Monday, March 10, 2008

Turning Back the Hands of Time

Ah me. It's 1976. Takes me right back.

"Are all men rapists, or are some of them OK (ish) ?"

"I know she's violent, but she's got a lot to be violent about"

"It's my turn to host the Women's Group meeting. Would you mind going out, and not coming back till, say, 11.30 or midnight ?"

"MEN off the streets !"

Cath Elliott on the Million Women Rise March (attendance somewhere betwen 1,000 and 4,000, moderate violence). There's a quote somewhere about the bitterest disputes being the ones with the least at stake. Worth a read for the sheer energy that goes into the 'who said what to who' debate, as well as for Solzhenitsyn's revelation about that great feminist Angela Davis, whose hair made her a countercultural icon.


There's a certain woman here named Angela Davis. I don't know if you are familiar with her in this country, but in our country, literally, for an entire year, we heard of nothing at all except Angela Davis. There was only Angela Davis in the whole world and she was suffering. We had our ears stuffed with Angela Davis. Little children in school were told to sign petitions in defense of Angela Davis. Little boys and girls, eight and nine years old, were asked to do this. She was set free, as you know. Although she didn't have too difficult a time in this country's jails, she came to recuperate in Soviet resorts. Some Soviet dissidents--but more important, a group of Czech dissidents--addressed an appeal to her: `Comrade Davis, you were in prison. You know how unpleasant it is to sit in prison, especially when you consider yourself innocent. You have such great authority now. Could you help our Czech prisoners? Could you stand up for those people in Czechoslovakia who are being persecuted by the state?' Angela Davis answered: `They deserve what they get. Let them remain in prison.'