Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 18

B-2 Sunday, June 7, 1992 Santa Cruz Sentinel X-rated feminism Do feminists wear lipstick and why is that an issue? and get drunk and let guys tak 'After he uses you you just wash it out, day after day, 52 weeks out of the year, year after year. This just does not look like the cutting edge of feminism to Evelina Giobbe, former prostitute monton said. "I'm very much an advocate of sexual freedom and liberation. The real alternative is a society that doesn't put a price tag on a woman's body." Simonton said she wants to see greater financial opportunities for And I think that we have to be able to feel that it's OK to sit around and talk about men if that's what we goddamn well feel like talking about that night! That does not mean that we are not feminists. I like to be glamorous.

I'm into that. I'm an actor, I'm a performer, and a lot of the ydung women who look to me, because I do end up being a role model of sorts, especially for young women of color they're not going to give that up either! They want to be sexy! Aileen Hernandez: That's what we should be able to do. I think that women have to have as much variety as there possibly can be in society, and so should feminists. There should be no uniform for a feminist. In fact I get very nervous about uniforms, because any time you're in a uniform you're a target.

Jennifer Ott: I think that you have to start with the cause of women's inferiority and not the result, with the younger people. There are so many people that are so insecure. If you can somehow get into that and try to deal with that, I think the legislation will come. Chronicle: Earlier this year, when Gloria Steinem published her book about self-esteem, everybody just went nuts and said, "What's a feminist talking about something that corny and trivial?" But it sounds as if you see self-esteem as the major issue in teenagers' lives. Ott: Self-esteem is something that I think is common among every race, every economic class.

That's where you're going to bring everyone together. Chronicle: How are teens you know feeling about feminism? Ott: All my friends are very, very concerned. But it's not enough. They'll say one thing in the women's studies class, and then they'll go out on the weekend San Francisco Chronicle THERE IS A stereotype associated with feminism, and it has led some women to believe that they must choose between feminist causes and trying to look attractive. Recently the San Francisco Chronicle assembled six bright, outspoken women, ranging from a 17-year-old high school athlete to a 66-year-old former president of the National Organization for Women to speak about feminist issues.

What follows is an edited version of a wide-ranging discussion on conflicting feelings about whether it's politically correct to be cute. Chronicle: Can you be a feminist and wear lipstick? Are feminists sexy women? Susie Bright: Who cares? Chronicle: People care, or "The Beauty Myth" wouldn't have been such a big seller. Beverly Hayon: We were talking about the inferiority complex. Here we are, as women. We go home and we're still victims of trying to live up to these images that the media pardon my French projects on us.

We need to look a certain way, have a certain body. I'm sorry, some of us don't. Some of us are overweight, some of us are large, some of us aren't Christie Brinkley, we're not white, we're not blond. You don't see those images that make it OK to be however you are. When you see 9-year-old girls who are already bulimic and anorexic, you know you've got a problem.

That's something else that we need to address. Dominique DiPrima: This is something that I do consciously on my show, when I perform for young people. I go out there with the lipstick and the look and the curls, and I will come out and say, "Women must have equal rights." advantage of them. They know ii it's just a matter of doing it. Chronicle: So there's a gap tween the personal and political Dominique, how are the peopl that you hang out with feelini about feminism? What do yoi hear? DiPrima: With women of cola there are a lot of issues togethe: because we're dealing with racisn and that's always going to color ev erything.

But a lot of it also has do with self-esteem and conscious ness. I think women of color hav to deal with these issues on a mud more regular basis. So we car translate the little slogans thai we've all memorized that oui parents taught us or that we saw somewhere into actual behavior (Editor's note: Some women be lieve that there is a gap between what women talk about in public and what they really care about. Beverly Hayon brought this up.) Hayon: Let me throw this intc the pot. It's great, we're sitting here talking about feminism like this, but let me ask you, when you go home and you're with your girlfriends in a social situationis this what you talk about? I find that when a group of women sits around, we talk about, "Where are the men?" And how we're lonely.

I hear my daughter, who's 14 and in high school obviously they're obsessed with boys. But frankly, I don't see all that much difference between her group of friends and many of the women I know, all of us in our 40s. We're alone, we're single, we're divorced, and women who care about all of these issues will say all of the right things and believe them, but when push comes to shove, you know, you've got a lot of women out there who are really just looking for a man. are there to express their sexual fantasies and make them a very real act on your body. Regardless of whether you're pregnant or not, have your period or not.

