The remainder of the novel is taken up with the mystery of these placid women and the threat to Bobby and Joanna far by their concern for small freedoms. And, of course, their subsequent downfall. sets up an analogy between mindless Suzanne My first reaction to this novel is to housewives and robots which works slight- ly above the level of cliche. But the question remains: how and why question whether I can toke it seriously. Pharr It is a mole fantasy which fortunately did they become robots? The transform- ation of each v.omon occurs after a loses effect because it is shallow and "second honeymoon" weekend with her poorly written. Th~ Stepfor.9 Wives by Ira levin is a husband. The author reveals nothing at Joanna, for example, is not mode slight, poorly developed, contrived novel the end: we never know what secret the enough a full-bodied person to warrant about a woman who is an erstwhile member men learned at the Men's Association our concern or sympathy. VVhen she is that they were able to employ in the of women's liberation and the punishment defeated, the reader feels little sense of she receives when she attempts to live out immediate subiugotion of their wives. loss. The extent of her desire for free- her moderate (very) feminist views. Like We know only that v.omen who aspire to dom is for her husband to share in dish- freedom will be defeated by the males the author's Rosemary's Baby, this novel washing and childcore, for her to have a they live with. They, in levin's vision, is written as a mystery, a kind of creepy little time for photography, and for her are powerless to fight back. 0.1e finish- horror story where evil is pervasive but to be allowed to enter o discussion with es this novel feeling that she has been de- difficult to detect and fight. her husband's mole friends as a "liberat- livered o thinly disguised threat. Joanna Eberhart and her all-American ed beautiful waitress." Here is another book from that other an; ly of husband and young daughter We don't know much about hanna movement: that group of people who ~d son hove iust moved to a suburb of beyond these desires and h~r concern trail liberal/radical causes in order to New York, the town of Stcpford where about her sexual tensions in bed with her profit from them. Women: do not give taxes ore low, schools ore good, the husband. We never know why these Ira levin your money or time. population is mode up almost entirely of tensions occur except to guess that they other young all-American families come from her great concern to please. {including one black family), and scien- Nor d.:. we know why her husband returns tific research centers line the outskirts of from his first Men's Association meeting town. and masturbates beside her in bed. VVhy The first problem Joanna faces is the that scene? Since she awakens, reoliz.es absence of other liberated women. She what's going on and asks him to make is, by the way, a free-lance photogra- love, are we merely being given evidence pher and a former member of NOW. that she is o good woman, ready to please All the women she meeh are sleek, -the man she loves? bosomy, and delighted with constant Because Joanna's character is not fully ~ sework. Finally, Joanna meets developed, l find it difficult to determine ~bbie, another newcomer, who is where Levin is leading the reader. His hearty, outspoken, and expresses a keen sympathy is not apparent in the novel, not interest in women's liberation. with Joanna and Bobby, with the hous- The two of them set out to find other frou, or with the innocent-seeming- women to ioin them in o women's talk FiUsbands. Everyone is given the some session but they are turned down again treatment, with the exception of the and again by women who don't go out president of the Men's Association who and who hove no time to talk because appears as o stereotyped villain. they ore devoted to their housework. Only one aspect of the novel redeems They also discover that there are no any of its failings for me, and that is too women's groups at all in Stepford but slight to iustify reading it. Levin does there is o mysterTOuSMen's Association point out that solid power structure of which their husbands ioin and begin moles (represented not only by their ~~n~~~ b5:,::;'t; 1t~~:5a~::i:~ionT:;e married to those big-breasted women who treatment of their wives, but their involve- ment in the scientific research which feeds the business and war machines) which no are devoted entirely to their families and housework. is difficult to break into and break dawn. Also, at the end of the novel the author comment INTRODUCTION TO OURSELVES mixed commune in that we hove no sexist divorced, hod an abortion, seen the world, -:.ontinued from page 6 structure, and we do function very much lived in mental institutions, learned how as o part of society, a society we ore to fly. We are goy, straight, undecided, Which leads to the point of our having doiiy oecoming more capable oi abstaining, al! of the above. a women's collective: the only way to confronting thanks to the support each of We hove five heads to learn from, five learn how to manage your Iife is by us gets from her sisters at home. And no, sets of eyes to see with, five sets of hands managing it yourself. We want indepen- Midge Deeter, our collective is not a to move furniture, paint a room, set the dence, freedom, aod the right to our own convent. table. And most important for us as lives. We will not be forced into roles With our individual pasts and our concerned women, five people out there by o male-oriented, warring society. individual futures, we ore able to live in the world, demanding our rights, setting We will look no longer to our parents, and function together as a collective be- examples, confronting sexist values. husbands, psychiatrists for our direction. cause we ore all feminists. Our histories The only way for women to grow strong Our women's collective :.I lows us to as individual women hove become our and find our heads is through other women. search, struggle, and develop in our own manner, and far ourselves. history as women. We ore 21, 25, 25. And o women's collective can be a fine Our collective is differentiated from a 3L, 33 years old. We have been rrorrif'd, place to start.