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Sunday, December 14, 2008

eastward ho!!!

So i leave in less then 24 hours to go back home. I still have to pack and get my stuffs ready...arrrrgh!! So far i have a trip to NY, Salem and a few paint parties planned...as well as a few trips to the movies...yeah Twilight...lol.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

taking flight

So in 5 more days or so i shall  be making the retrn flight home after almost a year and a half!!! Thanks to hippy and bird! I'm kinda nervous bout the flight but excited bout the possible adventures...hopefully good ones!! I'll be home for about 2 weeks and migrate west on Jan. 2nd with 2 days before the start of the new term. I must admit that i'm kinda bummed bout not gettin to much time to just chill and such but...i'll just have to work it in throughout te term!

Fun Home; A Family Tragicomic: A review

The graphic novel Fun home: A Family Tragicomic, is written and illustrated by Alison Bechdel, an “out” lesbian and graphic novelist. She is also the creator of the Dykes to Watch Out For comic series. The memoir, which was awarded Time magazine’s book of the year in 2006, tells the intimate and moving story of her growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania as one of three children born to two very educated parents, her eventual coming to terms with her sexuality and her struggle in coping with the suspected suicide of her father that eventually led to the discovery of his closeted homosexuality.
The book itself is composed and told in Bechdel’s medium as a graphic novel. The story is centered on the dynamics of her family. Alison Bechdel’s mother was graduate student at a local university with little time for a family. She is depicted as an unsatisfied woman who had greater ambitions for her life then a family and white picket fence. In contrast, the father is portrayed as a stereotypical suburbanite who spends his weekends doing odd jobs on the families Victorian house and collecting antiques. The reason for her mother’s unhappiness becomes clear when she tells Bechdel shortly after her fathers death that he had liaisons with men, mostly former student’s. She illustrates in great detail the pain her mother must have felt carrying the secret of her father’s homosexuality around. The humiliation of her father’s arrest after being caught with a student and a beer driving around town is portrayed with skill and hindsight as the author herself was too young to have known much of the reason behind what had happened on that night.
She describes her house as an artist commune of sorts. There was very little communication between family members. The author describes her family as being a talented group. Everyone was typically off working on a particular project. Her mother was often busy working on her thesis, her father spent most of his time in his library reading and the children were often encouraged to express themselves in one form or another whether they wanted to or not.
The story appears to begin in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s and takes the reader along on a journey of not only the life of the author but runs parallel to and highlights the development of the gay rights movement including the impact the Stonewall Inn riots had on her life. The author correlates her self- discovery along side the early gay rights movement. As she reminisces over her walk through the village with her family and passing the stonewall inn shortly after the riots occurred, she says there was still “a feeling of electricity in the air”. The illustration depicts the Stonewall Inn with the Mattachine Society’s message in the window.
There is a heavy focus in the book on the tense relationship between her and her father. The novel portrays with humor the painful struggles of the author’s childhood, growing up with an overbearing father, who as the author describes, ran the family and their renovated Victorian house as if it were a museum. Her father was a former military man when he met his wife while overseas. He later became a high school literature teacher with a love for post-modern literature though he showed obvious dilike for his job. Bechdel reminisces over the discussions between her and her father regarding books as being the foundation of their relationship and until her fathers death she seemed to feel it was all they had in common. Bechdel illustrates this point by telling the story through a literary perspective using books that were in her dad’s library. This aspect of the memoire was very enlightening and amusing to those who have read any Earnest Hemingway or other post modern works. Alison Bechdel gives her story added depth by almost assigning her and her father, the two main characters, a literary persona of sorts based on her dad’s favorite pieces of fiction. This fictional persona fluctuates as the story develops to provide insight into the emotion surrounding the two main characters at a specific time.
As the author goes away to college in New York, her life begins to change. She meets her first girlfriend, discovers the underground world of gay liberation that’s taking place including lesbian and feminist literature. She comes out to her family through a postal letter and receives a surprisingly accepting but coded message from her father in return. Her interest in her studies begins to wane as she became more involved in her newly founded gay identity. She explores the “gay scene” in New York and becomes more interested in studying this aspect of herself then she was in studying literature. This eventually catches up with her as she starts to struggle with a class on James Joyces’s Ulysses, her senior seminar class that she had taken to please her dad.
Bechdel’s skilled and humorous bringing together of oral and social history in this book provides an intimate look at the struggle one goes through in the process of coming to terms with and coming out as a lesbian through the authors experiences and struggles as she did it. Bechdel’s illustrations provide the reader with a deeper sense of what she conveys with her words.
Alison Bechdel very nicely illustrates the story with explicit emotions and illustrations of what the world of her small town home looked like through her eyes. An example of this would be after the death of her grandfather when her dad takes over the family owned mortuary business. She recalls the time she walked in on her father in the process of an embalming and seeing her first body and how aloof her father was about it. She looks back fondly on the time spent as a kid helping polish the newly delivered coffins with her siblings, the time spent playing hide and go seek in the coffin display room. To many this would be seen as morbid at best, but to the author this was a normal part of her day to day life. This book would be a good read to anyone who is curious to the experiences of coming out to family and one’s self. The work also provides a humorous look at certain events in history that had an impact on gay histo

last womens history paper!!!!

