A couple of days ago I was driving the garbage truck to the dump when all of a sudden Harold runs up to me and yells, “Hey, what’s going on? I just put two hundred dollars into that truck and I don’t want any girls driving it!”
I kept my cool and didn’t say anything. Harold, realizing that he had made a very sexist remark, retreated guiltily to the Hiken house to contemplate, and yell at Towanda, the deaf dog and the only one who won’t talk back.

Don’t get us wrong. Naturally Harold is not the only male chauvinist in the camp. There are the assistant director, the assistant director’s assistant, and all the assistants down the line.

For example, let’s take Pow-Wow Day. for those of you who do not know, at the beginning of Pow-Wow Day the “chiefs” give speeches that usually consist of a series of jokes. Many of these jokes are aimed at the women at camp. They are standard classics, over-used, tasteless, and on the whole, obnoxious. We also think they are very insulting. Here’s an example. See if you agree.

“Hey Randy, I hear you were out bouncing with Debbie, Sally and Nancy. If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a hundred times, stay off those tramps.”

Despite the odds against us, the multi-talents of the women in camp cannot be held back any longer. We are infiltrating! There is now a woman teaching riding, and a woman introducing new and exciting possibilities into the arts and crafts program. Thanks also to the talents of the female members of this staff, the asthetic beauty of Camp Timberlane has been improved in the form of strange and exotic vegi’s sprouting in the newly planted garden.
Besides all of this, on a gastronomic level, the usually dull deserts have been transformed into mouth-watering treats due to the addition of a gourmet woman baker.

Naturally at a boys camp sexism is bound to appear, but you can see the women here at camp are working in subtle ways to combat sexism.

Paula Herz
Susie Hiken