some other parents did. But Iwas always acutely aware of the tension betweenthem, which sometimes erupted intofurious fights that made my grandfather cryand caused my father to go on weeks-longdrunks.I will never forget the day my father'ssubpeona to appear before HUAC was delivered.It was brought by a middle-aged womancarrying a shopping bag. She looked like oneof those ladies who often came around in thosedays to collect money for one cause or another."Hello, dear, is your daddy home?" she inquiredsweetly. I said I'd call him. When hecame to the door, she reached into her bag,threw the subpeona at him and, with bitchysaccharinity, said, "I'm sorry it had to be thisway, Mr. Lynden." I was miserable. I felt asthough I had betrayed my father and my guiltlasted for weeks.We children were not left without means toprotect ourselves in socially troublesome situations.Our parents taught us a political perspective,some theory and history to back itup, and we were secure that ours was the rightview of the world. With that we were armedwith feelings of both intellectual and moralsuperiority. When my father's appearancebefore the HUAC came, I was well preparedwith my knowledge of the history of the FifthAmendment.At school, after my father's unfriendly testimonymade the front pages of the local newspapers,there were just a few unpleasantremarks from schoolmates. Only Miss Quinn,until then my favorite teacher, said, "Aren'tyou embarrassed?" I was humiliated and enraged.My best friend was forbidden to come tomy house anymore, but she lied and cameanyway. Although these memories are freshtoday, I know they are nothing compared towhat other kids went through.Julie Garfield believes the Blacklist killedher father. He was John Garfield, one ofHollywood's top stars and money-makers foralmost two decades until he suddenly foundhimself blacklisted. Unable to get work, heleft Hollywood and returned with his wife andON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

two young children to his native New York.He did find a few small stage roles, but he wasdeeply depressed. In a short time his marriagefailed, and not long after, at the age of39, he had a fatal heart attack. Julie, herselfan actress, still grieves over the unfairness ofhis persecution. "My mother was a Communist.Everyone knew it. But Daddy wasn't.They kept hounding him about her and herefused to talk about her. He refused to talkabout anyone."Julie, now in her 40s, was only six-and-ahalfwhen her father died. Although she hasalmost no actual memory of him, she has astrong rush of emotions when she speaks ofhim and those years. Her well-trained andnormally confident voice breaks into anguished,high-pitched, frantic repetitions. "Idon't know a lot of facts about this stuff," shesays, her face suddenly haggard and strained."Whenever I do hear any facts about it, I havea tendency to forget the facts. It's sort of amajor blockage. I think it was 1951 when hedied. Because he was blacklisted he was, in away, heartbroken and it killed him."Suspicion of strangers is another part of theleftist legacy from the '50s. "How do I knowwho you are?" demanded Josh Mostel, theactor-director son of the late Zero Mostel, whowas also blacklisted. It was a question herepeated again and again during our interview.But no one was more hostilely suspiciousthan Janet Ades, a Bronx-rearedlawyer and social worker who lives in NewYork's Upper West Side. Then, surprisingly,moments later, she suddenly wanted to talk— that very afternoon.More than anyone else I spoke to, Janet wasdevastated by her experience growing up inthe left-wing movement. But it wasn't just thegovernment agents who made her life miserable.It was the Communist Party, and herparents whose loyalty to the Party was greaterthan it was to her. Today, she is fiercely anti-Communist and the deep wounds re-openeasily.In a low, angry, monotone, she told of growingup in the Sholom Aleichem Houses, one ofthe three left-wing, mainly Jewish and mainlyworking class co-ops in the Bronx. As a childJanet wanted to please the father she adored,a lawyer-accountant and prominent Partyfunctionary named Bernard Ades. So Janetjoined the Labor Youth League (LYL) andbecame a hot-shot youth organizer in theBronx. Like any intelligent student, the moreJanet learned, the more she questioned. Finally,when she was 15 and a 10th grader atthe Bronx High School of Science, she recalls,she asked one question too many. "I knewON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992They hadfurious fightsthat made mygrandfathercry andcaused myfather to goon weekslongdrunksA HollywoodSuperstar, John Garfield:Many believe the Listkilled him.The resumerings werefriendly businessmenwhowould say,"Yeah, heworked for mefor 10 years"they had it in for me," she recalls. She wascalled to the home of her LYL youth advisor,and told, "If I wanted to be a good CommunistI would have to toe the line." Rebelliously, sherecalls, "I said I didn't know if I wanted to bea good Communist." And she was out.When Janet got home, no one spoke to her.Her parents would no longer discuss politicalmatters with her. At school, where all herfriends were in the LYL, "nobody looked atme, nobody spoke to me, nobody telephoned,even my best friend would not call me." On topof that, the FBI was always watching, listeningin on the phone, talking to neighbors.Simultaneously, the rabidly anti-Communistcolumnists and radio personalities, WestbrookPegler, Walter Winchell, and Victor Reisel,regularly broadcast Bernard Ades' name as a"Communist in our midst." Janet was anoutcast everywhere.Conrad Bromberg, a New York playwright,is the son of Joseph Bromberg, the acclaimedcharacter actor who also died too young becauseof the Blacklist. Like Garfield, he toowas a Hollywood prince, though not as big astar. Bromberg was blacklisted in 1948. Hedied in 1951 at the age of 47. Conrad, now inhis early 60s, whose preoccupation with hisfather's fate is expressed in his play, Dream ofa Blacklisted Actor, that has had several off-Broadway incarnations, recalls how the Blacklistworked in Hollywood. His play, he says, isthe story of his father, but the main characteris a composite of Garfield, Bromberg andEdward G. Robinson. "Robinson was vaguelyleft," recalls Conrad who went to high schoolwith his son Manny Robinson. "He signedpetitions for this or that. I heard from mymother and her friends that he bought hisway out of the Committee." But Garfield wasin a different situation. "Garfield was the firstactor who ever started his own movie companyand the big studio heads saw him ascompetition." Those moguls were also loudlyanti-Communist. Bromberg continues, "In myplay I call him 'Boxcar Johnnie, a gutter guyyou can't beat.' He fought back. But, theCommittee was on his tail right up to hisdeath. That motherfucker Victor Reisel wasalways putting stuff in his column like, 'Is ittrue that John Garfield gave money to theStockholm Peace Appeal? John, who are yourfriends?' The whole New York and Hollywoodentertainment communities read that stuff."It was impossible for Garfield to fight that.There was also what Bromberg calls "thisterrible contradiction of being Communists inBeverly Hills." There was a rule among mon-Continued on pg 5721

WITCHCRAFTINTODAY'SWORLDA Real Wise WomanChallenges The Stereotypesand reveals the on-goingpersecution of "Witches"What is modern witchcraft, and why is aspecifically feminist witchcraft needed?Many people who consider themselves to becontemporary "witches" or "pagans" feel theyare reviving a millennia-old spirituality. Someharken back to cultures that worshipped Goddessesas well as Gods, and were led by priestessesand wise elder women. Others see theirorigins in paleolithic ceremonial magicalgroups. Some identify with "New Age" thinking;many do not use that label. It is generallybelieved that all witches are pagan (inworldview), but not all pagans are witches.(For more details, see Drawing Down theMoon, by Margot Adler, revised edition.)As a religion, witchcraft focuses on workingwith nature, on psychic development and ondirect personal relationships with Diety (Goddesses,or Goddess and God). It emphasizesbalance, learning, and responsibility. As apre-Christian, Goddess-oriented religion,witchcraft encourages female leadership, andmany of its practioners are feminist orsympathetic to feminism.Witchcraft is often called by its older Anglo-Saxon names: wicce or wicca. The Old Englishneutral plural for witches is wiccan, althoughsome witches today say "wiccans." Althoughthe masculine term wicca is most often used(which I consider symptomatic of the internalby Ann Forfreedom22 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199223

sexism ofmodern witchcraft), the Anglo-SaxonOld English term for the religion, and theterm I use, is wiccecraeft.Witchcraft is sometimes viewed as being"evil." This mentality fueled the witch-huntinginquisitions centuries^agorafidTs responsiblefor attacks against real witches andpowerful women around the world today.For instance, in 1985, three women in Zimbabwewere shot and killed by a group of menwho accused them of being witches.At least 20 women in West Bengal, Indiawere killed as suspected witches in 1987. In1989, women in eastern India were murderedafter they were accused of being witches andcasting "evil spells;" one of them was draggedfrom her hut, tied to a tree and slaughteredwith an ax by two male neighbors, only one ofwhom was apprehended by police.In 1990, in Venda—the nominally independentBlack homeland set up by South Africa— an angry crowd set fire to an inhabitedhome, fatally burning two infants, becausethey believed the parents were involved inwitchcraft.By the late 1980s, witchcraft was a crime inseveral nations. In 1987, the West Africannation of Benin declared that practicingwitchcraft or magic was punishable bydeath or 10 to 20 years hard labor. The SouthAmerican nation of Ecuador banned witches,fortune tellers and natural healers in 1989.Beginning in the mid-1980s, right-winggroups in the United States attacked "witchcraft"in an attempt to disrupt and control thepublic right to freedom of expression.In 1985, parents' goups in at least 20 states,under the leadership of right-wing anti- feministleader Phyllis Schlafly, demanded thatpublic schools get parents' written permissionfor classroom discussions and curriculummaterial on a variety oftopics, including witchcraft,abortion, social roles of men and women,homosexuality, human sexuality, and Easternmysticism. A lawsuit filed by one suchgroup, Citizens Organized for Better Schools'(Mozart v. Hawkins County School System),charged that an elementary reading seriespublished by Holt, Rinehart & Winston wasteaching witchcraft, situation ethics, disrespectfor parental authority, evolution andsecular humanism.More recent attacks have included NathanielHawthorne's classic novel, The Scarlet Letter,for dealing with witchcraft and religion, andFrank Baum's timeless fantasy, The WizardofOz, for presenting a positive witch (Glindathe Good).Also in 1985, newspaper and TV reports onchild abuse and possible murder cases startedSTEFANAKIS' SALEMSTATUE: WHAT WENTWRONG?From 1988 through1991, The Wise Womanpublicized and carriedads for the Salem WitchTrial Memorial statue byartist Yiannis Stefanakis.The statue consists ofthree female figures,representing three sisters— Sarah Cloyce, MaryEsty, and Rebecca Nurse— who were persecutedduring the Salem witchtrials. (Mary Esty andRebecca Nurse wereexecuted.)The statue (with twoaccompanying plaques)was proposed by theartist and a non-profitcorporation, the WitchTrial Memorial Fund, asa dignified memorial tothe mostly womenvictims of the Salemwitch trials, and of witchhunts everywhere.I have given moneyand publicity to thestatue, which needsbronzing and a permanentsite. I went evenfurther in helping what Iconsidered a worthyfeminist cause. ByOctober, 1991,1 wasvery active in coordinatingfundraising andpublicity for this project.using the terms "witchcraft," "occult," and"Satanism" almost interchangeably.In August of that year, Rep. Robert Walker(R-PA) introduced an act to remove tax-exemptstatus from religious groups based onwitchcraft, which indicated that a real witchhunt was developing. Then, Sen. Jesse Helms(R-NC), a powerful right- wing politician linkedto ultrafundamentalist Christianity and censorship,got involved.Helms introduced Amendment 705 to thefiscal 1986 Treasury and Post Office appropriationsbill, HR 3036 in September 1985.Helms' amendment, which specified, "No fundsappropriated under this Act shall be used togrant, maintain, or allow tax exemption toany cult, organization, or other group that hasas a purpose, or that has any interest in, thepromoting of satanism or witchcraft," waspassed by voice vote, without dissent or debatein the Senate. "Witchcraft" was definedby Helms as "the use of powers derived fromevil spirits, the use of sorcery, or the use ofsupernatural powers with malicious intent."Helms' amendment was meant to cut off taxand postal privileges for any group that hedisfavored by fitting them within the vaguedefinitions of the amendment. Both the AmericanCivil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) and theInternal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) opposed theamendment, and the A.C.L.U. argued againstthe government's ability to define which religionsare considered legitimate.After a barrage of protests by witches andnon-witches alike, the House-Senate confereesquietly dropped the amendment "on atechnicality."Historically, witch hunters have attackednot only unconventional religions, but independent,powerful, and publicly visible women.A modern witch hunt of this type occurredrecently in Beulah, North Dakota, when twomen plotted to murder 61-year-old KarinaSinger because neighbors thought she was adangerous "witch."This case was reminiscent of witch huntingover several centuries.Karina Singer had lived in the area for %\years. She and her husband John were farmowners who wanted to turn their farm intowhat Singer termed "a place of beauty andpeace," where friends could vist for extendedvacations.In fall, 1989, the couple laid down two NativeAmerican "medicine wheels," or rock configurations,"for the healing of the land." Johndied of cancer the following April, but Karinacontinued the work. She had a guest housebuilt and a pit burned in the yard.When Singer had two other women visit the24 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

farm in the summer of 1990, she was unawarethat rumors about her had been circulatingfor years. As Mercer County State's AttorneyAlan Duppler later reported, "There havebeen rumors flying around Mercer Countythat these three ladies are witches and they'resacrificing animals and doing general culttypethings." According to the story, the guesthouse was a church, and visitors were seendancing around a pit fire. (The "dancers" wereapparently construction workers putting outgrass fires started by sparks from the newlyburnedpit in the yard.)When Jim Reppen, who worked for a tireservice company, and Dean Unterseher, afarmer, heard the story, they "decided theywere going to go down and eliminate theproblem," says Duppler. Reppen andUnterseher, both armed, were arrested onSinger's farm in August and charged withconspiring to murder her."I'm stunned my neighbors could believethese things when we lived here 21 years,"Singer said. "And instead of calling me to findout if they were true, they circulated themaround until they became like an atomic blastmushrooming out of the prairie."Karina Singer was an independent landowner,with different spiritual interestsfrom those of her neighbors. She is one ofmany women — including feminist politicians— who are faced with modern-daywitch hunting.In reality, witchcraft is far from negative orevil. My definition of "witch" is a priestess orpriest of wiccecraeft skilled in healing andpsychic work and occult magic: A person ableto bend or reshape universal energies, or anindependent, uppity, powerful, or daringwoman.I define a "feminist" as a female or male whois female-centered or female-oriented; or aperson who is not prejudiced against othersbecause of their gender or sexual preferences;or anyone who, in a patriarchal society, workstoward the political, economic, spiritual,sexual, and social equality of women.Modern witchcraft includes a variety of denominations,or "traditions." The most feministof these is the Dianic tradition, named forthe Roman Goddess Diana, woodland Goddessof Freedom, huntress, and patroness ofwitches. One branch of Dianic witchcraft includeswomen and men as practitioners, andhonors the God (of Nature, Love, etc.) as wellas the Great Goddess. Another branch islesbian and separatist, refusing to acknowledgemales either as practitioners or in theform of Diety (which may be considered reversesexism).ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992But three months ofintensive, and oftensuccessful, work showedme that the problemsfaced by this project aredeeper than the lack ofmoney or a permanentsite.I found resistance to theproject among Salemarearesidents. I foundthat the figures I hadbeen given for the costsof bronzing wereinaccurate. Most dangerousof all, I found thatthe creator and majordecision-maker of thisproject, YiannisStefanakis, is a man whoundermines his ownproject and does notkeep important commitments.On January 2, 1992,1withdrew as the mainfundraiser for the SalemWitch Trial Memorialstatue, and the Institutefor Feminist Studies, ofwhich I am the ExecutiveDirector, ceased itssupport of the project.I apologize to all thesupportive donors,volunteer publicists andenthusiastic publicationsthat became involvedwith Stefanakis' Salemstatue because theytrusted my word.—A.F.Some witchcraft denominations often havefemale leaders and, to an extent, honor theGoddess. But others practice antiwomen sexism,and few witchcraft practitioners of anydenomination are overtly involved in feministissues (though a portion are in peace or ecologygroups).During the past two decades, Americanfeminists have changed much of the outwardlook of witchcraft. There are more femaleleaders visible, and there is a great dealmore emphasis on Goddess culture. But, despitethe long human heritage of Goddessworship around the world, and despite thereality that European witch hunts that lastedfor centuries were primarily directed againstwomen, contemporary witchcraft includes andaccepts sexists, people who have conductedinternal witch hunts, and other kinds of bigots.And witchcraft too often tends to speak inmale terms, to assume a greater importancefor male deities and male spokespeople, andto assume antifeminist or antigay rightsstances.Feminists involved in witchcraft have madea difference, however. The foundation of witchcraftis rooted in female power and femaleconcerns. Much can be learned from feministwitchcraft that one can find useful as a feminist.Because Dianic witchcraft emphasizesthe perception of universal creativity andenergy as feminine, as the Goddess, womenare thereby empowered as vital and importantbeings in the universe. So, it becomesnatural to assume that: Women are creativein all ways; women are leaders; women havea deciding voice in all that matters to them;women are responsible for their actions;women are able to communicate directly withDeity (or universal energy or Nature); andwomen have sexual freedom, reproductiverights, and the right to define their bodilylives.Feminist witchcraft encourages the developmentof intuition as an effective part ofhuman life. Each human being has intuition,an inner voice, a way of deciding quickly whatis right or wrong for oneself, and what to do25

