Saying No

June 28, 1968
by Amy

Bea pitched a fit. I guess it was predictable. She's infinitely more aware and conscious than we are. She said that taking our clothes off at the demonstration would be akin to spreading our legs for peace. Why do it?

Nothing good can come from degradation. There's nothing positive about humiliating ourselves. It won't make them take us seriously. In fact, the only reason we would do something like that would be for the enjoyment of men in the movement. And any fucker who enjoys seeing a woman humiliate herself like that deserves to have his balls taken from him. Literally.

When we went back to Glasses and Coleman to tell them no, Glasses kind of shrugged and said it was a bad idea anyway. But Coleman wouldn't let up on it. "Who told you not to do it, Bea? She's just jealous of you." And on and on and on. He was really pissed about it. I told him that if he really wanted to see a woman go topless in public, I knew of a good strip joint where Lenny Bruce once appeared. He could certainly get an eyeful for the right amount of money.

So there it is. Bea, Lesley and I made a pact that we would meet with each other before considering any other action like that. We're also going to keep an eye on how they treat the girl volunteers. It's counter-revolutionary and illogical to pass oppression along to other folks.