A Legacy of Success
Janet Belisle
Marissa Chappelle
History 363
12/08/08














There are many legacies of second wave feminism that are found today. The presences of these legacies are reflected within the constantly changing social climate that increasingly provides ever more opportunity for women, in the labor force, in education and in freedom of expression and choice. Despite occasional setbacks suffered by the movement such as the failing to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, there have been many successes throughout the evolution of the second wave women’s liberation movement of the 1969’s and 1970’s.
The women’s movement was not just a unified front under one agreed upon cause but rather a number of small fronts based on the specific needs of the women behind them. It was this ability to be flexible that allowed the movement to last. These micro-movements were most often divided by class, social status and marriage among other things. The hallmark of the second wave of feminism is the movement’s incorporation and acceptance of the fact that not all women had the same needs or concerns. It is the small triumphs made by these groups that stand as the movement’s greatest legacy. As said in The Declaration of American Women, “[W]e seek these rights for all women, whether or not they choose as individuals to use them”.[1]
The movement faced many obstacles, the biggest of which was itself. There was severe fragmentation amongst its members based on class, race and sexuality. This division prevented the movement from reaching its full potential or using the resources available to their best ability.
The second wave women’s movement branched off from the multiple movements of the era, most notably, the civil rights movement and incorporated many of that specific movement’s messages and strategies into women’s fight for equality. Sadly, the civil rights movement offered little opportunity for black women to express their opinions or have their needs heard. This led to increased identity or gender politics within both the civil rights groups as well as the women’s movement. Women of color, who were oppressed not only as women or people of color but instead as both, were expressing their frustration at having no where to turn. The identity politics can be seen most clearly in the work by The Combahee River Collective when stating “Our situation as Black people necessitates that we have solidarity around the fact of race, which white women do not need to have with white men.”[2]
Women’s struggle for equality much like the struggle of other oppressed groups was created by a growing number of issues such as social stereotyping, unequal pay, unequal job opportunity and unequal education as well little to no say regarding decision about their bodies. This issue was a bridge over the gap between class and gender. Women of lower socio-economic status, a group that frequently included women of color needed ways to support their families, have a say in events and current affairs outside of the home and most critically, decisions regarding their own bodies. According to the Combahee River Collective, “The sanctions in the black and white communities against black women thinkers is comparatively much higher then for white women, particularly ones from the educated middle and upper classes”.[i][3] Once the women’s movement took root, women of color as well as those of lower classes were given tools that they were familiar with and therefore, an opportunity to make their voices be heard.
The women’s movement shared many goals with the civil rights movement. The major goals were equality and increased opportunity for women. Equality was sought in employment, education and decisions regarding family. The movement wanted increased opportunity for women of all classes and backgrounds though there would be some indecision among the various sub-groups as to just what that opportunity looked like.
One very important legacy of second wave feminism would be the techniques used by the movement to reach its goals such as consciousness raising. This tool proved itself to be critical to bridging gaps and helping women realize their full potential as individuals and as a group. Tools such as these allowed the movement to be flexible and continue to change with the times to meet the changing needs of women. In Orleck’s book consciousness raising is described as “[W]omen… meeting in kitchens and living rooms…talking to each other for the first time about concerns they had previously to cope with alone…”. [4]This tool helped to cross barriers of race as well as class. Other tools that were used to make their voices heard were protest, boycotts and community building.
The start of the women’s liberation movement grew out of women’s struggle to have a voice outside of the home. According to Betty Freidan in The Feminine Mystique, “The feminist had only one model, one image, one vision, of a full and free human being: man”.[5] Women wanted to move beyond just being an expert in cleaning and cooking. They wanted to be able to use the education they received while waiting to meet their husbands and be a contributing member of society. Women were directed in to Home Economics course tracks. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, says “[W]omen like men are immeasurably benefited, physically, mentally, and morally, and are made vastly better mothers…by subordinating the distracting instincts of sex to the simple human fellowship of similar education”.[6]This easier home economics track was thought to be better for them as it required less thought and stress while at the same time providing women with the skills that they would need in their future. There was little to no expectation of a woman entering the labor force and needing training in anything else. Today, women have access to the same education as men and much more mobility in the job market with that education though some pay inequalities still exist.
An issue that the movement had great success with was reproductive rights. Before the 1960’s there was little access to birth control, especially among the lower classes who expressed the highest need. According to Emma Stampley, in Storming Caesars Palace “I would have preferred to have fewer children…but there wasn’t any birth control on the market for black peoples like there was white”.[7] White women of lower classes also struggled to gain access to birth control.
The women’s movement has within it many fractions. Women of lower economic status had different struggles then the middle class housewife. In Annelise Orlecks’ Storming Caesars Palace, women were engaged in a fight to be able to support their children and hold a job that offers security and subsistence wages. The women Orleck spoke with were trying to institute welfare reform that provided enough funds to house and feed the family and allowed the women, in this case mostly single mothers of color the same opportunity to provide her children with the same advantages as the middle class homemaker.
Women gaining acceptance in the workforce was and remains to be a serious issue faced by many. This is one area where it is difficult to distinguish whether there has been much success. This is due in part to the fragmentation of the movement. A strong example of this would be the 1908 Muller v. Oregon case where the state was granted the right to place a maximum hour restriction on women’s labor. This verdict was received with mixed feelings. Some women felt this was a success for the movement as it prevented women from being exploited. This view was help mostly by middle class activist. Today there is still great inequality in pay and job access for many women, though this has been slowly changing.
There are many legacies of second wave feminism. These legacies can be seen every time a woman cast a vote at the polls or works beside a man or stands next to that man on the picket line to fight for fair wages to raise her family. These are but a few of the legacies of the movement’s overall successes. The fight for women’s liberation is still fought today and referred to by some as third wave feminism. The movement has continued to thrive and transformed to meet today’s needs and will continue to do so because of its ability to evolve to meet the needs of the time. According to A Third Wave Manifesta, the needs of women today have changed but still reflect concerns at the core of the movement such as reproductive rights and the E.R.A.[8] The movement is more encompassing at this time. There is more acceptance of homosexuals and women of color for example.
The legacies of the movement are most apparent in the evolution of public attitudes toward women outside of the home. Society has grown to be more accepting, and in some cases even supportive of the struggles of women. According to Emma Goldman in A Radical View of Women’s Emancipation “I hold that the emancipation of women, as interpreted and practically applied today, has failed to reach that great end”.[9] I disagree with this thought, though there are many more hurdles to overcome, Second Wave Feminism has served to get the ball rolling and show that a difference can be made.
[1] Declaration of American Women Houston 1977 103
[2] Black Feminism Combahee River collective 98
[3] Black Feminism Combahee River collective 253
[4] Annelise Orleck Storming Caesars Palace 100
[5] Betty Freidan The Feminine Mystique 140
[6] M. Carey Thomas Present Tendencies in Women’s Education 6
[7] Annelise Orleck Storming Caesars Palace 30
[8] A Third Wave Feminist Manifesta Jennifer Baumgardner Amy Richards 139
[9] Emma Goldman A Radical View of Emancipation 25

