The re-Descent? of Women

For some years now, the terrorism encouraged by *polit-
ical*, religious groups against Women's Clinics has
been a real and constant threat for women and the men
that aid them. It has prevented many women from re-
ceiving medical treatment when the clinics in their
area were forced to close. Our clinics have been
bombed, our sisters and brothers killed and our consti-
tutional right to assemble trampled upon. New laws
governing terrorist acts have helped but have not
reduced the danger.

As women are bonding more than ever through cyberspace,
the same kind of violence is directed against them by
the same groups that encourage the destruction of
women's reproductive rights, and their clinics.

In addition to these real threats, we are constantly
assailed by the stepfordwives who write books for the
hegemony. These are women whose books are reviewed and
admired by the mainstream media. They tell how women
are hurt by our movement; how women are to blame for
being raped or harassed. They urge us to return to the
way things used to be in the past. They dictate the
re-DECENT OF WOMEN --*for her own good!*

"We have won," they chirp gaily to us through the
media. "Women now are paid equally to men; we have
laws to protect us; women really want to stop working
and stay at home and have babies; abortion causes
breast cancer; any person who complains is just trying
to cause trouble between the genders; women have become
over stressed by working outside of the home because
women and men come from different planets; women are
needed to stay home and replenish the family values and
then everything will be all right in the world. Crime
will stop. Rape will stop. Children will be safe and
carefree, etc."

Who are these authors who attempt to undercut our
movement to parity, and who attack us? They are psy-
chologists (trained by our paternalistic society); they
are teachers, sometimes they are Women's Studies Teach-
ers! They may even be spokespersons in so-called
feminist organizations such as "Feminists For Life" and
"Women's American Renewal Groups". There are others
and you can always find the *political* religious
driving force of the patriarchy backing them.

(There are, of course, many competent women writers
but you will seldom see them celebrated by the media.
Two of them, that have been brought to our attention,
are listed at the end of this chapter.)

There have always been women that catered to the paternal
establishment in the hope of gaining favorable positions.
Now they get book tours and a kind of cheap fame along with
the illusion of power while they undercut women's ascent.

Sadly, the media barrage touting these books has had some
effect. Some women are very tired, confused and unhappy.
They not only support their families by working for less
that a man in a comparable position, but afterwards, they
must come home to a second job. However, most of us
know the media hype for the excrement it is -- certainly
the gendergappers do.

The much lauded "home and family values" hegemony
still protects the batterer, the marital rapist, the
child molester. Despite nearly 2,000 years of Chris-
tianity, it was only last year that RAPE was made a war
crime. Only last year -- 1996! RAPE is not even a
federal crime in the land of the free and the home of
the brave!

Many of the Judges in our courts consider rape to be
natural. They say things like, "women are made for it
and rape won't hurt them"; "they'll get over it", and
recently a U.S. senator denied that rape can lead to a
pregnancy ..."because the juices aren't flowing."

We live in a world where the use of racial slurs can
bring about riots. We hear the media tiptoeing around
saying "the N - WORD", for example. They all use great
care not to use other racial pejoratives, but we hear
our First Woman called a bitch because she is intelli-
gent, able and -- a woman! We hear women in public
offices criticized for their appearance rather than
their issues. We commonly hear women being called
bitch, cunt, slut etc., and read similar labels posted
by males to women's lists. AND TO OUR EVERLASTING
SHAME MANY OF US USE THESE PEJORATIVE LABELS ON OUR-
SELVES AND OTHER WOMEN.

We have to ask this question: If it is really so
important that women stay at home and care for men and
family, as in the past, then why has this task been
given, and is still given, such low value? Why was and
are woman denigrated and considered inferior? One
would think that if motherhood and homemaker were of
such great value to society, that the woman-mother-
homemaker would be valued, not constantly trashed and
dehumanized.
#
(Several Women's Study courses are now using a book
called, "WILD JUSTICE", by Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. It deals with sex
discrimination in higher education. Published by the Gutenberg Project
and free on line - http://www.freebookstoread.com/wildj10_1.htm
Just out is a book called, "RUTS: Gender Roles and Realities", edited by
Anne Rankin Mahoney. It is a collection of graduate
student's final papers from a sociology of gender
seminar at the University of Denver. It is available
from Red Mesa Publishing, P.O. Box 505, Red Feather
Lakes, CO 80545; $14.95.)