4. - OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — JANUARY 1998 CO"'0P A f‘’” 5"'V"¢¢. }IAf‘urA/ foo:/5 sfarg 'Sf¢:I"A/Iizfny in ‘(A/21 , L ' ‘ food‘ AMI Pndnfs I In a/¢, aryamcj Produce: o V;fh,“;hS ‘Irocery - spices ~ 1,°J},cArQ L bakery ° Looks - 7;ff$ C s czszsel Leverage; . shacks I Wnl-iuytou You can always look to us, for the ('D03.CD'1(D-I--H-Q. NAOT for the newest look in comfort cork latex insole shoes 31 Stgs of NAOT Footwear at: ANI-‘ORM SHOES RT.127 RT.7 Colchester St. Albans BY CROW COHEN I'm planning a reunion - graduates of the Burlington Wimmin's Community class of '75-'85. So far I've sent out close to 40 invitations to those who have stayed around the area, and I'm sure I've forgotten some. I've nar- rowed down the guest list to in- clude those who were willing to call themselves lesbian feminist activists back then regardless of what they call themselves now. Some will greet the idea with wild enthusiasm, others with trepidation. What's Crow doing? Trying to pry open a can of worms? Those were heady years, full of confrontation and turmoil. That community was from a by- gone era. We've moved on. It's now the queer community - more inclusive, more embracing diver- sity, not so separatist, more open to gay men, bi's, trans folk. Why go back to a time that no longer interests people who need to raise families, secure a retirement in- come, fix up houses? All true. And yet...and yet. Those were the years when we were a tight, vibrant gang of girls. Our movement newspaper, Commonwoman had to be laid out by hand in a big room with lots of tables and a dozen dykes all day Sunday."The ads were all hand- drawn. The articles were in-your- face. ("I Hate Christmas," "The Highs and Lows of Pot Smoking," "On Shoplifting.") Once a month a few of us would load a bunch of papers in the back of whoever had a running car at the time and at- tempt to distribute them through- out the state in "Mom and Pop” stores before the owners caught on that this was not just a ladies’ ver- sion of Buyer's Digest. Sometimes the contrast of cultures would strike us so damn funny that we'd try to stifle our giggles in the store aisles as if we were terribly embar- rassed to get caught laughing in church. Sometimes the store own- ers would actually flip through the pages first, catch a glimpse of car- toon drawings of naked women and decline to distribute it on the spot. Oh well. Indeed, some of us emotion- ally damaged one another back then. Some had an ethic of non- monogamy that wasn't so much about sexual appetite as it was anti-marriage (a patriarchal insti- tution related to ownership of women and property, we thought, as well as a component of sexual freedom). Did it work? Well, What's "work" mean? Are many of us embracing it 20 years later? Ask around. It was an intriguing experiment having all those sexual friends, those "sleeping buddies," those slumber parties that were far from anonymous. We all woke up the next day and "processed." Af- ter all, we had to live together, face each other, stick by one another out there on the fringes. And whoever said feminists had no sense of humor? We played like mad. We took our shirts off playing softball at South Park un- til the cops came. (Our answer to them was, "Then tell h; to put his shirt back on, too!") We swam nude at Oakledge, ten to fifteen of us, so regularly we called our swimming spot "Dyke Rock” un- til the late '70’s when the cops came. We went sledding, ice-skat- ing, hitchhikfng to the Michigan Women's Music Festival, dancing to our all-women band, Witch 1. And we played when we had our political demonstrations. For ex- ample, as "ladies against women” _ at an anti—ERA talk we dressed in high heels, hats with veils across the face, and white gloves and made statements to the local re- porters about whether or not "our husbands" had given us permis- sion to be there. Or we sprayed graffiti on the brick wall of the unemployment office - "Eat the rich.” Or we tossed cans of paint over the magazines from a porn shop that opened on Taft's corners We schemed, took big risks, worked at menial jobs so we could continue our "real work" which was confronting the patriarchy in all its guises including our own in- ternalized oppression. In our re- lationships, we sometimes hit one another, "cheated" on each other, tormented each other with jeal- ousy. With our families we tried to share childcare responsibilities, mountains create schools, foster each other’s children. We made enemies of our sisters during class conflicts, blew open the issue of childhood sexual abuse, fundraised for each other ’s education or when our posses- sions were wiped out by fires. Do I miss those days? want to go back there? trying to resur- rect a phoenix from the ashes? Not really. I'm just needing to archive, validate, celebrate, express grati- tude that I came out at a time when lesbianism was more than a fashion statement, sexual prefer- ence, lifestyle. Declaring ourselves lesbian feminists was a revolution- ary act. We were hellbent on not simply reforming the system so we could be "just like them;" we were motivated to dismantle the establishment. We didn't succeed. Some might say it's worse than ever since a handful of billionaire white men, heads of multinational cor- porations, are making decisions about our health care, our work- ing lives, our environment. On the other hand, we did create women's health centers, battered women's shelters, women's coun- cils. There's no question that we paved the way to a much more widely accepted subculture which continues to thrive thanks to those who tirelessly push for our civil rights. As exciting as it was to be pioneers I can't rightly say those were the happiest days of my life. I sometimes long for that collec- tive spirit, but I wouldn't want to invite that constant insecurity back into my life again. The reunion will be held on Sunday, February 15‘ from 2-6 pm at Contois Auditorium, Burlington City Hall. The event will be both audio and video- taped as questions are asked dur- ing go-arounds such as what projects were we involved in or how have our values changed or stayed the same. Others are wel- come to watch or if you were a les- bian feminist activist in Burlington back then and didn't get an invi— _ tation, come join us and add your voice to this herstoric reminis- cence party. (Call Crow at 864-5595 for more information.) 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