about it. Western culture denies the intuitivejudgment, and favors a rational, logical, statistical,or factual approach. Both intuitionand logic are necessary for a well-balancedlife. My intuition has helped me stay out ofpotentially dangerous situations, has led meto teach myself to meditate and to learn somethingabout Yoga and T'ai Chi.Feminist witchcraft also offers positive waysto view and change body images. Witchesbelieve in self-blessings. Each of us is seen asbeing part of divine energy, of the Goddess andthe God. And every part and process of thehuman body is considered sacred. So, one wayto pray to the Goddess/God is to bless one's selfand the basic parts of one's body.As I have learned to trust myself and appreciatemy body more, I have come to respect thefunctions of my body. In blessing my body, Ilearned that my flesh is really alive, composedof living cells that do respond to my needs.I also learned to bless the coming and goingof my monthly period of blood by honoring theGoddess in myself: "She who bleeds, yet doesnot die."Feminist witchcraft focuses on the cyclicalpatterns of our lives: The moon, the sun, otherstars, and the universe. As I became moreaware of my personal patterns, I grew moretolerant of my need for solitude, for writing,and for periods of fervent feminist politicalactivity and meetings. I learned to balancemore evenly the processes of giving and acceptinglove. And I learned to do somethingsI thought impossible — to perceivethe artist in myself. Cultural creativity —work educated to the Muses and Pan — isencouraged in feminist witchcraft.Witches are very interested in herbal knowl-1edge and in learning to heal oneself, others,even the earth. And many witches are invarious kinds of healing professions or vocations.Witches generally believe in reincarnation,in a cycle of life after life filled with learning.As I learned to see my life as one of a numberof lifetimes, I also learned not to be afraid ofdeath. I now see death as brother to theGoddess of Life and Love (as in the myth ofIshtar and the Lord of Death), or death as thesister-self of the Goddess-on-Earth (as in theEgyptian view of Nephthys below and Isisabove, or the Greek views of Persephone undergroundand Demeter aboveground).The knowledge of healing methods can includenot only ways to make life easier andhealthier, but also ways to ease the passing oflife into death. Sometimes death is a peacefulpassage from one stage of existence to another.In 1970, my 30-year-old brother died of"Witchcraft"was definedby Jesse Helmsas "the vseof powersderived fromevil 'spirits'.incancer. I priestessed him — counseling him,sending him energy, advising him, sharingwith him the psychic experiences that oftenoccur to the dying person. I aided my brotherto face death as a journey, neither frighteningnor extraordinary. I discovered that manyAmericans don't know how to deal with dyingand death. Though many nurses are aware ofthe needs of a dying person and try hard tohelp, most of the doctors I contacted wereunwilling or unable to deal personally withdying patients. The process of dying is mademuch more painful than it need be for manypeople in hospitals in this country.When I perceive death as brother to theGoddess, I feel He is kind to Her daughters,and understanding, and helpful to all whoneed to pass on to her levels of being. When Ipersonify death as sister to the Goddess, I feelshe welcomes her children and renews us,readies us for rebirth, and helps us learn inharmony and peace. We are always movingfrom living towards dying and beyond, astrees and flowers in nature move throughstages of existence and seeming (but onlytemporary) nonexistence.Feminist witchcraft offers the feminist movementother helpful theological or philosophicalperceptions of life: The process you use isas important as, or even more important than,your goal; balance is important in the ways welive; the energy you send out will return to youat least threefold (whether the energy is inthought or deed); learn to perceive the cyclesof events (for example, the Equal RightsAmendment will not die, but efforts to place itinto law go through cycles that wane and thenwax forth); and human beings need the mysteryand security of identifying with MotherNature or Mother Earth.Although modern witchcraft reflectssome of the basic societal ills of our time,and although many witches today do notpractice all they preach, there is muchthat feminist witchcraft offers to feministsand the feminist movement. If you are drawnto it, be careful and don't check your principlesor your feminism at the gate. For thosenot so inclined, there is still much to belearned from witchcraft about ourselvesand our place in nature.•Ann Forfreedom, a feminist witch, is the publisherof The Wise Woman feminist journal,Executive Director of the Institute for FeministStudies, and a lecturer on women's history,feminist issues, and feminist witchcraft. Thisarticle was originally published in On theIssues, Vol. VIII, 1987, and has been updatedand revised.26 PHOTO ANN FORFREEDOM, 1984 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

By the late198Os,witchcraftwas a crimein severalnationsOn December 5/ 1484, Pope InnocentVIII declared a "Holy Inquistion"against "witches" — i.e. againstthose who had "strayed from theCatholic Faith" and through "incantations,spells, and charms" caused"horrid offenses." The pope proclaimed:Witches have slain infants yet in themother's womb, (including theoffspring of cattle), have blasted theproduce of the earth, the grapes ofthe vine, the fruits of the trees, nay,men and women, beasts ofburden...corn, wheat and all othercereals, these witches furthermoreafflict and torment men and women(and animals) with terrible andpiteous pains and some diseases;they hinder men from performing thesexual act and women fromconceiving."The European witchcraft trials werebased on the Malleus Maleficarum(The Witches' Hammer). The Malleusclaimed that most witches werewomen because women are innatelyinferior and innately predisposed to"evil." Three general vices appear tohave special dominion over wickedwomen, namely, infidelity, ambition,and lust...when a woman thinksalone, she thinks evil."According to the Malleus, witcheswere reponsible for male impotence,male fornication, male adultery, andmarital infertility. Thus witches, notmen, were responsible for the birthsof illegitimate and unholy childrenand for the non-conception anddeaths of legitimate (father-owned)children....The anecdotes in the Malleus arefrightening to read. Heinrich Kramerand Jakob Sprenger support theirclaim of "witch"-induced maleimpotence anecdotally. For example,they tell the story of a "certainyoung man of Ratisbon who had anintrigue with a girl:"[When he] wanted to leave her [he]lost his member [i.e.] some glamourwas cast over it so that he could notsee or touch [anything] but hissmooth body. In his worry over this,he [decided to] use some violence toinduce [the witch] to restore [him] tohealth. [The witch] maintained thatshe was innocent and knew nothingabout it. He fell upon her, andwinding a towel tightly aroundher neck, choked her, saying:"Unless you give me back myhealth, you shall die at myhands." The witch [then] restoredhis "member"....Witches are so powerful thatthey can cause one man to killanother man from afar. In 1651,in colonial America, Thomas Allenaccidentally shot and killed HenryStiles in the presence of manywitnesses. Allen was charged with"homicide by misadventure,"fined, and "bound to good behaviorfor a year."But this is not the end of the matter.Presumably, Stiles' death remains atopic of local conversation — andthree years later, it yields a moredrastic result. In November 1654, thecourt holds a special session to try acase of witchcraft — against awoman, Lydia Gilbert. The court ineffect is considering a complicatedquestion. Did Lydia Gilbert's witchcraftcause Thomas Allen's gun to gooff so as to kill Henry Stiles? Depositionswere taken from eyewitnessesand others with information bearingon the case....Probate documentsshow that Stiles was a boarder in thehome of Lydia Gilbert — and hercreditor as well. Perhaps there wastrouble between them, even someopen displays of anger? And if so,perhaps their neighbors suspected inGoodwife Gilbert a vengeful motivetoward Stiles.In due course, the trial jury weighsthe evidence and reaches its verdict— guilty as charged. The magistrateshand down the prescribed sentenceof death by hanging.Excerpt from Mothers on Trialby Phyllis Chester (published byHarcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1991)ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992 27

Wuornos28 PHOTO AP/WIOE ViORLO ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

SEX. DEATH 3THE DOUBLE STANDARDWuornos On TrialMany studies have shown that at least90 percent of all violent crime and 99percent of mass and serial murder iscommitted by men, not women. However,women are not rewarded — nocash, no political power, no freedomfrom violence — for being "good girls."Perhaps a woman's only reward is inknowing that as bad as things are,they're even "worse" for "bad girls."A "bad girl" is any woman who's poor,(or too rich or ambitious for a woman),non-white, unwed, not young, not thinand-pretty,without strong family support,and who is therefore vulnerable toaccusations of mental illness, lesbianism,drug addiction, sexual promiscuityor witchcraft, i.e. feminism, paganism,socialism, etc.Enter Aileen (Lee) Carol Wuornos—aprostitute and lesbian accused of killingat least five men — a really "bad" girl.On January 31, 1992, in DaytonaBeach, Florida, Wuornos, described bythe media and countless experts, includingthe FBI, as the world's firstfemale serial killer, was sentenced todie in the electric chair for the murder of51 -year-old ex-convict Richard Mallory.I believe that if the state of Floridacould, it would electrocute Wuornos oncefor each man she's accused of killing.But what, really, are her true crimes?Is Wuornos guilty of not having killedherself — the way all "good" sexualabuse victims and prostitutes are supposedto do? (Wuornos says she wasabused in childhood and serially rapedas a teenage prostitute.) Or is Wuornosguilty of daring to defend herself in aviolent struggle with a man and, byexample, encouraging other prostitutesto do likewise?Most people — and this includesjudges, jurors, and lawyers — valuemen's lives more than women's andempathize with, sometimes even romanticize,men — but not women —who sin. In fact, lawyers, both male andfemale, often defend male — but notfemale — killers pro bono.A woman's story is rarely believed, bymen or even by other women: Less so ifshe's accusing a man of being the agbyPhyllis ChesterON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199229

gressor. This is true for both "respectable"women like Anita Hill, PatriciaBowman, or the accuser in the St. John'sgang-rape case, and for less "respectable"women — like prostitutes.Wuornos claims that she killed in selfdefense.Apart from her own testimony,the jury never got to hear any evidencethat might have helped them evaluatethis much-derided claim. For example,according to police who interviewedMallory's ex-girlfriend Jackie Davis andChastity Lee Marcus (one of two prostitutesMallory partied with the nightbefore he picked Wuornos up): Malloryserved 10 years in prison for burglary,suffered from mood swings, drank toomuch, was violent towards women, enjoyedthe strip bars, was into pornography,was erratic in business and introuble with the IRS, and had undergonetherapy for some kind of sexualdysfunction. Judge Uriel "Bucky" Blountdid not allow Jackie Davis to testifyabout Mallory's violence towardswomen.Wuornos was indigent and was assigneda public defender. The originaljudge (who later recused herself) replacedWuornos' first public defenderwho, Wuornos charged, had negotiatedthe movie rights to Wuornos' story. AtWuornos' request, her new public defenderwas a woman.The most idealistic and hard-workingof public defenders is still too overworkedand lacks the resources to domore than a perfunctory job. Wuornos'new public defender had 12 other capitalcases in addition to Wuornos'. Sheasked the judge: "Do I spend all my timeon Ms. Wuornos' case and let the othersslide? Or do I do it in reverse? I am in abind." One reporter I spoke with aboutthe case kept needling me for notbeing cynical enough: "C'mon,Wuornos is not entitled to the kindof lawyer that William KennedySmith had. Get real!"Now, I'm not about to crusade for"equal rights for serial killers" but ifthis reporter is right, why does JeffreyDahmer, accused of torturing, raping,killing, cannibalizing and dismembering15 young men, mainly of color, attracta private pro bono lawyer? Furthermore,why did Dahmer, unlikeWuornos, merit many national experts,skinheads demonstrating on his behalfin Chicago ("He got rid of the filth" theychanted), and, reported by various media,a growing number of women sup-Do we hovedifferentstandards forevil, violenceand insanity:One for men,another forwomen?porters, some of whom have formed aJeffrey Dahmer Fan Club?Or let's look at another Florida serialkiller: Ted Bundy, who killed at least 30and possibly 100 women. Several lawyersoffered to defend Bundy pro bono,an expert advised him on jury selectionpro bono; at one point, no fewer than fivepublic defenders assisted Bundy, whoinsisted on representing himself. (Severallawyers would have defendedWuornos pro bono in the first of fivetrials, but only if at least $50,000 inexpenses could be raised.)Even more interesting: The state ofFlorida offered Bundy a life sentencewithout parole; Bundy refused the pleabargain. Wuornos' lawyers tried to setup a similar arrangement for her butone county prosecutor thought she deservedto die and refused to agree to aplea bargain.Do we have different standards forevil, violence and insanity: One for men,another for women? Or is Wuornos simplytoo evil — for a woman? As such, isher punishment a warning to otherwomen that female violence, includingself-defense, will never be glamorized orforgiven, only punished swiftly and terribly?Wuornos' first trial was exceptionallyspeedy: Only 13 court days. A review ofthe court papers and media visuals showthat Judge Blount, who was coaxed outof retirement for this case, granted all ofthe prosecution's and denied most of thedefense motions. The jury would seeexcerpts from Wuornos' videotaped confession— minus her repeated statementsthat she killed in self-defense.Under Florida's Williams Rule*, thejury would also hear about the six otheralleged murders. (Contrast this withWilliam Kennedy Smith's jury that,under the same rule, was not allowed tohear three other allegations of rape).Blount did not grant the defense achange of venue based on the enormous,local, pre-trial publicity, which includedWuornos' televised confession. Blountfelt that he could seat an "impartial"jury even if they'd seen or heard aboutthe confession — and he did so in a dayand a half! Given the gravity and thenotoriety of the case, the 68 prospectivejurors might have been polled individually;none were. (Bundy did get achange of venue, from Tallahasee toMiami, for a similar reason.)During the first part of the trial,Wuornos herself was the only witnessfor the defense — despite the fact thatmore than 10 mainly pro bono expertswere ready to testify for the defense. Iknow because I organized them. Theseincluded a psychologist, a psychiatrist,experts in prostitution, battery, rape,lesbianism, alcoholism and adoption,among others. One is considered thiscountry's leading expert on women whokill in self-defense. Wuornos' attorneysturned down these witnesses. No reasonwas given. Incredibly, they allowedno one to testify for the defense exceptWuornos herself.Her testimony on the stand aboutMallory's murderous behavior was dignified,credible and very moving.In the penalty phase of the trial, thejury heard from two psychologists whodiagnosed Wuornos as a "borderlinepersonality" suffering from "organicbrain syndrome." In my opinion, theymight as well have testified for theprosecution.Attorney John Tanner, a born-againChristian, was Ted Bundy's death-row"minister" and tried to have Bundy'sexecution delayed. Yet, as the lead prosecutorin the Wuornos case, Tanner•Williams vs. State 1959 allows evidence of adefendant's other crimes or alleged crimes if the courtdetermines that the facts are sufficiently similar.30 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

pushed the death penalty, portrayingWuornos as a "predatory prostitute"whose "appetite for lust and control hadtaken a lethal turn;" who "had beenexercising control for years over men"and who "killed for power, for full andultimate control."When men are accused of crimeseven terrible crimes, their families invariablyback them. The Kennedywomen always stick by their man; MikeTyson's adoptive mother accompaniedhim to court daily. Even Bundy hadenormous emotional and secretarial/public-relations support from his motherLouise and his 32-year-old "fiancee,"Carol Lee Boone, whom he would marryand later impregnate, both of whomtestified for him. Scores of pretty youngwomen attended the trial and openlyflirted with him in court.Wuornos did have the support ofthe woman who first contacted herafter her arrest and who legallyadopted her in November, 1991. However,Wuornos' uncle/brother Barry,12 years her senior, with whom she'dbeen raised as siblings and whomshe hadn't seen for at least 20 years,testified for the prosecution. Heclaimed that Wuornos had neverbeen "abused" at home and thereforehad no "reason" to kill anyone. (I'dcall what happend to Lee Wuornos"abuse": According to Wuornos, shewas abandoned by her biologicalmother at six months, abused andneglected by her grandparental family,raped — presumably by astranger — and impregnated at 13,and surrendered the infant foradoption at 14 — whereupon shedropped out of school, left home, andlived as a teenage prostitute, alcoholic,panhandler and occasionalthief.)In Bundy's case, the jury took sevenhours to find him guilty and seven anda half hours to sentence him to death.Wuornos' jury of five men and seven iwomen needed only one hour and 31minutes to find Wuornos guilty, andone hour and 48 minutes to recommendthe death penalty; At 9 a.m. the nextday, Blount, who could override thejury's recommendation, ordered thatWuornos die in the electric chair. Shewas immediately taken to Death Row atthe Broward County Correctional Facilityfor Women.I am not saying that Wuornos did notkill anyone, nor am I saying she is saneON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992A strategicuse of theinsanity pleamight havesaved herfrom thedeathsentence— merely that a strategic use of theinsanity plea might have saved her fromthe death sentence. It is still justifiable— even for a seriously traumatizedwoman — to kill in self-defense andWuornos' claim of self-defense against aviolent john is plausible. Her claim certainlymerited far more thought andconsideration than the deliberate neglectit received from those who heardand tried her case. Blount refused to letthe jury hear the special instructionsfashioned by the defense to reflect thesetwo considerations.Wuornos has been under attack all herlife, probably more than any soldier in areal war. For years people said: "Howcan a prostitute be raped?" Now, givenwhat we know about how often prostitutesare raped, beaten, robbed, arrestedand killed, often by real serial killers,people say: "Well, it's part of the jobdescription. If she doesn't like it, whydoesn't she get out?" Wuornos has turnedthis question around. "If men don't wantto be killed, they should stay away fromprostitutes — or at least stop degradingand assaulting them."•Note: As we go to press, Wuornos hasrequested no further trials and demandedimmediate execution.IN HER OWN WORDS:WUORNOS' STORYAt midnight on November 30th, 1989,51-year-old ex-convict RichardMallory picked up 34-year-old AileenCarol Wuornos in Tampa. He agreedto drive her to Daytona — nearly fivehours away. Based on Wuornos' coercedconfession and her testimonyon the stand, here is her rendition ofwhat happened that night:/ went to Tampa and made a littlemoney hustling. I was hitchhikinghome at night. This guy picked me upright outside of Tampa, underneaththe bridge. So he's smokin' pot andwe're goin' down the road and hesays, do you wonf a drink? So we'redrinkin' and we're gettin' prettydrunk. Then, around 5:00 in the morning,he says: okay, do you want tomake your money now? So we gointo the woods. He's huggin' andkissin' on me. He starts pushin' medown. And I said, wait a minute, youknow, get cool. You don't have to getrough, you know. Let's have fun...I said I would not [have sex withhim]. He said, yes, you are, bitch.You're going to do everything I tellyou. If you don't I'm going to kill youand [have sex with you] after you'redead, just like the other sluts. It doesn 'tmatter, your body will still be warm.He tied my wrists to the steering wheel,and screwed me in fhe ass. Afterwards,he got a Visine bottle filledwith rubbing alcohol out of the trunk.He said the Visine bottle was one ofmy surprises. He emptied it into myrectum. It really hurt bad because hetore me up a lot. He got dressed, gota radio, sat on the hood for whatseemed like an hour. I was reallypissed. I was yelling at him, and strugglingto get my hands free. Eventuallyhe untied me, put a stereo wire aroundmy neck and tried to rape me again...Then I thought, well, this dirty bastarddeserves to die because of whathe was tryin' to do to me. Westruggled. I reached for my gun. I shothim. I scrambled to cover the shootingbecause I didn't think the police wouldbelieve I killed him in self-defense...I have to say it. I killed them allbecause they got violent with me andI decided to defend myself... I'm sureif after the fightin' they found I had aweapon, they would've shot me. So Ijust shot them...J31

