Wimmins’ Supplement CLETUS Reclaiming the Wimmin's Centre The women’s center is part of Douglas College’s base budget— a rarity in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Typically, if there even is a spac e for women on campus, it is kept alive on a shoestring budget by a few dedicated students who must continually expend energy justifying the center’s existence to hostile student unions. Not so at dougls College. Gone are the cramped quarters and out of the way location. Gone too, though, is the writing on the wall, the comfortable couches and the communal coffee pot—all the things that seem to say “this is a student owned space.” In many ways, the Douglas College Women’s Center provides as excellent resource for female students. Women who want information or councelling about educational or career opportunities or who wantto takepartin workshops on time management, confidence building or “math, science and technological anxiety” will not be disapointed. The Center offers information and referrals to community services and resources, films and discussions, free child care during registration and child-care subsidies for some students. It has a library full of books, pamphlets and research materials and will act as an advocate for women mired in College or government bureaucracy. Still, something seems amiss. The reality of many women’s lives remains unflected in the character of the women’s centre. The resource library, which should boldly represent the centre’s committment toradical social change and identify it as a safe, supportive placefor all female students, is curiously lacking. Most information on abortion is filed with other “health” issues, much of the mostly non existentinformationforlesbiansand — bi-sexual womenat Douglas College is in a folder marked “Lifestyles” and sections regarding issues particular to women of colour, women with disabilities or poor/ working class/parenting women are not featured prominently. This is unfortunate since these are the groupsof women least likely to gain access to post- secondary institutions who’s concerns are most likely to be misunderstood/disregarded once they arrive. Euphemisms like “health” and “lifestyles,” while they may appease _ conservative administrations, cloud the issues they address and do adisservice to female students who need easy access to this information. The present incarnation of the Women’s Centre at Douglas College allows the administration the best of both worlds. It can claim a real sensitivity to women’s issues and at the same time exert control, overt or otherwise, over the functioning of the women’s centre. Certainly there is a reason that the Women’s Centre does not have a “political” mandate. The existence of an administration-run women’s centre helps, ultimately, to distract people from the reality of women;s lives. The subliminal message is that the work is being done or has already been done. We know that isn’t true. Awar, systemic and brutal, The Douglas College Women's Centre: Why is this room empty? is being waged on women in this country. As women begin to assert their independence from men, economically, emotionally and intellectually, the patriarchal system and the men that govern and benefit from itreact with typical aggression. Or they attempt to co-opt the work that women have done by appointing Royal Commissions or funding campus “Women’s Centres.” Whereis Douglas College’s real committment to address the needs and concerns of its women students? Where is the Women’s Studies department? Where is the slate of women’s studies courses? Yani's Lipstick Theory Sometimes! wear lipstick. Big Deal. However, I’ve come to notice a pattern in men’s reactions to my wearing of lipstick. Meninbarsor on thestreet tend toleerand oglemore whenmy lips are berry coloured. Personally I link this to the practice of hunting ‘ white tailed deer. Whether their response is pavlovian or not, the fact remains that lam nota piece of tail no matter what colours I choose to decorate my face with. Now to the second phase of Y.T.L. When I am actually in a relationship with a man he invariably turns to meat some point and suggests that I discontinue my use of lipstick. While he says he prefers the ‘natural look’ I know the real reason. It’s a kissing thing. Or maybe a territorial thing. All I know is that I’m encountering censorship. The battleground is my face . Mine. A friend once said that maybe I wear lipstick when I’m feeling self-confident. You know, the ‘when you feel good you look good’ principle. If thisis truethenit works counter-productively becausel don’tfeel good whenmen whistle at me from their cars. In spite of all this I will valiantly wear lipstick when! want and useitasasymbol of my inherent right to choose. CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT continued from page 2 is tapping on the phone with a pencil. Tap-tap, tap- tap. Don’t,Isay. lopenmy eyes. It’s morning. t is sitting on the other end of her sectional couch, the phone is on her lap, she’s tapping. Don’t, I say. Should I phone Ken, she says. Stu? No. What for? Where’s Gone. ShouldI phoneKen? What for? Toexplain about last night. I should tell him about Stu. I hope! haven't fucked things up. What're you going totell. It doesn’t matter if you explain things to him, he’s still going to feel shitty. Besides there’s not much to explain, is there? As long as you don’t do it again there’s no point in telling. ight? I’m going to phone him, she says. Take me home first then. I want to go home, I say. The drive home makes me ill again and I have to run straight to my bathroom and throw up. I wash my faceand brush my teeth, but] still feel horrible. I want to get into bed and pull the covers up over my head and just lay there, still, in my own little cocoon. Inmy bedroom! smell dirty socks, not mine, Eric’s. They are laying on the flooralong with therest ot his clothes and he is laying in my bed, just his head showing on the pci eyes open. Imusthave woken im up with my retching. We don’t say anything, but I’m glad, so glad, relieved that he is ak Tun and climb into bed beside him. Hi honey-bunny, I say. He moves closer, puts one arm and one leg underneath me, the other arm and leg on top, rests his head beneath my chin and squeezes. Where were you, he says. Where were you? Where is DC’s demonstrated committment to incorporating feminist scholarship and women’s voices into the traditional curriculum? Where is DC’s anti- sexism policy? Why is the administration and the College Board still dominated overwhelmingly by menand why, whyis there no Sexual Harassment Policy at Douglas College? Post-secondary institutions across thecountry areacknowledging the need for strong, clearly worded, enforceable Sexual Harassment policies. Without any disciplinary structure in place instructors at Douglas College still have carte blanche to sexually harass their female students with inappropriate touching or conversation, sexist humour, intimidation and humiliation. The Women’s Centre does a good job helping women students cope with the oppression and violence they face in this patriarchy. It does very little to help us to challenge and change it. DC has no excuse not to be fulfilling the needs of over half its student population. We need to let the College know that what it has seen fit to provide us with is far from adequate and we can start by taking back the Women’s Centre.