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WE BEG TO DIFFER . . .
Well we've got to add another scandal -- an offshoot of the whole mess that the media are so taken with lately. This event threatens to overshadow everything. It is sooo big and sooo bad that the country may never recover from it, to say nothing of the world!
Yeah, we know. We've all had enough, but brace yourselves anyway and face up to it. Here it comes:
ALL WOMEN DO NOT THINK ALIKE!
Frightening, isn't it? So much so that newspapers, radio, TV are just shocked right out of their collective scanties.
One headline from a D.C. paper blared accusingly: "Women's rights advocates broke ranks Sunday over allegations."
What ranks? And when have we ever been in lock-step?
Several TV news reporters, expressed profound surprise and disbelief because Gloria Steinem (who they identified as "a founder of the movement") did not consider Willey's version of the "happening" as sexual harassment. After all, they asserted, their little type-faces tortured in confusion, Patricia Ireland called it sexual assault.
Then along comes Eleanor Smeal, who considers the allegations, "a form of misconduct." Then, to add insult to injury, she had the absolute audacity to point out that there were "political overtones in the accusations against President Clinton brought by Paula Corbin Jones."
To cap it all, Anita Hill did not qualify Willey's alleged Whitehouse experience as sexual harassment.
Where is it written that women are all the same?
We know its a load of crap! Ever since the media put all women's movement activists in a container stamped, "F-Word-ists," they expect they can write us off like a can of spam -- ubiquitous pressed meat.
Would you even consider that everyone who plays golf or tennis or baseball thinks alike?
Would it surprise you to learn that all newspaper reporters do not think alike?
Now pick some group you belong to. Does every member of that group agree on everything? Of course not, so we have to ask why the media is having such a pissy fit over this?
However, we do have a problem and it is a big one. We have allowed our movement to be categorized. We have let it be defined as a group of non-traditional-bad-female-types, for example:
Troublemakers.
Baby killers.
Man wannabees.
In spite of this, we often hear some people in our movement criticizing those who will not call themselves by the F-word.
We recently read an article where the writer claimed she had asked these women who said they were not F-word-ists, if they believed in equal rights, equal pay and reproductive choice.
They all answered, "Yes."
To the writer of the article, this showed that they were F-Word-ists and that they were wrong not to admit to it.
We do not agree. Many women, who are strong advocates for our movement to parity, reject being identified by this all inclusive media-defined label.
There are those who think: if one calls one's self by the deprecatory or insulting names that one's detractors have hung on them, "that it takes the sting out of the words and neutralizes them."
We have never seen any evidence that this practice has caused any cessation of abuse or in any way changed the meaning of the insults or deprecation used. The curs that yell bitch or queer or fag are only reinforced by the "acceptance" of their terms.
Most blacks know this already and remain militant regarding use of the N-word.
So, we submit that women have every right in the world to differ, whether we are active in the women's movement or not. We also think that each woman has the right to accept or reject media's all-inclusive labels.
However, there is one name 
that
we think all WOMEN can write in huge letters on a banner; one name that
we can all gather under and one name that empowers and legitimizes all
of us.
That one name is "VOTER."
1998-013
Copyright 1998 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: TWANDA@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
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