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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1969)
Comment Editor’s note: The following was submitted by three members of Women’s Liberation_ Sally Otos, Patsy Kirby and Robbie Hanna— in response to the Friday’s Emerald article on women’s liberation groups. Women’s Liberation (WL) evidently didn’t get its message across to the writer of the article that appeared Friday, Nov. 7 in the Emerald. People not familiar with WL were very confused about it after reading that article. The main statement we wish to refute is that we are solely an educational group. Educating and liberating are closely connected: a woman must get educated to her condition, and her choices of alternatives in order to fight for her liberation. Thus while campus organizations are for educating their members, they are also activist insofar as the members are ready for action. We support the Bi-Mart strike and similar issues as they come up. Our action groups have worked on lobbying for repeal of abortion laws, involvement in cam pus politics, and guerrilla theatre. We hope to set up a day care center for children of students and workers, a women’s self-defense unit, and help all University women obtain information on birth control and abortions. OPIATE OF THE MASSES We are also forming links with other women’s groups in the community, leafleting, speaking, and doing research. We are not a static organization. Women’s Liberation on campus attempts to give women the courage and tools to move off cam pus attempts and into the community and to fight oppression wherever they find it. Patsy Kirby feels that it is difficult for women to become revolutionaries because the traditional woman’s role is antithetical to all that a revolution ary and a revolution is: submissive, conciliating and loving. She may not have to face a mean ingless, low-paying job; she can get married and then only has to salve and deflect her husband’s frustration and anger at his meaningless and low paying job. Women have been rightly called “the opiate of the masses.” Sally Otos was quoted as saying that we all had been anti-women because we couldn’t fit into the role of dainty, lacy things. She didn’t say that. Our problem was that we didn’t know any wom en. Women generally have only superficial relation ships with each other and are kept apart because of the competition and suspicion generated by the marriage racket (the popular misconception that, for a woman, a bad marriage is better than none). When we joined the group, we found that women aren’t stupid, submissive or unintellectual. GIVING UP GIRDLES Also, actually, few women retain the dainty ideal—how can you be dainty when scrubbing a floor? More and more women are giving up gir dles and rejecting advertising claims that imply that if you spend enough money on the right pro ducts you will marry a nice middle-class man and live in the suburbs. We do believe that autonomous movements that are able to work together on equal terms are valid. We are not near enough to revolution (or halo caust, depending on your point of view) for a united front to be imperative, though it is vital that independent groups—of women, Blacks, labor, poor people, students and old people—recognize their common goals and are conscious of the sup port they can give to, and receive from, each other. We feel that the women’s movement should be autonomous, for the present, because women’s op pression crosses all existing economic, political, ra cial and class boundaries. There is no other set of organizations which can also cross all these boun daries. The coverage Friday’s story gave the national women’s movement was adequate, if disjointed. NOW, Betty Fridan’s group, is composed of mid dle class women who are concerned with gaining access to the social and economic privileges of middle class males. PREPARATION FOR REVOLUTION Some groups, such as the Seattle Radical Wom en, are working in factories and organizing wom en in preparation for the revolution. There are dozens of groups across the country which are somewhere between these two extremes. Few of them are tied to any national organization, though they do communicate with each other. We hope this letter will clarify the position of WL for those who may have been confused by last Friday’s story. BUSY SUSAN the multi-purpose holder white blue 3 olive yellow orange Specially Priced J $4.95 • Special wheel for the kitchen • Snacks for the bar • Sewing caddie e Tidy holder for the play room e Glamor wheel for bobby pins, bows, etc. e Hobby or sports; fishhooks, floats, etc. O Desk organizer for paper clips, stamps, etc. Pre-packed for Holiday Mailing DANISH IMPORT CENTER 8th & Willamette 344-0739 Hours: 9:30 'til 5:30 daily — Mon. and Fri. evening 'til 9 PATRONIZE EMERALD ADVERTISERS Letters Tranquil peace As we unite this week in a second great attempt to alter the distorted perspectives of a mis directed leadership, it is most fit ting that we reaffirm our pride as members of that “effete corps of impudent snobs” who continue to hope and work for the day when the barbarism of the mili tary is replaced by the tranquil ity of peace. Richard Farleigh Junior, Biology Randy Farleigh Junior, Psychology Wally Stein Soph., Elem. Ed. Steve Shore Soph., Nuclear Physics Five other names on file. * * * Morally right A most difficult task is to sup port a concept or a principle or an action held to be unpopular or untenable by your peers. You are led to believe that you are wrong because so many are so viciously vociferous in their denunciation of your position. But if you realize that in ac tuality it is a sylvatic minority that is denouncing you; if you rea lize that the tenebrious disciples of this minority are merely the usual coterie of thoughtless sym bionts who always trail a carni vore; if you realize that you have reached your conclusion by a pro cess alien to this minority—that of contemplative thought, ration al reflection, and proximity to the core of the problem — then you no longer care what your peers think. As fact, you no longer consid er them as peers, but as adversar ies in the wrong. When you are morally right, your convictions are your solidarity. It no longer matters that SDS, Black Panthers, Kerans or Husted have such a large following. It is no great achievement that the ignorant peasant shepherd is so facilely able to beguile his brainless sheep. For they are wise in sheep matters only. In direct opposition to these specious sheep herders, I support President Richard Nixon’s articu late, cogent, intelligent stand on Vietnam. I can in no way iden tify with the ptolemaic psyche tripe of the minority participat ing so factitiously in the mora toria. As yet, no one anarchist, not one sheep herder, not one sheep has offered an intelligible, sali ent, coherent reason why I should support their propaganda pap. But then, the sheep herder can only deceive his brainless charges through soporiferousness: eat, sheep, for it is good for you; grow fat, sheep, for it is good for you; follow me, sheep, for mutton is good for me. Ho! I participated in that war and I came to know well the id of the South Vietnamese and the emigrants from the purges in the north. They are a great people unwilling to be grazed by the om nipotent shepherds from the north only to be slaughtered as they were in the very moralistic massa cres of Hue two years ago. President Nixon, mayhaps, will find himself besieged by the 6 per cent minority (see Gallup Poll, Nov. 4, 1969) in this country and their nuministic leaders who revel in parades. But the rest of us who adhere to a moral, rational and cogitative approach to the prob lem, will support him. All the power to the majority. Edward J. Fyfe Graduate student, Law We're moving ...to Valley River... In Preparation for Moving to Our Brilliant New Salon In Valley River WE ARE DISPOSING OF OUR ENTIRE COLLECTION OF FABULOUS FASHION WIGS, FALLS, CASCADES AND WIGLETS OFF REGULAR PRICES SALE BEGINS TUESDAY ...9AM... 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