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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1990)
C hanging r e a l i t y ____ RSVP CRUISES! Entertainment is one of the many extras th a t make RSVP cruises v a lu e -a d d e d va ca tio n experi ences. We are h a p p y to a n nounce some of the great en tertainers w h o will be shining on our 1990 sailings Sonia Johnsons way is an elitist vision, plausible for women with marketable skills, resources, national renown and grown children BY ANNDEE HOCHMAN down to a kind of “power of positive thinking” on the large scale. How large? Johnson never states exactly what “critical Wildfire: Igniting the She/Volution. By mass” of women will need to change their Sonia Johnson. Wildfire Books, 1989. 282 . beliefs before worldwide transformation can pages. $10.95 occur; she only implies that we’re getting closer to the necessary number. nce upon a time, Sonia Johnson was Certainly the notion of transformative happily married, a mother of four children, an earnest member of the Mormon belief has value. Thinking can have a Church. Then her support of feminism and the tremendously liberating effect But I question whether thought alone — without education, ERA collided head-on with church doctrine. without changes in laws, without economic Johnson was excommunicated from the upheaval — can effect the kinds of broad church in 1979 and lived not only to tell about global change Johnson describes. it, but to document the event in a book titled The book does contain a cogent analysis of From Housewife to Heretic. 12-Step programs and New Age philosophies, demonstrating how each is based on a template of patriarchy. And at its most concrete, her advice makes sense. Live today as you would like to live, she says, suggesting Then Johnson went further. She came out that we shun acquisitiveness, recycle, as a lesbian. She got spiritual in ways the conserve resources, walk and bicycle more, church fathers never considered. She listen to other women, eat correctly, laugh published her second book. Going Out of Our often and break our addictions to destructive Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation. Her substances. latest book picks up where that volume left But when applied on the large scale, off and carried its theories to their passionate Johnson’s urging to live as we would like to extreme. live seems simplistic and politically naive. The thrust of Wildfire: Igniting the She! “If we want a future world in which Volution is an argument for women to women are not afraid — of rape and poverty “disengage psychically and emotionally from and humiliation and other male violence — patriarchy and all its institutions.” Johnson there is only one way to create it and that is by means this literally, arguing that resistance being unafraid now,” she writes. To suggest only strengthens and lends credence to the that violence against women can be solved by system one is trying to resist. “being unafraid now” removes responsibility Her theory rests on two premises. First, from the perpetrators of that violence. The she tells us, reality is an internal construct. onus rests just where patriarchy placed it — We create and perpetuate what is real by on the victims. believing in it Second, when enough of us Suppose, though, that we do not argue (women, that is) begin to believe differently, reality will change. Just like that. with Johnson’s premises, that we accept her notion of a free and loving world created by Those notions aren’t new to feminism or our fervent belief in it? If we agree to follow other types of progressive thought (the her argument, where will it take us? Hundredth-Monkey theory has long been used as an analogy for peace work), and they’re In the final chapters of Wildfire, Johnson certainly arguable, but readers must swallow does answer this question. Johnson’s vision consists of small communities, without them without flinching if they want to follow money, without barter, even — communities Johnson on her heady new path. in which everyone “does what they want to do What she advocates is no less than a all the time” and freely offers their talents and wholesale withdrawal from society as most of services to others as gifts. In the end, Johnson us know it. Stop buying things, she urges. reveals herself as the most rosy-eyed of Stop voting. Stop subscribing to Time idealists. ‘This society works,” she writes, Magazine. Stop lobbying, writing to “Because everyone respects everyone else, Congress, demonstrating for abortion rights, everyone cares about everyone else, everyone attending PTA meetings. Don’t reinforce the desires everyone else’s happiness and health patriarchy by fighting it as much as they desire their own and everyone The she/volution heralded in Wildfire boils O * ' - Photos courtesy of RSVP Cruises Feb. 18 & 25 - C aribbean with Diane Schuur. Mar. 10 - Y ucatan with Joan R ivers, H e le n R e d d y a n d Wiseguys. Hurry! Limited space. Mar. 24 - M e x ic a n Riviera. G otham with Sharon McNight. M any more entertainers to be a nnounced for the other cruises in the weeks to com e. Call m e for d e ta ile d inform ation a n d brochures. If you've never been on a cruise before, this is the one you don 't w a n t to miss. just out » understands the interconnectedness of their well-being with that of others and of all living things.” My objection, finally, is not just that Johnson’s bottom line is so squishy. It’s that her argument is so rigid as to condemn any woman who can’t follow along. If you’re still lobbying the school board and protesting aid to the Contras, you’re wasting your time, she preaches. Forget all that and come do it my way. Her way — what worked for Sonia Johnson — is really what this book is about. And it’s an elitist vision, plausible for a woman with marketable skills, resources, national renown and grown children. Some women can afford to pack up and move to small communities where they freely donate their talents and goods to each other. But most can’t. Even Johnson must contradict her own advice by putting her theory between two covers and peddling it for $10.95 a copy. (Not to mention her taped speeches for $9.95 and a Sonia Speaks video for $29.95. So much for gift-giving.) Johnson delivers some provocative thoughts in Wildfire. We can learn from examining our beliefs about patriarchy, challenging our own thoughts about what is “natural” and what is constructed to benefit men. But the book’s tone — both dogmatic and full of breathless hyperbole — left me less willing to hear the message. Johnson’s passion is evident, but it’s the passion of thoughts that flash across your mind at 1:30 am, in the middle of a great conversation with your best friend. In that flash, you truly believe you Have the Answer; you’re intoxicated with your own beliefs. That kind of experience feels wonderful, but doesn’t always translate. The power of Johnson’s first book lay in its ability to make other women identify — women who might not call themselves feminists, but who could understand the clash between integrity and church doctrine and, like Johnson, opt for the former. With this book, she risks losing that audience of women who could see themselves in her experience. Indeed, Johnson has come a long way. From housewife to heretic to an idiosyncratic and risky vision, spoken from way out on a limb. “Let us command the fierce powers of earth and ocean, sky and fire to be with each brave band of us as we become one more flame in the wildfire of femaleness that is blazing through the universe,” she concludes. At times, the picture Johnson creates in Wildfire sounds beautiful, even poetic. But it may leave most of her intended audience standing in the middle of their daily lives, scratching their heads and wondering just what it all means. ▼ Oregon's complete lesbian and gay connection. W a y n e B ou lette Travel C o u n selo r Invest in yourself in the 1990s! Make certain your financial future is what you want it to be! Real estate can help you achieve prosperity in the new decade! Call me today! VISTA TRAVEL SERVICE 224-5000 A MEMBER OF THE SEARS FINANCIAL NETWORK 200 SW MARKET • PORTLAND, OR TOLL FREE USA 1 800 245-5557 - - FAX: 503-299-6831 SUSAN J. 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