The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer 1992.
Marilyn Murphy is a sixty year old, self-described radical feminist political activist. This is a collection of forty-three essays, written between 1982 and 1991, all originally published in The Lesbian News.
These essays are well-written, often insightful, sometimes controversial. The title essay (which brings to mind Van Gelder and Brandt’s “Are you two … together?”) describes some of the travels Murphy and her lover have taken in their RV through the U.S. and Canada and the amazement voiced by women of their generation that these “girls” were traveling alone – i.e. without a man.
“Would knowing this have made a difference?” in which Murphy briefly outlines the careers of such lesbians as physicians Elizabeth Blackwell and S. Josephine Baker, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, is inspiring and thought provoking.
Murphy has a penchant for provocative statements like ‘I believe the Lesbian is the quintessential rebel…[and] lives the profoundest non-conformity.” One of the controversial essays is “Mother of the Groom” in which she describes her decision not to attend her son’s wedding, despite their seemingly wann relationship, to protect his involvement in a “ceremony which celebrates the institution which is the cornerstone of … oppression [of women].” (Murphy had been married and the mother of four when she came out at the age of forty-three.)
I would certainly recommend this title for any collection – public, academic, women’s studies. It can be sampled selectively or read straight through.
Most chapters close with annotated references. There is an index and the appendix lists the publication dates of the essays.
Reviewed by Martha E. Stone
Treadwell Library
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston,MA
