Vednesday, March 18, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
Page 7
Is !h jh ft ir ft si airu nim e
I I S
11 u. IL
Poet tells of hippie move
into corporate yuppiedom
By Charles Lieurance
Senior Reporter
For most people poetry and finance
are worlds apart. Poetry looks 'at
Wall Street the way a tiger looks
at a cage and Wall Street rarely takes
the time to even glance at poetry,
where losing money is considered an
integral part of the craft.
For poetstockbroker Trish Murphy
however, a mixture of lucre and lyric is
her stock in trade. Murphy will read
from her work "Paradise Tossed: A
Yuppie Creation Myth" in the Georgian
Room of the Lincoln YWCA Thursday
night. The poems deal mostly with the
transformation of the American hippie
into the American yuppie. It is a per
sonal as well as a social metamorphosis
for Murphy who ran away to "live off the
land" in the early 70s, setting up an
organic farm on an island in British
Columbia where she raised goats and
"grew her hair long."
Murphy says what most people think
of as a hippie was really a yippie.
"A hippie lived off the land and lived
a natural healthy existence," she said.
"A yippie was involved in the radical
campus political actions."
Hippies and Dach
Murphy insists that most people who
weren't hippies have the wrong idea
about the subculture. Her friends didn't
do drugs and listened to more Bee
thoven and Bach than Neil Young and
Jefferson Airplane.
There are similar misconceptions
about yuppies, according to Murphy,
who sees yuppies as the positive cul
mination of what the hippies started.
"Hippies started an awareness of
holistic health and lifestyles that yup
pies have injected into the corporate
level," she said. "Soon the positive
effect the yuppies have had upon the
workplace will make blue-collar work
more healthy and satisfying, too."
Murphy, whose poetry has appeared
in the Nebraska little magazine, Plain
songs and Ensign, believes that the
only real problem with yuppies is their
children.
Yuppie children
One of her poems, "Valley Yup"
deals with the spending habits of yup
pie children raised on "buy it now
street' where "eternity lies rotting in
Post Trish Murphy (above) will speak in the Georgian Room
of the YWCA Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Lincoln artist gets awards for 'English Art'
Karen Dienstbier's "Cambridge Col- created by sunlight has been influ
lectinn." a sphps nf 2S mixed media enced by that visit; traditional English
works of watercolor and gouache, is
showing at the Haydon Gallery.
The series was begun last year dur
ing the Lincoln artist's six-month visit
and art study in Cambridge, England.
Hj?r traditional interest in portray
ing plants and fabrics and patterns
valley View Mall."
"As hippies have become yuppies,"
she said, "they have put so much
energy into their work that they don't
share their ideals with their children.
"Plus there are people who are run
ning and who use whatever movement
is popular to hide. These people are
hiding instead of contributing crea
tively to the yuppie culture. They get
very busy and forget how beautiful they
really are."
"Paradise Tossed" is also Murphy's
dissertation for her Ph.D. in creative
writing. The 21 poems and five short
stories that make up the collection are
accessible satires on the cyclical aspects
of living and the changes that, though
they seem to contradict what has come
before, are actually logical continua
tions of experience.
. Much of the satire is geared back at
herself, Murphy says, and the changes
she's viewed in her own life as she
moved from hippie to yuppie.
The apparent contradictions between
the life of a stockbroker and the life of
a poet don't phase Murphy.
"Poetry gets to the heart of people
and being a stockbroker is a job that
involves people's dreams," Murphy said.
"Both of these efforts deal with people
on a very personal level.
"The main purpose of a stockbroker
is not to play the market but to help
people realize their goals."
Diverse concerns
Murphy's concerns freely range be
tween articles in the Wall Street Jour
nal and the typical idealism most peo
ple expect from a poet.
"Like a sponge my poetry and I soak
in everything around," she said.
Unlike most poets, Murphy doesn't
consider the writing of poetry a finan
cially bust occupation.
Speaking with the researched optim
ism of a stockbroker, Muiphy related a
news story she heard about poets in
Britain actually being able to feed
themselves from the writing of poetry
alone.
And Murphy has done everything in
her power to make her work accessible,
hence marketable.
"It's not a personal poetry," she
said. "It's more universal, catholic
than most poetry."
Murphy will begin her reading at
7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Courtesy of Trish Murphy
flower - garden borders and boundaries
and unique English fabrics weave their
way into these latest works.
A reception for the artist will be
tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Haydon
Gallery, 230 No. Seventh St. The show
will continue through April 12.
ir,ii , -
Dr. Roger Libby and
f l 13 173 Ifl Ti "TYfrft TTYYTTn fi
Roger Libby andhisfrog, Roxanne Ribbit, promote pleasure
In the AIDS-ridden '80s, both lib
erals and conservatives have
spoken against the dangers of
casual sex and promiscuity, but
such talk doesn't scare up-and-coming
"sexologist" Dr. Roger
Libby. He wants to claim Dr.
Ruth Westheimer's media throne
and tell the kinky kingdom of Amer
ica that there's nothing wrong with
' sex for pleasure's sake as long as
people approach it responsibly.
"I think that some people can
have more than one lover," he said.
