The Banshees: A Literary History of Irish American Women (30 page)

mothers because they are silent and powerless, until they realize that to be a

whole person one must acknowledge her mother and build relationships with

other women as well (Daly 1996, 125–28).

Oates’s 1980s novels parody long
-
standing patriarchal traditions by

mocking the family saga (
Bellefl eur
), the gothic romance (
A Bloodsmoor

Romance
), and the detective novel (
Mysteries of Winterthurn
). In each, the

daughters escape familial (read paternal) repression and then serve as narra-

tors to reveal the crimes of their fathers in personal versions of feminist resis-

tance (Daly 1996, 138–39). In
Bellefl eur
, one of the narrators is Germaine,

the hermaphrodite daughter of Leah and Gideon Bellefl eur, characters so

enamored of each other than they argue over who is most beloved. But they

are not the only egotists. Grandfather Vernon Bellefl eur dominates this

large extended family, making every decision his alone—one reason why the

novel is “concerned with the repression of a feminist unconscious”—some-

thing its female characters are well aware of (Wesley 1993, 140). Indeed, as

grandmother Della quickly cuts off Germaine’s male genitalia at birth, she

announces, “‘Now it’s what it was meant to be, what God intended. Now

it’s one, not two; now it’s a she and not a he. I’ve had enough of
he
, I don’t

want anything more to do with
he
,’” and sweeps the penis and scrotum to

the fl oor, exclaiming, “‘here’s what I think of
he
!’” (Oates 1980, 106).

Although the arch conservatism of the Reagan administration caught

most feminists by surprise, its heavy-handed tactics inadvertently helped

publicize feminist issues. Amidst a wave of
Rambo
-esque movies starring

muscular male action heroes, the few with female stars generally presented

a strong image. In
Alien
, the Irish American Sigourney Weaver’s Lt. Ripley

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was tough, fearless, and persevering. Mary Tyler Moore, Geraldine Page, and

Shirley MacClain once again knocked the sainted mother off her pedestal in

Ordinary People
,
The Pope of Greenwich Village
, and
Terms of Endearment
,

respectively. Similarly, Meryl Streep exuded a powerful presence in
Out of

Africa
, as did Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in
The Terminator
, and the

female stars in the ensemble piece,
The Big Chill
. Apart from
The Termina-

tor
, these women made their male co-stars look weak in comparison. On

the other hand, a number of vehicles painted women in a negative light. To

members of the New Right, Glenn Close’s character in
Fatal Attraction

represented the apotheosis of the feminist working woman, just as Roseanne

Barr and Katie Segal’s characters in the television shows
Roseanne
and
Mar-

ried With Children
showed how annoying opinionated women could be. But

in television land, older women were not threatening. Angela Lansbury’s

sleuth in
Murder She Wrote
, the matriarch Miss Ellie in
Dallas
, and the cast

of
Golden Girls
were all beloved. Finally, coinciding with the rise of youthful

third-wave feminists at the decade’s end, Lisa Simpson appeared.

There were other points of light. Infl uenced in part by the activists

Lynn Farley and Catharine MacKinnon, the Equal Employment Opportu-

nity Commission (EEOC) expanded its defi nition of sexual harassment to

include actions leading to an “intimidating, hostile, or offensive working

environment” (Martin 2011, 158). The inclusion of such language eventu-

ally led to the Supreme Court’s 1986 landmark decision that “sexual harass-

ment constituted a form of Title VII sexual discrimination” (Martin 2011,

160). Despite the administration’s agenda, the Family Violence Prevention

and Services Act was passed by Congress in 1984, resulting in the establish-

ment of 1800 shelters, hot lines, and support programs across the country

(Brownmiller 1999, 277). As the decade progressed, so did these programs,

moving from consciousness-raising to a systemized, organized infrastruc-

ture offering crisis intervention and legal aid (Martin 2011, 163). In the

private sector, initiatives to support women also expanded. In 1985, Betsy

Warrior published the fi rst issue of the Battered Women’s Directory (Brown-

miller 1999, 274–75).

The lesbian community supported these initiatives (Faderman 1991,

249). Lesbian cultural feminists supported groups such as Women Against

Violence and Pornography in the Media and Women Against Violence

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140 | T H E B A N S H E E S

Against Women, while Irish American lesbians further raised awareness

through their novels. Patricia A. Murphy’s
Searching for Spring
(1987), for

example, addressed incest, a topic that emerged with surprising force in the

late 1980s, most likely because it “has become the paradigm of patriarchal

power, the ultimate abuse by the Father” (Faderman 1991, 213). Through-

out this decade, lesbian authors also tried to place their characters further

into the mainstream. Lee Lynch’s
Toothpick House
(1983) draws on nature to

suggest that lesbian love is natural (Zimmerman 1990, 81) and Nevada Barr

introduces a lesbian Western in
Bittersweet
(1984), while Diana McRae’s
All

the Muscle You Need
(1988) is a detective story. Such works refl ect the late

1980s desire for normalcy in that the lesbian protagonist is simply another

character rather than a political statement (Zimmerman 1990, 227).

