!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #58 ... August 21, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! "If women's work were accurately reflected in national statistics, it would shatter the myth that men are the main breadwinners of the world," said Mahbub ul Haq, a former Pakistani finance minister and principal author of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) report just issued. "If a bachelor has hired a female housekeeper, her wages are in the national income. The day the bachelor marries the housekeeper, the national income drops," he said. "If all women went on strike for a few days, national income would go up because substitutes would have to be found for the work they do," he added. However (why doesn't this surprise me?) the report does NOT advocate putting a price tag to family work. The global economy is recognized at $23 trillion but at LEAST $11 TRILLION is missing from the correct overall economy and that $11 trillion would be what is today unpaid and unrecognized women's work. ....................... * ........................ She often used an old saying to explain why she was doing what she was doing: "It is better to have lived one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep." Her husband said, "She was on her way down after becoming the first woman to climb the two highest peaks on Earth without oxygen and in pure style." Allison Hargreaves was caught in an avalanche descending K2 last week and is presumed dead. "If she is dead, she has at least died where she wanted to be," her husband said. A number of other climbers died in the same avalanche. In May, Allison Hargreaves, 33, reached the top of the 29,026-ft. Mount Everest alone, without oxygen tanks. She wanted to be the first woman to climb the world's three highest peaks -- Everest, K2, and India's Kanchenjunga. She leaves two children, 4-year-old Kate and 6-year-old Tom. ....................... * ........................ The symbolic rape of Shannon Faulkner when almost 50 of the future "officers and gentlemen" of The Citadel yelled "male, male, etc.," and then did pushups in the school's "quadrangle" in a manner that made it obvious there were supposed to be prostitutes under them. (Those boys have to buy their sex so we can't say women.) "It's just guys celebrating," said Ken Dieffenbach, second in command of the approximately 2,000 members of the corps. "It's unfortunate for her, but it keeps this place the way we always wanted it." Shannon and her family received death threats. Those few cadets who dared speak in opposition to the management attitude said that "Fear was on her face," as she ran through drills on her first day. The latest count of dropouts from The Citadel in the first week was 24, of which Shannon Faulkner was one. Catt's Claws salutes the efforts of Shannon Faulkner. Taxpayer money should not be used to educate boys into women-hating men in segregated schools anymore than tax dollars were forbidden to educate white boys into black-hating men in segregated schools. America is better than that. This battle to de-segregate The Citadel and Virginia Military Academy is not about one woman. It is about the U.S. Constitution and the equality of all persons under the law. At least 200 other women have expressed desires to attend The Citadel, which really confuses me because it's a second-rate, regional school that produces very, very few military men. P.S. Catt's Claws would love to see the toxicologist's report on Shannon's illness. The rumors of poisoning won't go away. ....................... * ........................ David Huffman, on trial for the March 1994 stabbing death of a 26-year- old prostitute, said he and a friend had sex with Kristine Mansera and refused to pay her. He said he became sexually aroused when she became frightened of him and he stabbed her a number of times. He went on to explain, "I wanted to beat up a prostitute, take my anger out on her. I wanted someone I can have control over. I wanted to ruin someone else's day." Sad that he killed Ms. Mansera because with that attitude he could have been made man-of-the-year for the Promise Keepers: "I want someone I can have control over." Have you heard that the Promise Keepers have their women spreading holy oil on the stadium seats that their menfolk will be occupying at the "Women are Our Slaves" rallies? The women are allowed to do janitorial and scud work but are bared from the actual services where male is god is the order of business. ....................... * ........................ After Time Warner was deluged with objections about the violence against women in the gangsta rappers music, it asked to review new material by Tha Dogg Pound - and all hell broke loose. Producer Jimmy Iovine of Interscope absolutely refused, claiming first amendment and artistic considerations. Lawsuits have been filed against anti-rap activist C. DeLores Tucker, head of the National Congress of Black Women, and Time Warner. One of the suits alleges a smear campaign against rap lyrics...something Catt's Claws has trouble with. How can you smear an industry that calls for the rape, torture, murder, dismemberment of women? ....................... * ........................ The new president of the University of California paid $250,000 to settle a lawsuit 14-years ago by a woman who claimed he talked her into aborting their child. "How long do you hold it against the guy?" Regent Ward Connerly commented about new U.C. prexy Richard C. Atkinson. Ask that question of the radical right U.S. Senators who blocked Dr. Henry Foster's appointment as Surgeon-General of the U.S. for performing a few legal abortions some years back ... ....................... * ........................ Previous Speakers of the House have had one U.S. Capitol police officer guarding them while in the Capitol and none accompanying them back to their home states or on tours. The Very Important Newt Gingrich has at least *ten* and is taking them with him on his 15-city-book-promotion tour. The tour is costing the taxpayers more than $100,000 to guard him and act as his important-looking entourage. Sure the Reps are concerned about saving tax dollars ... Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., in a letter to House Sergeant- at-Arms Bill Livingood, asked for details, such as costs and will probably go on the house floor to ask for reimbursement. "Taxpayers should not have to subsidize Newt Gingrich's book tour," Rep.Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., has said. Gingrich and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns HarperCollins, had met before the book's publication and discussed pending legislation ... and Gingrich's $4.5 million dollar advance, according to Gingrich's *very* belated admission. ......................... * ...................... A cry for a health warning on the packages of birth control pills has been ignored by the FDA since 1989. LONG TERM USE OF BIRTH CONTROL PILLS MAY BE A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR IN BREAST CANCER IN WOMEN YOUNGER THAN 45 YEARS OLD. ......................... * ...................... Catt's Claws would like to spread the word on the various birth control methods which are used / approved in Europe, etc. How is it that they have almost two dozen more ways than are approved in the U.S.??? We're talking birth control, not abortion ... although strange that we haven't heard anything more about the discovery that two drugs approved for some other purposes do in fact produce abortions without side effects ... and are being used with full confidence to induce abortion in ectopic pregnancies. ......................... * ...................... CONDOM ALERT - Avanti Plastic Condoms break four times more often than latex. And, of course, the "thins" for the men who claim "they can't feel anything" are VERY dangerous for women who are depending on them for pregnancy and AIDS prevention. The rate of tearing is alarming. Breakage in a two-year test showed Avanti tore at a 9.6% rate as compared to 1.6% for PROPERLY used regular latex condoms. The search for a substitute for latex condoms is because many men are refusing to wear latex because of an unfounded rumor of impotency resulting from them. (CAN YOU REALLY BELIEVE HOW AFRAID THIS YOUNGER GENERATION OF "MEN" ARE OF THEIR POTENCY?) Evidentally the basis for this false rumor is that about 5% (2.5% are men) of the population shows some allergic reaction to latex. ......................... * ...................... As predicted several months ago in Catt's Claws, Senator Bob Packwood, once considered a liberal, is lock-stepping with the Religious-Supremacist- controlled Congress and put out a bill proposal that included the Newt Gingrich nastiness towards poor women and their children and DID NOTHING TO REQUIRE MEN TO $UPPORT THEIR CHILDREN. As his reward Packwood is being protected as much as can be by the Senate Ethics Committee. ....................... * ........................ Catt's Claws doesn't understand why drugs can be approved for women without proof of results when proven drugs like RU 486 can't get approved. The FDA just approved Miacalcin, an expensive nasal spray version of the drug calcitonin, which treats osteoporosis for the many women who refuse to take estrogen because of estrogen's *proven* cancer-causing effects. (Can you just see them putting out a drug for men with the side-effect of causing prostate cancer or impotence????) Tests allegedly show bone growth in the spine but none in the hips where most fractures occur. The FDA told the manufacturer to make more tests while it is being sold to American women (at a fancy price). ....................... * ........................ Prostitute Kelly Lyn, 29, said the proposal would "be terrific. The police would be able to fill their time doing things other than chasing us." The Manitoba, Canada, Taxpayers association is proposing prostitution be legalized and the prostitutes be made to pay taxes like everyone else. ....................... * ........................ The Texas Council on Family Violence, which operates 62 battered-women's shelters and a statewide hot line, has been awarded $1 million to establish a national system hotline, Donna Shalala, secretary of health and human services, announced. Authorized by President Clinton's 1994 Crime bill, the hot line will be accessible from all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Island and should be in operation by March 1996. Funds for maintaining the operation are subject to annual Congressional appropriations. A San Francisco-based Family Violence Prevention Fund study showed that nearly one in three people knows someone who is a victim of domestic abuse. Surveys indicate 75% of the American people believe domestic violence is more serious than teenage pregnancy. Justice Department statistics show that up to 4 million women are victims of domestic violence every year and one-third of all American women who are killed die at the hands of a husband or boyfriend. ................................................. To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note No name, nothing else. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. (OK - we've missed a few. It's summer.) This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<