RESOURCES
BOOKS
The Celibate Woman Journal 3306 Ross Place, NW Washington DC 20008 USA US$8.
"Mass communications in all its various forms push sexuality in every conceivable way, including ways that are degrading and life-endangering to females. This has a direct influence on attitudes and behavior in our society. The role mass communication plays in promoting pornography and over-emphasis on sex is being documented and challenged by many women and women's organizations. The Celibate Woman Journal was conceived as a forum for presenting another view of sexuality — an opening up of alternative in a sex-oriented society." The first issues includes book reviews, poetry, and artwork.
Sexuality Bibliography
Lesbian Herstory Archives News 7 P.O. Box 1258 NYNY 10116 USA.
A beginning bibliography, based on the Archives' holdings, on the subject of sexuality. It is continually being updated, and updates will appear in future issues. A valuable and unique resource.
Our Right to Love — A Lesbian Resource Book
Ginny Vida, ed. Produced in cooperation with women of the
National Gay Task Force (USA)
Prentice-Hall
Englewood Cliffs, NJ
USA.1978.
Long, wonderful, well-illustrated, and well-referenced. Includes material on lesbian identity, relationships, therapy, sexuality, health, etc.
Against Sadomasochism: A Radical Feminist Analysis Frog in the Well 430 0akdale Road East Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA US$7.95.
This book is an effort to critically explore and clarify the argument about sadomasochism in the widest possible political, ethical and philosophical context, to examine the political and historical implications of sadomasochism which advocates and defenders of sadomasochism have consistently ignored or denied, including links between racism, anti-Semitism and sadomasochism, and the feminist struggle against sexual coercion and violence. An important book whose examination of the eroticization of power and powerlessness is an invaluable part of any discussion of sexuality.
Marriage as a Trade Cicely Hamilton Women's Press 124 Shoreditch High Street London El ENGLAND £2.95.
Originally published in 1909, at the peak of the suffrage struggle, this book strips away the romance surrounding marriage to reveal that marriage is in fact a primary way for women to earn their living. It goes on to argue that as long as marriage remains the main source of women's livelihood, women must satisfy male ideals of womanhood. An important book in our herstory - all the more so since the romantic image of marriage is still powerful today.
Surpassing the Love of Men Lillian Faderman Morrow Quill 105 Madison Ave. NY NY 10016 USA US$10.95
It was in researching the work and correspondence of Emily Dickinson, and later that of her contemporaries, that Lillian Faderman discovered a herstory of passionate friendship between women. What intrigued her was the social acceptance, even encouragement, of these relationships — in contrast to the violent reaction against lesbian love in our century. Although these romantic friendships were love relationships in every sense except perhaps the genital (since women in other centuries internalized the characterization of women as asexual), Lillian Faderman soon concluded that it was not the genital aspect of love between women which differentiated romantic friendship and lesbian love — but rather that society's view of women's relationships with one another is determined by how such relationships affect women's relationships with men.
Thus it was that when women' growing economic independence began to pose a threat to heretofore inescapable heterosexual relationships that societal acceptance of love between women came to a halt. A rich study of the history of women's emotional commitments to one another. High recommended.
The Double Standard: A Feminist Critique of Feminist Social Science Margrit Eichler 1980 Croom Helm Ltd. 2-10St John's Road London SW11 England.
This powerfully written book challenges the logic of much of the current feminist literature in the social sciences. Margrit Eichler argues that many feminist writers have unintentionally reinforced the sexual stereotypes that they seek to destroy, by using the wrong conceptual tools and the wrong language. Terms like 'sex roles' and 'sex identity' have been especially distorting because they are ambiguous, and in themselves become instruments of sexism. This book argues that the double standard is the only relevant criterion for determining whether an identified sex difference is a matter of concern or not.
Work and play provide one of the most important examples of this. Until recently work was equated with paid work only. Unpaid work was considered non-work and therefore did not deserve pay. Recent analysis of the work women do has demonstrated that women do a lot of work which is substantially comparable to work done by men but women do it without pay. If we put the stress on the behaviours themselves — the work process — it is clear that a double standard has been applied which has differentially rewarded the sexes for engaging in identical behaviour.
PERIODICALS
Heresies No. 12 225 Lafayette St. NY NY 10012 USA US$5.
"The work in this magazine encourages us to reflect on our individual and collective relationship to our desires for pleasure, our desires for and of the flesh. As women, we are more than curious to know how these desires are constructed, manifested, and acted upon." Among the topics covered:
— celibacy: "Making love to myself, I've learned that much of the power to make me feel and experience what I once gave to men (thinking they made me feel that way) in fact belongs to me, is a part of my own personal power — mine to own and exercise. Owning that power (which I don't think I ever could have done as long as I continued to relate sexually to other people) has given me the strength to begin to own my life, to build a life and center apart from all the patriarchal madness."
— sadomasochism: the author describes s/m, "s/m is not a form of sexual assault. It is a consensual activity that involves polarized roles and intense sensations."
— sexual imagery in women's art. Two articles: one on the image of the male, the other of women-centered sexual imagery.
— porn and pleasures. The author argues that pornography has something to offer women: a pro-pleasure ideology and demystification of sex practice. She takes issue with the feminist anti-porn 'crusade' and claims that pornography can and should be transformed to speak of "female desire as we are beginning to know it and as we would like to see it acted out".
— a herstorical look at some aspects of Black sexuality. Examines the myths surrounding Black sexuality and their effects.
— reflections on racism and women identified relationships of Afro-American women. Discusses the invisibility of Black Lesbians.