Sunday, December 7, 2008

the end of the road!

Finally coming up on the end of the term...i was statriong to think it would never end!!!! I nam for sure a bigger fan of the semester system!!! I need my extra 6 weeks. I just wanna say that i got a 96 on the Orleck / friedan paper that i posted and as of yet theres still no grade on my interview with hippy but ill keep ya'll posted!!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

tag cloud

Near completion

Thank you all whop have been following my term through my papers. Sadly, i hadn't had the time to post regular blogs like i wanted to so as a way of lettin my readers know what i was upto, i posted my school work...and after this week (and three more papers) that will FINALLY be done!!!!!!
Thank you all again for your patience!

Monday, December 1, 2008

interview with julie...=)

The subject of my interview is Julie, a 30-year-old lesbian who grew up and came “out” in a small town in Southeastern Massachusetts.  She came out to her family at the young age of 13, after meeting her first girlfriend. Julie received a positive response from her family despite their thought that her sexuality was just “a phase”. Her family was also very supportive of her when she began getting harassed in high school as a response to her openness regarding her sexuality.

Julie mostly associated with older lesbians who eagerly introduced her to the underground lesbian community that existed in the greater Worcester area. She recalls two lesbian radio shows, one that was punk run by her friend “Aunt Judy” and the other run by her friend “Sage” that played folk music. She excitedly recalls the lesbian bookstore that she discovered while in North Hampton with Sage. When reflecting on the books store Julie says “It was a thrill. I was about 14, it was winter and we were a few hours west of my parent’s place. I had never been to North Hampton, never been to a lesbian book store, so it was a thrill. I was really glad to see that we had our own stores, our own books, our own music.  After the bookstore we went up north a little to visit a friend of Sage, I forget her name but, she had been into publishing in the 1980’s and she had some boxes of lesbian authored poems that she gave me. I still have them. I wanted to be a writer back then so it was inspiring.”

 Talking to this 30 year old now while sitting outside Java stop drinking a coffee and watching the rain, one gets the feeling that they were sitting with someone much older. Julie talks about community and says that even though she has been transient, she mourns the loss of the lesbian sub-culture that once was a part of her life. She feels that the integration of certain aspects of the lesbian sub-culture that she grew up with and was exposed to be other lesbians, into the mainstream culture,  leaves a void for the younger generations coming out today.

Julie, or “Johnny” as she was referred to during her late teens and early 20’s also traveled extensively. Her traveling began with a visit to North Hampton, which she describes as a “lesbian version of P-town”. There she purchased a “black and white zine” that had advertised a bus trip to the 25th anniversary of stonewall in the back pages. At this time, Julie wasn’t sure what Stonewall was.

This advertisement had stuck out to her because she had been looking to become more involved in the community. She found out what Stonewall was and why its anniversary was celebrated though today she doesn’t recall how she came across that information. Julie describes her reaction to finding out as one of excitement and surprise. This would turn into one of her first journeys. At age 15 she took a bus trip to New York  to be at the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots. ”I was hip to be a part of things, I was eager” she recalls.  When asked about her family’s feeling about her going away to New York for a week on her own she said “I had already been to two countries in Europe with no drinking age and came back in one piece, I guess they figured I’d do the same going only six hours away”.

A few years later at the age of 19, she saw a flyer posted at the inner city commune house she had been staying at for a place called Owl Farm. This was a large chunk of land set aside as women only land in Oregon and owned by the Oregon Woman’s Land Trust. Julie wasn’t sure how she was going to get there but knew she wanted to. Her opportunity came when the 1997 National Rainbow Gathering was hosted in the Ochoco Forest of Oregon. Through a combination of hitchhiking, riding with friends, and the greyhound bus, Julie and a straight friend, Beth from the commune got to the gathering. After several weeks of living in the woods with a mass gathering of hippies, Julie hitchhiked toward Owl Farm.

There, Julie met “Cotton” another older lesbian who had been living alone on the land.  She says “Cotton was a unique character. Totally seperatist. She didn’t like men, didn’t want to talk to them or befriend them in anyway. This was new to me. I had been friends with men, most of my friends were guys. I have brothers and a father all of whom I get along well with so the seperatist thing didn’t sit with me. I could get it, from Cotton’s point of view, from the way her life had been with nothing but trouble from men, I could see her way of thinking. She was a cool woman. I think seperatism is not possible as a way of life for me but I see the value in women only spaces. I see the value of being just with women learning to do things together, work together, create together. I think we made things in those days and in the decades leading up to those days, we made community and culture in a way that we don’t anymore. Maybe we do, maybe I’m just out of the loop but something feels gone.” The two of them spent most of their time tending the land, hiking and volunteering at a local food pantry on Saturdays. One of Julie’s more vivid memories is of the collection of books had at the main house. She says ”there wasn’t much to do on the mountain in the winter. We’d play dice and read books.”