"After he uses you, in that way, and you acquiesce because that is the nature of your job, you just wash it out, day after day, 52 weeks out of the year, year after year. "This just does not look like the cutting edge of feminism to me." HARTLEY LIVES in the home where she grew up in Berkeley. For the past 10 years she's lived there with her husband, a landscape architect, and her girlfriend, who is active in the fight against censorship. When she's not making movies, Hartley is on the road 12 to 15 weeks a year, stripping in night clubs. Apart from her work, she keeps a low social profile when she's on the road, she said.

"After a show, I take off my makeup and go to bed," she said. "I don't drink or smoke so I don't go into bars much except to dance." Just recently, Hartley entered the production end of the porn business. She co-directed the film "Nina Hartley's Book of Love," due out in video stores this week. "Just as women are starting to gain more of a hand, feminists are Continued from Page Dl Santa Cruz, and WHISPER, an organization in Atlanta comprised of women "who survived commer-jcial sexual exploitation" and are commited to fighting prostitution. COYOTE (Cut Out Your Tired Old Ethics) an organization formed i by and for prostitutes in 1973 in San Francisco, promotes sex work as a viable option for women and is supported by its offshoots, which include HIRE (Hooking is Real Em-ployment) in Atlanta, and PONY, of New York).

1 workers are truly femi-nists," said Samantha Miller, presi-'dent of COYOTE in San Francisco, I who has a master's degree in coun-iseling from San Francisco State University. While she has never 1 Worked in the sex industry herself, committed to changing the public's attitudes toward prostitutes and other sex workers. "We're trying to educate people in NOW (National Organization for iWomen)." 't Not all sex workers are desperate, addicted to drugs, and abused 'as children, she said. Some women Choose to be prostitutes and use rthe profession to better their lives. a way of equalizing the between men and women," she jsaid, "No matter what we do, men ihave access to more money and "power.

There are few jobs for women that pay $200 an hour. There are lots for men. "A lot of these women, their businesses failed, and they needed a way to keep their kids in private school," she said. "A lot of women do this to put themselves through school medical school, graduate school. "Hardcore feminists say its denigrating to women to be sex workers.

They don't have the same sense of being a women. It's really getting into the power of being a woman at its best." Ten years ago, when she was 21, Hartley said she started stripping to meet other bisexual women, to gain fulfillment sexually and to help put herself through school. Jn one night of stripping at the Mitchell's Brothers landmark O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco she could make as much as waitress could in a week. By the time she graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in nursing, she had started making porn movies a realization of her fantasies films like "Stairway to Paradise," and Big Thrill." women that provide alternatives. The problem is, right now, there aren't many of those alternatives available, said Magdalena (her professional name), a local prostitute who works out of her home in Aptos.

A single mother who started prostitution as a job to raise her son, Magdalena said that after 17 years in the business she still enjoys it. After being with thousands and thousands of men, she's only had five "bad experiences." (According to Simonton, on the average, prostitutes are raped eight to 10 times a year. Most of those statistics, Magdalena said, come from women working the streets.) It may not have been her first choice as a career, but she wanted to make as much money as she could in a short amount of time so that she could spend time raising her son. "I've never been ashamed about my work," said Magdalena. "I didn't have qualms about sharing my body with strangers as long as they're nice strangers.

"In my work I don't wear makeup, I don't shave, I don't wear lingerie. I don't do any of those things men supposedly want before having sex. I'm not your $500 an hour call girl, but I make a living. "If feminism has to do with women controlling their bodies, controlling their work situation, then to my mind this is femininely correct." Evelina Giobbe, a former prostitute and call girl who founded WHISPER in Minneapolis in 1985, simply rejects these arguments as coming from a very few women in the sex industry who happened to "make a buck out of it." "The kind of organizing (these women) have been doing, has been rejected by the baseline group of prostitutes," Giobbe said. "Essentially what prostitution does is treat children like women and women like children.

The average age of entry into porn industry is 13." People need to know "what this industry requires of women," she said. "Men have the social and economic power to make their desires your whim. You walk in the room. If he chooses you, then he chooses what type of sex. The guys are not there to give you a good time.

