Page 18 RAIN April/May 1983 around. She draws on her experiences and expertise as former Director of Women’s Programs for the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol Information to present the attitudes, theories, and data concerning women alcoholics. 'These are made alive by anecdotes from real women’s struggles with their disease. She also describes the differences between what men and women alcoholics experience and how our society views and treats them. That women suffer greater stigmatization than men and have less access to treatment are two of the many differences. Like men, however, women of all backgrounds, socioeconomic levels, and ages are alcoholic. Alcoholic women share certain experiences and attitudes, but they also have many differences. In several chapters, Sandmaier addresses the unique situations and needs of minority women, lesbians, housewives, teenagers, and skid road women. This is not a depressing book. It is a book full of challenge and hope. 'Treatment and recovery are a reality for many women. I recommend this book for everyone because we all know someone who is affected by alcoholism. —Peggy Hanley Hackenbruck, MD. Peggy Hanley Hackenbruck is a psychiatrist in private practice. Getting Free: A Handbook for Women in Abusive Relationships by Ginny Nicarthy Seal Press 312 Washington St. Seattle, WA. 98104 $7.95, 1982, 304 pp. Ten years ago an abused woman had no where to go, no one to talk with about her problems. Her experience was approached with skepticism, its severity denied with a variety of reactions ranging from "you must have asked for it” to prescribing tranquilizers so she could better fulfill her "proper” role. An abused woman’s real choices were limited by a society willing to condemn her if she left ("How can you break up your family?”), or if she stayed ("Why do you put up with this? You must be masochistic.”). In these ensuing yeetrs much has changed. There are now over 300 shelters and other intervention and advocacy services in the U.S. Research has expanded the understanding of both professional and lay person to the issues and myths surrounding abuse. Laws have been rewritten. However, men are still abusing women physically, emotionally, and sexually. The corrosive effect of the abusive relationship continues to chip away at a woman’s selfesteem and ability to make decisions. Shelters and feminist counselors work to promote positive decision-making and enhance a woman’s feeling of selfpower. But not all women find a shelter or a counselor. Furthermore, the abused woman’s needs often go beyond the short-term support of a shelter stay or counseling session. Getting Free is a book that helps in the process of breaking away from an abusive relationship. Although each abusive relationship is unique, there are many commonalities, the knowledge of which can help dispel the isolation that abused women often feel. Nicarthy takes the experiences of many abused women and presents a coherent perspective of the fears involved and ways to face them. This approach is useful since many abused women feel overwhelmed to the point of inactivity. The book is full of concrete, practical information such as how to make a budget or find a good lawyer. The emotional effects and feelings of ambivalence one may experience are also explored. Nicathy does not use the "this is what is going to happen to you” approach, rather she emphasizes woman’s self-discovery, highlighting what she can do to avoid slipping into the same or another abusive relationship. Chapters describing being your own counselor and avoiding similar relationships provide tools for a woman trying to rebuild her self and her life. A good overview detailing the types of abuse and examining the sociopolitical basis of abusive relationships is presented in easily understood terms. The book’s language is accessible to the woman who could benefit most from it— the abused woman herself. It is also a resource for anyone who comes in contact, either professionally or jiersonally, with abused women. —Linda Golaszewski Linda Golaszewski has been involved with issues concerning the basic rights of women to control their own lives and bodies for six years. She is currently director ofBradley-Angle House, a shelter in Portland, Oregon. Pornography and Silence: Culture’s Revenge Against Nature Susan Grifffn Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. 10 E. 53rd St. New York, NY 10022 $5.95, 1981, 277 pp. Before reading Susan Griffin’s Pornography and Silence, I suppressed the power of pornography and naively narrowed its scope to an underworld of peep-shows, pornographic bookstores, magazine racks, X-rated movies—an industry which I thought didn’t much ■ affect my life. 'The figures Griffin cited were astonishing: "In 1977, pornographic films earned four billion dollars, as much as conventional films and the entire music industry combined.” With compassion and depth, Griffin convincingly argues that pornographic images and fantasies are not an expression of human erotic feeling and desire, but an expression of fear of bodily knowledge and an attempt to silence eros. She dissects and analyzes the pornographic imagination, the process of transforming a natural sexual act into an act of aggression, rape and violence. 'Throughout her analysis one comes to fully realize the profound affect of a pornographic mythology in our lives. 'The pornographic underworld flips belly-up, laying the foundation for society’s conventional images and dramas. "Everytime we raise our eyes from the page of the pornographic book, we find the same images in the culture which surrounds us. We even begin, like the pornographer himself, to confuse these images with reality.” Griffin analyzes the essential ritual of pornographic fantasy, which involves the sexual humiliation and silencing of a woman by a man. This ritual rests on three beliefs: that men are inherently violent; pornographic fantasies release men from an obsession with violence; that only violence will give the mind release from an obsession with violence. Is this obsession with violence simply a belief? Does this obsession reveal men’s secret worship of themselves as violent and aggressive beings? Must women be made to mimic the object of pornographic fantasy and aggression? Who suffers the impact of these beliefs and rituals? Griffin argues that pKjmography leads to violence against women. Put simply: "pornography endangers our lives.” But it is important not to forget that the actual images of pornography degrade and humiliate women. Women are forced into the "masks and costumes of the female impersonator in order to survive economically.” And at the other end of the spectrum, "a woman’s very physical existence is predicated on her ability to resemble the pornographic ideal.” Finally, both men and women suffer. Pornographic violence severs the connections between the mind and the body. Culture is set against nature, thoughts against feelings, the masculine against the feminine. We lose our own wholeness, our eros—"Not the sensation of pleasure alone, nor the idea of love alone, but the whole experience of human love.” 'Through her clear-sighted analysis, her depth and range, Griffin caused me to examine my own feelings about eroticism, sexuality, and violence. In the process of reading this book, I became more sensitive to the effects of pornography, the degrading poses of women in advertising, and the minidramas of humiliation and aggression played out between men and women in books and movies. I had to confront these images and dramas, argue with them, in order to finally reject them. I don’t believe anymore, as I once did, that one can turn one’s head, walk on the other side of the street, and effectively shut out pornography. —Robin Havenick
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