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By Laura SydellAnd OtherReportorialSinsomen would love to see Thelmaand Louise use their pistols onI fill ^ne mana g emen t °f the NewUlai York Times, the WashingtonH H Post, NBC and a host of otherI \J mainstream media outlets. Althoughwomen may have come a longway since the days of hoop skirts andfoot binding, this doesn't seem to bereflected in the kind of press coveragethey're getting.According to a study by the mediawatchdog group Fairness and Accuracyin Reporting (FAIR) that looked at thefront page photos of three major dailies,the New York Times, USA Today andthe Washington Post, women don't seemto be very important. In the Post, only13 percent of front page photo subjectswere women; in the Times it was 11percent. The Times really showed itsreluctance to put a photo of a woman onthe front page when it illustrated anarticle on women's tennis with a photoof Boris Becker.ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992PHOTOS:RICK REINHARD/IMPACT VISUALS 33

Surprisingly, the more conservativeUSA Today placed more photos ofwomen on the front page (30 percent).But while 55 percent of white men onthe cover were government or businessofficials, this wasn't true of women: Inall the papers FAIR studied, most of thewomen who were not sports or entertainmentfigures were wives, daughtersor mothers of prominent men.What effect does the media's disregardof women have on the public'sperception of an issue? Let's look at afew examples. Take one of the 1991's bigmedia events, the coverage of the SupremeCourt Justice Clarence Thomas'snomination hearings. According to thepolls, the public found Thomas morecredible than Anita Hill, whose accusationsof sexual harassment were madepublic only after several media outletsgot hold of her FBI testimony. However,there were stories about Thomas circulatingamong reporters that were nevermade public, stories that might havemade a difference in the perception ofthe nominee's credibility. Let's look at acouple of these stories. Remember AngelaWright? She was the other womanwho accused Thomas of sexual harassmentwhen she was on his staff. Duringthe early morning hours on the lastnight of the hearings, after we'd heardJohn Doggett proclaim his irresistibilityto women, especially Hill, the SenateJudiciary Chair Joseph Biden announcedthat we would not hear Wrighttestify. However, transcripts of testimonypreviously given to the JudiciaryCommittee and later released to thepress contained evidence that wouldhave been truly damning to Thomas.According to Wright, Thomas repeatedlymade comments to her, much likethose he made to Hill. He asked herabout the size of her breasts and commentedon her legs and other parts ofher body. Although no one overheardThomas' remarks, Wright did complainat the time to her colleague Rose Jordain,who confirmed this in testimony to thecommittee.Although Wright never testified, Thomaswas given an opportunity to discredither during the hearings. Accordingto Thomas, he fired Wright becauseshe called a colleague "faggot." This leftthe public with the impression thatWright wasn't credible anyway becauseshe had an ax to grind against Thomas.But in the untelevised interview givento Committee aides, Wright told a differentstory. She claimed her dismissalwas somewhat mysterious. Accordingto her, Thomas told her he wasn't satisfiedwith her job performance. However,some years later he gave her a glowingrecommendation — a fact, confirmed byher current employer, the CharlotteObserver, and reported by LyleDenniston of the Baltimore Sun. However,this fact didn't seem important tothe rest of the media.The Sun was one of the few newspapersto publicize Wright's statements.Denniston, in defense of the generalmedia's failure to publish the details ofthe Judiciary Committee's conversationSix out ofseven male reporterswerepro-Thomaswhile two out ofthree female reporterssupportedHillwith Wright, points out that the presswas handed the transcript at 11:00 onthe last night of the hearings. But whydidn't the mass media publicize thisinformation on the following day?Wright's testimony has even greaterimpact when the affidavit of SukariHardnett is added to the picture. Althoughshe made it clear she was notcharging Thomas with sexual harassment,Hardnett, a former special assistantto Thomas, provided the Senatewith a sworn affidavit in which shecharged that Thomas' treatment ofwomen on his staff was more than thatof "a mentor to protegees." In her affidavitHardnett said, "If you were young,Black, female, reasonably attractive andworked directly for Clarence Thomas,you knew full well you were being inspectedand auditioned as a female."Hardnett, who worked for Thomas between1985 and 1986, said she didn'tlike Thomas' attention and sought atransfer. Wright's testimony, along withHardnett's, would have been importantfactors in establishing the pattern *of behavior which is typical of harassers— a pattern which some senatorsand Thomas supporters, whose opinionswere widely reported, claimed wasmissing. Taken together, the testimonyof these three women is powerful evidence.Yet, the media neglected to givethe public enough information to putthe pieces together. AlthoughHardnett's affidavit was widely reported,only New York Newsday consideredher statements important enoughto put in a headline and lead paragraph.Major national papers such asthe Washington Post and USA Todayburied Hardnett's statement in themiddle and end of articles. And, asanyone knows who followed the Hill/Thomas affair, the media continued tosay the disagreement was between two"credible" people without mention ofthe other two charges against Thomas.Other stories known by many reportersdidn't see the light of day — amongthem, Thomas' attempts to underminethe Equal Employment OpportunityCommission's (EEOC) sexual harassmentregulations, his failure while afederal judge to excuse himself from acase in which his close friend and mentorSenator John Danforth had a $7.5million interest, his denial of knowledgethat his close friend Jay Parkerhad ties to the apartheid governmentin South Africa. Nina Totenbergof National Public Radio, one of thereporters who broke the Hill story, andHowell Raines, the New York Timesnational desk editor in Washington,both said that the most significant reasonfor their failure to report otherThomas stories was the Democraticsenators. Although the Times had ateam of six investigative reporters workingon the Thomas affair, Raines saysthey didn't bring out a lot of informationbecause of the "timid nature of theDemocratic questions. They didn't askthe questions that would have elicitedthe kind of investigative reporting wewanted to do." Why didn't the press dotheir own investigation? The BaltimoreSun's Denniston defended his colleagues'failure to bring out informationthat the Senators didn't mention."There is a point beyond which thepress won't do the Senators' job forthem," Denniston said. He criticizedthe Judiciary Committee for "massaging"the press with information and34 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

then failing to follow through duringthe hearings. But Tiffany Devitt of FAIRput it another way: "There is basically apattern, particularly among the Washingtonpress corp, of letting the peoplein power set the agenda and spin thestory." Devitt believes the press shouldbe more aggressive and go beyond thosesources and do some real digging.Jim Naurekas, also with FAIR, criticizesthe limits that the press places onitself. "If that's their version of the press,then why do we have a free press? It'snot up to the government to decidewhat's news, it's up to the press todecide." Naurekas says if it's up to theDemocrats and the Republicans to dictatethe stories, then why not just letthem write their own newspapers?Larry Bensky, a reporter for the progressivePacifica national radio networkwho covered the Iran/Contra and theThomas hearings, points out the reportorialdifferences in the mainstreammedia handling of the two events. In theIran/Contra affair, journalists were willingto look beyond information givenout by the major parties. Bensky attributesthis rigor to the fact that itinvolved a potentially impeachable offenseby the President. However, healso thinks sexism played a role in theirfailure to fully investigate the sexualharassment charges against Thomas.Susan Paludi, whose best-selling bookBacklash looks at media coverage ofwomen, noted a lack of interest amongthe press corps "in truly getting to thebottom of the Anita Hill story." Sheattributes this in part to the media stillprimarily being run by men — a factwhich takes on increased significancein light of a study published in theWashington Post that found six out ofseven male reporters were pro -Thomaswhile two out of three female reporterssupported Hill. Faludi believes men inthe Senate and the press may have beenon the defensive because they felt womenwere "ganging up on them." She notesthe appearance of subtle biases. Forexample, the day following Hill's testimony,the media headlined Thomas'rebuttal and effectively "silenced Hill."Coverage of the abortion issue alsoreflects many of the same biases foundin coverage of the Thomas/Hill affair.Rarely does the media look at howwomen will be affected by restrictionson abortion. Instead the focus seems tobe on Washington and the men in power.Tiffany Devitt of FAIR notes, "ThoughGovernor Bob Martinez of Florida willnever have an abortion, a WashingtonPost headline declared: 'Governor at Riskon Abortion Issue.' While it is individualwomen, not political parties, who confrontthe choice to terminate a pregnancy,a Wall Street Journal headlineannounced: 'Abortion Debate ProvesPainful for Republicans.'"One of the few times that women becamethe focus of abortion coverage wasduring the fall of many of the communistregimes in Eastern Europe. Whenit comes to coverage of a country that theU.S. views as hostile, there don't seemto be limits on the ways the media canvilify them. Newsweek published an articletitled, "When Abortion is Denied:What of the Unwanted'?" which discussedthe consequences ofCzechoslovakia's ban on abortions. TheWashington Post and the New YorkTimes ran articles depicting the horrorswomen in Romania faced under the antiabortionpolicies of the Ceausescu regime.But when women are harmedbecause of restrictive U.S. policies, it'srarely front page news. Each year over200,000 women die worldwide frombotched illegal abortions. Many of thosedeaths could be avoided if it weren't forU.S. pressure; in 1984 the Reagan administrationannounced that it wouldnot fund any international or foreignANITAYOUHill"SEHATORSON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992PHOTO- MARILYN HUMPHWE5/1MPACT VISUA1S

family planning organizations that providedor counseled on abortion. Accordingto Sharon Camp of the PopulationCrisis Committee, hospitals inBangladesh are even refusing to givewomen hemorrhaging from botchedabortions medical care for fear of losingU.S. dollars. Camp also says there arecountries in Africa where illegal abortion"is an epidemic. Everyone has afamily member who has died of a botchedillegal abortion." Camp explains thatmuch of this suffering could be alleviatedif the United States, the majorfunder of family planning services worldwide,would change its policies. But theplight of these women doesn't seem tobe front page news here. Nor was thestory of Rosie Jiminez, a poor Hispanicwoman who lived in Texas near theMexican border. In 1977, just after passageof the Hyde Amendment took awayMedicaid fundingfor abortions, Jiminez,who already had two children, slippedacross the border for a cheap abortion, achoice which ultimately killed her.But why, one may ask, don't women'smagazines take up some of the slack leftby the news media? Gloria Steinemanswered that in her article "Sex, Liesand Advertising" that appeared in thepremier issue of Ms. magazine as an adfreepublication. In her piece Steinemreflects on the times when Ms. tookadvertising. Her stories of the demandsmade by advertisers are atonce laughable and frightening. Shetells how the magazine lost an ad schedulefor Revlon products after it featuredRobin Morgan's ground-breaking articleon women in the Soviet Union producingfeminist, underground, self-publishedbooks. The story won the prestigiousFrontPage award. "Nonetheless,"writes Steinem, "this journalistic coupundoes years of efforts to get an adschedule from Revlon. Why? Becausethe Soviet women on the cover are notwearing makeup." Steinem also citesinstances of advertiser s refusing to placetheir ads unless they are put next tostories that promote their products, andare not put in issues which deal withcontroversial issues like "gun control,abortion, the occult, cults, or the disparagementof religion." So through thepressure of the corporations that providemost of the money to keep magazineslike Glamor or Mademoiselle onthe stands, it looks like there isn't goingto be anything "controversial" or forthat matter terribly feminist comingfrom those fronts.But it's important to understand thatwhat is affecting the coverage of women'sissues also affects the coverage of everythingelse. It isn't just women who getshafted — it's disenfranchised peopleeverywhere. Reporters Amy Goodmanof Pacifica radio's WBAI in New YorkCity and Alan Nairn of The New Yorkermagazine recently visited a country mostAmericans haven't heard of: East Timor.On November 12, 1991 they saw Indo-There isa pattern,particularlyamong theWashingtonpress corp, ofletting thepeople in powerset the agendaand spin thestorynesian troops fire into a crowd of EastTimorese attending a funeral, killing atleast 75 to 100 of the mourners. Whenthey tried to stop the massacre, Goodmanand Nairn were beaten unmercifully bythe troops. Nairn sustained a fracturedskull and Goodman says they probablystopped short of killing them becausethey kept shouting out that they wereAmericans.This was not the first, and, so far, it hasnot been the last massacre in Timor.During the '70s it is estimated thatbetween 100 and 200 thousand EastTimorese were murdered by Indonesiantroops who took over the country afterPortuguese colonists withdrew. Althoughthe U.S. found such behavior bySaddam Hussein worth starting a warover, they've never taken much notice ofIndonesia. Goodman says the reason forthis is simple: "Iraq is a U.S. enemy andIndonesia is a U.S. ally." The UnitedStates has long supplied Indonesia witharmaments and has coveted their waterwaysand oil reserves for "nationalsecurity" purposes. What Goodman alsonotes is that the press hasn't takenmuch notice of East Timor either. Theissue here once again seems to be theWashington-centeredness of the media."If administration officials don'tsend out press releases and make a bigdeal of it, the media doesn't really seemto be interested," says Goodman.Goodman and Nairn's experiencedid receive some coverage. Amongthose that picked up their story werethe New York Times, the WashingtonPost and National Public Radio.But, Goodman says, "They probablywouldn't have noticed the massacreif there hadn't been two U.S. journalistsinjured." Goodman also notesthat she and Nairn have had to fighttooth and nail to get most of thecoverage they got. She says the twoeditorials in the New York Timescondemning the massacre werelargely a result of prodding by Nairnand herself. Both Nairn andGoodman are hopeful that more attentionmay now be drawn to EastTimor because since the fall of theSoviet Union Indonesia is no longeras strategically important to the U.S.Meanwhile, people ofcolor in this countrydon't fare much better. According toanother FAIR study, 30 percent of allmen of color in front page articles in theNew York Times, the Washington Postand USA Today were athletes, another14 percent were criminals, and all thewomen of color pictured in the WashingtonPost front page were victims offire, poverty or homes destroyed bydrugs.So even if women and minorities havemade some headway in the past 20years, it looks as if the media is still inthe Stone Age. To bring a little realityinto their lives — and news stories —you might try sending letters to yourlocal newspapers, not to mention theNew York Times.But then again, maybe Thelma andLouise had the right idea.•Laura Sydell has reported for NationalPublic Radio. Her documentaries havewon several awards, including theClarion Award For Women in Communications.36 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

E AGAINSavannahpressed itselffull-lengthagainst mywindowsat night, palmtrees blowing,cicadaswhirring, carshonking...ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992"All I ever wanted to do was write," says39-year-old National Book Award nomineeMelissa Fay Greene, author of 'Prayingfor Sheetrock. "But I didn't knowhow to make the connection betweenhigh school and college writing andmaking a living. After I graduated fromOberlin college in 1975,1 sent letters to20 newspapers and VISTA (Volunteersin Service to America). I never heardfrom the newspapers but I was acceptedby VISTA."Greene was assigned to Georgia LegalServices (GLSP) and in no time flatbecame a skilled paralegal and communityorganizer. "Legal Services was partof the whole social justice movement,"she recalls. Her assignments were complexand varied: Representing clientswho were erroneously denied welfare,food stamps, Medicaid, SupplementalSecurity Incomeand disability; attendingadministrativehearingsas a client representative;teachingpublic-housingtenants their' rights; and organizing a coalition to! stop cutbacks in health care. "It waswonderful work," she says, eye-open-. ing, meaningful, rewarding. She did itfor three years, one as a VISTA volunteer,two as a GLSP staff paralegal.Greene's contentment during this period,her near total immersion in thelives of her clients, her increased senseof self-worth and joy at being on the sideof racial and economic justice, was enhancedby geography, for Greene hadlong hoped to return to the state of herbirth. "I went to Georgia every summerto see my grandmother and I'd alwayswanted to return there to live," shesays. "Ihave vivid early childhood memoriesof it, the lushness of it, the dirtstreets, the red clay, those childhoodconnections of loving the land, the mixof people, the accents. My main interestin school hadbeen history,Southern historyand intellectuallyunderstandingslavery.There were nolonger "colored"37