What is most striking about this decade is not the fl owering of the

lesbian novel, but rather the number of Irish American women coming out

of/in this bouquet. While overall the emergence of lesbian novels partly

corresponds with the growth of lesbian publishing companies during the

1980s as well as the controversy surrounding attempts to defi ne “lesbian-

ism” (Palmer 1993, 4), the appearance of Irish American lesbian writers also

refl ects a reaction to the political atmosphere denying AIDS while reify-

ing marriage and motherhood. Traditionally, the American literary canon

privileged family and heterosexual sex. In contrast, lesbianism had been

presented as corrupting not only fertility, families, and fathers, but also

language, for critics considered such works “barren” and “perverted” (Rohy

2000, 5). These women set out to challenge that mindset. In the process,

they demonstrated that “Lesbian writing does not exist in a vacuum but is

closely linked to the social and political circumstances which form its con-

text” (Palmer 1993, 5).

It’s Only a Pretty Custom

Following the turbulence that emerged from
Humana Vitae
, the 1980s

became a time of rebuilding, both literally and fi guratively, the Catholic

Church. In New York City, the church was able to refurbish its image by

helping the New Irish. During this decade, at least 40,000 Irish offi cially

arrived in New York, although immigration advocates and the
Irish Voice

placed that number between 150,000 and 200,000. But because of the 1965

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Immigration and Nationality Act, they arrived as illegal aliens unless they

had family members to sponsor them. For the most part, they did not. The

INS claimed that only 949 immigrants were awarded visas in 1982, 1,839 in

1986, and 25,412 between 1987 and 1990 after the immigration laws were

loosened. However, most visas were awarded to the Irish who had previously

arrived. Consequently, throughout the 1980s the majority of Irish immi-

grants lived “underground” and were paid “under the table.” These immi-

grants were generally single men and women in their twenties with at least

a high school degree. Ironically, more than a quarter left Ireland to escape

the repressive lifestyle reinforced by Catholic dogma, yet it was the American

Catholic Church that came to their aid (Almeida 2001, 62–63).

Project Irish Outreach, sponsored by the New York Archdiocese Catho-

lic Charities, was created as a result of the 1986 Immigration Reform and

Control Act to aid Irish immigrants ineligible for amnesty or visas. This

offi ce served as a resource for the New Irish, offering counseling and refer-

rals to doctors, lawyers, employers, day care, and shelter. To aid in this task,

the Irish government assigned priests to New York City parishes. Their job

was not to proselytize, but rather to provide the support lacking due to the

absence of extended family in the United States and to serve as trustwor-

thy sounding boards to wary, undocumented aliens. In this regard, the

clergy acted more as social workers than priests, providing counseling and

sometimes free service at Catholic hospitals. Such activities underscored the

strength of the Irish leadership still existent in the 1980s. As the Project

Outreach founder Monsignor Murray, himself the son of Irish immigrants,

said, such efforts were his attempt to repay the Irish for their contributions

to the United States. But this outreach also refl ected the positive side of

Vatican II as the American Catholic church attempted to minimize the

hierarchical distinctions between priests and laity (Almeida 2001, 102–7).

Unfortunately, this olive branch did not extend to its disenfranchised and

disenchanted female members.

After Vatican II, women religious had felt hopeful about the church.

At their annual assembly in 1976, they focused on newfound feelings of

empowerment; by 1978, they had developed a fi ve-year plan to foster “study,

prayer, and action on women’s issues” (Weaver 1985, 86). This feeling quickly

turned to dismay as the Pope repeatedly refused to acknowledge, let alone

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142 | T H E B A N S H E E S

meet with, members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious such

as Sister Theresa Kane, Mary Luke Tobin, and Margaret Brennan. Con-

sequently, the sisters turned inward, working together toward “renewal”

within their communities. The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

created their own democratic society. Led by Sister Tobin, the Sisters of

Loretto developed a focus on social justice. The Maryknoll Sisters reversed

their traditionally hierarchal missionary strategies to a “basic Christian com-

munity” model to better help the poor and oppressed. More radically, the

Sisters of Mercy of the Union moved outward into politics in their efforts

for change. Across the board, the more independent the sisters became, the

more opprobrium they experienced from Rome (Weaver 1985, 97).

Formed in 1977, the goal of the Womanchurch movement was to help

Catholic women escape the double bind of remaining in the church and

thus repressing the need to question its treatment of women, or leaving the

church and repressing their religious and cultural heritage (Weaver 1985,

64). In 1983, participants at the Womanchurch Conference, feeling their

standoff with the Vatican had reached a crisis point, issued a statement call-

ing for the church to admit that it had been “guilty of sexism, heterosex-

ism, racism, and classism” (Martin 2011, 164). This conference provided

a space for feminists in groups such as Chicago Catholic Women, Catho-

lics For a Free Choice, the Institute of Women Today, Las Hermanas, and

WATER—Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual. WATER

“became a kind of think tank and organizing center for the women-church

movement,” an initiative that almost led to a split between factions sup-

porting Womanchurch and those supporting women’s ordination. In fact,

the conference agenda promoted the former, arguing that women’s ordina-

tion merely “signifi ed acceptance of a hierarchical church.” Nevertheless, so

many women believed in the goal of ordination that they refused to drop it

despite the Vatican’s declaration that “the ban on women’s ordination was

‘infallible’” (Ruether 2003, 10).

In the wake of this conference, the Irish American Mary Jo Weaver

published
New Catholic Women: A Contemporary Challenge to Traditional

Religious Authority
(1985) to underscore the church’s historical misogyny

as well as American Catholic women’s desire to retain their cultural and

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