Boy — am I slow to catch on! I thought marriage was the “great Liberator.”
No longer to get up at 6 a.m., run for the bus, shop during lunch hour and smile at the boss (but not too much because he was always a married man). No more struggle with the girdle and bra and stockings (who can find a supporter at 6 a.m.?). No more curlers and the “latest fashions,” which were standard equipment for working girls in my day. No more sleepless nights worrying about the airline passengers blithly sent off to far away places with strange sounding names; wondering if they would be lucky enough ever to return to St. Louis (with my help some of them didn’t return — at least not on time).
As the wedding march played and I walked down the aisle at St. Roch’s, I felt “now I can be me” I can cook and sew and play with babies; mold little minds and fix breakfast in my bathrobe; go barefoot through the grass and feel warm and protected. I could contribute my own special talents in my own special way. And, in my innocence, I thought most women felt this way.
Now, after 13 years, I find we’ve all been living in a fool’s paradise. This freedom and liberation are only an illusion.
It took stout-hearted women like Kate Millet to point out that actually we’ve been oppressed and did not know it. She has picked up the gauntlet (and probably a tidy sum of money) with her book “Sexual Politics.” No more will women be simple-minded sex-symbols.
According to Millet (how does one address a liberationist?. Miss Millet? Mrs. Millet? Ph.D. Millet? or perhaps just “Hey you”?) we’ve been brainwashed by our parents, our peers and society at large. “The only author who really understands the feminine role in society is Jean Genet, a homosexual.” (From an interview in LIFE magazine.)
No one has allowed us all the wonderful opportunities men have. The thrilling experience of ulcers and early coronary attacks. We’ve been denied the marvelous dog-eatdog competitive spirit of participating in industry at the Executive level — and we’ve been discriminated against because no one has tried to draft us, employ us to dig ditches or drive a 10-ton truck. We’re not people at all, just “second class” citizens.
If that’s not bad enough, we’ve been perpetuating a degrading myth. Instead of teaching our boys to play dress-up and house and our girls to buck-that-line and lift weights, we’ve been training our children to believe that there IS a difference between boys and girls. Boys empty trash, cut grass, wash cars, run to the store, play soccer and build things with hammers and nails. Girls dry dishes, make beds, help sort laundry, feed pets, play dolls and string beads. Forgive us, women liberationists. in our stupidity we thought there were two sexes, each with its own sphere of influence, neither superior, but here to work together, help each other and make a great team.
Well, now that the Women’s Lib has shown us the light in return I’d like to suggest something for them, get out there and dig those ditches, empty the trash, become pro-football players, join the Army — build something useful — and leave the rest of us alone!!
Originally published in The Paper, October 1970.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1970_10.pdf, printed page(s) 5.