water fountains in Georgia. But in ourGLSP office area, 18 counties, therewere still segregated movie theaters.When our office came upon MclntoshCounty (the subject of Praying forSheetrock), it was so isolated, so beautiful,it looked like Hilton Head, NorthCarolina, must have looked 100 yearsago."But the look of untouched, undevelopedcommunity had an ugly underside:"An old and isolated Black communitylived in a sort of pale outside acentury of American progress and success.The Black people survived by raisingvegetables and keeping chickens, byworking menial jobs in Darien (thecounty seat) and by fighting the networkof tidewater rivers and backwaterswamps. They lived without plumbingor telephones, some without electricityor heat, well into the 1970s. They sawtheir children bused to an all-Blackschool with used supplies and outdatedtextbooks. Few voted."Georgia Legal Services had been calledin to Mclntosh by three local Black men,Thurnell Alston, a disabled boilermaker;Rev. Nathaniel Grovner, and SammyPinkney, a disabled, former New YorkCity detective. Sick of business asusual, the three initiated a lawsuit toend the institutional racism at the coreof area government.Convincing longtime community residentsto sign on as plaintiffs in thelawsuit was no easy task, but GeorgiaLegal Services staffers gave it their all.One particular meeting at the CalvaryBaptist Fundamental Independent MissionaryChurch is still vivid for Greene."At one point the minister invited me tostand up front to help lead a hymn. Ithanked him but declined, explainingthat on top of being unable to sing, I wasJewish. Welcome to you,' he cried. 'TheBlacks and the whites, the Greek andthe Jew, we're all children of Jesus.' Hesaw me as an outsider like them. Ithelped us communicate."The service was a heady experiencefor Greene and other GLSP staffers."People were there, packing the pews,singing and strategizing afterwards. Itwas the Civil Rights movement I hadread about in other places. Here, 10,20years later, I was participating in it."By this time, however, Greene, wasliving in Savannah, was experiencinga powerful, simultaneous, call toher original vocation — writing. "Ibegan to work on full-length, nonfictionarticles in the evenings afterwork," she wrote in an article called"On Writing Nonfiction." "It wasas if the city, Savannah, presseditself full-length against my windowsat night, palm trees blowing,cicadas whirring, cars honking, andrather than keep it at bay in order tocreate fictional worlds, I opened mynotebooks to it. I interviewed peopleI'd met through work — elderly Blackand white clients, mostly — and wroteMy maininterestin school hadbeen history,Southernhistory andintellectuallyunderstandingslaveryportraits of them, reconstructing,through their memories, Savannahin the 1930s, the 1910s, the 1890s.My oldest subjects were still immersedin worlds now all but extinct."Those worlds spanned much of thestate, and introduced her to a widerange of people. In Mclntosh County,for example, there was Miss Fanny, oneof the area's most colorful and respectedBlack matriarchs, who spoke her ownbrand of English seasoned with Gullah,an oral language whose masters have,until recently, eschewed recording it."She would talk about going into placesthat had this thing, a picolo, whichmeant a jukebox. She would screamwith laughter when I asked what particularwords meant. Then there werethe stories involving buckets of guano,"which Greene eventually came to understandas chickenshit fertilizer."I had done the research, interviewingpeople in Mclntosh County, when I wassingle and childless. I worked on it onand off. I did it originally to capture thevoices, and the moment I took themdown I knew I'd get them out into theworld someday. I knew I had a treasureof interviews stored in boxes in my basement,"she says.Still, by 1988, when Green started topull together the material that wouldeventually become Praying forSheetrock, she was a wife and the motherof three daughters. (She is currentlypregnant again, due in late May.) "Ireally like the chaos of children underfoot,the constant creativity, but at thesame time writing is a way to straightenthings up, a way to order the chaos,away to sweep the Legos under thebedcovers."The children have forced me to focus.Before I had children, I used to readpoetry and slowly build up to the momentof writing. Now, the minute they'reout of the house I sit down to write. It'skept the writing fresh for me, it's thework I can't wait to sit down and do, arace against the clock."Now that writingPraym,g/or Sheetrockis behind her, Greene devotes her timeto articles and more manageable, shorttermprojects. Meanwhile, she maintainsregular contact with the manywomen and men whose stories makeSheetrock such a memorable, importantbook. Recently, in fact, when she andher children were paying the Alstons avisit, the entire Greene clan got anotherlesson in the ways of Mclntosh County.Warning Becca Alston that her oldesttwo children had just been exposed tochicken pox, she was shocked to seeBecca lead her three daughters into herchicken coop. There, she proceeded "toscare the daylights out of them by shooingchickens at them. The country curefor chicken pox, it seemed, was to causea chicken to fly directly over a child'shead. It proved to be an ineffective cure,although diverting."Sharing life experiences, getting pastrace and class and truly communicating,truly listening, is what Greene'swork is all about. And while MclntoshCounty 1992 is still far from an idyllicplace to live, the capturing of the voicesand ways of its residents provides aliving testament to human resilienceand the struggle for dignity. •38 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

PRAYING FOR SHEETROCK: A Workof Nonfiction by Melissa Fay Greene(Addison Wesley, Reading, MA;$21.95 hardcover).The area is called Mclntosh Countyand encompasses Georgia's coastalislands: Broughton, Butler, Queens,Sapelo and Wolf. Humans, numberingabout 7,000, struggle to tameswamp, marsh and forest. The lion'sshare of the area's workers findemployment in the fishing or timberindustries. Most, save a few localdrug dealers, are poor; slightly morethan half are African-American. Manyspeak Gullah.Most Blacks, says Melissa FayGreene, still live in "slave or sharecroppershacks — made out of woodand wind — or in trailers on dirtroads that disappeared into the pinewoods or in simple cinder-blockhouses." Even a decade ago themajority lived "without plumbing,telephones, hot water, paved roads,electricity, gas heat or air conditioning.Their tiny hamlets offered nogoods or services other than a nailedtogether church, a rundownlaundromat, a juke joint, a beauticianworking out of her side porch, apalm reader, and maybe a 'shine'house." Not surprisingly, until themid 1980s not a single African-Americanmayor, council member, countycommissioner, sheriff, judge or grandjury member had been elected orappointed. Furthermore, there wereno Black salespeople, cashiers, bookkeepers,bank tellers, librarians, firefighters, letter carriers, welfare workers,phone company employees orcourthouse staffers to be found. Inshort, reports Greene, "For most ofthis century the Mclntosh CountyBlack people lived much as theyhad since emancipation. They reliedon the Lord, the sheriff andthe neighbors."And therein — in a deep and trustedsense of community, neighbor toneighbor — lay the beginnings of theunraveling of the white Mclntoshpowerbrokers. The "season ofchange," as Greene calls it, began in1972 when a white policeman shota Black man named Ed Finch forallegedly disturbing the peace. Alocal factory worker, Thurnell Alston,along with a preacher and a formerNYC police officer now residing inMclntosh, seized the moment, organizingthe Black community againstpolice violence.Although their victory was shortlived— while Finch was given medicaltreatment at City expense andthe police chief was removed fromoffice pending an investigation, thechief was ultimately reinstated bythe City Council and Finch was rearrestedand served six months in jail— the lessons gleaned from the experiencewere not. For the first time,African-Americans publicly articulateddissatisfaction with the way oftheir world, and began to meet regularlyto discuss the civil wrongs thathad rocked other parts of the U.S.years earlier.Shortly after the Finch debacle, theschool board voted to displaceChatham Jones, the only Black onthat body. Alston and cohorts respondedby starting a chapter of theNAACP and founded the MclntoshCounty Civic Improvement Organization.Meetings were lively, filledwith the songs of choirs begging fordivine guidance, as ideas promptedby newfound anger were debated.The retired NYC cop, SammiePinckney, the most politically savvyof the three leaders, contacted legalservices lawyers about systemic electoralfraud and other improprietiesthat rendered Blacks second class.Voting irregularities were investigated,demands were voiced, andBlacks, empowered by the momentumaround them, began runningfor office. Alston, himself, waselected to the county commissionin 1978.Although Alston served for 10 years— and succeeded in overseeing thecreation of a hospital authority, aphysician-staffed medical buildingin one of the county's most remoteareas, and brought plumbing andelectricity to settlements wherepeople had always used wells andouthouses — he also found himselftempted by the power of hisposition. His ultimate downfall,however, was tempered by thefact that his personal disgrace wasnot met with a return to the past.In fact, by 1989 the tables hadbegun to turn. Not only were Blackmen gaining entree into previouslyall-white arenas, but women, too,were staking a claim to dignity.Evella Brown, an African-American,was elected to the schoolboard; a Black man displaced "alongtime white county commissionerin a racially mixed district;a Black woman runs the tourismoffice; and a Black woman tellerworks in the Darien bank."Equality reached? Of course not.But in prose rivaling the most dramaticand compelling of novels,Greene brings us deep into the gut ofMclntosh County and reaffirms severalold truisms: Power concedesnothing without demand, and thewheels of change grind slowly, butthey grind.— EJ.B.ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199239

Battered AndAbused. ThePerpetratorWas MyMother40 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

LETHAL CIRCLEby Paola D'EllesioAlthough I didn't realize it at the time, for me thedestructive, generational, abusive cycle thatwas our family heritage began to rupture thatday I phoned my mother. Phoning her is itselfa noteworthy event, given the nature ofour relationship and the way we communicate.In the past 12 years we've talked on thephone less than a dozen times, and I've initiatedmost of the calls. Via the conduit of myfather, my mother has let it be known it's myduty to call her. After all, she's the mother andI'm the daughter.My mother is a guidance counselor, working one-to-one withelementary school kids who have emotional problems. Duringthis cataclysmic phone conversation, she shared a recentprofessional triumph of which she was extremely proud. In anexuberant voice she told me about Joseph, an engaging,gentle child of eight, unable to express himself in anythinglouder than a whisper because he's scared to speak up. Josephis a battered child: Physically battered at home and verballybattered at school. Acting as his advocate, my mother tookaction against his parents and intervened with his teacherand the school's principal.As I listened to the voice that makes my hair stand on end,my throat swelled, preventing me from swallowing. I had tohang up because I was overcome by the irony of this situation.At one time I too was barely audible. Like Joseph, I wasbattered and abused. The perpetrator was my mother.ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199241

She was 22 when I was born; by todaysstandards, a child herself. Then, twoyears later, my brother was born. I usedto believe my brother and I were at faultwhen she lost her patience and lashedout. I thought we deserved the beatings,that ifwe hadn't behaved so badly, Momwouldn't have beaten us with her fists,or whatever household object was closeat hand. When, as an adult, I found thecourage to step back into the terror ofmy childhood, I discovered that weweren't bad kids. I realized my mother'srages had been unpredictable and, forthe most part, unprovoked by anythingwe'd done. My brother and I were justregular kids. It was my mother who was"irregular."From the onset, she couldn't cope withmotherhood. She was burdened by afury against unnamed, therefore, overpoweringforces. She had been an emotionallydeprived child and seemed compelledto pass that on.My brother and I were beaten everyday. He bore the brunt of her angerbecause he was unable or unwilling togive in to her show of force. When shesmacked me, I cried, and she'd stophurting me when she felt my humiliationwas complete. My brother was different— tougher, maybe, or more stubborn.When she'd pummel him, he'dlaugh in her face or he'd sing a nurseryrhyme over and over. His seeming indifferenceto the pain fueled her fury. She'dhit him harder. And the stronger herpunch, the more raucously he'd laugh.I'm 37 years old and have had recurrentnightmares, haunting flashbacks Ican't exorcise where I am forced to relivethe horrors of the past. In these memorydreams,my mother picks me up andflings me against the wall. My headsmacks the edge of the book shelf andthe impact sends books cascading to thefloor. Aiming for whatever part of myface she can reach, my mother uses abook as a battering ram. Instinctively,my arms fly up to protect my eyes butthey're ineffective. My brother and Iplead with her to stop and she relents fora moment. Then she redirects the attackonto my brother.I watch as she yanks him by his earsand wrestles his pliable body to thefloor. This hefty 29 year old sits on hersmall son's chest, pinning his arms tothe floor with her fat knees. She curseshim, clawing the hair above his forehead.Using the thick strands as a lever,she bangs his head against the floor inan insanely syncopated rhythm. First Ihear the profanity, then, unmistakableand frightening, the dull thud of mybrother's head against those woodenparquet tiles she's so proud of. Apparentlyunfazed he chants, "Mary had alittle lamb" as if to ward off the evilbefalling him and to invoke the protectionof the patron saint of five year olds.I'm frantic. Terrified she'll kill him, Ijump on her back and try to pull her off,but it's futile. With a swat of her arm shedislodges me. I pitch books to no avail.She stops bashing his head only in herown time, when my brother's silencespeaks to something in her that mightbe greater than her anger.It was clear to me we needed protection.I went to my dad first, but he didn'tbelieve me. My mother reminded himthat I was a storyteller, though sheneedn't have interfered because my fatherrarely paid attention to me, unlessI disturbed his peace and quiet or mymother reported that I'd been bad. Thenhe'd mete out extremely humiliatingand entirely inappropriate punishments.It did no good to beg for leniency.This was the man who made me wear atoo-large, traffic-paint-yellow rubberraincoat and clunky, over-the-shoe,knee-high galoshes for four consecutivesunny days, to and from school — justbecause he'd "caught" me carrying myrain boots instead of wearing them. Heescorted me to class all four days, notonly to make sure I kept this ugly gearon, but also to remind my teacher that,because I was being punished, I had towear this outlandish garb during lunchrecess and free play too.In reality, I had little hope that he'dhelp us. I was invisible to him, notbecause of my age, but because of mygender. My father has always been kingof the male chauvinists. Because he hasno use for women except when we servehis needs, I was discounted and disregarded.My mother fared no better. Hetreated her with condescension and disrespect.Though he never hit me, I wasterrified of him and I'd mutter "meanold man" under my breath to his recedingback.Next, I told my maternal grandmother.I was seven years old and didn't havethe savvy to realize my grandmothercouldn't give credence to my reports;42 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

her acknowledgement could have widerimplications. How could she accept thefact thather daughter did terrible thingsto her grandchildren? It might meanshe too had been a bad mom.My teacher was another dead end.She scolded me, insisting that if only Iwatched where I was going and paidmore attention to what I was doing, Iwouldn't bang into things and bruisemyself. She kept saying what a lovelyperson my mother was: "So sweet. Sonice."She was right. My mother was nice —to our teachers, the neighbors, and,occasionally, even to our friends. Butshe was rarely nice to us.I have heard that if a dog births pupswhen her instincts for mothering areimmature or non-existent, the dog maysimply abandon her litter. Maybe mybrother and I would have been better offif my mother had deserted us, or acknowledgedshe didn't love us or couldn'tcare for us. Her truth might have savedus. But my mother couldn't face thesefeelings. Instead she seduced us with, "Ilove you. Who else is going to love youthe way I do?" Tucked in bed each nightin my lightless room, I prayed that noone ever would.The beatings ended abruptly when Iwas 12 or 13. We three were in thekitchen. My mother was chopping vegetables,my brother andl were eatingatthe counter, he in the seat closest to her,I next to him. Suddenly, brandishingthe knife, she lunged at him. My brotherducked under the counter and ran out ofthe kitchen through the door farthestfrom where she stood. He took refuge inhis room, slamming the door behindhim. She flung it open with such violencethat the brass doornob punchedthrough the hollow closet door directlybehind. I was close on her heels, tearingat her shirt tails in a vain attempt tothwart her. Using the small pool tablewhich stood in the middle of the room asa partial cover, my brother scootedaround and crouched low. Awkwardly,my mother came after him.In what seemed like slow motion, mybrother stood up and reached for thewooden cue stick. At first, like a warmupbatter, he rested the pool cue againsthis shoulder for one brief moment beforehe touched the blue chalk-stainedtip to her breastbone."Put the knife down."My mother didn't move. She seemedmesmerized.ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992She denied myaccount andmy memories,accusing me ofhaving anoveractiveimagination"Put that knife down."Something in my brother's voice scaredher. It scared me too. Gingerly, sheplaced the knife on the green felt table."If you ever touch us again I'll kill you.I'm going to break both ofyour arms andthen I'm going to stab you. Don't comenear us again."Afterward, I stayed out of my mother'sway as much as possible until I left herhouse for good. I had no idea where mysalvation lay but I did know that tosurvive I had to flee. Books and schoolbecame my haven. Men too. At 17, Imarried the man I fell in love with. Thetwo of us became family. It was all thefamily I wanted.From the time I became sexually activeuntil well into my late 20s, I wasextraordinarily vigilant about birth control.Just one method wouldn't do. Iused two and sometimes three differentdevices at a time because I was terrifiedof passing on my genes and my heritage.Just before my 30th birthday, myhusband, the voice of sanity on thisissue, suggested I examine the pain ofmy childhood in order to free myselffrom this fear.It made sense. But I continued tosidestep the question of motherhooduntil my body, with an agenda of itsown, flooded me with the desire for achild. Still, I shied away because I wasafraid I, too, would be an abusive mother.I tried sedating myself with work, withfood and then with alcohol. But ultimately,I knew, my past demanded attention.I know so few of the details of mymother's history. Because both her parentsworked outside the home, mymother was cared for by her great-aunt,a woman she loved and who loved herdearly. Her father, absent more oftenthan not, was the family disciplinarianalthough he didn't believe in hittingkids. When she'd exceed the limits herfolks set for her, her father would deliverexcruciatingly lengthy lectures thatmy mother found agonizing. She saidshe'd have preferred a beating. Mymother doesn't talk about her mom alot, but I too know the sting of mygrandmother's sarcasm.For as long as I've known her, mymother's been in a state of siege — anenraged woman unable to admit to thevolcanic anger churning beneath thethin veneer of her sociability. Her frenziedemotions endangered us but thereal devastation was caused by the denialof her feelings.I have other siblings. None of us escapedunscathed. My brother had hisfirst epileptic seizure at 19. Might hisepilepsy be related to the beatings abouthis head? None of us knows. None of ustalks about it.My own recovery has been painful. Myseparation from my mother did littlegood because, unconsciously I'd assimilatedher bitter legacy and her corrosiveattitude about the world. Unconsciously,I'd internalized her spirit. My mothercould wound with her fists or her wordsbut I could perpetuate her self-denial,her masochism, her martyrdom. Shewas, after all, my first role model. Fromher I learned that a woman was a second-classcitizen, slightly more valuablethan the family dog because mymother, at least, earned her keep bytending to everyone else's needs. I sawthat a woman's feelings and ideas didn'tmatter. My mother kept hers to herselfbecause no one cared enough to askwhat she thought. I watched my mothercower in the face of my father's aggressionand learned that a woman neverspoke up for herself; she wouldn't presumeto challenge a man. My father wasthe head of the household, the breadwinner,and as such, he knew best. Shetaught me that a woman didn't dareharbor hopes or dreams for herself. Whatwould be the point, since the best mymother could do would be to acceptwhatever place the men in her life, mygrandfather and father in turn, allowedher? Above all, a woman was selfless,the needs of others always came first.43

