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The mass media in this country, with
their usual lack of depth, have tabled the
1960’s as the “Decade of Dissent.” While
this instant cliche missesthemark.no
one can deny that this country saw, and
continues to see, ever larger groups of
people representing a wide variety of
interests, struggling to break out of old
roles and confinements. This struggle for
freedom has been experienced by Blacks,
Indians, students, Mexican-Americans,
and, not surprisingly, women.
Movements have become suspect in
the last few years, not just to the
paranoid “Silent Majority”, but to
activists themselves, who have worked in
and for various movements. This distrust
on the part of activists has stemmed from
the realization that much of the thrust
and effectiveness of programs is lost when
the individual gives up his identity to that
of a larger group. It is only when the
individual can use his new awareness to
change his own life that a movement is
successful.
This distrust is nowhere more
prevalent than in the Women’s Liberation
Movement. Because the movement
depends on remaking a woman’s
role-sexual and psychological, as well as
economic and social, it must not only be
a program aimed at changing the social
structures that define this multiple role,
but a program of individual awareness
and change as well. Needless to say, this
necessary caution about movements make
it difficult to define and discuss Women's
Liberation, not only as a movement, but
as a personal experience also.
But, reservations within the movement
are slight compared to reservations from
without. Perhaps because the role of
women is such an integral part of our
society, and because people have grown
weary of trying to respond to so many
new demands that are made on the
society, Women’s Lib. is viewed by
spectators more as a crack-pot scheme
than either a valid point of view or a
threat. However, the basic reason for the
ridicule and the aversion, particularly
from other women, stems from the
nature of the oppression of females itself.
In order that one group of people may
be oppressed by another group, two
mechanisms must be in operation. The
first is the mechanism whereby the
oppressed group is divided among itself,
and its members are forced to compete
with each others for favors bestowed by
the group in power.Although analogies
are not fool-proof, the point can best be
illustrated by a comparison with the
Black experience. In the institution of
slavery, there were two types of slaves.
One was the “field nigger” sho worked in
the field and lived in shacks, totally cut
off from the other type of slave, who was
known as the “house nigger.” The latter
lived in the big house, and served the
master and his family. The domestic
slaves looked down on their brothers in
the field because they had a meaner
existence and were not granted the
“priviledge” of working directly under
the master. This was an effective means
of checking rebellion, since the slaves on
a given plantation were divided amongst
themselves. The same is true of women.
They are taught from birth that their one
function in life is to find a man, get
married and make babies. This forces
women into a frantic race to “chase a
man until he catches her.” Women are
also taught that to find a man, they must
compete with each other to be the most
seductive, the sexiest, the best potential
wife. Women who do not succeed in the
race are looked down upon as being
sub-human, because they have failed in
carrying out their one scheme for
self-justification. This competition
effectively keeps women from joining
together to fight the oppression.
The second mechanism is the
internalization of oppression. Women
must be made to internalize the norms
governing their role; they must be made
to believe that they are actually inferior
to men and that their only place is “in
the home.” In the same way. Blacks were
made to believe that they were stupid,
dirty, lazy and a multitude of other
myths. In both cases, any doubts as to
the truth of these myths are accompanied
by violent insecurity and self-hate. It is
not surprising that so many women wind
up on the psychriatrist’s couch when this
happens, since they are convinced they
are neurotic when they first begin to
resent the supposed “joys of
womanhood.”
Many women today are moving away
from the myths that have held them for
so long. We are directing our anger at a
system that attempts to keep us
imprisoned in the home. No longer is the
resentment and bitterness directed inward
where it can only breed frustration and
self-hate. We are beginning to discover
ourselves as adults, capable of making our
own decisions and of defining our own
lives. We are no longer children,
frightened and insecure, forced to live
vicariously through men.
The reasons for this new awakening,
this new feeling of rebellion and anger are
not hard to find. In the course of working
in movements, especially those
movements concerned with human rights
and freedom, women began to realize
that it was absurd to be working for the
freedom of others, when they were really
not free themsleves. “The movement for
social change taught women activists
about their own oppression. Politically,
women were excluc’ed from
decision-making. They typed, made
leaflets, did the (dirty wor|). The few
women who attained leadership positions
had to struggle against strong
convention.” (’’Toward a Radical
Movement” by Heather Booth, Evi
Coldfield and Sue Munaker.) It is no
wonder that the spirit of social action and
social change began to awaken women to
their situation. There is no reason why
women, any less than other oppressed
groups, should be denied the right to
self-determination.
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Deason Heads
Institutional Research
What will the UNC-A campus
look like in 1980? What kinds of
students will be going to school
here then? What will the faculty
be like? One man who hopes to
have some answers to these
questions will ahead o time is
Mr. Paul T. Deason, Director of
1 nstitutional Research and
Development at UNC-A.
With the help of a computer,
Mr. Deason will collect and
analysize relevant data
concerining students, faculty,
and facilities. By studying this
data Deason hopes to be able to
realistically determine present
needs of UNC-A and project'^
these needs into the future.
At present Mr. Deason’s
office is neganged in the role of
cO-ordinator and research center
for the UNC-A self-study
program in progress for the
Southern Association of Schools
and Colleges. Another priority
application of the office’s
capabilities will be to help the
Registrar’s office cope with the
growing job of registration and
class scheduling.
Although student class
schedules and other academic
information will be among the
data collected tor the
Institutional Research office,
Deason stressed that no personal
information concerning the
students or faculty will be
compiled and that the current
restrictions concerning the
release of personal information
will be strictly followed.
Mr. Deason brings to his new
job a BA and MA in
Mathematics from Middle
Tennessee State University.
Among other jobs, Mr. Deason
has spent nine years at Western
Carolina University training
prospective teachers in the “new
math”.
“1 am impressed with the
student body and have found
everyone - students, faculty, and
administration - most
co-operative," Mr. Deason
stated. He is not, however, a
complete newcomer to the
UNC-A campus. During the
academic year of 1965-66,
Deason was an Instructor in
Mathematics here. Picking up
from where he left off, he hopes
to get to know the campus well
in order to determine the areas
in which his office can be used
most effectively.
JACK^OAJ
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“Rapid Transit” quotes a Coca-Cola V.P. on the firm’s
drink: “When a soldier in Vietnam has a Coke, it satisfies his need
to identify with the American way of life. It reminds him of what he
is fighting for.” Common weal. Vol. XCII. No. 19. Sept. 18, 1970.
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