Sliding Scale

The implementation of a sliding scale may be one of the great contributions of lesbian-feminism. The concept is simple: people have different amounts of money, particularly disposable income. The products of lesbian-feminism have value that is not necessarily fixed by capital markets. The value of things produced by lesbian-feminism is variable and the price may be set differently by different women. Enter the sliding scale. It is a recommended range of payment determined by individual women to participate in events or activities or to purchase different goods and services. 

Flyers from the 1970s and 1980s carry the words, “More if you can, less if you can’t,” next to the recommended donation, price, or cost of admission. The notion of the sliding scale is an active negotiation between the values of lesbian-feminism and capitalism. It recognizes that we live in a capitalist system, that individuals have different resources, and that lesbian-feminist projects need resources. The solution is not perfect, but it is thoughtful and workable. It mobilizes resources from women to support lesbian-feminist projects.

Sinister Wisdom is one of these projects from the sliding scale era. The journal implements it through hardship subscriptions. Women can subscribe to Sinister Wisdom for as little as $10 for a year-long subscription. That is the less if you can’t component of the equation. Ten dollars covers a little less than half the actual expense to print and mail four copies of the journal to a subscriber. Other women subsidize the journal with their regular subscriptions and with charitable donations. That is the more if you can component of the equation. Guess what? It works.

Today I opened the Sinister Wisdom mail, and there were two checks. One for $20 for a two year subscription; one for $500. It feels pretty magical to see those two checks together and to understand how lesbian-feminist visions work in the real world. Today, I also learned that women around the world have donated enough to make a downpayment on the land of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Featival. Do not listen when people say that lesbians cannot mobilize resources for community projects. Lesbian have financial resources and they give them generously to projects, ideas, dreams, visions, and realities that they support. We have power and we use it. With a sliding scale. To benefit one another.

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An issue of Lesbian Connection from 1978. See the bottom of the image for the ubiquitous “more if you can, less if you can’t”.

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