They Three Convenient Locations Offer Urgent Care No Appointment Necessary Every Day of the Year coming down on production and distribution of porn," Hartley said. "I'm confronted with this growing legislation against what I'm doing selling it and distributing it." Hartley maintains that sexual violence has been around long before pornography. Pornography is not the root cause of the repression of women in this society. It should not be the target of feminists ire, when there's so much more that needs to be changed. "They're so anti-male, I believe they're letting that cloud them," she said.

"Some of them have had horrible experiences, and I don't want to disregard their pain and anger, but as one of my friends said, get over it." Nina Hartley will speak Friday at 8 p.m. at the Kresge Town Hall, UC Santa Cruz as part of the celebration of Gay Pride Week. The film "Suburban Dykes," which stars Hartley, also will be shown. The event, which costs $7.50 and is sponsored by the Bulkhead Gallery, is a benefit to send two women from the Bulkhead to the national convention of NOW in Chicago this month. 461 5 SootU Valley Dr.

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WESTSIDE OFFICE'S Jj 'Dominion CI V426-1994 fy I F3 Capitola Rd. PHYSICAUOCCUPATIONAL THERAPY OFFICE 1529Seabright -L 423-6661 Her upbringing as a feminist enabled her to maintain control over hef career as a porn star, she said. From the start, she laid down her owrr ground rules: no rape scenes, ho bondage or sadomasochism. Contrary to the beliefs of many feminists, she wasn't abused as a child, and she's never been raped dr beaten in the industry, she said. "As long as I know my physical safety is ensured, that I'm not going to be beaten or raped on the set, I'm comfortable," she said.

What she's found, is things like that just don't happen in the industry. "Basically this is my choice, don't condemn me," she said. "I'm comfortable in front of an audience without my clothes on. I love it. "Nobody is dragged off the street and 'forced to do porn.

These backlash people just aren't comfortable with sexual freedom." WORDS LIKE these rankle people like Simonton, co-founder of Media Watch and local feminist, who quit her career as a Jiigh-class model in 1979 after being gang raped. "Partly because I was gang raped, I made the connection between violence against women and the promotion of women as sex objects," Simonton said. "Being a swim cruz MDICM Westside 1203 Mission St. 426-7000 9 a.m. 9 p.m.

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I have sympathy and respect in a way." But, the reality is, pornography Creates images that dehumanize, degrade and lead to violence against women. Using public forums to make the sex industry "sound like this fun alternative," fe irresponsible. I "Those who are working to stop violence against women are labeled prudes and anti-sexed," Si- II Mary F.nKi-Ilwit 0 Trabing "French Chalet" By Slatter Construction, William Bagnall Architects, Inc. Custom Painting, Richard Denton Mechanical, Coast Counties Glass, Alameda Roofing Service, Silvan Watsonville Electric, Wild West Design, Scotts Valley Floor Covering THE PLAYHOUSE EVENT On display June 13-27, 1992 at the Capitola Mall Creative Humorist Michael Pritchard and Ruby Petersen (Ms. Nancy of Romper Room) appearing June 27 Playhouse Auction June 27, 5:00 pm Look for a different playhouse design each week in the Sentinel.

Collect and color at least 8 playhouse pictures, bring them to the Capitola Mall on June 27 and win 2 tickets for a chance drawing on a Playhouse! Continued from Page Dl ft I Forty-five later, here we sat, still Starry-eyed, but somewhat creakier. We had one more nostalgic mission this time. One early evening we walked the Boulevard St. Germaine to the Deux Magots, the old hangout of Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre, where we ordered, what else camembert norm on sour baguettes with sherry on the side. Great combination.

The lights illuminating the historic buildings gave Paris a temporary reprieve from its daylight ugliness. A comfortable mellowness fcut through it all and that old Par-Js feeling was back. We walked to the magnificent St. Phapelle, with its massive stained glass panels, to hear a program of Gregorian chants and then taxied home. i Wally Trabing's column appears fn Bay Living Sunday through Thursday.

Name Age Phone Prizes for ages 5 under, 6 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 to 18. 'm CAPITOLA MALL Santa (Truz Srnlinrf Your any starts here KWAV97FM SCOPE.