!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #59 ... August 25, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! I recently read Patricia Cornwell's *The Body Farm* just out in paperback. Her characterization of Dr. Kay Scarpetta keeps getting better and better. Dr. Scarpetta holds both a M.D. and a law degree, earning both on scholarships because she came from a poor family. Through exceptional ability she became the chief medical examiner for her state. In this, the fifth book in the series, the Dr. Scarpetta character has come face-to-face with a problem not too many authors have been willing to discuss on this level. On pp 198-299, her fictional character internalizes about her sexuality (I have edited slightly): "In truth, my lovers have been few, but they had all been formidable men who were not without sensitivity and a certain acceptance that I was a woman who was not a woman. I was the body and sensibilities of a woman with the power and drive of a man, and to take away from me was to take away from themselves ... (She mentions her ex-husband but concentrates her thoughts on her current lover). Our male and female pieces had interlocked in a manner unparalled and unfamiliar, for it was as if he was the other side of me. Or maybe we were the same...I had told him I had never known a man to truly enjoy a woman's body, that I did not like to be devoured or overpowered, which was why sex for me was rare. .... (Her lover had answered) "`Then we won't use "devour" and "overpower" anymore. No more words like that. We'll come up with a new language.'" -- Cornwell, Sara Paretsky, Marcia Muller, and, of course, Kinsey Milhone ... whoops ... Sue Grafton - all authors who are pushing the accepted boundaries of what a woman really is ... pushing those boundaries closer to what a woman really is. In Cornwell's case, instead of the anti-hero, she has created a successful, brilliant woman and come face-to-face with a problem many women have faced in their lives but have been reluctant to express because of society's disapproval and the inability of so many men to face equality in sexual relationships. Cornwell, in this book, also plots around what is called Munchausen's syndrome which I can't get into because it would give away the ending. It's a thriller and as usual with such things, very disturbing. I just wish she had gone into the causes of Munchausen's syndrome more rather than just the effects, although, in the end, there are no excuses. *The Body Farm* is Patricia Cornwell's fifth book and her sixth just came out in hard cover. ....................... * ........................ Navy Secretary John Dalton rejected a recommendation to honorably discharge a religious supremacist helicopter pilot for refusing to lead women into combat. Lt. Cmdr. Kenneth Carkhuff, a 13-year Navy veteran, had been recommended for discharge by two separate Navy panels for telling his commanding officer that he believes the Bible directs men to protect women from violence, and that combat is the most extreme form of violence. Testimony at his hearings indicated he REFUSED to take his detachment to sea just before the Haiti invasion because of religious beliefs. Carkhuff is now claiming he was misunderstood and that he would have taken his detachment, which includes two women helicopter pilots, to sea. CC-->> We do believe it's time to write Mr. Dalton and say that we want men in the Navy protecting all citizens, not religious fanatics who want to do things their way. <--cc ....................... * ........................ Are your newspapers carrying the filthy cartoons about Shannon Faulkner and the "feminists" who always look like female versions of Rush Limbaugh on the scale of 200+ ? Do you know of ANY feminists who are ashamed of what happened? I've heard a bit of sadness for her, but not one feminist has criticized her. The attorneys handling the case to force The Citadel to open its doors to women said two other women have stepped forward to replace Shannon Faulkner. In this week's "PrimeTime Live," Shannon says her fight was "2.5 years of hell," included physical threats....to herself and to her family. "There's a lot that I'm not telling you about. ... And I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to tell anybody but a therapist." Thank you Shannon, the brave. Few of us could have lasted as long as you did. ....................... * ........................ A flight attendant calmed terrified passengers in the nine minutes before the crash landing by giving out instructions calmly "with the efficiency of a drill sergeant," even moving passengers around so that the most physically abled were closest to the emergency doors to open them. She personally checked that each passenger was correctly situated for maximum protection. (The news services used the term "drill sergeant," so we know what sex the writers were. "We" know that she acted with the efficiency of an experienced woman.) Because of what Robin Fech, 37, did as the only flight attendant on the Southeeast Airliner crash last Monday, only five people (including the pilot) died and 24 survived. Even though she was injured after the crash, she hollered instructions that saved the lives of those who were on fire and used parts of her own clothing to wrap the wounds of the injured. "Because of her, folks inside the cabin remained calm. No one was screaming. We did not panic," said passenger Air Force Maj. Charles LeMay of Bellevue, Neb. Fech is still in the hospital with a broken arm, cuts and bruises. She refuses to talk to reporters. CC-->> One wonders how Fech's behavior compares to that of Oliver North in earning that abundance of salad on his uniform. <--cc ....................... * ........................ John Salvi III was found competent to stand trial on the murder of two women shot to death in his "alleged" shooting rampage at two suburban Boston women's health clinics December 30, 1994. All the wire services called the women's health centers "abortion clinics" in the story leads and only corrected the impression later in the stories by saying they "offered a variety of health services for women, including abortions." What the hell has happened to news reporting ... to news editing? ....................... * ........................ Oh, what money can buy. The O.J. trial and its environs with all its circus aspects (notice how defense team lead attorney Shapiro disappeared and black Johnny Cochran stepped forward as the defense team sinks lower and lower into racial issues while trying to make everyone forget the slaughtered bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and William Goldman) has taken on yet another twist. Or have we all been laced with LSD (losing sense of decency)? O.J.'s buddy A.C. Cowlings - the guy who drove the white bronco in that unbelievable flight from arrest around the L.A. freeways and never suffered any prosecution - will sign autographs in front of a white Bronco over the Labor Day weekend at the International Sportscard and Memorabilia Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center and get paid close to $10,000. Promoters say Cowlings will sign anything, except those things he considers "tasteless." (choke!) Since the chase, Cowlings has also set up a 900-phone line, accessible at $2.99 a minute, offering sound bites of his life story. One wonders ... ....................... * ........................ The average life expectancy in Russia, which has dropped in recent years to an average of 63.8 years -- 57 for men and 71 for women -- is expected to bounce back to 65.1 years. Accidents are blamed for the lower life expectancy rate for men. ....................... * ........................ HELP ! I now have access to an online service that uses PINE - a nice email system, but I can't figure out how to upload files. What I need to know (in step-by-tiny, baby steps) how I get Catt's Claws that I write in Word Perfect on my home computer to upload to Pine and thence to the listserv? Please HELP ! ....................... * ........................ Someone wrote about a "Neat bunch of women in this area who have gone around to every store, newsstand etc., grabbed *Spy* mags, and tossed them into convenient trash receptacle. So far, they have not been stopped or charged with anything as they never leave the store with mags; they go in groups and cover the grabber." CC does NOT approve. As awful, disgusting as the *Spy* cover is, CC opposes censorship in any form. Who censors the censors? I ran a bookstore at the time the famous "nudie" picture of Burt Reynolds appeared in *Cosmopolitan* magazine. Religious groups came in and trashed the mags. (They also kept hiding a religious book written in Hebrew.) They also tried to boycott my store. Again, who decides what is to be censored? Who censors the censors? ....................... * ........................ In Peterborough, Ontario, a red-faced Darren Laite, 26, was charged with lurking in the tank of a women's outhouse. Two women reported seeing a man's face peering up at them from an outdoor toilet at a recreation area July 4. Police arrested Laite, smelling of excrement, at the scene. One of the charges against him is "interfering with the lawful use and enjoyment of property." This is, indeed, a strange world we live in, Mr. Magoo. ....................... * ........................ OK Sommers, Paglia, etc., all you paid mouths of the religious right supremacist reactionaries, explain away this one: The U.S. of A. is AVERAGE. This great bastion of free enterprise is only average when it comes to women getting paid for their work. Even the women in Tanzania get a better shake than American women - and Mexican and American women are on even footing. *U.S.A. Today* in a pro-con set of editorials this week regarding the upcoming U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing had a troubling bit of statistics based on U.N. research. It seems that in 30 other nations, women earn a higher percentage of a male's wages that U.S. Women. In the U.S., women earn 75 cents to a male's $1. In Tanzania, women earn 92 cents to the male's $1, in Vietnam 91, Australia 91, Sweden 89, Kenya 85, Costa Rica 83, France 81, Poland 78, Mexico 75, U.S.A. 75, Spain 70, Canada 63, China 59, Bangladesh 42 with a world average of 74.9 cents. THE WORLD AVERAGE IS ONLY TEN CENTS UNDER THE GREAT UNITED STATES. Those paid mouths for the "women have all the rights they need" group who all seem to be wealthy or earn buckets of money from their right-wing masters need a lesson in economics. When a woman with three children and no husband (because he deserted his family) goes into a grocery store, she pays the same amount of money for a loaf of bread as a wealthy person does. And yet, she is expected to be happy to be paid 75 cents to a man's $1 for the same and/or comparable work. It's a crock, ladies and gentlemen ... the same kind of crock that the guy up in Ontario got his jollies in. (see above) ....................... * ........................ "The congressional majority seems to be determined to cut back on programs that advance our family values. "They call it change; I say it shortchanges America's families." "(It) ... is anti-family and I won't let it stand." -- President Bill Clinton regarding the deep cuts in the programs aiding poor women and children that are being proposed by the lock-step Republicans in Congress. ....................... * ........................ The URLs to the most current weeks' worth of Catt's Claws set up on the Web by Laurie D. T. Mann, the Feminist Webitor, are: http://worcester.lm.com/lmann/feminist/cattsclaws.html The FTPs for Catt's Claws are (By William Affleck-Asch) FTP://ftp.eskimo.com/feminist/ (By Dorothy Dean) FTP.execpc.com ....................... * ........................ 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 (when I get back on schedule) will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. 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.<<<<