Page 4-Wednesday, June 4, 1980-The Mich
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Clark should have
stayed at home
HE IRANIAN government is like a five-year-
old child. Similar to any cunning, spoiled brat,
it manages to do just about whatever it wishes,
while fretting adults stand by and worry about how
to discipline the little monster.
Anyone knows why spoiled brats behave the way
they do; they love attention. It makes them feel
powerful to have the big adults notice what they are
doing. If nobody pays attention to their escapades,
however, they soon tire and find other pursuits to
fill their time.
There is no reason to expect, however, that the
Iranians will soon tire of their hostage escapade.
As long as Americans such as Ramsey Clark and
his troupe of ten U.S. citizens continue to patronize
the Iranian government's whims we can't hope to
see a quick resolution to the hostage crisis.
Why should the Iranians release the fifty-three
American hostages? As long as they have the
hostages in their custody, the world will continue to
fret over them, important Americans will pay at-
tention to them and their past grievances will ap-
pear in media across the globe.'
Clark is extremely foolish to think that by
defying President Carter's ban on travel to Iran
and attending the "Crimes of America" conference
he will help bring about an "early release of the
hostages." The Iranians themselves have insisted
that the conference has no relation to the hostages.
They just want to take advantage of the worldwide
attention they will continue to receive as long as
they hold the hostages.
When dealing with an errataic, schizophrenic
country such as Iran it is especially important that
the U.S. present a mature and stable front. Carter
has enough trouble presenting a firm, steady policy
toward Iran without fellow Americans openly
ignoring his words.
Clark and the other members of his entourage,
including Nobel prize-winning biologist George
Wald, have notable reputations. Their attendance
at the conference called by Ayatollah Khomeini
lends a sort of credence to the ridiculous conven-
tion. The American media have done enough for
Iranian propaganda without Clark's help.
Clark claims his intentions behind the visit to
Iran are noble. Perhaps, however, some
Americans are as attention hungry as their Iranian
comrades.
The Carter administration has said that the party
of self-appointed diplomats will be subject to
penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up
to $50,000 upon its return to the United States. While
these penalties may be too severe, we hope the
president will.not overlook this blatant defiance of
his order.
Cartoons frequently appear on both
the left andright sid&dfthe p they
not necessarily represent Daily opinions.
4
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Lesbian portrayal unfounded
A
To the Daily:
we are lesbians, gay men, and
gay rights supporters protesting
the anti-lesbian movie Windows,
which is being shown in Ann Ar-
bor this week on cable TV. The
film depicts a lesbian as a
psychotic killer who terrorizes a
heterosexual woman. Anti-
lesbian and other sexist
stereotypes compete for atten-
tion. The lesbian is shown as a
man-hating, love-sick sadist. She
arranges for a man to rape her
best friend in an attempt to drive
this friend into her arms. The
best friend is portrayed as a
stupid, defenseless woman. In the
end the lesbian completely
breaks down, and the best friend
esc-apes into the arms of her
detective boyfriend. The movie's
message is clear: if you are a
lesbian, you're sick.
Windows is especially harmful
because it comes at a time when
heterosexual interest in lesbians
is high, but ignorance of their
lives is even higher. Windows
should never have been made.
The fact that it could be made
and shown in 150 theaters coast-
to-coast, and now on TV, is an
urgent warning that anti-gay
bigotry, sexism, racism, and
conservatism in general are on
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the rise in this country. As the
economy worsens even the
modest gains of oppressed groups
and working people are attacked.
We are not advocating censor-
ship of the film industry by the
government. We are not even
trying to shut down Windows our-
selves. We can't eliminate anti-
gay bigotry by persuading a few
people not to watch a particularly
obnoxious anti-gay movie. An ef-
fort to do so would simply divert
us from the only work that can
really eliminate gay op-
pression-organizing broad
social, economic, and political
changes in the current system.
We are. writing to expose Win-
dows as a particularly hateful
example of the anit-gay bigotry
that pervades our society. To
people interested in watching
Windows we point out that the
movie viciously misreprents
lesbians by playing on the fan-
tasies and fears of heterosexual
people. Cable TV companies
paying United Artists to show an
anti-lesbian movie encourges the
film corporations to put out more
of them. We hope that people
seeking entertainment will find it
in some form that doesn't
promote anti-gay bigotry.
A few people will watch Win-
dows to understand the con-
troversy over the movie. To them
we say, "Okay, watch the movie.
Think about what we've said, and
when the movie is over, take a
stand. Help us fight attacks on
gay people and win a society in
which anti-gay bigotry, sexism,
and racism will be buried
forever."
--Judith Levy,
Committee to Protest
Windows and Cruising
June 3