SAN FRANCISCO SENTINEL
October 18, 1990
Street Talk
“Let’s Bite Each Other’s Tails Off”
By Doris Fish
There’s a heartbreaking phenomenon – one often reads in the tales of farm animal abuse; the victims will attack each other. Chickens peck each other to death to get a little space and pigs, too crowded to move, will bite the tails of those in front.
As shocking and as unnatural as this behavior is for animals it just boggles my mind when people behave this way.
The latest tail biters brought to our attention are the Gay Masculist Coalition and the poor little tails they want to get their stupid teeth into belong to our sisters! And these guys have spent time and used up their precious few brain cells to conclude that feminists are the cause of their powerlessness.
The unfortunate pigs didn’t plan their actions, it was just instincts gone haywire, but these guys, according to spokesperson John Morrison, have been thinking about this for years.
John Morrison was interviewed by Kathleen Baca in last week’s Sentinel and how she restrained herself from stabbing him to death with her cruelty-free mascara wand is the story I’d like to hear. Morrison is very general in his accusations which is the way of bigots, “they do this to us”. He even suggests that gay men’s emotional isolation from each other is a result of their friendships with women.
A lot of what he says is simply not true. He falls into the trap of thinking in terms of “them versus us”. Looking for someone to blame he attacks other victims of our male-dominated civilization. Mr. Morrison may have a legitimate claim against women in his personal life, but to state, “lesbians are often their own worst enemies” is a flagrant attempt to damage the growing closeness of gay men and women. There are plenty of ‘enemies’ out there, Mr. Morrison if you need to blame someone.
I would love to hear Mr. Morrison’s response to Kate Raphael’s piece on misogyny. She based her argument on facts, and she did allow that not every male was a rapist or anti-lesbian though she suggested men need to be more aggressive in their support of women’s issues.
One can’t argue with the facts – misogyny is rampant and John Morrison’s views tend to confirm Ms. Raphael’s statement, “It’s affecting gay men at an alarming rate”.
So now here we are, all in this little cage pecking at each other. ACT-UP has split in two with lots of conflicting bickering while Queer Nation takes on the suburbs. We all have our own agenda, and very seldom does it seem that any two groups can agree.
The problem is not just homophobia or misogyny, anti-feminists or androphobia, it’s also “me first, then you”. There’s not too many gay Mother Theresas around who help everyone regardless of agenda clashes.
I have my priorities and I know I tend to turn off to many other issues that don’t personally interest me. That doesn’t mean I’m opposed to them. For instance, I doubt that many lesbians have the re-opening of the bathhouses on their agenda of things to get worked up about just as I wouldn’t get all bent out of shape if they stopped making Birkenstocks. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about each other’s lives.
I hate to think that John Morrison and his fellow pinheads will cause gay men and women to distrust one another. Will we wonder, “Does she care that I’m dying of AIDS?” or “Do these gays give a damn that the courts have taken my children?” Awful things can happen to anybody, even straight white males are not immune to life’s ill-winds. We shouldn’t be categorizing the suffering of anybody. Gay white males can feel pain just as effectively as disabled lesbians of color.
The time is so ripe for a warm compassionate bonding to overwhelm our community, let’s not foster more separatism and stupid tail-biting. Compassion shouldn’t come with a warning label, “Not to be given to…” It must be given freely and especially to those who seem to lack it. Next time you see a person suffering, Mr. Morrison, man or woman, remember everyone has a right to life and no one has a monopoly on it.