— sexual silences in feminism: a conversation toward ending the silences in feminism around sexuality, desire, power, and how our backgrounds and experiences influence our perception of these.
— making love: a short work describing two women making love.
This issue also includes other articles on strippers, prostitutes, a father's influence on a woman's sexuality, and more. This publication brings out aspects of women's sexuality that are rarely discussed, or which are hotly debated — such as sadomasochism and pornography — elsewhere.
Ms Magazine, Vol. X no. 7 (Jan. 1982) 119 West 40 Street New York, NY 10018 USA.
In this dynamic Issue dedicated to older women, two of the articles deal with sexuality in later life (called "vintage sex") from a fresh and positive perspective.
Also in Ms, March and May 1982 issues, are three interesting articles: "A Report on the Sex Crisis", "Sex after Hysterectomy", and "A Teenage daughter talks about Sex".
CLIO No. 12 Feministisches Frauen-Gesundheits-Zentrum Liegnitzerstr. 5 D-1 Berlin 36.
This entire issue of this German self-help journal is on sexuality. It is a very lively production with many personal descriptions as well as more theoretical pieces. Themes covered include: misuse of therapy for dealing with women's sexuality, sexuality in marriage around the beginning of the century, lesbian sexuality, sexuality as power (especially in man-woman relationships), inhibitions, the beauty of our breasts.
"Sexuality and Symbol/Symbolisme et Sexualite"
Canadian Women's Studies/Las Cahiers de la Femme Vol. 3, no. 2, 1981. 651 Warden Avenue, Scarborough Ontario M I L 3Z6 Canada.
This issue, dedicated entirely to sexuality, contains poetry, book reviews and several interesting articles including "The Seductive Illusion: Sex and Class in the Hollywood Cinema", "The Wife of Bath: Sexuality vs. Symbol", "How Women are presented in the Media", "Striptease: Work, Performance, Sexuality", "Sexuality in the Aged", "Le Genocide ou la circoncision des femmes: 'I'atrocite acceptable' ".
Auf No. 15 1978 Postfach817 A-IOIIWien
An issue of this feminist monthly with a great number of articles on sexuality coming from Austria and covering all forms of sexuality, sometimes very poetic, often personal stories which make the whole journal lively, amusing and at the same time thought-provoking. Especially interesting are the articles "Emanzipation und Orgasmus" (emancipation and orgasm) by a 37 year-old woman where she defines a masculine "gymnastic" orgasm and a female orgasm, another on love and violence "Liebe und Gewalt" by a 31 year-old woman and a third one on compulsory heterosexuality as a form of violence against women "Heterosexualitat — Gewalt gegen Frauen" by a 21
year-old woman.
Sexualitat Emma-Verlag Kolpingplatz la D-5000 Koln 1 Federal Republic of Germany September 1981.
This is a special publication produced by the women who publish Emma, a German feminist monthly journal. This special publication, dedicated entirely to sexuality, is a collection of many articles broadly grouped under "female sexuality", "heterosexuality" and "homosexuality", and covering anything from feminist eroticism to sado-masochism. The articles are lively, well-written and present a broad and varied feminist perspective on sexuality.
M.: gentle men for gender justice 306 N. Brooks St. Madison, Wl 53715 USA.
Published by the M. Editorial Collective, this quarterly publication is dedicated to discussing issues important to changing men, affirming a healthy, life-loving non-oppressive masculinit y , and supporting the network of men and women struggling to end sexism.
As a sample we would like to present the following excerpts from an article by Art. Stawinski published in M. Issue No. 5, Spring 1981 entitled, 'Love Is a Men's Issue':
"The idea of love as an issue for men first came to me many years ago when I began to read Shulamith Firestone and some of the other radical feminists. I read some words there of heavy criticism of men, that men were't capable of loving. There was a part of me that said, 'No, that can't be right — I can love and other men can love.' Yet when I looked around, I remembered the men I'd known and the men I'd grown up with. Then I knew that there were very, very few who were genuinely loving, and for most of those it was really hard to love. The problem that this raised for me was: Why is this so difficult for us? Why is it that we men have to struggle — have to work so hard at loving when there is also a part of us that wants to go out and love and care for ourselves, for women, for children and for other men.
"Whatever it is, it's identified with this thing we call 'sexism' that labels us 'men' or 'women' and teaches us there are certain ways we have to be in order to be accepted, in order to be what we were taught to call 'loved'. Real loving, we learned, is somehow unmanly." Annual subscription $16 (institutions), $8 (individuals).
POST VACANT WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT PROFESSOR
The Institute for Social Studies in The Hague invites applications for a professorial post with special reference to the field of WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT. This programme focusses on the following areas:
* a critique of social science and development theories and underlying assumptions as regards women
* the methodology of women's studies
* the social history of women's work in Europe and the ex-colonies
* the political economy of housework
* current issues in the women's movement
* the political ideology and history of the international women's movement
* the effects of the internationalisation of capital on women.
The successful applicant will be responsible for coordinating work in these areas. More specifically, she/he will contribute to the post-graduate teaching programme and promote and participate in its research project, especially on the policy level.
The appointment will be of professorial rank at a salary in accordance with the scales applied at Dutch Universities. The successful candidate is required to hold a PhD in Social Sciences, to have extensive teaching and publishing experience and an international background in the field of Women and Development.
Applications, accompanied by a curriculum vitae, a recent list of publications and the names of three referees should be submitted to the Rector of the Institute of Social Studies, P.O. Box 90733, 2509 LS The Hague, Netherlands, before 15 January 1983.