While at Owl Farm Julie was introduced to Lynde, a neighbor of Cotton’s who lived nearby on the mountain. The two became close and Julie eventually left Owl Farm and traveled with Lynde across the country for about two years. After this extended hiatus Julie returned to her parent’s house and started work on the degree she finishing with a masters in English from O.S.U. Her story touches me because, after hearing it I can’t help but question if I missed out on the culture that once existed.

A conflicted Consc.

Betty Friedan’s analysis of feminism in her work, the Feminine Mystique is not relevant to the struggles faced by the women described in Annelise Orleck’s book, Storming Caesars Palace. The difference of perspective between the two authors is largely based on class. The struggle Orleck describes is that of poor women to gain recognition in the eyes of the government and be treated equally both as women and mothers as well as poor American citizens.  Orleck argues that lack of education and adequate employment opportunities are the main causes of the widespread poverty amongst women of color. She also feels that lack of access to birth control was a factor. In contrast, The Feminine Mystique focuses on the issues faced by females in the middle to upper classes, the majority of whom were college educated. Freidan claims that these women were victims of advertising and rigid social roles and expectations. She feels that they were not allowed to meet their full potential as human beings.

            In Freidan’s book, motherhood is depicted as a deterent to women’s process of self -actualization. Freidan quotes a Redbook magazine article “Few women would want to thumb their noses at husbands, children and community and go off on their own”.[1] Having a child meant one was instantly tied to the house, while the husband worked and interacted in the outside arena. The only expectations of the wife were that of housework, childrearing and being there for her husband at the end of the workday with a well-prepared meal. This provided a sense of security to most women. The housewives that suffer from Friedan’s mystique work in the home at menial chores offering little challenge or intellectual stimulation. Their work centers on the family’s well-being and happiness in such a way that was not possible for the mothers in Storming Caesars Palace. According to Freidan, this possession of education with little or no outlet was what created “ the problem with no name “ as it is referred to. The women in Annelise Orleck’s book, the majority of whom were immigrants to Nevada from segregated area’s throughout the south were involved in a battle against the state over their right to have and keep their children, as well as the right to provide them a decent upbringing. Orleck declares, “ In 1967, Congress gave Welfare departments power to remove children of AFDC mothers…”[2]. These women wanted the financial security to provide their children with the same parenting that Friedan denounces in her work. Many of those in Annelise Orleck’s work were single mothers trying to support large families with labor that was physically challenging and paid less then was adequate for subsistence.

One point that was shared between both groups was the importance of birth control. Both groups of women had large families but for very different reasons. The women Orleck speaks with had large families for a variety of reasons, large families meant more income as a sharecropper, there was no access to birth control and the women were often victim’s of sexual assault. Freidan’s women had large families because they needed to fill time with children to take care of while the husband was out in the workforce as well as to fulfill the social expectations of the woman as “happy housewife”. With access to birth control the middle class housewife could control when she started her family allowing time for a career. Those who were denied access to birth control in lower class groups were forced to try and support families that were to heavy a financial burden, keeping these women from being able to better their situation.

 Both works refer to the root behind women’s plight as being that of a capitalist society. The changing economy of the post war era was one of affluence. There was also a great leap in technology and new goods that was left without a market. According to Betty Friedan, this hole was filled with the middle class housewife. Advertisers created a market of happy housewives using tools like their new washing machine that cut the time spent on menial task and allowed for more time to be spent attending to the families other needs. Freidan claims that the middle class housewife was vulnerable to this marketing because they were allowed no other goals in life other then to provide care to their family. This created a longing in these women to “professionalize” the work that they did around the house. The amount of time that Freidan’s housewife spends on her family was a luxury to the women Orleck spoke with. What to do with extra time could not be a concern of the lower class. Freidan offers little information about the plight of the poor or women of color. The women that Annelise Orleck spoke to were working women, not because they wanted something to do outside of the home but because many were single mothers of large families who needed to support their children. One woman who spoke with Orleck says, “The women wanted recognition of their work as mothers. They also wanted the state to stop punishing them when they worked outside the home.”[3] The social climate of the time was not very accepting of women outside of the house. This along with the harassment from welfare offices made it near impossible for Orleck’s mothers to find a meaningful job that provided both decent wage and security. Many of the jobs open to these women were extremely physical and offered little in reimbursement. This is very different from the life of the women in Freidan’s book. The chores of the middle class housewives were not satisfying. They had access to new technology that made their jobs easier and the women looked for more to do with their extra time.

            The Feminine Mystique discusses at great length the effect of advertising on women, in particular housewives. Betty Freidan argues that due to the lack of involvement in activities outside the house the gap was filled with material products marketed to the housewife to make her life easier. “ [T]he professionalization is a psychological defense of the housewife against being a general cleaner-upper…”.[4] The role of a housewife was not an option for the women in Annelise Orleck’s book. Many of those women were victims of domestic abuse, abandonment by their husbands and large numbers of children. One can not ignore the irony that as the housewives of The Feminine Mystique were looking to give their roles as mother and housewife purpose through professionalizing their jobs in the house, those that Orleck spoke with were struggling to create a opportunity to give their role as mother some meaning despite their not being in the home.

            Betty Freidan makes the argument that the higher education afforded women was partly to blame for their discontent. The Feminine Mystique argues that women were educated for careers that they were unable to have. Any women that fought her way into the career field were thought to be unsatisfied in their role as a woman. Many prominent psychoanalyst and sociologist unwittingly supported this notion. Sigmund Freud was relied upon greatly for this support as well as sociologist Margaret Mead. Mead felt that women should be satisfied with their role as mother and caregiver to her family. There was little attention paid by these fields to the lower classes of women and their struggles. Freidan ignores any implication these studies may have had for women of color or lesser class.

