WOMEN IN GERMAN

ANNUAL CABARET 1989

St. Croix, Minnesota

 Photos assembled by Susan Cocalis*

*I need help with the details. Please contact me at cocalis@german.umass.edu to contribute to this project.

I have no photos of this cabaret (since I had stopped editing the Newsletter) or the other cabarets in Minnesota. This was the only one I could attend and the only record I have is my summary for the WIG Newsletter. There had been mention of 12-Step groups during the conference, and this picked up that theme.

WiG Newsletter Review of the Impromptu Cabaret 1989:

"After eight years of President Busch (I) and the recent election of President Quael, some former WIG members who have not been able to cope with life beyond feminism and who persistently relapse into unacceptable unconformity, e.g., challenging male authority and refusing to wear their bras, were relieved to learn of an organization that could help them to overcome their addictive behavior so that they could eventually lead unproductive and submissive lives: Feminists Anonymous (FA).

FA is a 12-step group modeled on the principles of Alchoholics Anonymous. It is a galship of women who share their experience, weakness, & despair with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from feminism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop suffering from feminism. FA is not allied with any sex, denomination, politics, organization, institution, methodology, or theoretical persuasion. Its primary purpose is to stay feminine and to help other feminists to reject the shackles of liberation.

Since its inception by founder Phyllis S., FA has grown and now has chapters all over the United States. A typical FA meeting will start in the usual manner with the Pledge of Female Allegiance: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republican for which it stands, a-man!"

The meeting will proceed with the reading of "How It Works," our founder's credo: "Rarely have we seen a woman succeed who has thoroughly followed our path. Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened to change that, and what we are like now. If you have decided that you want what we have and are willing to stoop to any depths to get it, you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. Remember thet we deal with feminism: cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. Here are some of the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery:
1. We admitted that we were powerless over feminism, that our lives had become manageable.
2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to insanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to a Patriarch, as we understood Him.
4. We made a subservient and humble moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to our Patriarch, ourselves, and a member of the opposite sex the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We became entirely willing to have our Patriarch remove all of these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove all of our short comings.
8. We made a list of all of the men we had harmed and became willing to make a man of them all.
9. We made men of such persons wherever possible, except when to do so would harm their masculinity even more or that of others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and promptly admitted that we were always wrong.
11. We sought through obedience and respectful silence to improve our conscious contact with our Patriarch, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the submissiveness to carry that out.
12. Having had a sexual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other suffering feminists and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

At a typical FA meeting, like the one held at the recent conference, the chair (Susan C.) may introduce a speaker like oldtimer Dagmar L., who willspeak honestly about what life was like as a feminist, the progression of her addiction until she "hit bottom," how she found FA, and what her recovery has been like. In Dagmar L.'s case, it had been helpful for her to find a sponsor, who reintroduced her to makeup and pumps and who showed her how to use the program's slogans, e.g.: "Love and Let Love," "One Lay at a Time," "Keep Coming," "Don't Think and Go to Meetings," and "Sleazy Does It." The latter was particularly helpful in removing her short comings. If no speaker with any time in the program is available, a group can read from the Big Book--The Autobiography of Phyllis S. or it can select inspirational readings from an anthology of writings by William S., Johann Wolfgang von G., Friedrich S., Gustave F., Honore de B., James J., Thomas M. and others. The meeting is then opened to all present to identify as a gratefully recovering feminist. In every meeting, it is to be expected that certain newcomers might have some initial difficulty in identifying as feminists, that there might be some recovering L-women present who have been out of the closet much too long, or that an occasional male, like Rick M., might wander into an FA meeting instead of finding his way to Phal-Anon, but all of these problems de resolve themselves in time as we begin to recover. Remember: do not be discouraged--there is hope! No one among us has been able to maintain perfect adherence to these principles. The point is, we are willing to strive for regression and perfection rather than "progress." A typical meeting will close with our Servility Prayer: "O Patriarch, grant me the servility to accept the things we should not change, the courage not to change the things that we can, and the guiding wisdom to know the "petit difference."   Gratefully submitted by Susan C.