“Women! OBVIOUSLY!!”
We have a show that hopefully gets out every woman’s opinion. Well, we can’t do every woman’s opinion, but as many types of views on the topic that we would like to display.
With this, Berry-Jean Murray, Production Assistant and Interviewer, summarized the thinking behind the name of the 1990s public-access television show Obviously Women. As a March 1991 article by Mary Ann T. Rossoni in the Providence, RI based The Third Wave newspaper reported, Berry-Jean and her collaborators Toni Salisbury, Carol Dunbar Skoglund, and Nancy Harrison saw as their charge “to show women in a positive light everywhere doing everything,” as well as “being a forum to bring out issues of the day, not just issues that normally people would think would be a headliner.” Obviously!
The show had its beginnings in another format: Berry-Jean, along with Nancy and Carol, had been hosting a radio show, Airwave Women, on the University of Rhode Island’s WRIU station. The show primarily featured women’s music and news, and continues today with different hosts as Voices of Women. Rhode Island has always had the base of a women’s community, in which Lesbians have always played a critical part, and for Berry-Jean, feminism and Lesbianism always went together. Lesbians have always been a part of the “gay community,” as well, though differences existed between gay men and Lesbian women, especially around women’s issues. So Lesbian participation in Pride parades, for example, was tenuous, and Lesbians were present but not always prominent.
Thirty minutes long and commercial-free, the Obviously Women public access television show emerged because Berry-Jean and friends decided the community needed something more. They were so prideful of themselves as women and wanted to share that pride with anyone who would watch. As Berry-Jean remembers the feeling: “We exist. We’re here. Watch us!”
The Airwave Women group took production classes at the PEG - Public Access TV, and created a show for women with a feminist slant. Berry-Jean, a Black Lesbian, was the host of the show – making a statement that women of color were involved in the community. In news, entertainment, interview, and special feature segments, Obviously Women featured everyday women doing interesting things (for example, fixing a lamp) or in “non-typical women roles…women soldiers, women carpenters, women welders.” Stories centered on resources for local women, including the Women's Resource Center talking about violence against women; therapists talking about adult children of alcoholics; and speakers addressing the community issues of homelessness, religion and oppression. The women behind Obviously Women strove to create a public service to let community members know about the resources available to them.
This collective effort lasted approximately two-to-three years in the early 1990s. While the show may no longer be on the air, the bonds that created it remain. In a recent interview, Berry-Jean giggled as she looked at the 1991 article: “I’ll show this to Carol and Nancy and Beth. They’re still around and we all laugh when we’re together.”
Images
