Posted on 05/11/2003 9:26:32 AM PDT by sarcasm
BLUESTOCKINGS, the women's bookstore/cafe/performance space that opened on the Lower East Side in 1999, fizzled out in February, despite the efforts of a collective made up mostly of young white lesbians who cared more about mission than money.
This month, a new Bluestockings reopened at the same Allen Street address - still a bookstore/cafe/performance space/activist resource center, but this time, with a broader mission.
In its earlier incarnation, Bluestockings was about empowering women, all kinds of women: "Recognizing the links between oppressions, our goal is to be trans-inclusive, multilingual, open to all sexualities and spiritualities, intergenerational and to challenge racism, classism, ablism, ageism and sizism," the mission statement read.
Monthly collective meetings started with a check-in, where each woman sitting in the circle on the floor gave her name and answered a question. (At one Super Bowl Sunday meeting, the question was, "Do you like football?" Answers were on the order of, "I used to love football, but then I grew breasts.")
In its new mode, Bluestockings is still more about politics than profits, but now men are very much included. Brooke Lehman and Hitomi Matarese, the new owners, see it as a place for "positive social change" and hope to attract all kinds of customers, from political activists who come for workshops and performances to neighborhood children who come for after-school reading groups and browsers who come for the books and the (organic fair-trade) coffee.
"We don't want this to be a space for exclusive subcultures," Ms. Lehman said. "We'd love to get people just off the street."
Ms. Lehman, 30, a founder of New York's Direct Action Network and a faculty member at the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vt., and Ms. Matarese, 27, who makes puppets and other art for activists, have laid a new floor, ordered new books and, over the last month, begun playing host to a series of performances and readings. The small, homey space has a coffee bar and bookshelves that slide back to make room for performances.
Ms. Matarese lives in the East Village, Ms. Lehman on the same block as the store, and since the two women met two and a half years ago, they have dreamed of creating a space for new political thinking. Both are well connected in the world of young political activists: they know the independent media people and the rally organizers. Their friends help organize workshops on United States involvement in the Middle East and transgender awareness.
Still, Bluestockings has a tough balancing act ahead, keeping the loyalty and business of the old collective (the tampon cases will stay) while attracting a new constituency that includes men. But slowly, the selection of books on progressive politics is getting beefed up, and the women's fiction and poetry cut back a bit.
"We're no longer going to be a place where if you're a woman and you've written a book, we'd automatically carry it," Ms. Lehman said.
A meaningless word
multilingual
good for you
open to all sexualities
except heterosexuality
and spiritualities
except Judeo-Christianity
intergenerational
except to middle-aged suburbanites
and to challenge racism,
except as practiced by the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Lew Farrakhan
classism
even where those "classes" are based on merit
ablism,
made-up word
ageism
another fabricated social issue
and sizism,
really reaching for this one.
I understand that the average income of lesbians is low when compared to that of male homosexuals.
All lisping, I'm sure.
Someone needs to bring these morons up to speed on what "empowers" women. Last I saw, no fashion statement ever "empowered" a woman, regardless of her age, size, language, or other facet of individuality.
I guess it's just not "chic" to actually work to improve one's self.
Sheesh...these people make me hurl.
-Jay
Lesbians are, unfortunately, downwardly mobile, more oriented towards blue-collar, tactile work than other groups. Contrast this to gay men, who are more oriented towards the creative arts, which are very lucrative. Gay men are upwardly mobile for this reason, and they have the political clout to prove it.
I'm amazed that people can keep themselves from bursting out laughing in that place.
They refuse to look at the real world. I'd say they are useless, but they are worse than that, they are dangerous parasites sucking the energy and will of their host.
<Insert phallic-themed wisecrack here>
The New York Times is a big, important newspaper. At least, it used to be...
So, with all this news going on around them, how is it they can afford to burn 500 words on this piece of narrow-guage insignificance? I'm wondering whether, if such an establishment were to open (or re-open, as it were) in downtown Granbury, Texas, would the Hood County News burn 500 words on it?
Somehow, I think not.
But, then, the Hood County News doesn't sport an "Urban Studies/Regrouping" section, either.
I know what "Urban Studies" is. But why does it merit a section of its own in "The Newspaper of Record", anyway? But what the hell is "Regrouping"? And why does the New York Times feel compelled to publish articles on it?
Lord, has the New York Times turned into a crappy newspaper, or what?
I'm amazed that people can keep themselves from bursting out laughing in that place.
One of the first casualties of the "politically correct" movement was laughter and humor. The Left will not stand for anyone making fun of these lunatic fringe groups.
Curiously, the former Soviet Union's gulags were filled with comedians as well. The State under the communists considered humor to be "counter-revolutionary."
Pretty much says it all right there...
-Jay
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