Letters: Dec. 5, 1969

From June to December

Sir: As a June graduate and June bride, I find myself eager to subscribe to the militancy of the Women's Liberation [Nov. 21] as a reaction to the ego deflation of the past five months. Breezing off campus armed with the wisdom of the world, I am forced not to change society, but to struggle with it in order to maintain the identity I worked 22 years to establish. With all life's past glories and associations reflected in my maiden name, I find it difficult to glow with pride when addressed by an unfamiliar term that was tacked on much like a cattle brand to accommodate a society that still regards women as possessions. Nor can I delight in the inconvenience and expense caused when driver's license, bank accounts, stocks and legal records must be rewritten to match a new legal label. Most cutting of all is the prevalent attitude that marriage has automatically disqualified me from any intelligent conversation and that baby making and dishwashing can be my only destiny. Surely there must be a less humbling method for the liberated female to find a new roommate.

JEAN BYTHELL KALEBA Pacific Beach, Wash.

Sir: Admittedly, some women use the men in their lives as an excuse not to do what they really are too lazy to do anyway —use their brains. It must be laziness and not stupidity (as most men evidently assume) that keeps them out of the job market. The fact that about 95% of the working-age men in this country have jobs shows that stupidity is no obstacle to employment.

JUDITH A. SEGAL Washington, D.C.

Sir: Your article brought back vividly my mother's gentle complaint: "I am a Southerner, a Catholic and a woman, all of whom are now treated like second-class citizens!" She never became more vocal than that—however, influencing all who knew her far more with her peerless manners, her personal faith and her subtle wisdom in her relationships with others. Perhaps this is Aunt Tabby-ism, but if self-esteem is the expressed goal of the feminists, they could find it in my mother's approach, as European women have known for generations.

When mother died, my father said the hub of one large family had gone. I do believe I'd rather be a small hub than a big wheel.

(MRS.) CARROLL SMITH OFFEN Atlanta

Sir: My gosh! If the new feminists want to take on the world's work, let them go ahead. Next thing you know, they'll insist we men sleep in the mornings while they trudge off to support us. Then we'd have to care for an automated house, fuss with our kids, play poker afternoons and, I suppose, sympathize with them evenings while they attacked us sexually.

Oh well, there'd be some compensations —we'd have our cigars lighted, doors opened, and if that wasn't enough, we could always collect alimony and live quietly with our children.

PAUL F. GRIM Pittsburgh

Sir: Oh, TIME, how clever of you to point out that "women do not . . . have a record of soaring achievement." How can they! Women have been suppressed and subjugated since the beginning of this mess; they have been institutionalized slaves—nursemaiding men and producing litters of children. That doesn't leave much room for "soaring achievement."