As a means of correcting the unhappiness caused by the unfulfilled potential of education, women’s colleges and colleges in general started mainstreaming women into a curriculum that provided little actual thought development and better prepared them for their role as housewives. As Freidan states, “More women…were going to college but fewer of them were going on from college to become physicist…stateswomen, social pioneers, even college professors.”[5]Many of the female college students spoken with by Freidan were only attending college till they found a husband. Those in Anelise Orleck’s book were struggling to get any support that might help them get a job that compensated well enough to support their large families. Most of the women interviewed in Orleck’s book were former sharecroppers who were denied any educational opportunity. Once in Las Vegas, they organized to fight for job training programs that might allow them an opportunity to a subsistence wage and job security.

             There were few commonalities between the women focused on in these two books but they all shared a common struggle to be respected for the work that they did both in and out of the home. The women of Annelise Orleck’s work fought to be recognized as good mothers and equal contributors to society as members of the work force. Those of Betty Freidan’s work struggled to free themselves from the restrictive social stigma’s surrounding womanhood as


[1] Betty Freidan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1963) 69

[2]Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005) 96

[3] Annelise Orleck, Storming Caesars Palace (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005) 101

[4] Betty Freidan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1963) 309

[5] Betty Freidan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1963) 227

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Tagggggg

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Against the Tide: Stonewall Riots

The timing of the Stonewall Inn Riots is significant for a number of reasons. These riots, which sparked the movement for gay rights, occurred only after a newly discovered sense of community took root among gays and lesbians. This sense of identity developed along side and was influenced by the growing struggle of other minority groups for equal rights and acceptance.

In the late 1920’s the covert formation of gay communities started to take place due in large part to the migration toward rapidly growing urban areas. The number of gays and lesbians who began to move to cities like New York to escape rejection from families and find others who were like them did more then carve a community out for themselves. They became involved in the African American community already thriving in these places. This influence on the young homosexual mindset would be pivotal in creating the foundation for a gay rights movement.

The time leading up and in to WWII was a mixed blessing for gays and lesbians. Due to increased homo-social interaction and financial opportunity it was a time of acceptance and increased freedom. Shortly after the war though this acceptance diminished, as lesbians and other women lost their financial independence, male and female soldiers returned home to a strict gender roles and the military that these individuals loyally served began kicking them out with no place else to go. Many gays and lesbians were unwilling to return to life as it was before the war but didn’t know what other choice was available.

After WWII and into the years of Senator McCarthy’s service, homosexuals experienced a very different sentiment. Discrimination and fear of what was not understood set the mood of the time as America took it’s place as global superpower. Dishonorable military discharges, police brutality, public outings in local media and loss of government employment to name a few became a daily part homosexual life. Meeting places had been frequently stormed by cops leading to arrest (a phenomena that was increased during local elections), exposure as a deviant, loss of ones job, home and possibly family. The gay community was used as a political punching bag. It was through the homophile organizations that those who experienced these acts were able to realize that these experiences were a common thread in all “queer” lives. This realization would motivate many gays and lesbians to take more critical notice of their situation.

Through this impromptu community building that occurred before the war, homophile organizations like the Mattachine Society, which would be followed by ONE and the Daughters of Bilitis, came in to being. These groups provided the first space for homosexual’s mostly gay men, to meet others like themselves and seriously discuss issues that touched one another’s lives. This conciseness raising helped overcome the feeling still shared by so many gays and lesbians that they were stood alone.

Often discussions that took place at these group meetings were centered on topics like ”What to do with these effeminate queens and these stalking butches who are giving us a bad name?” feeding into a self fulfilling prophecy of disrespect and apathy. As the post war anti-gay climate grew, these discussions gradually became more focused on the treatment of homosexuals and how to resolve the issue of discrimination that existed in psychology texts, employment, and law to name a few. Ultimately what developed was an atmosphere of self -hate and the eventual structure of a self perpetuated hierarchy of power similar to the one responsible for homosexual oppression.

This self-loathing was a reaction to the simultaneous forces of growth and suppression acting upon the gay community as it continued to grow and struggle to define itself in a changing world. The challenge of being the voice for a growing number of people was not easily met and the homophile movement began to fracture as those who felt their voices were ignored began to form their own groups. As time passed and membership in these new groups expanded, the voices of the varied community were better able to represent the growing diversity within the gay movement that so echoed the plight of other minority groups across the country.

Inspired by the early African American civil rights actions, gays and lesbians wanted to deal with more immediate concerns such as what to do if one were lose their job or how to change unfair laws. Homosexuals were increasingly ready to take action. For the first time thanks to the Kinsey report, there was common knowledge of just how many homosexuals existed in the U.S. Unfortunately, rather then those large numbers of people coming together the movement had started to divide into more specific organizations such as the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) . The rift within the gay community continued to grow. Jean O’Leary says” How could I work to exclude transvestites and at the same time criticize the feminist who were doing their best…to exclude lesbians” as lesbians, influenced by the blossoming feminist movement started to feel that gay men drove the Homophile movement and ignored lesbians issues entirely. As Morty Manford puts it “In the early years of the GAA’s activism, there was an awful lot of resentment from other gays over our tactics and at our openness.” These splinters of the community would eventually create their own niche in the movement.

The movement for gay rights also took inspiration from the popular movement against the “Viet Nam war”. It is important to acknowledge that this was during the heat of the Vietnamese war. The atmosphere of the time was increasingly one of self-expression and public protest against all that was perceived as unjust.

It was the push and pull of these external as well as internal forces that would lead to the desperate frustration evidenced in Greenwich Village in June 1969, the mentality that this community had had enough and were willing to set the example for future generations who would keep the movement moving that there was no excuse for such oppression.

The struggle for gay rights, the rights of all are still pertinent today. Their needs to be an effort made at understanding between the oppressed groups in an effort to work together and bring an end to the inequality that still persist. Until this is done Stonewall will only be the beginning and the end will remain just out of reach.


