book reviews
Cactus
by Ann Wilson
Onlywomen Press Ltd
38 Mt. Pleasant
London WC1,U.K.
£ 2.25
Cactus is the story of four women. One, middle-aged and married, awakening to feelings of uselessness as her children leave home. Two others have left the city, coming to the country in search (of... ?) But it is through the fourth women that the book's message is developed, and in whom the struggles of the four are crystallized. One of the couple cries "I'm tired of always having to use cactus skills, as if that's all there ever was for lesbians in the world — to drink in the fleeting support of the ghetto, grow a thick skin to withstand the heat of a hostile environment, and go sit in the desert for a year drinking your juices meanly". Later, after observing the fourth woman, a generation older, grappling with isolation and attempts to reach and maintain self-sufficiency, she admits the source of her frustration: "We had thought it was easy, or natural, perhaps. Not something you have to spend your life at". For all four women, however, there is a realization that each stage in living means further journeying, never an arrival.
Woman, Church and State.
Matilda Joslyn Gage
Persephone Press
P.O. Box 7222
Watertown, Mass. 02172 USA
$7.95
In this "original expose of male collaboration against the female sex" (it was originally published in 1893) Matilda Joslyn Gage examines separate parts of women's history -the matriarchy, female sexual slavery, legitimized medieval rape, the persecution of witches ~ and, outlining them into a whole, ascertains the way they are connected with one another. Woman, Church and State is, as Mary Daly says in the book's foreword, "indispensable for an understanding of the women's movement today".
Dear Comrades. Readers' Letters to "Lotta Continua"
M. Kunzle, ed.
1980
Pluto Press
Unit 10 Spencer Court
7 Chalcot Road
London NW1 8LH, U.K.
A collection of letters written to a Italian left wing daily newspaper reflecting the bewilderment of a generation that had hoped for a left leaning government to emerge from the elections of 1976, only to have hope dashed. Some of the letters are written (by men and women) on left politics, but there are a large number written by women about the effects of feminism on their relationships, on their perception of events around them. Dear comrades is also about people trying to come to terms with violence, terrorism, death - but its most important message is a graphic description of the meaning of "the personal is political".
The Status of the Arab Woman
A Select Bibliography
compiled by Samira Meghdessian
1980
Manseil Publishing
3 Bloomsbury Place
London WC1A 2aA, U.K.
This bibliography aims to provide a list of research material on the economic, legal, religious and social status of the Arab women in the twentieth century. It contains over 1,600 entries and includes all Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa. It covers books, journal articles, conference proceedings, papers (published and unpublished), masters' theses, doctoral dissertations, and bibliographies. Most of the references are in English and French, but some appear in German, Italian and Spanish.
Eye-to-Eye: Portraits of Lesbians
by JEB
Gladhag Books
P.O. Box 2934
Washington, DC 20013 USA
US$8.95
"To reveal and celebrate reality", Berenice Abbott, photographer of the Twenties, said of photography. JEB, in this collection of photographic portraits, dis-closes a Lesbian reality not visible in the mass media, celebrates woman-identified See-ing. JEB took the book's title from these lines by Adrienne Rich, "two women, eye to eye/ measuring each other's spirit, each other's limitless desire, a whole new poetry beginning here". And we are eye to eye with the women in these photographs, See-ing what Mary Daly has called "the courage of self-acceptance", and a Self-affirmation - See-ing power, strength, and energy (gynergy) of women. But it is for this reason a dangerous book. "With it", Sally Gearhart has said, "otherwise docile Lesbians may charge into city streets or rural thoroughfares snagging every passer-by to say, look, this is what a woman really is".
