Sharon Hill:
Community
Organizer 8c
"Devil's Advocate"
by Pat Scott
In grow ing older, is the W om en’s Move­
ment grow ing wiser or copping out? The
answer to that depends on your point of view,
which am ong feminists is as varied as those
who people the Movement. W om en’s Studies
classes, which have fed and nurtured the
Movement, traditionally lambasted “buying
into the patriarchy.’’ viewing with suspicion
Power, Money and Possessions. That view
may have ham strung women in our society,
creating a fear-of-success syndrome, and
We've learned to deal
with poverty and adversity ,
can w e learn also to deal
with su ccess?
there are those now who question the wis­
dom of being meekly politically correct. One
of the people who questions and tests nearly
everything in our com m unity is producer,
co-editor, com m un ity organizer Sharon Hill.
Chances are, if you see posters or adver­
tisements about Lesbian/Gay Pride co m m it­
tees, International W om en's Day, Rag Times,
W omen Musicians Network, fem inist perfor­
mance events, you’ve run across Hill’s name
as producer, member, contact person. If
there’s som ething you want to know — how
to rent a hall, where to find a wom en's band,
how to hire Kate Clinton — you may be
routed to Sharon Hill.
“ Probably one of m y best assets is that I'm
a trouble shooter,” she says. “ If I don’t know
how to do it, I find out. O r I know the resource
people to go to, and to figure out the best
way.”
And if, as it’s said, "Knowledge is power,”
then Hill is a force in the com m unity to be
reckoned with.
"Just in term s of the inform ation that I
have___"the inform ation flow is power be­
cause we can effect some changes," Hill ack­
nowledges. “And I get criticized for it. I think
that power and authority are not things w o­
men are supposed to have, want or use."
It’s intoxicating in its way, this sense of
being nearly indispensable: ear to the
ground, always in the flow of things. But Hill
isn't anxious for the limelight, seeing herself
rather as one am ong many talented and re­
sponsible people. She prefers to work behind
the scenes to help organize and coordinate
diverse factions: facilitate the advancement
of a cause, the production of an event: edu­
cate. She is the idea person, the starter, but
she insists, "You need group support to get
things done, to keep going. And you also
need the group support, I think, to enhance
everybody's abilities.”
That the w om en’s com m unity strives to
level a mainstream class and caste system,
emphasizing equality and com m unication.
Hill applauds. “ We have been so careful in the
wom en's com m un ity and the fem inist c o m ­
m unity to be consensus-oriented, and I think
that’s good. I really appreciate that we can
make sure that I d o n ’t have any more say just
cuz I have a big m outh and can ramble on
forever," she says.
And yet one can drown in words and inde­
cision when trying for consensus. Input by
com m ittees or the com m unity sometimes
translates into a situation where no one ac­
cepts responsibility, no one wants the author­
Just O ut. M arch . 1986
ity. And without a central point of focus it can
be difficult to get things done.
There's something to be said about giv­
ing somebody the authority to just decide: do
it. Hill maintains. There s times when you ve
gotta act, and there’s so many times that we
defer or table it, or put it off. In certain situa­
tions it can’t be a committee sort of thing."
But feminists have been uneasy with au­
thority figures, a central point of control, in­
cluding and sometimes especially when that
central authority is a woman. Women-owned
businesses are often more circumspectly ob­
served and heavily censured by the women’s
com m unity. Those that don't fit into the
consensus-mold, especially, may be ostra­
cized. And if com m unity input has been of­
fered but not implemented, there may be
unrest. Profit especially is questioned: How
m uch money is a business "m aking off the
com m unity?" These concerns have in the
past given rise to threats of "boycott!" and
accusations of “ capitalist!" and "buying into
the patriarchy."
Patience with that sort of verbiage, un­
checked and unquestioned, is thinning in
some quarters, including Hill’s. Women who
have bought their own businesses incur sub­
stantial financial risk. That one of their aims
may be profit is surely understandable.
"The women's com m unity can stop be­
ing perceived as downwardly mobile," says
Hill. "There was that feminist perception
there for a while that if you had a job or were a
business person you were selling out. But I
think reality or practicality has set in. We have
to be able to survive change___” We’ve
learned how to deal with poverty and adversity,
can we learn also how to deal with success?
Traditional views and circumstances in
mainstream society are being questioned, it’s
only fair that traditional precepts within the
w om en’s movement should be re-evaluated
as well and changes, as needed, encouraged.
Hill — facilitator, organizer, initiator, devil’s
advocate — encourages self-examination by
feminists, allowing outside influences at least
to intrude, whether or not they're accepted.
When young and vulnerable "you need a
tim e when you're real closed: you're in a
group you feel safe with and there's c o m ­
m onality there." Hill observes. "And when
you're ready and you feel secure, you're
gonna look for new ideas because it’s okay to
open up and look around." The w om en’s
m ovem ent may be at that point in its
development.
There are feminists now considering
whether we can withstand the onslaught of
those fearful influences — Power, Money.
Possessions. Can we wield them ethically?
Perhaps it's not necessary to com prom ise
ou r beliefs. There is a tim e to be separate: but
for some this is a tim e to blend where we can,
and through those points of similarity grow
stronger.
Hill sees herself as a "crossover," able to
bridge several of the groups that com prise
ou r com m unity. "We re so separated," she
observes. “ But if we join forces in certain
situations we re able to be more effective.
There are so many com m on bonds, and we
do n 't utilize them," she sighs. "I like to make
sure that people work together and that
things happen — that we become more o r­
ganized. I keep harping on people to not be
so closed to things, to listen to other people.
We can still work certain things out whether
we agree politically or not."
Hill is a great believer in "reality checks" for
the wom en's movement, the lesbian c o m ­
munity, any com m unity, and certainly for
herself. Talking with friends and new
acquaintances is an im portant aid to keeping
her feet on the ground, she maintains. Net­
w orking allows her to see beyond the para­
meters of her own experience. And Hill, the
enem y o f com placency and stale ideals,
passes her questioning and testing on down
the line.
”1 d o n ’t have a particular belief that I want
people to hear or believe," she says. "B ut they
have to be aware themselves of what's going
on. The issue’s aren't all cut and dried."
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