Purr, Baby, Purr By Lucianne Goldberg & Jeannie Sakol - Prologue

1972 Genre: Vintage Paperback / Sex Ed

From the FOUNDERS OF THE PUSSYCAT LEAGUE

STOP BITCHING! BE A PUSSYCAT!

The Pussycats believe in men... and women. And enjoy the difference!

Pussycats are for femininity rather than feminism, and are proud to be women. They do not feel ashamed, apologetic, persecuted or oppressed. Here are the principles, passions and philosophy of the Pussycat League ... and a thorough debunking of the wild notions of the new feminists, from their sexual fantasies to their political daydreams.

Purr, Baby, Purr... must reading for every real female!

Prologue: Enter the Pussycats

The women's liberation movement has had one positive and powerful effect on the American female. It has forced her to assert her womanhood. The American woman has finally been prodded into a healthy self-analysis of her role in marriage, child rearing, employment, and politics, and contrary to the expectations of the "libbies," she rather likes what she finds.

When the marchers and picketers proclaim she is manacled to a slop pail and wet mop, she resents it, not only because she takes pride in a clean house but because a four-speed vacuum with five attachments would be a more appropriate symbol. When the braless ones scorn her for slaving over a hot stove to feed that oppressor, her husband, she really gets her dander up. She loves to cook, and few things give her more pleasure than watching her husband's happy face as he downs her boeuf bourguignon (just for the record, her "hot stove" is an electric x Purr, Baby, Purr range in an air-conditioned kitchen) . But when the girls with the hairy armpits start poking fun at her for "talking"

to her two-year-old and playing "mother ape" to her brood of crayon eaters, she gets fighting mad and is ready to lash back.

She's ready, in other words, to join the Pussycat League, the first and by far the largest organization to take a stand for femininity instead of feminism. The Pussycat League was launched half in fun on a hot autumn day in 1969. Members of WITCH had just burned their bras in Atlantic City to protest the Miss America Contest, Bread and Roses girls were practicing karate in Boston, and the National Organization of Women had declared itself for Instant Abortion, Instant Equality, Instant Divorce, and Instant Orgasm. No wonder the organization calls itself NOW!

Had American women gone bananas? Not by a long shot, and three girls decided to form an organization that would expose the feminist follies as the product—in the main—of a lunatic fringe. After all, even Betty Friedan, founding mother of the new feminism, was going around complaining that the language had too many words like history, mandate, hymnal, and not enough words like herstory, womandate, and hernal! Yes, it was time to act.

The girls knew it wouldn't be easy to match the publicity that the feminists were grabbing, largely through their herstrionics and hersteria (no more of that). But they had a few things going for them. One was the name—Pussycats—which was as arresting to tired news editors as the exotic names of the feminists. There were WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) , BITCH (self-explanatory) , SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men), the Fly Traps, and a score of others to tease and titillate.

Also going for them was the girls themselves, each a feature story in her own right: There was Lucianne Goldberg, a smashing blonde. Mother of two, wife of a newspaperman, Lucianne is Boston-born, Virginia-raised, and helps fill the family cupboard by writing for magazines. Joan Elbaum Gordon, Iowa-born and a graduate of Harvard Law School, is a fiery redhead.

Recently married, she holds a high appointive position at New York City's Commission to the United Nations.

And then there was Jeannie Sakol, a lively brunette who has half a dozen books · to her credit (from humor to fiction) , and is the kind of independent kind who might just jet from her native New York to London for the weekend. The biggest thing going for the Pussycats was the media's fear that they had given too much exposure to the feminists. Because these girls could yell the loudest and use the filthiest language and were willing to behave like baboons in public, they were rewarded with front-page headlines and primetime on the television news shows. The news executives wondered: Had they created a Frankenstein's monster (or monstress)?

Then along came the Pussycats with their message that American women were still in favor of marriage and motherhood, that girls didn't really want to become steelworkers or bricklayers, and that it was kind of nice that Dad still carved the turkey on Thanksgiving. It was just what the newsmen were waiting for, and the networks and wire services carried the good news around the world.

Soon, Pussycat chapters had formed in cities from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Memberships also came in from Paris, London, Tokyo.

This outpouring of femininity was overwhelming, and the Pussycat League took office space at 156 East 52nd street in New York City. From there, the three girls publish a monthly newsletter called Adam's Rib, which goes to all members, who also receive membership buttons which, worn on their swelling bosoms, proudly declare, "I AM A PUSSYCAT!"

The Pussycats believe that if a woman takes pleasure in womanly things, if she adores her husband, loves her children, tingles all over when her souffle rises to perfection, and feels that the entire world is beautiful when she has finished a spring cleaning, she should wallow in her happiness and not apologize for it to the bitter women who are trying to tear down her world.

This doesn't mean that every woman must manifest her femininity in the same way. The Pussycats are aware that some women with a gift for motherhood can raise five children more easily than others can raise one. Other women can juggle a job and do volunteer work for three diseases and still have an ice-cold martini waiting for Mr. Wonderful when he kicks his shoes off. Yes, the Pussycats also believe that some women can go through life perfectly fulfilled without being wives and mothers, and still enjoy and value the interrelationships of men and women.

Here, in summary, is where the Pussycats stand:

PUSSYCATS believe in femininity rather than feminism.

PUSSYCATS are proud to be women. They do not feel ashamed, apologetic, persecuted, or oppressed.

PUSSYCATS combine humor with humanism in the belief that people who smile a lot don't blow up buildings.

PUSSYCATS will work for reforms through persuasion, aware that yelling, kicking, and threatening men's nether parts will not win friends in Congress.

PUSSYCATS regard it as a compliment to be told, "You think just like a woman!"

PUSSYCATS are for deleting the "only" from "I'm only a housewife" and the "just" from “I’m just a secretary,"

two occupations that are demanding and deserve respect.

PUSSYCATS believe it is no disgrace to pamper your husband as if he were the greatest guy in the world. (He might just become that if you treat him that way.) PUSSYCATS believe every girl should know how to sew a button on a shirt and shouldn't be ashamed to admit it.

And, most important—

PUSSYCATS plead with all women to call a truce on using men as punching bags. They might just punch back.

Purr, Baby, Purr sets out the principles, passions, and philosophy of the Pussycat League. It also debunks some of the wild notions of the new feminists—from their sexual fantasies to their political daydreams. Throughout it all, the Pussycats adhere to their organization's now-famous slogan, "The lamb chop is mightier than the karate chop." From the response these girls have received so far, it looks as if they are right.

S. L. D.

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