International Women’s Day

Press, 15 March 1978, Page 16

International Women’s Day

Sir, — The coverage given to the celebration of International Women’s Day by your newspaper showed, as usual, the lack of seriousness with which the press treats women’s liberation. The report was predominantly about the Wizard, who dominated the front page and received more space than hundreds of women who gathered to express discontent with our situation in society. Why were the actual events not reviewed more fully? There was no mention of the mime performance. and the trashing of woman-degrading male porn, no report of what speakers in the open forum actually said, no indication of the anger and power expressed by the women present. You would rather give publicity to one man. who voices the feelings of men, in his attacks on women’s liberationists. — Yours, etc., RUTH VELVET. March 9, 1978. [We are satisfied that our reporter, to the best of her ability to hear the barely audible speakers, Judged correctly that the speeches added little new to frequently published views on the subject. She confirmed this judgment with other women reporters who attended the meeting and were better placed to hear the addresses. Our reporter did not observe signs of “anger and power.” Our report, however, could not reasonably ignore the distracting intervention of the Wizard in the proceedings. —Editor]