By Jacqui Michot C.
I mean this in more ways than one. Now is the time for all women to gather forces to fight the last battle, the hardest battle of all, perhaps, in the United States, at least, to knock down the male bastion of supremacy and initiate true equality for both sexes of all races.
Now is the time for all women to look upon one another as 'sisters' -- with compassion and love -- with understanding for the thousands of problems we have, the inane work we do daily, whether in house, office or factory, because this is the work we have been assigned by society.
We in New York have picketed the dignified New York Times to de-sexigrate the Help-Wanteds, stormed the stately Plaza, motorcaded through the city screaming invectives against Colgate-Palmolive. We timidly protested the abortion laws two years ago, now we boldly oppose them. We flushed Ajax down a toilet drain on Park Avenue and marched on Washington, Mr. Nixon and the White House screaming, "What do we want? FREEDOM! When do we want it? NOW!
The one thing we have not learned is to stick together, to support one another, to enjoy the company of our sisters, to help one another whenever help is needed. This, in the male, was called "bonding" by little Mr. Tiger ("Men in Groups"). That bonding the male does is not genetic, but rather, a close feeling of camaraderie because they run the world, they are important, and they help to keep each other up there because it is essential to the patriarchal system that all men, or as many as possible, be kept up there.
Women who are not feminists do not bond together because they are isolated from one another. They are competing for the male, so don't trust one another; and really have nothing much of importance to bring them together. Besides family and housework there is art, the theatre, literature, music, a little better if they dabble in it or belong to the "patron" class and can help with fund-raising. There is nothing of interest to pull them together, because nothing is relevant to them in this man's world. Not having the power to control one's destiny, it is better to cling to that power which does have it.
Those of us who have "seen the light" are better off. Until NOW, Women's Liberation and other feminist organizations came into being three years ago, we were really alone with no one to relate to; we dared not express our feelings for fear of being called "sick". But now that we are together perhaps we might do a little bonding of our own. We should cultivate the feeling of sistership, help one another get jobs, living quarters -- solve the thousand minute problems that keep us from devoting our energies where needed to change things. There should be no difference between the executive and the secretary, the professional or the housewife, for we know that circumstances have made our position in life. If men have created a world for themselves by using women, we don't have to use men to create a world for ourselves.
We can create a world for ourselves BY OURSELVES. When we have learned to really "bond" together and help each other in emotional and financial problems, then we can go onward and forward to creating a new society, where women are not the housekeepers and the servants, the bunnies and the breeders, the nursemaids and the consumers, but equal human beings who give to the world what we have to offer in the way of intellectual achievement. Then, men will respect us in a different sense, and the relationship between the sexes can only improve when it is no longer a master-servant relationship.
Perhaps it is reason enough to read Tiger's book, just to get his perspective, and perhaps one of us will write very soon, "Women in Groups." together and help each other in emotional and financial problems, then we can go onward and forward to creating a new society, where women are not the housekeepers and the servants, the bunnies and the breeders, the nursemaids and the consumers, but equal human beings who give to the world what we have to offer in the way of intellectual achievement. Then, men will respect us in a different sense, and the relationship between the sexes can only improve when it is no longer a master-servant relationship. Perhaps it is reason enough to read Tiger's book, just to get his perspective, and perhaps one of us will write very soon, "Women in Groups."
Now is the time for all women to look upon one another as 'sisters' -- with compassion and love -- with understanding for the thousands of problems we have, the inane work we do daily, whether in house, office or factory, because this is the work we have been assigned by society.
We in New York have picketed the dignified New York Times to de-sexigrate the Help-Wanteds, stormed the stately Plaza, motorcaded through the city screaming invectives against Colgate-Palmolive. We timidly protested the abortion laws two years ago, now we boldly oppose them. We flushed Ajax down a toilet drain on Park Avenue and marched on Washington, Mr. Nixon and the White House screaming, "What do we want? FREEDOM! When do we want it? NOW!
The one thing we have not learned is to stick together, to support one another, to enjoy the company of our sisters, to help one another whenever help is needed. This, in the male, was called "bonding" by little Mr. Tiger ("Men in Groups"). That bonding the male does is not genetic, but rather, a close feeling of camaraderie because they run the world, they are important, and they help to keep each other up there because it is essential to the patriarchal system that all men, or as many as possible, be kept up there.
Women who are not feminists do not bond together because they are isolated from one another. They are competing for the male, so don't trust one another; and really have nothing much of importance to bring them together. Besides family and housework there is art, the theatre, literature, music, a little better if they dabble in it or belong to the "patron" class and can help with fund-raising. There is nothing of interest to pull them together, because nothing is relevant to them in this man's world. Not having the power to control one's destiny, it is better to cling to that power which does have it.
Those of us who have "seen the light" are better off. Until NOW, Women's Liberation and other feminist organizations came into being three years ago, we were really alone with no one to relate to; we dared not express our feelings for fear of being called "sick". But now that we are together perhaps we might do a little bonding of our own. We should cultivate the feeling of sistership, help one another get jobs, living quarters -- solve the thousand minute problems that keep us from devoting our energies where needed to change things. There should be no difference between the executive and the secretary, the professional or the housewife, for we know that circumstances have made our position in life. If men have created a world for themselves by using women, we don't have to use men to create a world for ourselves.
We can create a world for ourselves BY OURSELVES. When we have learned to really "bond" together and help each other in emotional and financial problems, then we can go onward and forward to creating a new society, where women are not the housekeepers and the servants, the bunnies and the breeders, the nursemaids and the consumers, but equal human beings who give to the world what we have to offer in the way of intellectual achievement. Then, men will respect us in a different sense, and the relationship between the sexes can only improve when it is no longer a master-servant relationship.
Perhaps it is reason enough to read Tiger's book, just to get his perspective, and perhaps one of us will write very soon, "Women in Groups." together and help each other in emotional and financial problems, then we can go onward and forward to creating a new society, where women are not the housekeepers and the servants, the bunnies and the breeders, the nursemaids and the consumers, but equal human beings who give to the world what we have to offer in the way of intellectual achievement. Then, men will respect us in a different sense, and the relationship between the sexes can only improve when it is no longer a master-servant relationship. Perhaps it is reason enough to read Tiger's book, just to get his perspective, and perhaps one of us will write very soon, "Women in Groups."
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