Letter to the Editors

Chude Pam Allen

I THOUGHT THE retrospectives on the women’s liberation movement (ATC 133) were excellent. However, I was sorry to see no mention of lesbian feminism and hope your next issue will include it.

I have a question about the editorial, specifically your reference to one male leader responding that the position of women in his organization was ‘prone.” Attitudes are important, but even if that statement accurately reflected many men’s attitudes, it was not done in a meeting to intimidate or stop a discussion. It was said informally.

Women’s liberation was radical in beginning to discuss, analyze and demand that women have control of our own bodies, including our sexuality. Barbara Winslow’s article shows us the complexity of the issue. The women’s liberationists were objecting to a Playboy bunny being used to speak out against the war in Vietnam.  We might want to debate the pros and cons of this action since the Playboy bunny was choosing to be there, but the white men’s physical abusiveness is not debatable or complex. That was about dominance.

ATC 134, May-June 2008