Like a girl scout, my mother was prepared,ready and willing to cater toeveryone else no matter what the cost,no matter how great a toll it took on herphysical, emotional or financial wellbeing. From her, I learned women werepowerless and doomed to a life sentenceof drudgery, dependence and depression.My mother was a good teacher andI an attentive student.Day in and day out, I mutilated myself,biting my nails to the quick andyanking strands of hair from my sorescalp. Always anxious and afraid I'd door say the wrong thing, I wouldn't speakspontaneously. Instead, I'd silently rehearsewhatever it was I wanted to say,but by the time I finished practicing, theconversation had already passed thepoint at which my contribution wouldhave been appropriate. So I remainedmute. The rare times I spoke, I prefacedmy words with a schoolgirl ritual: I'draise my hand, then ask permission tospeak, and when it was granted, I'dwhisper. When introduced to someonenew, I'd duck my head and stare at thelaces of my shoes. I'd extend my arm ina blind handshake. It embarrasses menow to admit that I behaved like thisuntil I was almost 27 years old.Because I felt helpless in the face oflarger issues, I sought relief in suchmeaningless things as sorting my shoesby color and style and lining them up inrigid rows on the closet floor. Alphabetizingthe books on my shelves made mefeel better, composed; it gave me a false,but needed, sense of self-mastery. I wascompulsive. I'd re-organize immaculatedesk drawers and re-wash and re-foldclean towels. As if on a one-womancrusade against city grime, I'd scrub myapartment with a vengeance born ofmisplaced anxiety.And I expected more from myself thanI did from anyone else. While I'd forgivemy friends their mistakes, I couldn'tabsolve myself. Essentially, I demandedthe impossible — perfection — whichdoomed me to failure. There was nevera time when I was good enough, smartenough, talented enough, funny enough,attractive enough or competent enough.I was deeply distressed. Clinically depressed.And though the healthiest partof my psyche knew I was troubled, Ididn't seek help until suicidal thoughtsbecame a constant preoccupation.What prompted me finally to phone apsychiatrist friend for a referral is whatI now refer to as my "walking nervous/ watched mymother cowerin the face ofmy father's aggressionandlearned that awoman neverspoke up forherselfbreakdown." On my way to work onemorning, a good Samaritan stopped toask if I needed help. Puzzled, I askedwhy."You seem upset. You're crying," heanswered. And when I touched my face,wet and tear-stained, I was shaken. Iknew then I was in desperate need ofprofessional help because I was thoroughlyout of touch with my feelings.When I confided in a trusted colleague,he wasn't at all surprised. In fact, hesaid that during the two years we'dworked together he'd never seen mesmile. Because I'd pictured myself ahappy-go-lucky person, I was shocked.Obviously, something was "off."Therapy was a time-consuming anddifficult process. It required courage andlots of money. Often, I lacked both. Imade a few false starts. The first doctorwas a Freudian who insisted I free associatewhile lying on the couch. Uncomfortablewith this method, I pushed forface to face "talk" therapy. Still, I toughedit out three times a week for almost ninemonths, until the following unpleasantnessconvinced me that neither thismethod nor this doctor was right for me.During one 50-minute "hour," I wasinterrupted by an electronic beep. Thenoise prompted me to ask if my sessionswere being taped. The psychiatrist responded,"Well, what do you think?"Unable to get a simple "yes'' or "no" Ifinally walked out.Next, I saw a woman who was extremelyempathetic and helpful. Unfortunately,we worked together for only amonth before she referred me to someoneelse who had more time availablethan she. I felt betrayed and had difficultytrusting the new therapist. Whenhe asked about my childhood I told himit'd been idyllic. That's how I rememberedit then. After more than a year oftherapy he suggested hypnosis. Withhypnosis, I recovered pieces of my pastthat I had long since buried.After this, I worked with a womantrained in transactional analysis, thena therapist who helped me act out myanger and despair physically, in a protectedenvironment. All told, I spentclose to six years in therapy. At the timeI was frustrated by the little progress Iwas making, but, looking back, I believeit saved my life. The high level ofanxiety I'd always lived with (and thereforewas unaware it was destructive)disappeared. As did my suicidalthoughts.This phone call to my mother left medebilitated. Regressing to that once familiarchildhood behavior, I was speechless.I couldn't ask for details aboutJoseph nor could I ask about my memories.At a loss, I hung up and wanderedaimlessly around my apartment, talkingto myself. Angry and bewildered, Itried to make sense of our conversation.Who is this woman to whom I'm stilltied? What motivated her to defend achild in her care when she'd been unableto tend to her own with compassion?And, most importantly, how couldI put closure on the past? Temporarilyincapacitated, I paced, repeating mypersonal mantra, "calm is the key."This worked. And with the advent ofself-control, I sat down and wrote mymother a letter.Dear Mom,You often suggest we meet so that wecan catch up and stay in touch. Butwhen we're together I'm disappointedand uncomfortable. Disappointed becausewe're unable to have an authenticconversation and uncomfortable becauseI sense that you want somethingfrom me.I was taken aback by our last conversation,about Joseph. Timid Joseph,afraid to speak up because his fatherbeats him and his teacher calls himnames. I was staggered by the ironybecause I was just like him. Unbidden,childhood memories plague me still.I can't begin to understand your be-44 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

havior. What drove you to act as youdid?I know that, like every other woman,you had no preparation for motherhood.On-the-job-training meant followingyour instincts and relying on the modelsothers provided. It must have beendifficult having us so close in age whenyou were a young newlywed. Everydaychores must have been a nightmarewhen we lived in that second-floorwalk-up. How did you manage thestairs with the two of us and a stroller?I don't remember a babysitter. I knowDad wasn't home to help. Did anyonerelieve you? I can imagine how hard itwas with an active toddler, and a chronically-illnewborn.Isn't it absurd there's no training forparenthood? Unlike driving a car, nolicense is required. We spend years inschool getting degrees, preparing forour future, but parenting isn't part ofthat. How bizarre!Standing up for Joseph shows howmuch you've grown. Your brave deedgave me a chance to re-examine my ideaof who you are. It made me think aboutyour personal struggle. What made youdecide to protect Joseph? How did hiswelfare become your priority? I'm gladyou helped him.Unlike Joseph, I'm an adult now anddon't need protection. What you couldn'tgive me then, you can't give me now. Ihave to leave the past behind. It'll freeme to envision my future and seize itspossibilities.Do my prospects include a genuineON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992relationship with you? I don't know ifit's possible to forge a new way to betogether.Today, I'm thinking about the sweatersGrandma knitted, particularly theblue turtleneck she made when I was ateenager. The pattern gave her trouble,and more than halfway through, sheabandoned the written directions altogetherto follow the promptings of herimagination. When she finished, thesweater didn't fit. Unhappy with theway it'd turned out, Grandmaunravelled the wool. Holding my handsupright and parallel, I mimicked thefunction of a spindle as she re-woundthe blue yarn around them. First, shesmoothed the once-used yarn, then tiedit tightly into a ball. She began all overagain.Using her example, I want to re-weavethe threads of my past into the tapestry,the work-in-progress, that is my life.This is one of many letters I've writtento my mother over the years. I've mailednone of them. But this time there was adifference. Instead, I decided to meetwith her to talk about the past.That evening was difficult for both ofus. I felt guilty because she was at adistinct disadvantage. After all, shedidn't know the evening's agenda. Itried to be gentle; still I wounded her.And her tears unsettled me.First, she denied my account and mymemories, accusing me of having anoveractive imagination. She suggestedI talk to my brother to learn the truthabout what really happened. I agreedhe'd be a reliable source.It was from my youngest sister andnot my brother that I learned mymother, visibly upset, appeared on mybrother's doorstep, unannounced, aweek after our meeting. He said onlythat his childhood happened long agoand he thought it best left forgotten.A month after our dinner, I phoned.During our chat, my mother touched onour meeting only once and very briefly,saying, she'd considered sending me aletter. Now, many months later, I'vereceived no letter and she's never mentionedour talk again. Our relationshipremains unchanged.But something had changed — by finallyconfronting my mother with thetruth, I had made a breakthroughwithin myself. I no longer felt like afrightened, abused child but like anempowered woman with the inner resourcesand resolve to break our deadlycircle.Passed from one generation to thenext, this circling had seemed to be mylegacy. Now, for my own sake and forthe sake of the children I hope to somedayhave, I decided it must end. And soI have stopped it; because I am determinedthat my children's birthright willnot be one of fear and abuse but one oflove. And acceptance. And laughter. •Paola D'Ellesio is the pseudonym of awriter living in New York City. She isauthor of many articles on social andecological issues.45

CHOICE BOOKSTHE DART THAT STUNGSusan Faludi is a journalist for theWall Street Journal, who wasawarded a 1991 Pulitzer Prize forwork on how corporate policies andleveraged buyout at the Safeway grocerychain destroyed families andcareers. She currently resides in SanFrancisco.When asked about her decision towrite Backlash: The Undeclared WarAgainst American Women, Faludi said:"I was stung by one of the mostcelebrated darts of the backlashagainst women — the 1986 Harvard-Yale marriage study which reportedthat single, college-educated womenover 30 have onlya 20 percent changeof getting married, while the over 35have only a five percent chance. I wasa 26-year-old yuppie when theNev/sv/eek story about the studycame out — a prime target."Why the use of the term backlash?"Backlash expresses most preciselythe dynamic involved. Because it is areactive force, much of backlash is inresponse to feminism. Historically,BACKLASH: The Undeclared WarAgainst American Women by SusanFaludi (Crown Publishers, NY; $24hardcover)Like a CAT scan probing the Americancultural brain, Susan Faludi examinesthe systemic undercutting of women inthe 1980s. Her thesis of a systematicantifeminist campaign uncovers a relatedbacklash propelled by fear of the"increased possibility that they mightwin it." From Hollywood to the AmericanPsychological Association, fromWashington to scholarly journals, fromMadison Avenue to our own homes, thepropaganda resounds:

movement left no room for motherhood.Faludi also thinks Carol Gilligan's emphasison the "connectedness" of womenplays into the backlash's advocacy of afamiliar supportive role for women. Buther most frightening point is powerfullymade—women have begun to see themselvesas the promoters of the backlashwould have them seen.The backlash decade punished womenfor wanting progress in an inegalitariansociety. Faludi exposes Americansas a sadly fractured people. Her Backlashunderstands well the lives ofAmericanWomen and an emotional chargeunderlies its careful arguments.In Notes of a Native Son, speakingabout the problems faced by African-Americans, James Baldwin said thereare two opposing ideas that must existtogether: Accept any of the world's injusticesfor what they are along with therequirement to never stop fighting thosesame injustices. In Backlash, SusanFaludi's prose and intellectual style reverberateswith this most human dilemma.— Maura GrotellMaura Grotell is a writer and critic,living in New York City.AFTER HENRY by Jean Didion (Simon& Schuster, NY; $21.50 hardcover)Reading Didion's non-fiction is alwaysa learning experience, especially herjournalism collections like this one. Shehas a unique way of seeing and interpretingthe world, and is a master of thetelling detail.She is a terrific writer in so manyways, but for me, a fellow journalist,Didion is the ort of food between theteeth that will neither wash away nordissolve: She is an irritant. Didion is anidiosyncratic stylist through andthrough. There is no moral heft; shetakes no side.Didion may select the usual in journalisticenterprises — the 1988 Presidentialcampaign, the "wilding" gangrape of a woman jogger in Central Park,the Reagan White House — but whenshe applies her off-beat and prodigiousperspective it can get pretty bizarre. Inthe gang-rape piece she meanders offinto another news story about the overdosingdeath of a woman who was havingan affair with a New York Citybuilding inspector. He dumped her bodyas garbage on the street the next morningand his prosecution on minor chargesfailed to make headlines. Didion says,after an elaborate digression on how thecity functions, that people like the buildinginspector don't have the right stuffto become page one news: He's whiteand married, which keeps the womanfrom being portrayed as the white, educatedprincess that the jogger was.Didion's point may be far-fetched, buther details are so marvelous that thestory itself— not where it's headed —becomes everything.Didion's other subject matter casts awider net. That's when she lets looseher eccentric, in/groupie Californiabasedimagination. For example, whilethe building inspector is dumping his"garbage," Henry Kravis, Didion tellsus, is entering his limo. To hell with youif you don't know who Henry Kravis is.(If you don't, he's a short, fat, rich guymarried to clothes designer CarolineRoehm.)Didion writes about a mock baseballgame on the tarmac of an airport whichwas set up as a photo-op by GovernorMichael Dukakis' campaign team. Itwas designed to display the stolid, longsufferingcandidate at his playful andregular-guy best. Didion's copy is loaded"Required reading...would-be candidates, consultants and political junkieswill find [it] riveting....Celia Morris's book made me feel proud."—BARBARA JORDANSTORMING THE STATEHOUSERunning for Governor with Ann Richards andDianne FeinsteinHARRIETT WOODS,President, National Women's Political Caucus:"Celia Morris understands that the realissue for any woman candidate is power —how it is used and how she is perceived usingit. That's what gives special value to thisengrossing 'as-it-happened' tale of 1990's mostsignificant gubernatorial campaigns."Congresswoman PAT SCHROEDER:"Teaches us how much brass, brains, andpatience American women must summon inorder to elect more of their own to publicoffice. It is zestful, fun, and right on target."By Celia MorrisSenator BARBARA MIKULSKI:"More and more, women are seekingpolitical empowerment and political office.Celia Morris's book is the primer on how toget them."GERALDINE FERRARO:"I learned a lot from the experiences andobservations in Storming the Statehouse.Celia Morris's book is a one-stop must readfor statewide campaigns."At all bookstores or call 1-800-323-7445to place your credit card orderCHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONSAn imprint of Macmillan Publishing CompanyON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199247

with these telling "moments." Theminute becomes a metaphor for thewhole. What we have is the absolutebanality of elections and the samenessof the candidates and their campaign.But meaning, the real consequences,the issues are absent. I kept wishingshe'd nail the architects of right-wingSupreme Court loading, of antiabortion,off-the-poor-and-minorities strategiesof the Republican Party which Iam sure Didion opposes.Or in her piece on the Reagans,gleaned, in part from speechwriterPeggy Noonan's own book on service inthe White House, Didion is fascinatedthat Noonan is fascinated to find thesame book of Phillip Johnson architecturemonth in and month out on thesame coffee tables of the same Reaganpeople — a permanent, and one suspects,unopened tome-as-decoration.This kind of reporting, albeit deliciousand damning in its cumulative effect,only says the Reagan people are culturallemmings. So what? Didion wouldrather damn them thus than point anindignant finger at the Reagans' lack ofempathy for the poor; in her world thatwould be uncool, a no-no. It is great toknow that Ronnie sharpens his ownpencils, and Nancy has the "Le Cirquehair-do" of other L.A. matrons who patronizethe chic New York eatery, butnowhere, despite brief glimpses of OllieNorth, do we get a hint that the guy andthe CIA's William Casey, with, I'm sureReagan's idiot approval, nearly pulledoff a coup, a putsch of facist proportions.Instead, we learn the list of buzz wordsof the Ollies and Caseys, the can-dospirit, the style of that ideologicallyfervoredclaque, but not the substance.In her recounting in "Pacific Days" ofa return to UC Berkeley, her alma mater,Didion casts an eye back to the headydays of early nuclear research and paintsa chilling portrait. The "nuclear family,"she writes, was the nuclear scientificcommunity. Security was amatter of badges, but badges also meantbig money and government interest."Badges were the totems of the tribe,the family. This was the family thatused to keep all the plutonium in theworld in a cigar box outside GlennSeaborg's office in Berkeley, the familythat used to try different ways of turningon the early 27-and-one-half inchBerkeley cyclotron so as not to blow outlarge sections of the East Bay powergrid. 'Very gently' was said to workbest."I love this but I want more of thenuclear ideology. Didion's passion is thesound of things, the look, the style, thewords people use. At one point in "PacificDays," Didion reports a conversationshe finds illustrative of her own,and, by implication, Berkeley's odd mindset: "I remember trying to discuss TelegraphAvenue with some people fromthe English Department, but they werediscussing a paper we had heard on theplotting of Vanity Fair, Middlemarch,and Bleak House. I remember trying todiscuss Telegraph Avenue with an oldfriend who had asked me to dinner, at aplace far enough off campus to get adrink, but he was discussing JaneAlpert, Eldridge Cleaver, DanielEllsberg, Shana Alexander, a Modestorancher of acquaintance, Jules Feiffer,Herbert Gold, Herb Caen, Ed Janss,and the movement for independence inMicronesia. I remember thinking that Iwas still, after 20 years, out of step atBerkeley, the victim of a differentdrummer."I, who live in Berkeley, can resonatewith the insider references on her list,and I know that any place has its ownrange of arcane references. What is disingenuousof Didion is that she presentsherself as a wounded bird, as if her ownconversational proclivities are out of it.Good Lord, isn't that why we read her?I found it curious that Didion's mostpassionate writing, her most committedstance in this collection is reservedfor the writers' strike. At last, she writeswith true class consciousness. Her, andthe other writers' real enemies are thefat cats of Hollywood: The producers,directors and stars. Didion admits herethat the strike was not really aboutmoney — they lost more being on strikethan they gained in the settlement. Itwas about power and respect. In abruised tone she reports every sluragainst writers by those fat cats. Thekicker is the scene at the 1988 DemocraticNational Convention in Atlanta.As a journalist Didion could only securea second -class badge that limited heraccess to the convention floor. Spottinga Hollywood acquaintance/"friend," directorPaul Mazursky, sporting the highestranking badge — an all-access pass— she asked him if she might borrow itfor half an hour (so she could do herwork, rather than just observe and hobnob,she hints, as the class enemieswere doing). He said, she reports, thathe would "really like to do this for me,but thought not. He seemed surprisedthat I had asked, and uncomfortablethat I had breached the natural order ofthe community as we both knew it;directors and actors and producers, Ishould have understood, have floorpasses. Writers do not, which is whythey strike."There are times, though, when Didion'smore usual detachment can be a tonic.Better than anyone, she analyzed everythingaround the "wilding" assaulton the white stockbroker-jogger by aBlack teenage gang. After it happened,racial hatred flowed through the streetsand newspapers of New York like hotlava. Whites never understood why theBlack press disclosed her name (whichthe white media had been "protecting").Didion says it all had to do with theentire complex of loaded referencesaround the question of "naming: Slavenames, masters'names, African names,call me by my rightful name, nobodyknows my name; stories in which thespecific gravity of naming locked directlyinto that of rape, of Black menwhipped for addressing white womenby their given names. That, in this case,just such an interlocking of referencescould work to fuel resentments and inchoatehatreds seemed clear."In the end, Didion is a thorny writerfor me. In certain ways she is reminiscentof Diane Arbus, the photographerwhose lens seemed to revel in the grotesqueand bizarre just for its own sake.It is, perhaps, a significant shared biographicalcareer note that both Arbusand Didion first worked for fashionmagazines whose aesthetic for yearswas the more bizarre and kinky thebetter. Aesthetic is the operative word.But in journalism, seeing is not enough.One must try to know and to help othersknow too.—Kate ColemanKate Coleman is a Berkeley-based writerat work on a biography of the late BlackPanther leader Huey Newton, forTimesBooks.BEHIND THE INTIFADA by Jeest R.Hiltermann (Princeton UniversityPress, Princeton, NJ; $29.95 hardcover)In this book, Joost R. Hiltermann examineswhy, in December 1987, after20 years under Israeli military control,the unarmed Palestinians of the WestBank and Gaza suddenly and sponta-48 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

