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April 12 - April 25, 1983 Vol. 4, No. 6
An Interview With Rita Mae Brown
by Karla Jay
When I went to meet Rita Mae Brown at her
hotel last summer, she was in the midst of a
large scale publicity tour to promote her fine
novel, Southern Discomfort (Harper & Row,
$13.50). Despite her obvious fatigue, Rita
graciously took time out from a hectic
schedule to talk to me about art, politics and
her personal life.
Rita had come a long way from the old
walkup she used to live in on West 15th Street
when 1 first met her in the late 1960’s to the
posh Fifth Avenue hotel where we now talked,
but her hard-hitting style and wit and her
determination to say whatever she feels is
right, no matter what the consequences,
hadn’t changed one iota.
hi the following interview, Rita giver her
views of the American government (“a bunch
of jerks”), the Moral Majority (“1 have so
much respect for the Christian right wing"),
the women’s movement (“We’re just full of
shit”), the potential future (“We have no
choice but the democratic party”), the gay
movement (“It is the paradox of oppression
that it is always incumbent upon the oppressed
to humanize and teach the oppressor”), the
ERA and gay legislation (“It’s not gonna
work), coming out (“If what you’re talking
about is so great, why don’t you stand up for
yourself’), pornogrphy (“One of those
wonderful issues where men and women will
never see it the same way”), boy love (“I just
want to shoot them”), sado-masochism (“bad
taste”), and Rita’s future (“I would like to get
married”).
Kita s comments will make you laugn ana
make you angry, but most important, they are
sure to make you think, for as I said in a review
of Southern Discomfort, Rita is still one of the
best minds in the women’s and gay movements
today.
Karla Jay: What responsibilities do you feel
that a lesbian writer or artist bears towards the
larger lesbian/gay and/or feminist
communities?
Rita Mae Brown: The responsibility she has
to any community, which is to tell the truth. It
makes no difference whether it’s a lesbian
community or straight community or no
community. A writer has to tell the truth ora
writer shouldn’t write. Otherwise, you’re just a
hack.
KJ: What do you think is the relationship of
art in general to the larger society? Do you
think that this is the same thing, just to tell the
truth?
RMB: It’s there to amaze, entertain, and
provoke people.
KJ: Why did you decide to be one of the co
writers on the “I Love Liberty” special?
RMB: Because Norman Lear asked me, and
I’d never done television, and I thought, wow,
what a way to learn at the top. I learned a lot. I
was real happy to be there. And also very
happy to celebrate the First Amendment,
which we are in danger of losing. It won’t get
wiped off the books, it’ll just be wiped out in
practice. The whole show is really built around
that amendment.
KJ: Do you think that the First Amendment
really exists for women and minorities that
don’t have access to presses, and so on?
RMB: You and I still aren't thrown into jail
for saying what we think, and I’ve been with
people who have been in Argentina, Rumania,
Yugoslavia. It ain’t great, but shit, we’re ahead
of those people.
K J: That was one of the themes of the show,
and there seemed to be a blanket statement
that certain groups, including gays, physically
challenged people and so on, have it better
here in the U.S. than anywhere else in the
world. Did you feel comfortable with that
kind of a message?
RMB: Well, maybe it is (better elsewhere),
but who cares what happens in Holland? 1
mean, that’s the problem. This is the center of
the free world, and what happens here affects
what happens everywhere. From what I’ve
seen, it’s better here. Obviously, 1 don’t think
it’s great. I’ve been protesting since the ’60s.
But I still am not in jail. 1 mean, I’ve lost my
livelihood sometimes. I’ve had jobs taken
away from me, or never got them sometimes.
I’ve been subjected to all of those pressures,
but as long as 1 can open my mouth, 1 will.
England has these wonderful laws on the
books, right?. And homosexuals are still
treated like total shits, especially women.
Women are just the total. . .just the bottom of
the barrel. Their earning power is zip. So,
what good are the laws? They don’t do you any
good, unless you’re rich enough to enforce
them. But Americans like to complain: “Oh,
we have a hard life.” That’s bullshit. We have a
great life, better than many others who would
rather be here than in Chile. It’s just that I’m
I
e
Rita Mae herself.
not going to settle for it. I’m not going to settle
for Reagan. Bunch of jerks. 1 mean, these are
the people who gave us Watergate, they’ll
bomb us back into the dark ages if we give
them half a chance.
KJ: 1 remember several years ago, you
suggested a tithing to the movement. Do you
want to go into that a little bit as a philosophy?
1 don’t know if people understand that.
RMB: Every church in the world exists on
the principle that a parishoner gives 10 percent
to the church. The irony of this never escapes
me. The women’s movement is basically w hite,
middle-class women or women who come
from the middle class. And by virtue of
renouncing the privileges that come from
attaching yourself to white, middle-class men,
they have less than they might, but these aren’t
poor women. 1 mean, they always have money
for dope and stereos; they get around. I
haven't seen anybody on the welfare lines yet.
And 1 don't want to. So...they don’t give 10
percent, but I religous/i cough up money to
continued on /Htge 5
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