She's Beautiful When She's Angry Page #9

The first core concept of sexist thought

is that men do the

important work in the world

and that the work done by men...

FREEMAN:
Doing the kinds of things that were

normally associated as male activities...

being interviewed, getting

your name in the press,

making speeches, giving lectures.

Those kinds of things...

those were condemned.

The only people I had seen

in leadership roles were men,

so to be fair, maybe I was

mimicking a male-style leadership.

So they kicked me out of Magic Quilt.

It was devastating to have

all these people sit in a room

that you had organized in

a group to say, "Get out."

People had read about me, so

I was like this mini celebrity.

In Cell 16 they said that

I was oppressing them.

The most incredible thing

anyone ever said to me, I think,

is that, "I feel oppressed just

by the fact that you exist."

Okay. (chuckling)

You want me to stop existing?

Listen, I dropped out of the

women's movement three times...

'69, '79 and '89.

(laughs)

The women's movement brought about

a social revolution in this country.

And while it was painful to be

part of that social revolution,

it had to be done.

WOLFSON:
Everybody had

taken the birth control pill.

Back then it was a huge amount of estrogen.

Nobody had informed us that

there could be side effects.

My side effect was my

hair started to fall out.

And we got word of hearings on the Hill

about the birth control pill.

WEBB:
All the people listed to testify were

male doctors and drug company executives.

Males, all.

Not one patient, not one woman, nothing.

I have seen women with thrombophlebitis,

weight gain, nausea, irritable bowel,

cancer of the breast, rheumatoid

arthritis-like syndrome.

WOLFSON:
Serious reactions.

The blood clots, the

heart attacks, the strokes.

They knew about it when they gave it to us,

when they dispensed it like candy.

I want to know how many

side effects we have to hear

before somebody does

something about these pills.

We are not going to sit quietly any longer.

You are murdering us for

your profit and convenience.

If you ladies would sit down...

- Our lives have been interrupted by taking this pill.

- We're conducting...

Don't think the hearings are any

more important than our lives!

MAN:
Now will everyone please leave

the room... press and everyone else.

That's a fine way to run...

WOLFSON:
We stopped the hearings,

- and they tried to bargain with us...

- (gavel rapping)

'cause we were demonstrating

every time they reconvened them.

Yes, we are objecting to the fact

that there are no women testifying

and that there are no women on the panel.

We are tired of men controlling

our lives and our bodies.

And one of our absolute bottom lines was

there had to be information given to women.

And we did get the first

patient package insert

which is informed consent.

We were bringing DC to its knees

around women's issues.

MALE NEWS REPORTER: The director

of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover,

found a new and, to his mind,

potentially dangerous group...

the women's liberation movement.

Hoover sent the following

directive, quote...

"It is absolutely essential that

we conduct sufficient investigation

of the women's liberation movement

to determine any possible

threat they may represent

to the security of

the United States."

End quote.

ROSEN:
J. Edgar Hoover said

women couldn't be agents.

So the FBI got women who were informants.

These informants were sitting in on

women's consciousness-raising groups,

writing stories back

to their agents saying,

"You know, they're just

talking about the fact

their men aren't doing child care,

they're not washing the

dishes, they're leaving a mess.

They expect us to do everything.

I don't see why I should

sit in it on anymore."

They would forward that to J. Edgar Hoover,

who would write back and

say, "Continue surveillance.

These women represent a

national security threat."

The irony is, for the most part,

women did not do anything

dangerous or violent.

The really dangerous thing was talk.

Because telling the truth and

talking is very revolutionary.

We're into a very hypocritical

thing about the education of women.

We pretend there's a lot

of opportunity out there.

"So study hard, girls, and go forward."

And there isn't any opportunity out

there, and everyone's kidding them.

WOMAN:
I've been out walking

Racism and anti-feminism

are two of the prime

traditions of this country.

I no longer accept society's judgment

that my group is second class.

If women are to be married,

women should receive pensions.

(applause)

All women are lesbians, except

those who don't know it, naturally.

They are, but don't know it yet.

I am a woman, and therefore a lesbian.

We talk in different tones.

We don't all agree.

We have the right to

define our own differences.

MAN:
Now I would like

to ask Germaine Greer...

I really don't know what

women are asking for.

- Now, suppose I wanted to give it to them.

- (women laughing)

Listen, you may as well relax, because

whatever it is they're asking for, honey,

it's not for you.

(loud laughter)

And I had a lover

In the name of the mother, the daughter

and the holy granddaughter,

"a-women."

The women in this country

are gonna see to it

that the insane directions

of this country get changed,

that we stop the business of

having wars and military programs,

start the business of having some money

for health and housing and child care,

and we're gonna see to it there's a liberation

not only of women, but men and women...

It's just that

I've been losing

So long

I've been very interested to

see the amount of publicity

that has gone to the women's liberation

movement in just the last two or three months.

We couldn't get coverage anywhere

except in a very joking fashion in 1966.

Everybody thought it was a colossal joke.

I think people aren't laughing anymore.

They recognize the seriousness of it.

COLLINS:
At the NOW

national convention for 1970,

Betty Friedan gets up and gives her speech.

And much to our shock,

she announced that there

would be a women's strike

on August 26, 1970,

the 50th anniversary of

women's right to vote.

When we take to the street

in Boston, and in New York,

and in Chicago, and in Atlanta,

and in Florida, and in California...

Everyone was like, "Oh,

my God. Now what do we do?"

CEBALLOS:
So Betty Friedan tells the press

50,000 women would march in New York City.

Every week we would have a notice

in the Village Voice.

These younger women,

they would pour into NOW,

and we would plan this march and strike.

"Don't iron while the strike is hot"

was the slogan.

And we took this poster and

distributed it all over town.

CEBALLOS:
I said, "How are we

going to get 50,000 to march?"

And Pat said, "We'll take

over the Statue of Liberty."

And I said, "How can you do that?

The Puerto Ricans did last

year, and they're in jail."

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