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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33 No. 11. 22 July 1970

Sisterhood is powerful!

page 15

Sisterhood is powerful!

The accompanying article, written by an American 'feminist' and published in the Berkeley Tribe on 3 July, suggests the course Women's Liberation movements might follow in this country. When they reach the point indicated by the authoress—in about 1984 or so—we may well ask ourselves how to liberate society from Women's Liberation movements.

A certain shepherd oppressed the sheep with cruel laws 1 SHEEP WILL BE SHORN AND WOOL CONFISCATED 2 SHEEP WITH POOR WOOL YIELD WILL BE SLAUGHTERED 3 SHEEP MAY NOT SPEAK EXCEPT TO SAY BAAA! The sheep became unmanageable, so the shepherd was replaced. The new shepherd gave his flock a charter of Freedom Citizens have the right to be freed of wool. Citizens lacking wool will be postfiumously Honoured. Citizens have absolute Freedom of Speech. and all the sheep together voiced a loya! BAAA! Reprinted from THE PRESS

The Phoenix Art Gallery in Berkeley is a perfect example of how men find excuses to portray women as cunts. Cunts were all that was to be seen in the entire outside showcase. By the time Laura and I got there, the window was pasted with women's liberation stickers; it looked really beautiful.

We walked inside where a group of sisters was playing guitar and singing women's liberation songs to disrupt the cocktail charter. (Then we went back to get ourselves some cocktails and cider and cheese. Small reparations for the shit in the showcase). After that we went back into the main showroom to figure out a strategy. One woman suggested that we all station ourselves in front of a picture so that it couldn't be seen this really got some of the 'artists' uptight and their attacks (defences?) began. One person came over and began screaming that someone had put a sticker on a frame, and didn't we care how much the frame cost (it was cardboard anyway). Then some man said that we had a lot of nerve to put our greasy hair on the $400 works of 'art'. Another man went around asking us to move. He said that we were ruining costly works of art and that for 'art's' sake we should move. For art's sake we didn't move.

Some men have got to the point where they think they have to be 'sophisticated' about showing women as cunts. So they make women look like fancy bits of meat and pass them off as 'art' to satisfy their egos. Then they come on with the line that we don't know anything about art, and that a day in art school would do us good. We still didn't move (to their indignation) so they pulled the old trick of getting their women lackies to ask us to move. Just like getting Dick Gregory to stop blacks in Newark from noting, or getting him to sell Sea and Ski.

At this point two boys about 18 or 19 with longish hair came up and told us that we had better get ourselves together and think about what we were doing, because they were art students and knew where it was all at. They called us names for about an hour, told us to go hassle Playboy, not 3rt, and got really nasty and left. Only they didn't just leave. When they went out, they tore down all the stickers from the windows. This got us really pissed. These 'hip' guys ripping down our shit.

About twenty of us tore down the block after them. They thought that because we were women we wouldn't do anything—that they had free rein. We caught up and surrounded them to give them a taste of what it's like to be a woman and to be defenceless when surrounded by men on the street. They tried to push their way out of the circle; no good, together we were too strong. They squirmed for a few minutes and then told us if we didn't leave them alone that they would call the police. How cute. Then somebody grabbed at their bodies to let them see what it felt like to be ogled and pawed. They backed off and fell very uncomfortable.

They were perfect examples of how 'hip' men are just jocks with long hair when it comes to women. Most men when they being to feel that their cock privilege is being threatened will strike back no matter how unchauvinist they claim to be. So we have to stick together. Together we are strong enough to off them. Together we will win. Sisterhood is powerful.