"And that's not a 'playboy' phil
osophy." Libby, a former sociology profes
sor at the University of Massachu
setts in Amherst, has appeared on
CNN's "Newsnight," "The David
Susskind show and the Playboy
Channel discussing the virtues of
responsible sex. His 'horny toad"
Roxanne Ribbit, a five-foot, soft
sculpture frog who sports lingerie
and huge false eyelashes, travels on
the lecture circuit with him while
he promotes responsible sex and
the use of condoms.
... "What I wanted was a symbol of a
coed," he says of Roxanne. "She's
an icebreaker who relieves people's
anxieties about sex."
Roxanne always carries the obli
gatory elements of the sexuality
Libby lauds: birth-control foam, Tro
jans and massage lotion.
"Occasionally she'll carry a vi
brator," he says with a slight laugh.
Libby officially proclaimed the
first week of spring (March 22
through 28, which happens to be
UNL's spring break) "National
Orgasm Week." He suggests that
college students hold a "fantasy
ball" where everyone "would dress
up as their favorite fantasy and a
king and queen of Eros would be
selected for the uniqueness of their
costumes."
Such suggestions often induce
ridicule when his name is menti
oned to his peers, but he is not
kidding.
"I'm not advocating 'free love',"
he said. "I'm advocating that people
enjoy sex and enjoy pleasure."
Y e would like to knock Df.
-3 Ruth from her respected perch
JL on TV talk shows; he feels
that she's too conservative because
she promotes monogamy.
"She's not threatening," he says
of this ribald rival. "She's an older
woman who's more conservative and
that's why she appeals to the public,"
The reactions to his views have
"homy toad" Roxanne Ribbit: still
T
. been mixed, but he says that col
leges in all parts of the country love
him.
"I lectured at Southwest Georgia
Baptist College, which is in the
Bible belt, and after I talked all
these students came up and told me
they liked the lecture even though
they didn't agree with everything I
said."
Harrah's
Hollywood
by Scott
Harrah
But reactions aren't always that
tolerant, he. explains. In 1984, Uni
versity of Massachusetts officials
refused to grant him tenure because
of his outspoken views on sexuality.
He filed a lawsuit against the uni
versity for $165,000 in U.S. District
Court and drew national attention.
An article on him, "The Defrocked
Professor of Sex," appeared in Pent
house Forum magazine, of which
Libby is a board member. In the
article Libby claimed that his First
Amendment rights were violated
because the university didn't agree
with the values he expressed during
six years of teaching family and sex
studies classes. He recently received
a settlement out of court.
Some of the issues that got him
axed included the ideas that mono
gamy is not good for everyone and
that masturbation and premarital
sex are legitimate topics that must
be discussed openly. Libby insists
that he also caused a stir in the
usually liberal Notheast because
when it comes to sex, people get
nervous and Puritanical.
The religious right and the anti
porhography movement are factions
Libby lives to revile. He feels that
the AIDS epidemic is hardly a rea
son to deny sexuality and induce
repression.
"I think AIDS has made us more
conscious and honest about our
sexuality," he says. "There's still
intimacy around. What I'm promot
ing are responsible sexual choices."
He's manifesting such sentiments
with National Orgasm Week, which
he designed to celebrate the sexual
rites of spring and his belief that
our libidos flourish despite the media
hype and paranoia about AIDS.
f
y
- - -
'I
V
Courtesy of Dr. Roger Libby
waiting for stardom.
O
Libby has co-authored numer
ous books on his favorite sub
ject, including "Sexuality Today
and Tomorrow" and "Marriage and
Alternatives." He also wrote the
forward to the national bestseller
"Open Marriage," which sold almost
4 million copies in paperback.
Why is he so fascinated with the
flesh? What compels him to talk
about a topic that has made some
write him off as a flake seeking
press and sensation?
"There's nothing that interests
me more than sex," he explains.
"When I first entered college, my
parents told me to go into the area
that interested me most. So I chose
sex."
Libby, who advocates open mar
riage as long as spouses mutually
agree to see other lovers, belongs to
the American Sociological Associa
tion, the National Council on Family
Relations, the International Academy
of Sex Research and the Society for
the Scientific Study of Sex. Members
of those organizations feel that al
though Libby is all for non traditional
forms of sexuality, he is completely
legitimate.
"Within the fields of sociology
and social psychology, Roger Lib
by's academic research is quite
well-known and respected," Ira
Reiss, head of the sociology depart
ment at the University of Minnesota,
told a reporter for "Hampshire Life"
magazine last year.
Now Libby is ready to take on
Hollywood, but he needs money. His
only income comes from his lec
tures, and he only makes $1,500 an
appearance, compared to Dr. Ruth's
$15,000. Nonetheless, with the help
of Roxanne, films of stuffed frogs
getting it on and his own sense of
humor, he's making a name for
himself.
"I'm basically a man of ideas," he
said, "And I want to become a major
media figure."
He's currently working on a book,
"Caring Sex," based on his views
and is also writing a humor book
about a sexual Utopia. His dream is
to appear on David Lettennaa's
or Joan Rivers' shows and intro
duce Roxanne Ribbit as the new
amphibian sex goddess of the West
ern world.
But will America buy his act and
his sensibility? That question re
mains unanswered, but one thing's
for sure. Roxanne Ribbit should
give Kcrrait the Frog a run for
his sex appeal. V