The Wanderground
Sallt Gearhart
Persephone Press
P.O. Box 7222
Watertown, Mass. 02172 USA
$5.00
A moving and inspiring collection of visionary tales portraying a world where women live harmoniously with nature, apart from men or male values
Biblioteca Femina
Maryann Turner
1978
Tower Press
New York City , USA
A wonderful book. Subtitled a herstory of book collections concerning women, it aims to document herstory of the formation of collections of books concerning women. It includes lists of book collections, descriptions of types of collections — oral, microfilmed, in women's centers, and more. Also included is a sample proposal for creating a collection — procedures, maintenance, budget, goals, dissemination. In short, this small book is full of information as interesting to browse through as it is rich with practical information
The Coming Out Stories
Julia Penelope Stanley and Susan J. Wolfe
Persephone Press
P.O. Box 7222
Watertown, Mass. 02172 USA
$6.95
"The intimate glimpses of Lesbian lives in The Coming Out Stories give the reader a sense of the fear and pain, the bewilderment and denial that comes out of being different in a conformist society. But over-all there is an awareness of the rightness of each woman's feelings, the triumph of her self-acceptance, and the strength her knowledge of self brings to her
New Space for Women
G.R. Wekerle, R. Peterson,
and D. Morley, eds.
Westview Press
Boulder, Colorado. USA
1980
Signs
"Women and the American City"
supplement, vol. 5, No. 3
Spring 1980
University of Chicago Press
Chicago, Illinois. USA
Among the broadest and most far reaching implications of feminism is the recognition of the ways in which men have created and maintained an environment which inhibits
women's attempts to broaden their roles and activities. ISiS has recently received these two volumes taking a feminist approach to women and their environment. New Space for Women is a discussion of women and the planning and design of urban settlements. Its articles examine the social costs of domestic homes and urban (in)accessibility, and look at "ways to appropriate and transform" existing architectural technology and to make it "more supportive of changing roles". However, as one of the articles in Signs points out, "industrializing some household tasks does not necessarily promote any fundamental changes ... (or) challenge existing sex roles".
In contrast to New Space; which takes the continuance (and desirability) of the nuclear family largely for granted, most of the articles in Signs deal with the private/public split as the real source of women's oppression, and warns " i t is not clear we can eliminate patriarchy without transforming capitalism" (emphasis theirs). Thus while both works include blueprints of alternative single family housing, those in Signs include visions on a larger (e.g. neighborhood) scale, reflecting an aim of collectivization rather than industrialization. Both include short histories of attempts at reform the designs of communities — New Space detailing in particular turn-of-the- century "Utopias", and both contain good bibliographies (in the form of footnotes in Signs). Both New Space and Signs are rich in information and can be not only a resource for those interested in direct application of the ideas presented, but a catalyst for further reflection and research
The Menopause Manual. A Women's Guide to the Menopause
Wulf H. Utian
1978 MTP Press
Lancaster, U.K.
There are few well-written, simple yet informative, books on the subject of menopause, and The Menopause Manual does nothing to remedy the situation. Written by a "World authority on menopause", the book is pro-hormonal therapy (any attendant dangers glossed over or minimized), pro hysterectomy, and written with hand-patting condescension. Among the book's other dangers is the author's obsession with woman as still attractive (if she diets), still sexy (if she works at it), and more sexually available (because no longer fertile). Such a book should bear a warning label: WARNING contents may be hazardous to your health and self-being
A Feminist Tarot : A Guide to Intrapersonal Communication
Sally Gearhart and Susan Rennie
Persephone Press
P.O. Box 7222
Watertown, Mass. 02172 USA
$ 4 . 00
This book's title describes its contents — feminist interpretations and a suggested layout for card reading for this ancient form of divination. A must for feminist students of the Tarot. Other Recent
Other Recent Books
We have little space to give full book reviews in ISIS Bulletins, but we list below some of the titles we think our readers would like to know about.
We shall smash this prison
Indian Women in struggle, Gail Omvedt,
Zed Press Ltd.
57 Caledonian Road
London N1 9DN , England. 1980. £ 2.95.
