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Lavender Starship/Page 14/May 10, 1972

by Colinda Tomato

SEXISM & SEXUALITY

The growth of Gay consciousness in the past year in Ohio is like a flood after a dam has broken. Within this tide, hundreds of us have attended meetings, dances, and consciousnessraising sessions; organizations now exist in about nine cities throughout the state. Meetings for the most part, though, have been male orientated and defined mostly in terms of civil rights for men. The struggles around sexism by our lesbian sisters have been tedious, with only minor breakthroughs into the rampant chauvinia of the man.

Gay people being raised in a heterosexual world are given two stereotypes to become: Either a very effeminate weak passive figure or a very GI Joe Butch male image. The passive person is supposed to be inward and shy and always give into the demands of the Butch partner. Dizziness and flightiness are essentials according to all the books and movies produced. The masculine person is supposed to be tall, handsome, strong, aggressive, and a Prince Charming ready to save the world and her/his dream love from dragons. In the heterosexual world, the woman is suppoued to be passive and the man the aggressor: Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, and of course the fairy princess of them all, Judy Garland.

In the Gay world, with our own reality, anyone can fit either of the above images, although the gay imagination has often been stifled by the "sex-is-dirty" attitude of the Judeo-Christian ethic.

Competition amongst ourselves is thought to be a must, since we don't expect to be loved because of our individual insecurities. Possessiveneas, jealousy, tackiness towards another Gay person who looks towards someone's lover these are all com-

mon to the Gay world.

Since gay men don't want to fulfill America's sick dream of manhood, they have adopted the so-called "womanly" role in society. Rather than being called Mr., it's Miss Thing and Miss That and bitch, whore, slut, cunt and other slang that have oppressed women for thousands of years. The role of seductive bitch that will moan and scream and fulfill every man's passion has been the major source of oppression of women from fucked up, insecure men who have subjected women to raping and harrassing relationships. For Gay men to imitate the same oppressed role of women can only mean division and oppression for us also.

Big-cock consciousness has also been a myth of our men; the supposed assuredness of the bigger the cock, the better the trick. Tricking thus becomes acceptable to the free-flowing male as a means of reassuring himself of his attractiveness: attractiveness being directly related to the number of people he can seduce into bed each week. Each of these roles are fantasies of men, fantasies that have driven hundreds and thousands of us into mental institutions and downs and massive drinking and "I'm so terrible, how could anyone like me." If anyone doubts my sta-

Gay

tistics, just go to Upham Hall or other places or let me take you on an extensive tour of the world

through my eyes. Straight society's images have never worked even for straights, so how can we expect to live lovingly within its realms of definitions. Men are men and it'a time to redefine that word, to stop

looking at things as extremes and realize that we can be soft/hard, passive/aggressive and that we are all beautiful. The words man/woman are long outdated terms. The word "person" should replace them. The only success for Gay liberation and for men learning to relate to each other is to follow women's liberation/feminist consciousness. We must throw away the bullshit roles and stop oppressing our sisters by pretending to be women. Stop referring to them as women's lib chicks. Each Gay person should be a subject for our love and attention. We must

Liberator

teach one another how to do new things and wake up each day to help Consciousnessbuild more Gay love. raising groups are good to help us learn communally about each other: Small groups of 5-10 sitting around telling each other their fears and fantasies. Our new role in Gay liberation is to stop catering to straight society and struggle for our rights and the rights of our sisters. Don't wait for sisters to have to be critical of you; learn to conquer This is the

your own chauvinism. best aid to all of us. Small cocks, big cocks, long hair, no hair, black, white, yellow, young, old together and loving in a Gay world.

Continued from Page 12

cause you're still defining women in terms of our usefulness and subservience to sexist males and male supremacist doctrine. That's not liberation. When we say we have no time for abortion law repeal and day care actions because we don't have children, we're resisting consciousness, because no woman will be truly free until every woman has complete control over her own body and her own life. When all of us sit on our white skin priviledges and imagine that the struggle of welfare mothers has nothing to do with us, we're deluded. Resistance is not liberation, no matter how much we might enjoy convincing ourselves that it is. Whatever else we are, we are all "uppity women. It's time to come up from under all these sexist thumbs, because they're a super down.

We are people.

are growing.

We are strong. We are everywhere.

we are very, very ugly.

********

OFF BROADWAY

2210 Summit Avenue

74.

a wouan's bar

Legal Beverages, Snacks And

DANCING

COLS., OHIO

PHONE: 261-9634

And

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