Eric Marcus, Making Gay History (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), 23
Chris Bull, Come Out Fighting (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press,2001),25
Eric Marcus, Making Gay History (New York: Harper Collins, 2002),
Ibid,156
Ibid, 55
Eric Marcus, Making Gay History (New York: Harper Collins, 2005), 149

Saturday, November 1, 2008

The New Woman a Figment of the Imagination

Defining the New Woman

Observers in the first two decades of the twentieth century used the term “New Woman” to refer to women who gained independence through a variety of means; be it education community resources or via the American justice system. The New Woman cannot be defined as a movement but rather as a shift in thought. The New Woman was one who broke away from the private sphere assigned to her through religion and politics and began to fight for increased influence outside of her home as society started to become more industrialized.

During the early stages of industrialization white, middle class society viewed the female as a guardian of hearth and home. She was considered in charge of the moral upbringing of the nation. It was feared that if she were to venture from this post, the more civilized portion of our culture would be lost. Such a concern was aptly expressed by former President Grover Cleavland when he stated, “[f]or the sake of our country, for the sake of our homes, and for the sake of our children, I would have our wives and mothers loving and devoted, though all others can be sordid and heedless; I would have them disinterested and trusting, though all others may be selfish and cunning”[i] This statement was made in response to the increasing numbers of women who were forming and joining “women’s clubs”. Cleavland’s statement illustrates resistance to the mobility of the “New Woman”. Like Cleavland many men who were increasingly called to work away from the home in a new and competitive economy, expressed a desire to come home to a nurturing environment like the one they had growing up.

As a result, the new woman was at constant odds with herself as well as with society. There was an attempt to merge the “true woman” who tended hearth and home, with a new persona of woman who was able to extend hearth and home to the larger community. As there were so few opportunities for women to have a feeling of belonging to the world around them, various organizations provided a critical outlet for the new woman’s development of self. Community was a large influence on the formation of the new woman. Women began gathering together and whether intentionally or otherwise they started discussing their current plight. Organizations began forming all over America, called clubs that gave women a place to talk about their concerns other then the house and children’s schooling. Women shared their desire for the vote and other possibilities to gain influence in a changing society. This club concept became so popular, and as a result threatening, that Grover Cleveland states “[m]embership in one such organization is apt to create a club habit, which if it does not lead to other smaller affiliations, induces toleration and defense of club ideas in general”[ii]

As might be apparent by the former President’s statement, government expressed concern over the development of the new woman. The new woman was seen as a threat to the patriarchal system already in order. Fraternizing among woman was seen a threat to the power paradigm. The only clubs critics like Grover Cleveland found acceptable were those which amounted to “nothing more than women’s association or cooperation in charitable benevolent and religious work…entirely fitted to a woman’s highest nature and best impulses”[iii]. Ironically some of the interest women took in politics came from a sense of ownership or expertise gained from “true womanhood” regarding issues such as welfare. Women like Charlotte Perkins Gilman in “A Feminist Challenge to the Privatized Home” put forth the idea of taking pride in their work and furthermore, a division of labor among woman working together into jobs that bought individual pleasure to them. Gliman declares “ the growing social need is for the specializing of the industries practiced in the home and for the proper mechanical provision for them.”[iv]

Not all women who were shaping the “New Woman” identity knew they were taking an active part. There were those who were merely trying to be a “better woman” within the confines of the true woman. This was accomplished via physical labor as in the case of the lower classes. One example of this is found in “The Burden of Rural Women’s Lives”. According to the article, “[r]ural women had it especially hard. Not only did they have the full responsibility for bearing and raising children and maintaining their households, as their urban counterparts, but they also actively participated in farm labor.”[v] Another point for this is seen in “Female Perspectives on the Great Migration”. The poor new woman was stepping up to try to help make ends meet in hard times. An example of this can be seen in a letter written by a seventeen year old to The Defender magazine asking for information about employment. She writes, “I have a mother and father my father do all he can for me but it is so hard.”[vi]

Indeed many working class women were facing particularly hard struggles. Occasionally women worked across class lines to better the lives of others. A strong example of women joining together in this struggle for respect and opportunity comes from the experiences of reformer Jane Addams. Addams struggled with the options available to her after graduating from Rockford Seminary College. Jane Addams combined the spheres of public and private, in her push for women to have a voice beyond the home. As a reformer she became the founder of Hull House. Hull House was a settlement house where women were able to offer their services within their sphere to others then were considered her family. While helping others in the community, “[s]settlement home residents, primarily college educated women from the middle class, also reaped rewards. They found useful roles that allowed them to move beyond charity working the “Lady Bountiful” tradition to the scientific investigation that characterized Progressive era reform”[vii].

Although Hull House was run by educated women, higher education for woman was still a rare occurrence. Very few females went to college and those who did were from upper class families. Many educated women were ostracized from society as evinced in “Present Tendencies in Education” written by M. Carey Thomas. Published in 1908 this essay claims that there were great concerns regarding the effects higher education would have on women. The president of a prestigious woman’s college shares her concerns regarding higher education and it’s ramifications, she writes, “[b]efore I myself went to college I had seen only one college woman. I had heard that such a woman was staying at the house of an acquaintance. I went to see her with fear. Even if she had appeared in hoofs and horns I was determined to go to college all the same.”[viii] This quote from Carey illuminates the stigma that society had about college educated women. Despite all of this there were still those who pushed on to attend colleges and try to forge a place for themselves.