neously rose up in mass protest. He alsodeals with how they have been able tomaintain the intifada, or "shaking off,"now in its fourth year.Arriving in Israel in the fall of 1984,Hiltermann spent five years studyingpopular organizations in the occupiedterritories. His main focus is on thelabor and women's movements, whichhe describes in scholarly detail, oftenincluding interview segments with activists.Hiltermann's analysis of thePalestinian situation draws close parallelswith the anti-colonial strugglesin Asia and Africa earlier this century.In both places an "iron fist" policy similarto Israel's provided the fuel for nationalistsentiment across class lines.In view of Israel's neglect of basicservices for the people of the West Bankand Gaza, and its disregard of the rightsof workers commuting to jobs insideIsrael, it became a matter of survivalfor the Palestinians to create their ownalternative systems of help and support.At the same time, it was in theinterest of the PLO — the Palestiniangovernment in exile — to promote theestablishment of institutions in the occupiedterritories that would providean infrastructure for eventual statehood.The labor unions and women'sworkcommittees, founded in the late1970s and 1980s, reflected thegrassroots dynamics of the PLO.Hiltermann's painstaking study demonstratesthe importance of thegrassroots networks to the success ofthe intifada's survival despite the continualdeportations and detentions ofthe leaders.Unfortunately, what facilitates thenational struggle may not benefit theindividual. It is Hiltermann's conclusionthat the nationalist fervor whichmobilized thousands of women to droptheir traditional roles, take the place ofimprisoned men, leave their houses andlearn to earn money through their skills,may stand in the way of realizing afeminist agenda. He points out that"the public struggle of Palestinianwomen has been, throughout the 20thcentury, a struggle aimed primarily atobtaining national rights... .Whereas inother countries, such as Egypt and Tunisia,early women's organizationsfought for such typically sociopoliticaldemands as the abolition of polygamyand summary divorce, for the right tovote, in Palestine women demandedthat the Balfour Declaration be re-ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992stricted, and that Palestinian politicalprisoners receive bettertreatment."Theanxious frequency with which Palestinianwomen declare that they will notreturn to the kitchen, like their Algeriansisters did after their revolution,bears Hiltermann out. They may not gettheir wish. The women of Palestine areall too aware that in societies in crisisthe aspirations of the individual takesecond place. While the young studentsof the 1970s' women's committees, whojourneyed to the villages and refugeecamps to organize housewives, havecome a long way from the elite 1920s'ladies who attended demonstrationsbehind heavy veils, how far they've comeremains to be seen.Meanwhile, Joost R. Hiltermann hasdocumented an important phase in anational movement that has dominatedMideast history since the end of WorldWar!—Inea BushnaqInea Bushnaq is a New York-based writerand editor. She was born in Jerusalemand has a degree in classics from CambridgeUniversity.GRANDMOTHER MOON byZsuzsanna E. Budapest (Harper-Collins, San Francisco; $1 5.95 paperback)The witches are making a comeback,and from the looks of the planet, ourpolitics, and the general state of genderimbalance, they're coming back just intime. And now they have a handbookfor exploring their lunar powers: GrandmotherMoon by Zsuzsanna (Z)Budapest. However, the book is not justfor witches; it was written for anyonewho wants to explore lunar lore, fromthe ancient festivals to the spells forweight control, mood enhancement andfertility. A fascinating collection ofmoon-based wisdom, Budapest writeslike the full moon enchants. Fairy talesare interwoven with rituals for dispellinggrief, next to the specific messagesof various lunations, cozied up to luciddreamtime-interviews with a host ofblessed Beings. Don't expect to do astraight read-through. In fact, hangonto your chair while you make yourway through these pages. Her wordscast a delightful spell over you whileBright, capable, withtheir whole lives aheadof them...what in theworld could holdthem back? Toooften their education.A newreport documentsthatgirls sufferfrom genderbias in ourclassrooms —that can derailtheir dreams andlimit their futures.The AAUW Report:How Schools ShortchangeGirls. Ordertoday! Call 800/225-9998 ext. 209 or send$ 1 6.95 ($ 14.95 for AAUWmembers) plus $2.50shipping to AAUW SalesOffice, PO Box 2'51 , Dept.209, Annapolis Junction,}49

you encounter all the faces of the Goddess,and all the phases of the moon.The modern day mother of the feminist-witchmovement, Budapest is amysterious, beautiful woman with apassion for bringing pagan spiritualityout of the oppressed darkness and intothe open-air light of day. Her newestbook urges all women to explore theirdeep connection withMother Moon, Starof the Sea, Notre Dame, Egg Mother,Astarte of the Womb, the Beloved Queenof the Night — the Moon herself. (Herother books include The Holy Book ofWomen's Mysteries and The Grandmotherof Time.)Raised in Hungary by an artist-witchmother, Budapest was surrounded bypsychics, painters and revolutionaries—a wonderful brew that launched year sof exploration in communication, theatreand spirituality everywhere fromVenice to Chicago, Los Angeles to finallyNorthern California, where shestars in her own cable TV show called"13th Heaven." Her courageous blend ofactivism and Goddess-centered spiritualityis what distinguishes Budapestfrom other leaders in the women's spiritualitymovement, as well as her quiet,behind-the-scenes role as a teacher ofthe more visible women in the movement,such as Starhawk.Gifted with an uncanny sense of geneticmemory, Budapest has a knackfor uncovering the historically-rootedsources of empowerment for women.She presents those ideas stripped cleanof their centuries of patriarchal overlay.One such ancient finding — what appearsto be a brand new idea — is thecornerstone of Grandmother Moon:Budapest "discovered" much to her surprise— and the surprise of every physician,biologist, researcher and historianshe discussed it with — that humanbeings are lunar primates. Yes, we havea strong sense of lunar consciousness. Itis well-known that women's menstrualcycles correspond to the lunar phases.But the idea of a species of lunar primatesgoes one step further.She writes: "What was it that separatedour species from the other animals?When was the moment of truthwhen we became humans?.. .We becamehumans when we separated the wombcleansingmenstruation (which in othermammals is called estrus, is seasonal,not monthly, and is immediately followedby ovulation and the productionof pheromones that attract the oppositeZsuxsanna E. Budapestsex) from sexual receptivity. We becamehumans when we became sensitive tothe rays of the Moon instead of thechanging sunlight, which triggers estrusin all other animals."The implications are far reaching.Women were able to become free-wheelingsexual beings, unburdened by mandatorybreeding. Indeed, says Budapest,men who have managed to break free oftheir culturally-based distaste over the"messiness" of it all, report that sex witha menstruating woman brings a heightenedarousal; likewise, many womenreport longer and greater orgasms duringmenstruation. Budapest cites researcherswho postulate that men areunconsciously aroused by the menstrualpheromones, the sight and smell ofblood,which may be a holdover from the daysof twice-a-year breeding. Becausewomen, unlike other animals, rarelyhave an egg present during menstruation,the likelihood that they will becomepregnant is reduced. Budapestbelieves that once "women developedmenstruation and freed themselves fromthe need to mate for procreation only,"humans left the world of the primateand entered the world of romantic sentientbeings. And now that moontimesexuality, rather than solar-estrus sexuality,is embraced, lo and behold, theMoon Goddess smiles upon yourlovemaking. In other words, the sex isgreat.Since women have followed theproddings of the moon, rather than thesun, and have separated the egg's ripeningfrom menstrual bleeding by a fullhalf-cycle, a complete 14 days, then certainlywe should recognize in our bodiesthe ultimate wisdom of reproductivefreedom. "Procreation became a choicefor women, a choice won millennia ago,"writes Budapest. We may, therefore,transfer any external authority oversuch issues as our family size to aninner authority, a deep knowing withinourselves. We should be able to recognizeour unique heritage of menstrualwisdom, and live in accordance withGrandmother Moon's blessing. For shehas shined her light on women as glorioussexual beings, not just "breeders,"and it's time to dance under the fullmoon in gratitude and splendor.This is just one of the lessons of GrandmotherMoon. Z. Budapest sprinklesthe entire book with empowering surprisesfor women. The activist is stillalive and well in Budapest. She is merelyfilling the spiritual coffers of women sothat the next wave of important socialchanges may occur. Her work is subtleyet enormous. She stirs the wind thatgives women their voices once again.—Peg JordanPeg Jordan is the founder of AmericanFitness magazine. She is a recent recipientof the Healthy Americans Reportingaward from the President's Council. Sheis also a health commentator on Fox-TVin San Francisco.IN LABOR: Women and Power inthe Birthplace by Barbara KatzRothman (W.W. Norton & Co., NewYork, NY; $10.95 paperback)I wish I'd known sociologist BarbaraKatz Rothman back in 1973 when wewere both experiencing pregnancy forthe first time. If she had been there toinspire me, I might have confronted themedical mafia by birthing my two childrenat home, as she did. Rothman'srevision of her 1982 book In Labor:Women and Power in the Birthplacebegins and ends with the lively accountsof her own birth experiences. In between,she explores, with the eye of asociologist, changes in maternity careand motherhood that have occurredsince she first wrote In Labor a decadeago. Rothman clearly favors home birth,but writes so carefully that to call herbiased seems unfair. The informationshe provides is clear, concise, and extremelyuser-friendly, and her book is agood read, even for those who aren'tpregnant or contemplating pregnancy.Rothman gives a balanced discussionof the differences between the medical50 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

model of childbirth, and the midwiferymodel. For her, the distinction is this:"The medical model shows us pregnancyand birth through the perspectiveof technological society, and frommen's eyes. Birthing women are thusobjects upon whom certain proceduresmust be done. The alternative modelcurrently being developed by the homebirth movement combines elements ofthe holistic-health, back-to-naturemovement. Equally important, it is awoman's perspective on birth, in whichwomen are the subjects, the doers, thegivers of birth." The author's lengthydescription of her vision of the alternativechildbirth experience will surelyappeal to all women.One of her most interesting discussionsis the comparison between homebirth midwives and nurse-midwiveswhose training and practices tend to fitthe medical model. Rothman alignsherself with the home-birth movementand makes the case for the safety ofhome births. The American College ofNurse Midwives (ACNM) does not supportthe movement. Rothman says thefear of co-optation among home-birthadvocates is not unfounded: "Nursemidwivesoperating in the medical establishment,paid by that medical establishment,have a hard time as 'advocatesof the childbearing couple.'" Forinstance, hospital policies sometimesdemands that nurse-midwives use moderntechnology such as internal monitorsand IVs, or that they performepisiotomies, all of which are consideredbad midwifery by women on bothsides of the profession. "For a nursemidwifeto stand firm," says Rothman,"ultimately would cost her her job."Opting out of the mainstream medicalsystem may be the nurse-midwife's onlyroad to professional autonomy.If a nurse-midwife does decide to becomea home midwife, she receives littlecooperation from the medical establishment.Not only is home birth illegalin most states, but there is no accreditedtraining for home birthing. Nursemidwivesare trained almost exclusivelyin hospitals. According to Rothman,home midwives are generally trainedunderground, by serving as apprenticesto experienced midwives. However,she notes that it is almost impossibleto arrange for physician and hospitalbackup should a problem arise.Rothman also discusses the developmentof grassroots consumer move-ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992ments that challenged the medicalprofession's monopoly on maternal andinfant-care services, including GrantlyDick-Read's natural childbirth, Lamaze,the home-birth movement and husbandcoachedchildbirth.If I were forced to criticize this excellentbook, I might note some unnecessaryredundancies. Also, I wish she hadtalked more about home-birth safety—specifically what to do in an emergencythat the midwife is not equipped tohandle. In addition, I wish Rothmanhad included a discussion of the prematureinfant, particularly in terms ofbreastfeeding. The influence of the insuranceindustry on the medical establishmentwould also have been germanein examining the politics of currentchildbirth practices.But the book certainly does not sufferfrom these omissions. In Labor: Womenand Power in the Birthplace is an importantnew contribution to the literatureon pregnancy and childbirth, andso well done that I recommend it toanyone concerned withhealthcare, whocares about women of childbearing age,or enjoys a well - crafted sociologist'sperspective on one of the importantissues of the day.—Elayne CliftElayne Clift is a writer specializing inwomen, health, environment and internationaldevelopment issues. She livesin Potomac, MD.HEALING THE PLANET: StrategiesFor Resolving The EnvironmentalCrisis by Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne E.Ehrlich (Addison Wesley PublishingCompany, Reading, MA; $22.95hardcover)"The human economy is supported bynatural ecosystems, without which wecannot survive but which we are heedlesslydismantling" say the authors atthe beginning of this passionate andwell-reasoned book. Written by twoStanford scholars, it argues that evolutionhas not equipped our species to copewith the creeping catastrophes that areadding up to the destruction of Earth'secosystems. Yet instead of becomingpessimistic or passive, the Erlichs havebeen actively carrying their concerns tofellow scientists and the public.The book which complements the authors'previous and widely known book,The Population Explosion, outlines anagenda for urgent action. They advocateaction for everyone from the individualTHE FIRSTCOMPREHENSIVETEXT ON ANIMALISSUES FOR SECONDARYSCHOOL STUDENTSAnimals in Society-. Facts andPerspectives on our Treatment ofAnimals by Zoe Weil enables studentsand teachers to explorecomplex issues and perspectivesconcerning animal use in a thorough,thought-provoking manner.The book includes imaginativeprojects and poses challengingquestions.Animals in Society covers the wholerange of animal issues, including:• Companion Animals• Animals in Entertainment• Animal Agriculture• Animals Used in Research,Testing and Education• Animals Treated as Pests• Environmental Protection• Endangered Species• Working Animals• Wildlife Management"Animals in Society explores themany aspects of contemporaryanimal use, raising ethical, environmental,educational and practicalquestions in a clear and concisemanner. A very importantcontribution to secondary schooleducation, Animals in Societyshould be in every school libraryand on every teacher's shelf."—Melissa Feldman, M.Ed.Humane Education Specialist• Please send me _ copies ofAnimals in Society at $5.95 each, ppd• I want to support humane educationPlease send school libraries a copyof Animals in Society at $5 95 each, ppd.Make checks payable to AAVS and be sure toinclude your mailing addressSend to Anlmalearn/AAVS801 Old York Rd. Suite 204lenkintown, PA 19046-1685O