A personalized account of women's stuggles in India (mainly in the State of Maharashtra) in the 1970's. The author based her account on encounters and work with agriculture laborers, urban workers, college girls, bank employees, ex-Untouchables Brahmans, women of the left political parties and students, and gives a stirring presentation of the way these women have organized. Shows how these struggles are indubitably part of a women's movement in India
Female Sexual Slavery
Kathleen Barry
Prentice-Hall Inc.
Englewwod Cliffs
New Jersey, USA.
1979. US$ 10.95.
Based on considerable research into historical, legal and cultural aspects, the book focuses on forced prostitution as the crystallization of female enslavement. It details the International traffic in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and other parts of the world , and goes on to examine the broader issue of the politics of sexual domination. The author shows how sexual slavery is connected to rape, wife battery , incest, pornography and other forms of exploitation and abuse of women. A good feminist analysis
Korean Women in a struggle for humanlzation
Ed. Harold Hakwon Sunoo and Dong Soo Kim,
Association of Korean Christian Scholars
in North America, Inc.
1246 U n i o n Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104,
USA. Spring 1978. U S $ 6 .00.
A collection of fairly theoretical essays on aspects of Korean women's lives, both in Korea and elsewhere, covering e.g. battered wives, intercountry adoption of children, status of women, small businesses
Fighting Two Colonialisms:
Women in Guinea-Bissau
Stephanie Urdang
Monthly Review Press
47 Red Lion Street
London WC1R 4PF
1979. £ 8.95 / US$ 16.50.
Based on two trips by the author to Guinea-Bissau, one during t h e war for independence (from Portugal) and one after independence, this book gives a fascinating account of the lives of the peasant women, their role in the liberation struggle and their integral fight for their own liberation as women. The final two chapters present the women's own assessments of their successes and failures as emancipation proceeds during the difficult transitional stage of national development
Let me Speak !
Domitila Barrios de Chungara with Moema Viezzer
Stage 1, Monthly Review Press
47 Red Lion Street
London WC1R 4PF, England.
1978. £ 2 . 9 5 .
The by now well-known testimony of Domitila, a woman of the Bolivian mines, translated from the Spanish by Victoria Ortiz. It is a powerful story, showing not only the situation of exploited miners and peoples of Bolivia, but also how the liberation of women is fundamentally linked t o the socioeconomic, political and cultural liberation of people. ISIS
My Song is My Own
Kathy Henderson with Frankie Armstrong and Sandra Kerr,
Pluto Press
Unit 10 Spencer Court
7 Chalcot Road
London NW1 8 L H , England.
1979. JC 3.95.
A collection of 100 women's songs from the British Isles, drawn from a rich repertoire from women's culture stretching back five centuries. It is a practical book with tunes set out in single-line music, and t e songs grouped together under themes : love, courtship and desire, marriage, motherhood and childhood , and work - the waged and unwaged
Die Frau ist frel geboren
Hrsg. Hannelore Schroder
Verlag C. H. Beck
MiJnchen, Federal Republic of Germany.
1979.
A collection of texts in German concerning early feminism (1789-1870) in t h e USA, France, England and Germany, which have never before been systematically collected and published in this way. This is the first of two volumes. The second is published in 1980 and will cover the period 1870- 1933.
Together We Are Strong
A book on the Alternative Women's Conference in Copenhagen, 1980.
This book is currently being compiled by a group of women who have formed themselves into the International Feminist Collective Inc. It will attempt t o present just some of the important issues, and the atmosphere of the Alternative Women's Conference, especially to those women who could not attend.
There will be a preface describing the background to the Conference, followed by the main body of the book consisting of interviews with women chosen to discuss the main themes of the Conference. It will incorporate information and material from the International Women's Arts Festival which took place at t he same time . It will be illustrated with photographs and posters from the Conference, and about 80 illustrations.
A working group of women from different parts of t he world is preparing material to be published simultaneously in Spanish, English and Danish, with the possibility of Dutch, French and German editions later.
For more details write to :
Ellen Buch-Hansen,
Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke,
Hejrevej 3 8 , 2 4 0 0 Kobenhavn NV,
Denmark