With more education women also became increasingly interested in legal rights and protections. But educated women were not alone in the struggle for legal protections. Many working-class women also sought to tackle issues of legislation. As labor became more industrialized there was an increase, especially of poor woman in the workforce. Mollie Schepps, in an address to the New York senator declares “[s]ince economic conditions force us to fight our battle side by side with man in the industrial field, we do not see why we should not have the same privileges in the political field, in order to better the conditions under which we must work.”[ix] The new woman struggled with issues of equality with male coworkers despite feelings of competition. Labor laws were passed to try to protect females in the workforce. This is illustrated in Muller v Oregon, a legal case regarding the number of hours a woman can work in a week. It can be argued that these laws were in fact a means to confine women to what was defined as their sphere in the home. Mr Justice Brewer declared “[H]ealthy mothers are essential to vigorous offspring , the physical well-being of women becomes an object of public interest and care in order to preserve the strength and vigor of the race.”[x] This court decision had a large impact on working women who needed the ability to work excessive hours to support the families they already had. These women were not making an effort to be subversive but rather trying support their families. This working class struggle is part of the struggle of the new woman.

It can be argued that the “New Woman” label was only true for certain white woman of the middle and upper class, often excluding the majority of poor, working class women. The working class female had little opportunity to partake of the privileges of the new woman due the subsistence level lifestyle they upheld. Such hardship is evinced when Mary Church Terrell states with reference to a need for childcare, “[w]hen one reflects on the slaughter of the innocents occurring with pitiless persistency every day, and thinks of the multitudes who are maimed for life or rendered imbecile…it is evident that by establishing day nurseries colored woman will render one of the greatest services possible to humanity and to the race.”[xi] Nevertheless many working class women struggled for the newly found freedoms of all women, and played a large part in the creation of this “New Woman” ideology. The “New Woman” was simply a woman who broke away from the ultra-strict roles established by the patriarchy. These women worked for pay, raised their families, sought rights, established clubs, and fought on the many social and political fronts of freedom.


[i] Cleveland, Grover. “Women’s Mission and Women’s Clubs”

[ii] ibid.

[iii] ibid.

[iv] Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “A Feminist Challenge to the Privatized Home”

[v] “The Burdens of Rural Women’s Lives”

[vi] “Female Perspectives on the Great Migration”

[vii] “Jane Addams Struggles with the Problem of “After College, What?”

[viii] Thomas, M. Carey. “Present Tendencies in Women’s Education”

[ix] Schepps, Mollie. “Senators v. Working Women”

[x] Muller v. Oregon

[xi] Terrell, Mary Church. “Praises the Club Work of Colored Women”

Monday, September 22, 2008

behind the "mystique"

In my attempt to get a headstart for the approaching term, I've started reading some of my books now. One such book, "The Feminine Mystique" written in 1963 by the founder of NOW, Betty Friedan has me engrossed with a paranoia not of the expected things like government but further reaching. My paranoia is directed towards advertisers. This book, written over 40 years ago clearly lays out a plan to play upon female oppression for better markert dollars. By depriving women opportunity outside of the home and keeping them dependant upon an unsatisfied longing the creaters of everything from cake mix to cars was able to prey upon this longing ...to offer their object to fill the void. The scary part are the "depth surveys" done that so closely detail the intimate longings of these housewives and the plans to keep them as such in a attempt to keep a market open. The connection behind this advertising is scarier still. After WWII, there was a need to find a home or purpose for the new technology from the war and with that technology came a need for a market for it. So  it goes without saying that the cleaning/ cooking appliances make  a good sell the status hungry housewife. What i want to know was what came first...The advertisers, the goods and technology or the capitolist market and system that took advantage of the whole situation??? Either way these techniques are still clearly in use today and i'm sure with more detailed surveys. All that can be done is to make oneself as educated a consumer as possible. Here are some sites to help us all do that. Adbusters is a good one .

There is also some good info at the consumer watchdog site. Any other are WELCOME!!!!!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

History revisted

Went to the Shrewsburry ren. fest yesterday...it reminded me of just how much i enjoyed history especially medieval history..i think it's because of the complexity of the time. The era seems to be so different from ours yet there are plenty of similarities even a definite connection to how so much of what makes up today came into being. In particular with regards to the lower classes of people. In western civ.  I used to think that i'd have wanted to be around in that time but yesterday i realized that maybe it would be the same stuff, different day as it were. Is it posible that people have been dealing with the same basic issues for over 600 years?! 

Friday, September 12, 2008

word cloud

thoughts?

Ok, I've been spending some time reading my  $400.00 worth of text books starting with my Anthropology class...mostly because many books for the class are novels...and i had read one book "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe leisurely over the summer and really liked it. 

I then read "The Translator" by Daoude Hari. This book is written by a refugee survivor of the genocide in Darfur by the Sudan government. There were at least 5 points in the book where i was bought to tears. I had been pretty ignorant to alot of issues regarding this conflict. To be honest I'm still not sure that i really know what the situation is over. I think I'm in denial that people would go as far as genocide over  natural resources...i mean i know they're precious but that adults would think mass murder would really solve anything! What will be done when the land is diseased with the dead bodies strewn about.? It seems kinda wasteful to me. It takes quite a bit of resources to kill and torture and hold people also!
I'm now working on reading "Nisa: the life and words of a !Kung woman" written in the mid 70's by an anthropologist who spent 20 months living with the African tribe. This book is interesting because from what i'd read thus far this tribe seems pretty matriarchal in many ways, divorce in initiated by the wives, wives hunt, as well as gather from the surrounding area and have say over who they marry after a certain age. I'm not sure why but this intrigues me.
I really look forward to this class..i've always liked anthropology but never had the opportunity to take a class...maybe this class comes at a good time when i'm pretty up in the air about teaching????