layperson to the expert, and from localvoluntary groups to global intergovernmentalbodies. Referring to the GulfWar, its relation to the growing appetitefor oil in modern economies and itseconomic and ecologic consequences,the Erlichs state that "the gigantic andstill expanding scale of human activitieshas already set the stage for muchvaster environmental disasters," includingthe mass extinction of species, starvationfor a billion or more people, malnutrition,social and political conflictsand, perhaps, the breakdown of civilizationitself.Culling the latest knowledge frommany fields of natural and social scienceand drawing on their own considerableexpertise in biology and populationstudies, the Erlichs describe "theslow and insidious collapse" of theplanet's complex life support systems.There is also an interesting discussionof the risks, costs and benefits of inaction,and of alternative strategies andsolutions.The Erlichs are impatient and distrustfulof those who call them alarmists.They reprimand the economistswho, they charge, underestimate thecosts and risks of global warming andother environmental degradation. Theycontend that population growth is asdetrimental to the environment as thecombined effects of risingaffluence andinappropriate technology — though onthis point it could be argued that economicgrowth is every bit as harmful asoverpopulation.One of the most interesting proposalscalls for changing the President's Councilof Economic Advisors (currentlychaired by the authors' Stanford colleague,Michael Boskin, who comes infor some criticism for his views on globalwarming) to a "Council of Ecologicaland Economic Advisors." While thepresent Council sees its business asnecessarily pro-growth, the Erlichs arguethat if it were re-formed to considerthe environment, its members might beforced to take a more balanced view.Then the U.S., the largest polluter of theworld, might even slow down the "environmentalroulette" it is playing.— Shanti S. TangriShanti S. Tangri is a Research Associatewith the Department of Agricultural andResource Economics at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, and Professor ofEconomics at Rutgers Universityin NewBrunswick.PRESCRIPTION: MEDICIDE The Goodnessof Planned Death by Dr. JackKevorkian (Prometheus Books, Buffalo,NY; $23.95 hardcover)Was Jack Kevorkian acting reasonablywhen he prowled flea markets lookingfor the clock motor, switch and solenoidhe needed to build a death-dealing device?Was he compassionate when heused his homemade device to help JanetAdkins die — at a time she chose?If you answer both questions with aresounding yes, you will probably wantto read Prescription: Medicide. If youanswer no, you should read it to learnwhy so many Americans do supporteuthanasia.Consider the evidence:• Of 6,000 daily deaths in the U.S., 70percent are negotiated with medicaltechnology withdrawn or not applied atallQ 43 states recognize living wills bystatute• 28 states allow the appointment of ahealth-care agent to accept or refuseFlynn's School Meadowsweetof Herbology Herbal RemediesEM. W80Est.Ongoing courses inStore Hours: 12-7PMHerbal Medicine.Friday and SaturdayPlease call or writeArcus & Doroth>.for brochure.Proprietors77 East 4th St. New York City, (212) 254-2870treatment for someone else• Maine is considering a law whichwould distribute living wills to individualsbeing issued driver licenses andhunting permits• Montana is debating which identificationto choose for those who havesigned a Durable Power of Attorney —an ID card, form, necklace, tattoo, orbracelet.Kevorkian, a retired Michigan pathologist,spent 30 years researchingthe attitudes of societies—both ancientand modern — toward euthanasia. Hisfindings are astonishing. He found manyindividuals and groups chose deathrather than suffer unbearable pain orrenounce their passionately-held beliefs.Early Christians "chose" to be killed byhungry lions rather than deny theirfaith. A thousand first-century JewishZealots committed suicide at Masadaafter "giving freedom" with knives andswords to their children and wives.Countless "sinful" Japanese chose harakirito gain "passage into the next life."Many of the 64-year-old Kevorkian'sideas are surprisingly new and radical,others are based on ideas put forth acentury or more ago. His proposal forprofessionally-staffed "suicide centers"was first made in 1919 by Dr. C. Binet-Sangle, a French physician who claimed,like Kevorkian, that such centers wouldafford a serene, dignified death andopportunity for harvesting transplantableorgans.Another of Kevorkian's notions probablycame from King Louis XI of Francein the late 15th century who decreedthat a condemned criminal should notbe executed before contributing somethingto science. Kevorkian wants togive condemned-to-die prisoners theoption to choose execution by lethalinjection so their organs can be transplantedand their deaths "bring aboutsome good rather than just serving asan appeasement of society's need forrevenge."Kevorkian also proposes that criminalscondemned to life imprisonmentbe given an opportunity to choose earlydeath so that medical experiments canbe made on their anesthetized bodies.He says such a program would eliminate"the need for experiments on animalsor on ill patients who volunteer tobe test subjects."Kevorkian's research is extensive, hissources meticulously catalogued. Bothmake Prescription: Medicide a valuable52 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

tool for promoting euthanasia and doctor-assisteddeath.On a personal note, my husband, Dick,and I have executed living wills andenthusiastically support the HemlockSociety which actively campaigns tomake public opinion tolerant of the rightof terminally ill people to end their livesin a planned manner. Our decision wasmade after the horror of watching Dick'smother and aunt lie bedridden in nursinghomes for several years. My ownmother signed a living will in 1976.When, after several strokes, her nursinghome talked of sending her to ahospital "for life-support systems beyondthe home's capacity," we wavedher living will at the doctor. We told himshe had insisted, "Don't make me diestuck full of needles like a tired oldpincushion." We prevailed and she diedpeacefully at the nursing home in 1977.I've recently become active in the rightto choose to die movement. My firsttentative steps produced interesting results.While attending an Elderhostel at thePeabody Institute in Philadelphia, I metNancy Robinson, a hosteler from Orlando,Florida who runs the local chapterof the Hemlock Society out of herhome. Nancy and I invited other hostelersto an impromptu meeting to learnabout the Hemlock Society and thedeath-with-dignity movement. Fifteenattended and eagerly accepted copies ofthe living will we had hurriedly duplicatedon the student union photocopymachine.Another project is on my drawingboard:A new Federal law effective December1,1991, requires all patients admittedto any hospital for any reason be askedif they want to plan for their death byfilling out a living will. "The new law isso important it takes your breathaway," said Fenella Rouse, director ofChoice in Dying, a New York-basedorganization active in promoting livingwills and passive euthanasia (removalof life-sustaining equipment ratherthan assisted suicide). "It's like safesex. Once no one would talk about it;now everyone talks about it."I plan to ask the Board of the HealthInsurance Plan (H.I.P.) in New YorkCity to inform its 35,000 members aboutthe new law and to supply living willswhich, when signed, can be placed inthe member's H.I.P. medical record.When H.I.P. gets its program underON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992way, I plan to contact friends in California,urging them to ask the Kaiser Plan— perhaps the world's largest prepaidmedical plan — to do the same.The new law is a stunning step forward,but isn't the time of hospital admissiona tad late to consider such animportant matter? Wouldn't it be moreprudent to discuss it with your doctorwhile you are hale and hearty? Tennesseeand Maryland are considering lawsto permit health insurers to providelower premiums to individuals who executeliving wills. You can bet a similaroffer from H.I.P. or Kaiser would spurmembers to sign their forms in a hurry.Dr. Herbert Cohan, a general practitionernearRotterdam, the Netherlands,might say an apt axiom for the 21stcentury would be: "If you want the bestcare and the most attention from yourdoctor, just ask for euthanasia." JackKevorkian's book is a goldmine of informationon the subject.—Irene DavallTHE IRIGARAY READER, Edited byMargaret WhiHord (Blackwell Publishers,Cambridge, MA; $39.95BROOKSIDE SOAPhardcover, $19.95 paperback)Reading Luce Irigaray is to enter madness—first you think it is hers and thenyou come to the maddening understandingthat it is ours. She speaks about andthrough a hysteria that she teaches is aculturally determined response to a setof social relationships which deprivewomen of language and shape. Herprose itself is dense, convoluted, andevocative. Concrete and abstractthought are mingled so that most readersfind her difficult if not exasperating.But the intrepid are richly rewarded.Irigaray is a member of a loosely affiliatedgroup of revolutionary, highly theoreticalfeminist psychoanalysts inFrance. She is a brilliant philosopher/psychoanalyst whose work is influentialin European academic, psychoanalytic,literary and political circles, althoughshe is still relatively unknownin the U.S. In addition to her practice asan analyst and her continued writingand teaching in philosophy and literature,she is also a feminist activist. Herfirst published work, in psycholinguistics,Le Langage des Dements (1973)Dedicated to Quality.Soap handmade from thefinest vegetable oils, herbs andnatural fragrances.Committed to youand the environment.Recyclable packaging.No animal testing.Women-owned and operated.P.O. Box 55638 Seattle, WA 98155 (206) 363-3701Not So Subtle TeesP.O.B. 410, Lincolndale, New York 10540Tel: (718) 998-2305Thelma & Louise Live!Join the Thelma & LouiseFinishing School GraduatesBlack T's with White Print:Med., Lg., Xlg. $13.00 XXIg., XXXlg. $14.00Black Sweats: Med., Lg., Xlg., XXIg. $17.00"Thelma & Louise Live" Buttons $1.50Send for brochure & wholesale prices.NYC/ST. Res. Add Sales Tax53

was followed by her most famous bookSpeculum (1974). Speculum and ThisSex Which Is Not One were translatedand published in English in 1985.Irigaray sets a task for herself: Tochange the nature of discourse itself inorder for the social and historical relationsbetween the sexes, which are embeddedin the structure of language, tobe revealed. This, then, creates the possibilityfor women to speak outside thepatriarchy. She writes very much in theFrench mode in which the text itself isused to embody as well as explicate thepoint. English-speaking readers whoare unfamiliar with this style will beenormously helped by the editor, MargaretWhitford. Whitford's introductionsto the Reader and to each sectionare scholarly and lucid. She has alsoincluded a sampling of Irigaray's workfrom the most accessible to the mostarcane.In the feminist papers, Irigaray revealsherself as an activist as well as atheoretician,but many American feministsmay find her attack on the notionof equality disturbing. Her point is thatequality always includes the problem ofcomparision: Equal to whom or to what?Irigaray has been attacked as an essentialist,meaning that she fixes women(a la Freud) into their biological destiny.This seems to be a misreading ofher vision of a two-genre culture. Insuch a world it would be possible forwomen to become subjects of their ownexperience and of their own discourse.Then they finally escape the orbit ofbeing "people of men" eternally definedby the other.In the psychoanalysis section, Irigarayestablishes herself in relationship toFreud and Jacques Lacan. Irigarayshows us that Freud revealed the indifferenceof scientific discourse to sexualRESEARCH1-800-241-0325Cindy Brown, M.D.difference, and when describing the conditionof women he created a methodsubversive to the patriarchy, yet at thesame time he stayed fully entrenched init. He never understood the cost towomen of scientificsex blindness. Irigaryseeks to reformulate a psychoanalyticdiscourse rooted in sexual difference.Nevertheless, when necessary, Irigarayis no slouch at patriarchal polemic herself.In The Poverty of Psychoanalysis,Irigaray bitterly dissects thephallocentrism of the Lacanian Schoolin which she herself had been trainedand by whom in turn she had beenpersecuted. A practicing psychoanalyst,Irigaray can attack as only an "insider"can: "Now it so happens that you enjoyprestige, power, love and transferencebecause desire's yet-to-come-into beingis projected onto you. If you are not thereto listen to that...if all that matters toyou is the unvarying reduction of allspeech to the already-said or written,and its reinsertion into economy of repetition,your economy of death, then sayso..."But Irigaray's unique and profoundcontribution lies in the more evocative,dense work where she attempts toachieve her own women's voice; a dauntingproblem since she too must use thelanguage of the father. In The Power ofDiscourse and the Subordination of theFeminine she put the problem as follows:"The architectonics of thetext...confounds the linearity of an outline,the teleology of discourse, withinwhich there is no possible place for thefeminine...."There is a childhood ritual/game wherewe repeat the same multi-syllable wordover and over again until its culturalreferents dissolve and we are left to fallthrough meaninglessness to the understandingthat the phoneme is arbitrary.16816 5TH AVE. S.E. • MILL CREEK, WA 98012Write or call for FREEinformation packet.Cascadia Health Research is a newservice designed to help you become anactive, informed participant in your ownhealth care. Detailed reports availableon any medical or psychologicaldisorder. The reports are prepared byan M.D. and include information aboutthe most current conventional andalternative treatments.This is what happens when we giveourselves over to the texts of a madwoman. She demands that we yield toher if we are to discern her meaning, wemust tolerate the anxiety of fallingthrough the patriarchal order to herdiscourse. In this mad, hysterical demandlies a profound protest as well asthe beginning of an answer.Some hold that the construct of genderis for our time and for the nextcentury what class and race have beenin the 19th and 20th centuries. If that isso, surely the smart money will followthe intellectual fortunes of LuceIrigaray.—Leslye RussellLeslye Russell is a psychotherapist inBerkeley, California.HOFFMAN from pg 4as autonomous individuals, they areexempt from real moral responsibility.All decisions must be made for the goodof the "state"—the good of the husbandand the family — often to their owndetriment. The harshness of the 1988campaign and the barriers to her owncareer came as a surprise to MarilynQuayle. She says she prefers to callthem "yield signs here and there — youdo keep hitting those yield signs." Theyield signs can also turn into brick wallswhen the compromises demand loyaltyto one's husband before honor and couragefor oneself.It has long been rumored that BarbaraBush is prochoice — a politicalstand that obviously has no effect on herhusband and one that Barbara keepsquiet for fear of compromising his politicalagenda. This level of personal andpolitical sacrifice is writ large in thecase of political wives, but is mirrored inthe lives of millions of women who donot hold positions of power and authority.It is merely the extension of the54 ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

IPt&z&eIS S-iJ E SRECOMMENDEDYes, I will take ON THE ISSUES for itsoutstanding coverage of women's issues.Please enter my subscription for the termand savings checked.NameInstitutionAddress(please print)(if applicable)Apt#City State ZipQ1 year (4 issues) - only $14.75• 2 years (8 issues) - only $25.75(save 18% off cover price)• 3 years (12 issues) - only $34.75(save 27% off cover price)• Payment enclosed • Bill meInitialInstitutional rate: add $10 first year; $5 eachadditional. Canadian subscriptions add $7per year: other foreign add $7 (surface mail)or $20 per year (airmail). Savings off $3.95cover price.32BSI

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Madonna image — the mother — theall-giving nurturer who continuallyplaces herself second for the good of thefamily and by her omissions reinforcesthe status quo.If the "Good Girl" and "Number Two"are the roles for which most of the MissUSA contestants are priming themselves,they also may at some time inthe future find themselves in the positionof "Bad Girl." Or, what has beenrecently categorized as the "Bimbo," theultimate sex object. The Bimbo is usuallya bleached blond, tall, buxom, witha "career" in some sort of entertainmentfield. Hillary Clinton describes GenniferFlowers as "some sort of failed cabaretsinger who doesn't have much of a resumeto fall back on, and what's thereshe lied about." (Wall Street Journal)She's the new female prototype. Thenewly created archetype. The Bimbo issexual, she's bad, she fucks powerfulmarried politicians or she knows abouttheir hidden proclivities and she commitsthe cardinal sin of telling. Or wehave the "Accuser," the role of womenwho often stand within that ambivalentgray area, that porous divide that separatesthe Good Girls from the Bad. TheAccuser (Kennedy Smith had one, Tysonhad one, Thomas had one and BillClinton's campaign almost went into afree fall because of one), is a version ofthe Bad Girl. She is often viewed asfatally flawed, ambitious, money grubbing,money hungry, gold digging, a girlwho doesn't play by the rules, who criesfoul or rape to get attention, publicity ormoney. The Accuser may be a goodreligious girl, she may be a virgin hithertountouched, but her coming forward—her speaking against one of the patriarchy— immediately places her in theBad Girl category. The only mitigatingfactor in this configuration is if theAccuser can position herself as much aspossible as a victim — then and onlythen she may be given the benefit of thedoubt. Anita Hill was too arrogant andself-assured; Patricia Bowman toosexual and weak; even Desiree Washingtonhad to confront questions aboutwhy she went out at two a.m.role at a time. The Bimbo may findherself in the role of the Accuser and theAccuser may in fact be a Bimbo whotakes on the role of the Accuser (GenniferFlowers) seeking justice, revenge andperhaps self-respect — some sort ofrecompense for laying her body down orfor having it laid down against her will."Women are created and not born" —who is creating the Bimbo and Accuser?Are women creating themselves in theseroles? Is there any choice or self-definitionpossible? Is Gennifer Flowers anartifact — a creation that comes fullyequipped with tape recorders, bleachedblond hair and the ability to turn menon by, according to the NY Post, "suckingon their lower lips."Joe Klein, writing in New York Magazinean article entitled "The BimboPrimary," believes that the Bimbodoesn't even exist in and of herselfbut is a political phenomenon, an artifactof recent campaign strategies."There was some talk in Democraticcircles that Clinton might steamroll hisway to the nomination, and then he wasconfronted by the ultimate Americanpolitical challenge — 'The Bimbo Primary.'This involved much more thanjust the allegation of a 12-year extramaritalaffair leveled by a remarkable,if inevitable [specimen] named GenniferFlowers." Klein also describes Flowersas a "failed cabaret singer if ever onewalked the earth." He demeans her becauseshe doesn't even play the role ofthe Bimbo accurately. "I loved him," shesaid, doing absolutely nothing creativewith the word "loved." Gennifer not onlyfailed the Good Girl test but the BadOne as well, which demands that notonly are you a fallen sexual woman butthat you fall, unlike Marilyn Quayle,"softly."So now the Bimbo gains power anddefinition beyond the female. She — it— now, becomes the ultimate politicaltest of a candidate's ability to managethe media storm created by her comingforward. As with all macho politicalgames, everything is a matter of winningand losing. Klein feels BarneyFrank won (his Bimbo was a male homosexualprostitute), John Towers lost,and Clarence Thomas won — "con-Many Strong and Beautiful Wfomen.Andotherimages.Cards,posters,T-shirts,book bags!The Bimbo derives her power, as doesthe Accuser and Good Girl Number Two,differentially and derivatively — oftenusing a sexual incident or her sexualityitself as a weapon. Interestingly enough,these roles are not static but flexible.Women can pass from one to the other,frequently inhabiting more than oneOriginal Design by K1K1For free catalog write:POSITIVE IMAGES2304 Hancock Drive #7 AAustin, TX 78756512467-8497ON THE ISSUES SIMMER 1992

fronted by a woman far more formidablethan a Bimbo."Indeed, there is even recognition thatthe Bimbo is also an advertising strategy.According to the Wall Street Journ al"advertisers are finding their portrayalsof women just aren't 'politicallycorrect' anymore." Now a few are takingthe first tentative steps to redefinewomen in advertising. Old MilwaukeeBeer still hasn't given up on its muchmaligned bikini team but AnheuserBusch has launched a new campaignfeaturing women as "real people ratherthan sex toys." Real people? — who'sdeciding?Hill, Bowman and Washington inhabitanother new configuration of thefemale — that of the Accuser. The Accusermay be a Good Girl or Bad. Mostoften she combines both qualities, butjust by becoming an Accuser she stepsoutside of the patriarchy and the traditionalGood Girl roles. She becomes theultimate "whistle blower." Her definitionand acceptability depend on herpast history, her socio-economic level,her race and her class.Hill stood on the divide between goodand bad. A feminist heroine to many,she remains an enigma whose motivesand character are still in question. Acover story in American Spectator entitled"The Real Anita Hill", by DavidBrock, assembled evidence that Hill isweird, a radical feminist, at least mildlyincompetent and, of course, that shelied about Clarence Thomas, bell hooks[as she styles her name], discussingHill in Z magazine, says that ratherthan presenting her testimony as afeminist victory, it was the absence ofeither a feminist analysis on Hill's partor a feminist response that "made thisspectacle more an example of femalemartyrdom and victimization than aconstructive confrontation with the patriarchalmale domination."hooks thinks her long silence on Thomashappened because Hill was actingas a "dutiful daughter," another variationof the Good Girl. "Hill never trulyconfronted the patriarchy because herdiscourse never stood outside of it. Shewas, to the end, a daughter of the system."Hill believed that the system wouldwork for her — that she could tell herstory of disrespect and abuse and havethe Senate Judiciary Committee offer acollective rebuke. She did not predict,foresee or expect that the racial spectreof a Black man lynched was to prove afar more powerful bonding tool than anyaccusation any woman could makeagainst a "brother." The system worked.It worked to insure that any threat to itstotems and agenda were to be removed,eliminated or destroyed. The tactics usedon Hill were traditional and historic. Arecapitulation and redefinition of theGood Girl/Bad Girl themes, but now tothe mix of sexuality and masochismthere was added a bit of the psychiatric;the myth of female madness along withthe spectre of witchcraft. The only thingHill was not accused of was having intercoursewith Satan in an open field ona Sabbath night.Hill has now entered the vaulted stateof celebrity and has made the transitionto media star with talk show appearances,interviews and magazine covers."ACCUSER"[Anita Hill]She remains for some the heroine, others,an example of the long-sufferingBlack woman, and still others will alwaysregard her as a woman who soldher honor for her ambitions. But shewas, and will always remain, first andforemost Thomas' "Accuser."During the Thomas hearings therewas much talk of a "lot of anger outthere." The country went through a consciousness-raisingsession about sexualharassment, money flowed into the coffersof the National Organization forWomen (NOW), and there were publiccries for more women in government.Since Washington and Bowman, morerape victims have stepped forward andwomen now have role models (realwomen) for standing up to the system—ambivalent and imperfect as these symbolsmay be.56 PHOTO RICK REINHARD/IMPACTVISJAISON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

There is also talk now of a new"womanism" — a stand, a bridge, arealpolitik of feminism that would allowfor brilliance, excellence andambition, but with a difference. Thisbrand of feminism would exist in a controlled,directed secondary (partnership)form. No longer the little woman behindthe man or the power behind the throne,it is now the big woman next to the man— a radical traditionalism masqueradingas feminism. After all, HillaryClinton was not asked to be Bill Clinton'srunning mate. She remains his bedmateeven as she sits on six corporate boards.But if feminists are to achieve evergreater power — if we are to roll backthe enormous wave of repression, specificallythe potential loss of abortionrights, the "anger out there" has to befar more directed, focused, and on thesurface.Feminists and the feminist movementare society's Accusers, and as such theyare now poised to receive the same minimization,disbelief and directedaggression as any individual womanwho stands up against a powerful man.They are poised in fact to be society'sultimate Bad Girls.Real revolutions, like great socialchanges, don't happenjustbecause GoodGirls get angry. Anger is not enough.Good Girls have to get bad. Bad Girls dosomething. Bad Girls say no to the system,no to the historical definitions offemale and not to the historical oppressionof their class.When Barnard college asked enteringfreshman to list women they most admired,Eleanor Roosevelt was on thetop of their list. Mother Theresa, GoldaMeir and Madonna were also named.Good Girls or Bad? Who's deciding? •who is a Communist and who is not.Consequently, it has been with considerableanxiety and guilt that I havewritten here that my uncle Archie, eventhough he died in 1990, and one aunt,never left the Communist party. Growingup, we were all taught that belief inCommunism and Party membership isa Constitutionally protected right; thatour system isn't worth anything if itonly protects people with safe views.During the McCarthy years, anyonewho "named names" was to us thatlowest form of humanity, a fink. I stillbelieve that. But right up to his death,Archie was a proud and outspoken Communist,and my aunt was too, thoughshe was never a public figure. If Archiedidn't mind talking about it, why shouldI? So why have all these feelings comerushing back, and why doesn't my nauseaabout writing this go away?Like many kids from the left, I have notolerance for the sustained political activismthat was crucial in the lives of mygeneration's parents. But its lessonslive in me. In the broadest terms, it boilsdown to two basic principles. JoshMostel elucidates one of them whenhe speaks of his father's decision not totestify before HUAC. "See, my fatherwas not a Communist Party member,"he says. "But he had to take the Fifthbecause he did not want to inform onanyone. For him being up there beforethe Committee was not even political. Itwas a human gesture. He just couldn'tdo that to another person. I have alwaysloved that about what he did."The other one is well said by JanetAdes, of all people, who, in spite of herbitterness, has found much of value inher left-wing background. "It is a respectfor working people, for their needs,for what they suffer and what they haveaccomplished. They are people whomhistory usually doesn't count, and yetlarge-scale unionization of the Americanworking class is a major achievement.They do count. Egalitarianism ismy heritage, and I wouldn't give it up foranything."Nor would I. It's a heritage to beproud of.•Portions of this article are adapted fromone that appeared in New York Womanmagazine, August 1988.'The Miracle on 57th Street rrTucked away on the 4th floor of an office building on 57th Street in NewYork City is an elegant boutique & bookshop devoted exclusively towomen's sexual health, self-growth and happiness!We offer books on sexuality, relationships, Tantra, Goddess history,women-created erotica, and an exciting collection of romantic and sensualaccessories to enhance self-love and shared-love.Created by women for women and their partners, Eve's Garden is acomfortable space where women can shop in a new-age environment thatnurtures the intimate connection. And that's the miracle!Send $2 for our mail-order catalog* or visit in person and receive one free.Monday thru Saturday 12 Noon to 6:30.119 West 57th St., Suite 420, NY, NY9 - (212) 757-8651 Either way, start creating your own miracle today!^Endorsed by lending sex educators and lliernpists throughout the countryBLACKLIST from pg 21eyed left wingers, he remembers: "Communistsdon't invest in capitalism." TheBrombergs tried to follow it. "My parentswere naive enough to try and act onit, and to get into terrible trouble with it.A lot of their friends who weren't quiteas honest got blacklisted and had noproblems. They had made a fortune ininvestments and walked away cool. Iremember a lot of conflict over that."Unable to get work, Joseph Bromberggradually went nearly broke.One law that all of us left-wing kidslived by, and that I have lived by untilnow, is that you never, never discussON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992THE WISE WOMAN2441 Cordova StreetOakland, CA 94602(510) 536-3174THE WISE WOMAN, a national quarterly journal, focuses on feministissues, Goddess lore, feminist spirituality, and Feminist Witchcraft.Includes: women's history/herstory, news, analysis, critical reviews,art, poetry, cartoons by Biilbtil, exclusive interviews, and originalresearch about witch-hunts, women's heritage, and women today.Subscription: $15 a year/$27 for 2 years, $38 for 3 years (U.S. funds). ASample copy or back issue: $4 (U.S. funds only). / \Published quarterly since 1980 by Ann Forfreedom. %~ /A FREE 1-year subscription to each Women's Studies teacher thaw Csends in a copy of this ad.1/^^^THE WISE WOMAN, 2441 Cordova St., Oakland, CA 94602. ^57

FEEDBACKPlease direct all comments to:Editors, ON THE ISSUES, 97-77 QueensBoulevard, Forest Hills, NY 11374.DENOUNCING COLUMBUSThe upcoming 1992 celebrations aroundthe "discovery" of the Americas must beactively denounced. As women nationwideparticipate in the protests, I proposewe consider linking the painfulhistory of the film documentary "TheBurning Times" with the horrific violencethat was taking place an oceanaway.The connections exist. At the very sametime Columbus et al were raping, pillaging,and massacring Native Americans,European women — many alsopractitioners of earth-based spirituality— were themselves being annihilated.It has been estimated that fromthe 14th through the 17th century upwardsto nine million people (85 percentof whom were women) were persecutedas witches, tortured, and exterminated.Who knows what collective outrageEuropean women would have summonedup against the atrocities in the"New World" had they not been strugglingto withstand their own holocaust?In solidarity with indigenous peoples,Latinas/Latinos, and African-Americans,women of European descent haveequal reason to abhor the continuedglorification of 500 years of white patriarchalconquest.Cathleen McGuireEcofeminist Visions Emerging (EVE)New York, NYCHEERS FOR ANIMAL RIGHTSOn The Issues is my favorite progressivepublication. I'm glad you includeanti-speciesism in your agenda. I wasnever politically active in any causeuntil I became an ethical vegetarian.Now I'm involved in helping homelesspeople, reproductive rights and animalliberation. If people's consciousness canbe raised enough to be concerned withanimals, they will also be concernedwith human welfare.A ReaderOklahoma City, OKARE THELMA AND LOUISEFEMINISTS?In my opinion, Merle Hoffman, you justdon't get it. How can you deify "Thelmaand Louise," a trashy permissive, antifeminist,antisocial movie, and claim it58as a superhuman statement about howlife should be?This movie does not make any statement,and surely it doesn't express myphilosophy. Two bored women start outon an adventure and meet up with themost unlikely set of circumstances. Thenear-rape and the shooting are somewhatpossible and believable; but whatfollows causes me to churn inside. Howcan these two adult women be so stupidas to compound their errors? How is itpossible that the police didn't find themsooner? How did they both become suchexcellent shots when supposedly theyhad never used a gun before?How can you condone their actions? Iam well aware that it takes some radicalbehavior on the part of a few to reallychange societal norms. But these twoidiots wouldn't even know how to definethe term "societal norms." Maybe youare telling us that they are doing allthese wonderful things unconsciously.Hogwash! You've built a case on a foundationof shifting sand. And your leapsto all the ills of the feminist causes areirrational and bedeviled with non sequiturs.Your crime statistics, althoughprobably accurate, are incomplete,meaningless, and inappropriatelyplaced. For instance you state that 25percent of crimes against women arecommitted by men or family members.What are the statistics aboutcrimes against men? Are they committedby women or family members25 percent of the time? And how doesthis relate to the "Thelma and Louise"escapade?"Thelma and Louise" is a disgraceand does not in any way representthe plight of women and the war weare fighting.Sue FrishbergWest Hollywood, CAIn your excellent discussion of "Thelmaand Louise" you mention the work ofNikki Craft and "Pushing Buttons."While I appreciate the idea of an "experiment,"I can't imagine how puttingeven more violent messages into theculture is going to change anything.Threatening men in general only perpetuatesthe destructive system we alreadyhave. Adopting a warlike mentalityof us-against-them forces everyoneto take sides. Surely we have learnedmore than this.CairrilBloomington, INThank you very much indeed for thecopy of On the Issues. I've circulated itaround FPA. I found it very interestingand especially your editorial on "Thelmaand Louise." It is playing here in Australiaand women are loving it.Margaret McDonaldChief Executive OfficerThe Family Planning Association ofNSW LtdPLAYING HARD TO GETI picked up the Winter 1991 On theIssues when I was in San Francisco lastNovember, and have found it stimulatingand useful. I like your blend ofnational and international issues, andthe effort you make to trace out connectionsand assumptions in your pieces.We need more places where good feministwriting, grounded in analysis ofwhat is going on around us, can befound. However, the magazine is notreadily available in Springfield, Illinoisso I am writing directly to you to find outif it is possible to subscribe.Barbara J. HaylerAssociate ProfessorSangamon State UniversitySpringfield, ILNote: Subscription information isnow under the masthead.IRRADIATION IS A WOMEN'S ISSUERe:The letter from Liz Washburn:Of course food irradiation is a women'sissue (Fall 1991). If we don't know whatthe good old boy system is doing how,can we fight it?I think On the Issues is the best. Theonly publication I read cover to cover.It is time for another uprising wherewe say "enough!"Norma JoyceEugene, ORWILD MAN NEEDS HELPPlease send me a back issue of Summer'91 containing the Fred Pelka article onthat Bly creature. I would appreciateyour fast response as my husband isseeing a "deep masculinity" (quack)therapist, and watches "A Gathering ofMen" tape every night. He even listensto Sean Keen while goingto sleep. HELP!Thanks.Michele DressierCleveland, OHBRINGING HIDDEN CHILDRENTO LIGHTI read with pleasure Beverly Lowy'sON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992

most interesting article for On the Issues(Winter 1991) on the hidden children.The stories recounted moved me asmuch as stories like them did when Ifirst read them. I owe you a debt ofthanks for keeping vivid this aspect ofthe Holocaust.The article is important enough forreaders of our magazine, Dimensions,to know about. I will make mention of itin our next issue.Dr. Dennis B. Klein, DirectorThe Hidden Child Foundation IADLNew York, NYThank you for sending me On the Issueswith your article on "The Hidden Childrenof the Shoah."I think it is excellent and have sharedit with my friends, Shoshana Ron, andInes Smigel, who are both active in thesame field.Hilda SchulmanGreat Neck, NYPLIGHT OF WOMEN PRISONERSWITH AIDSYour "Win Some o Lose Some" (Spring1992) commented that heterosexualAIDS has surpassed that of gays. Rarelymentioned are the most invisible victimsof AIDS — women prisoners.Women in prison with AIDS are dyingevery day. They are denied the right tofight to survive for as long as possiblebecause they are denied decent andadequate care and the most elementalof needs — human dignity.Women who are dying of AIDS in oneof the 17 states that mandatorially segregateall HIV- positive prisoners haveno rights and are losing what littleconstitutional protection does exist. Theoverwhelming number of women inprison with AIDS are Black women andPuerto Rican women. This is a medical,economic, political and social crisis.I have been in prison almost sevenyears. I have carried women from theircells on stretchers to jail infirmariesknowing they will not return. I havecalled families collect from pay phoneswith news of illness and then death. Ihave written messages for funerals andraised money for flowers. Sentence reductionmotions and early medical releasepapers have been written, andletters to outside community organizationscalling for solidarity have fallenon deafening silence.Women prisoners who are HIV-ON THE ISSUES SUMMER 1992positive or have AIDS face often horrifyingconditions: In the DC jailwhere I was imprisoned in 1988,women who were known to be positivewere redflagged by the medicaldepartment and segregated, fed fromspecial diet trays served by otherprisoners who were told to weargloves while feeding them. As a resultof this complete violation of confidentiality,the women were brutallystigmatized and bitterly harassed.There was no counseling ororganized psychological treatmentavailable to them.Prison staff participated with prisonersin creating a climate based invicious gossip; the greatest insultwas to be "an AIDS-carrying bitch."One woman who was known to beHIV- positive was beaten up and herfingers broken for having shared acigarette with another woman. Anotherprisoner died of AIDS after herappeal for a sentence reduction wasdenied. Like most states, DC has noform of compassionate or medicalrelease for prisoners. The stories goon and the suffering goes on and on.As a result of witnessing these experiences,I am now an AIDS prisoner peeradvocate. Because of my educationalbackground (I am a political prisoner)and access to resources on the outside,I am in a position to do legal and medicaladvocacy for women prisoners withAIDS.In the Florida maximum securityprison where I am now, I am involved inan AIDS awareness workshop to bringmuch-needed information to femaleprisoners. Being involved in this educationalwork, understanding how to breakdown information, and begin to buildtrust in order to challenge behavior isnot easy. We need to communicate withAIDS activists on the outside, particularlythose involved in prison work, whocan help us demand medical release,parole release, compassionate release,and reintegration into the communitiesfrom which we come. Without activesupport, those of us advocating from theinside cannot overcome the conditionsand the repressive restrictions.Susan RosenbergMarianna, FLSusan Rosenberg has beenawarded PEN's First Prize inthe 1991 Prison Writing PoetryContest.MALE RAPE"I really appreciate Fred Pelka's article:"Raped: A Male Survivor Breaks HisSilence" (Spring 1992). I am a 26-yearoldmale who was sexually, physically,and mentally abused as a child. Theabuse has left mental scars on me thatwill never heal. Sometimes I'm havinga good day when suddenly flashbacksand panic attacks hit me. Istill wake up screaming after allthese years.I know I need help so I'm lookinginto finding a support group in myarea.I'm grateful to the women's movementfor raising the country's consciousnesson the horrors of rape,child abuse, and pornography. Theso-called men's movement that istalked about has never offered anythingto me.On the Issues is the best magazineI subscribe to. Keep up the greatwork!Name and address witheldI knew that men got raped in prison, buthad no idea they were also assaulted onthe streets. Fred Pelka's story is just asheartrending, and infuriating, as anywoman's story I've ever read. My heartgoes out to him and all like him. However,the saddest part is that he had tofind out firsthand how women aretreated all the time.Mary DavidsonSalley, SCI was deeply touched by Fred Pelka'sstory (Spring '92). I applaud his couragefor breaking silence, grieve for all of uswho suffer from our flawed patriarchalsociety which victimizes men and womenboth as he addressed. At the age of 421have so far been blessed with not havingbeen a victim of rape or physicalabuse, but have been active in the StopRape Movement and have heard far toomany stories from those who are survivors.I intend to share this article with othersbecause I think it will help many. Iwant you to know that there will bepeople in Houston, Texas who will startthe road to recovery, from victim tosurvivor, with the aid of Pelka's words.Thank you, Fred, for speaking up — Iknow you realize you help countlessothers by doing so.Deborah BellHouston, TX59

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