On a whole other direction I've been helping Bird and Hippy do veg. surveys at E.E Wilson and Finley.  I ate so many blackberries at E.E Wilson that i nearly pooped myself on wed. LOL. There was so much fruit there,  apples, pears, blackberries, cherries...not sure how it all got there but im glad it is. It's funny , i was telling Hippy and Bird that i never really liked berries until i moved out here. Now i love them..huckleberries, blackberries, thimbleberries! At Finley there were so much Elk sign  and weird nest  or debris in the trees. We found this cool grove of trees, hawthorn i think randomly in the middle of his huge field. I could of stayed there all day!
It was so nice. I'm kinda sad that surveys are over  liked the motivation to hike and explore. 

Monday, September 8, 2008

Freedom

So... i will try to make this brief...I have finally QUIT Growing oaks...and it feels so good to say it. Kinda funny how easy it was to be honest. lol. I start at the UHDS on sunday so that also helps..=) So...beyond all that i went to campus with julie today and hung out  and tried to familarize myself with places.  It was an excellent day to be honest despite julie and i discovering that im being charged out of state tuition at OSU. Now i have to fill out some paperwork, make copies of stuff proving that i lived here for at least 12 months..but at least now i have time to do all ths stuff...lol. 

Friday, August 29, 2008

yikes


So seeing as i love to go off about work, here i go again. Today 2 of our graduates left our class for kindergarten. It was bittersweet and tear filled. One of the families got me a 50.00 gift to a restaurant and 10.00 giftcard to great harvest bread. As super thoughtful as this is the thank you note that accompanied really did me in. This particular student was a joy to me with his individuality and creativity. I mean this kid is the next Stephan King. In the thank you note i was thanked for making my classroom a safe place for him and encouraging his imagination. I know i'm leaving the field but of all times for me to decide this....after getting that card...i've become ever more certain that i am a good teacher and i actually do make a difference however small in amy kids lives. 

To top off this sad day...to know that i've sent my brightest and my most creative children off to the public school system is unsettling to me. I mean combined these kids have Julies intelligence and creativity. I only hope that they are as resistent to the public school white wash as she was. 
P.S...Julies is awsome!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

ouch

So it was another day at the grind with work today. New day...same bull kinda deal. Bird returned hoe from seattle today. YAY. She brought me a lovely pen. It's shiny!!My lovely dog moose beat me up this evening. We were walking upon the wrong side of a set of mailboxes and i was to short to see that on the other side was a dog that moose was itching to get to. Well, he lunged and pulled me head first into the mailbox...lol. i walked away with a little bruise on my forearm and shoulder and bird and i got a few good laughs. It's a good thing he's cute. 

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Things are still topsy turvey at work but at least i'm not in a position to have to deal with other peoples headaches. I'm just getting ignored....which really isn't a heartbreaker...lol.

Other then this work drama my life is really quite ...well....boring and uneventful. Bird is in Seattle w/ family ...=(....i hear rumors that this weekend holds a trip to the zoo in portland which i greatly anticipate.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Live from Southern Oregon

So despite the headaches from work I've decided to carry through with my original plans and head to Grants pass. (This hopefully explains my delay in posting. )
The update on work has a funny or...ironic turn. The American red cross called me to inform me that my CPR/first aid class was cancelled so i called Mel to let her now of the sadness..yeah sadness of that while thinking to myself "i am so lucky. " Well i spoke to soon....@ 4 hours later the American red cross called back and told me that the class was still taking place as scheduled and they apologize for the inconvenience. Yeah...I'm sorry too. lol.
Beyond all this i am having a great time here...it's always very relaxing here...i love having my morning coffee on the porch watching the animals. I've learned how to dehydrate peaches, pick, snap and freeze beans and went dancing...though that I'm just gonna make pretend never happened. The experience was a mixture of depressing and overwhelming both at the same time. Never before have i been so hit by the odor of desperation and vomit as that of Thursday night. It inspired a poem that I'll post later on.
I'm slowly coming to discover that I'm a big fan of fresh food and how to prepare and keep it fresh and at peak nutrition. I think this has to do with the growth of my knowledge and awareness that's taken place sine living with my roommates. It's been interesting.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

ride the waves

So ....the drama at work has heated up a level. I may soon not have a job over some cpr/1st aid class that i'm registered ... due to Melanie's poor supervisory skills ...i'm expected to alter previous plans to go away or tend to my dog or lose my job....but am surprisingly unbothered. 

I feel a need to add a little quip regarding Oregon weather....
I am becoming a huge fan of the overcast foggy damp stuff that we've been gettin compared to the 104 degree stuff.

Monday, August 18, 2008




So...as a means of avoiding the 104 degree temps this weekend, we packed up the dogs and headed to Newport....(cause it's not like our home away from home or anytthing). It was beautiful there...a foggy 60 with strong ocean breezes. The Oregon coast is breathtaking...we were at Yaquina Head... got a annual pass...saw seals...no whales this time...the lighthouse was hardly visable in the fog even standing right in front of it. I love that Bird and hippy are the types of folk that dig going to places like that.

Friday, August 15, 2008

So..today was spent mostly being eluded by my supervisor and trying to hold a normal conversation with my colleague. I also hada situation with one of my students that is consuming a great deal of my time!!!! I am doing all i can to help this student but am at the point of no return on how to do so and there are other little fires not getting properly attended to due to the large amount of time this child consumes of both me and my colleague. I am beyond happy at the thought that i may be taking next friday off!!! Maybe!! 

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Another icky, hot day. Have to write a paper for a literacy grant at work...other then that there wasn't much going on.Had a nice walk home with Bird and the dogs. Moose is getting to be such a good boy...walking by two dogs without even barking.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The journey

Having been in Oregon for a year exactly at this point and now preparing to began my senior year of college at OSU,  i've decided to create a place for myself to go off and ramble at my will.  I'm a transplant from the east coast who came to Oregon to be with friends (as well as away from them ) and hopefully to finish my degree in History. I currently teach 4 year olds and spend alot of time just kickin back with my friends.