!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #64 ... September 14, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! Ellen De G* could have written this news report. Talk about not seeing the tree in one's own eye! Just substitute American for Chinese media and you got it: "BEIJING (ITN) (AP) - Sex, religion and political protest have highlighted the U.N. women's conference in China. But they have been absent from the pages and airwaves of the Chinese media. "State-run media have touched on the goal of the conference -- equality for women -- while ignoring behind-the-scenes debates and messy demonstrations. "The arm's-length approach suits the aims of Chinese leaders, who hope a successful meeting will improve their image at home and abroad. They also fear reports on demonstrations could encourage Chinese to challenge their authority. "People's Daily, the party's premier paper, reported that conference Secretary-General Gertrude Mongella acknowledged some groups were complaining about being unable to influence the deliberations. "`Everyone is free to express their opinions, but in the end they must go through consultations to obtain unanimity,' the newspaper quoted her as saying. It did not describe the differing viewpoints. "No specific mention was made of the breakthroughs negotiators reached Sunday and Monday on some of the most contentious issues: sexual freedom, abortion, the role of religion and the rights of teen-agers. {CC--> Hey, Americans, have you heard from American media what those breakthroughs are???) "... Chinese press made references in passing to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's appearance at the conference, but did not report her stinging speech on human rights violations." CC-->> Other than the hundreds who have written me to ask for copies of Rodham Clinton's speech, how many have seen her speech well reported in the American press and on TV? A reminder, to get a copy of HRC's speeches to the U.N. Conference on Women, write irenestuber@delphi.com and ask for them.<--cc ....................... * ........................ You are not going to believe this, but the Federal Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to marketing milk produced by cows treated with BGH (bovine growth hormones) WITHOUT WARNINGS... although as every lactating woman knows, mother's milk contains everything the mother ingests. Why in the name of everything sensible don't the men of this world stop and think? With their brains, that is. At least in Vermont, the milk has to be labeled, but (is this one of Rod Serling's scripts?) the label has to state that there is no difference between the treated and untreated milk. (HUH?) How much testing has been done to find out if there were any harmful side-effects to BGH on humans? As much as on the RU486 abortion pill? Are you joking? Hell, probably not even as much testing as was done on the passive, plastic women's condoms. (We think that was several years for something that just doesn't do anything except give some control of pregnancy and disease control to the woman.) ....................... * ........................ When Elizabeth Dole was made president of the American Red Cross several years ago, Catt's Claws' author shuddered. It was such a blatantly political move, with Elizabeth being the rich wife of U.S. Senator Bob Dole and with much of the appointment hinging on the approval of the Republican President of the United States. (She served in their cabinets, also a bit of, ah, ah - payoff to a powerful senator?) Well, she is a very capable person, a good executive so things weren't all that bad and THEN ! Recently, after almost a decade of attending a regular church, the Doles switched to a Christian Coalition type fundy church - just as Sen. Dole was beginning to learn to bark like a trained seal for Robertson-Reed and company in his bid for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Well, ok, religion is their business, but now Mrs. Dole is trying to tone down the content of the Red Cross AIDS-prevention program. Now it becomes ALL of our business since the Red Cross is also in charge of most of the nation's blood supply. The Red Cross board and Bob Dole's campaign strategists are trying to say there's no political motivation, but even the New York _Times_ pointed out the coincidence of Bob's growing adherence to the religious right as he seeks the Republican Presidential nomination. Red Cross chairman, Norman Augustine said the board intervened at Mrs. Dole's request because she has "some strongly held personal views." "It is unconscionable," said Shana Ross, the HIV-AIDS commissioner for the Red Cross' Houston chapter who was quoted in the _Times._ "I have to take into account that this is because of who our president is, who her husband is, and the fact that he's involved in a campaign now for the Presidency - and he is seemingly losing ground to opponents who are more conservative than he is." According to various news sources, Red Cross officials approved an expanded AIDS prevention program, but at the behest of Mrs. Dole, the board stopped the program and is now insisting on its being rewritten so that the material reflects what is essentially the Christian Coalition view of AIDS. Seems like they don't like the drawing of a penis, condoms, and specific language that is used in pamphlets and in videos. Well, Catt's Claws doesn't like the idea of hiding from reality and strongly urges everyone to STOP SENDING THE RED CROSS ANY MONEY UNTIL THEY START BEING AMERICANS AGAIN, THAT IS, being socially responsible. By the by, Shepherd Smith, president of the ultra-right wing advocacy group Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy, has been reviewing the Red Cross programs for years and said his group "found the material to be extremely deficient" in the past and approves of the new direction. The Smith group is one of many religious supremacist groups with high sounding names that still claims HIV is a gay disease and denounces the CDC view of HIV as an infectious disease, claiming that AIDS is caused by ATZ. (Yeah, you read right.) CC rests its case. PS - AIDS is now the leading killer of heterosexual young women in the U.S. of A. ....................... * ........................ "We are obviously very pleased that the Court of Appeals agrees with our position that the Clark children's rights to privacy trump their father's right of publicity," said Judith R. Forman, Marsha Clark's lawyer in the bitter custody battle that Clark's ex husband started and has been waging all through the OJ trial. The court had sealed the testimony in the case and now that the OJ trial is almost over, the ex-hubby has decided he doesn't want sole custody; joint will do. ....................... * ........................ "I think the outcome of the U.N. conference will be sweet nothing," said Dr. Hema Goonatilake, a Sri Lankan gender studies expert. "The real action is sharing and learning, forming networks." ....................... * ........................ Police say Laura Whitson's estranged husband David Whitson tracked her down when she fled to Scotts Mills, Oregon, and then shot and killed her and their children at the home of Laura's mother. He was angry over a restraining order against him and a pending divorce. Whitson, 35, of Seattle was charged with four counts of murder. The town is collecting money for the burial of the four women, Laura, and her three daughters 6 months, 3, and 6. The baby was shot while in the arms of her grandmother who was wounded in the arm when she tried to protect her granddaughter. This is another case where a man had threatened his wife and children and was allowed to walk free to actually commit the murders. If a man threatens to kill the President of the United States, a U.S. Senator, a mayor, or the bartender on the corner, he is arrested. If a man threatens to kill his wife (or woman friend), nothing seems to happens unless he actually kills her and then everyone in officialdom wrings their hands. What the holy hell is the matter with our legal system? By the way, a note to the Postmaster at Scotts Mills, Oregon, containing a dollar or more will help pay for the burial of the murdered woman and her three daughters. ....................... * ........................ Talking about our "legal" system, the attempted picketing of Clarence Thomas' suburban Washington, D.C., neighborhood, a private enclave of 25 houses sitting on lots of several acres each was slightly defused. The 600 or so protesters brought in by the Rev. Al Sharpton could not get within sight of Thomas' home because police blocked the road. And yet, there are court rulings that say the police cannot stop the picketing of the home of doctors and workers at abortion clinics or abortion clinics themselves ... (Please, Statue of Ms. Justice, hang tough in your granite pose; please don't barf all over the pigeons.) But what did come out in the news coverage is that Thomas SELDOM goes to the court but works out of his home using faxes, computers, and the telephone. It has been reported he has only asked questions in ONE case since being seated on the high court.. "We are his people and we have the right to come see what we have done for him, even if we wants to act like he has forgotten," Sharpton, a Harlem, New York, activist, said. ....................... * ........................ A number of city councils in Canada have banned the newest rage of the male sicko mind: lap dancing. Exotic dancers are complaining that they must now either prostitute themselves or lose their jobs as they are being pressured to do the "dance" - which often includes masturbation and oral sex - after a judge ruled that it did not break any criminal codes. Ontario will introduce province legislation banning the "dance" if appeals to the judge's order fail. Does anyone know of the dance being performed in the U.S. of A.? ....................... * ........................ They never sleep, nor do they rest; those who know better than we do, those who are convinced they have a higher calling than we do to judge right from wrong: ITN listed some of the books that the "gods among us who know how to live our lives better than we do" tried to ban from school and public libraries in 1995. _A Thousand Acres_ by Jane Smiley. Reason: The Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel was said to have _no literary value._ _The Little Mermaid_ by Hans Christian Andersen. Reason cited: An illustrated edition depicting bare-breasted mermaids was _pornographic_ and had _satanic pictures._ (Wonder how their little boys got fed as infants?) _Little House on the Prairie_ by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Reason cited: Some statements were considered derogatory to Native Americans. _I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings_ by Maya Angelou. Reason cited: Viewed as pornographic, it contains profanity and was said to encourage premarital sex and homosexuality. Katherine Paterson's _Bridge to Terabithia._ Reason cited: Offensive language. _The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman_ by Ernest Gaines. Reason cited: Complaints about racial slurs. _Private Parts_ by Howard Stern. Reason cited: Obscene. _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ by Mark Twain: Reason cited: racial slurs and bad grammar. _To Kill a Mockingbird,_ by Harper Lee, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Reason cited: Described as a _filthy, trashy novel_ that used the words "damn" and "whore lady." CC-->> We happen to think _Private Parts_ is probably a really obscene book, but our idea of censorship is to not read it.<--cc. ....................... * ........................ Bills introduced in the House by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and in the Senate by Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., would allow legal women and children immigrants to be deported if they sought help from abusive spouses or relatives in publicly funded battered women protection shelters. Just another example of the Republican think tank's classic blundering as they think simple solutions to complex problems. Smith, Simpson, and the ultra- right conservatives want to make any immigrants deportable who use one year's worth of government aid in his/her first 5 years (7 in the House version) in the U.S. These simplistic-minded men are so away from reality that they do not realize there are such extenuating circumstances as battered women or abused children. The proposals are part of immigration reforms already approved by House and Senate subcommittees and planned for full committee action this month or next. Leslye Orloff, an attorney with Ayda, a legal clinic in Washington, D.C. is quoted by the news media as saying, "What (Congress) is doing is locking battered immigrant women -- legal immigrants -- back into relationships with their abusers, with no way out." Oh, well, no rest for the socially responsible: time again to write your Congressional Delegation and say, "No way, Josephine." ....................... * ....................... 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 being archived by William Affleck-Asch, are: ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/f/feminist/ (or NCFTP open ftp.eskimo.com cd /u/f/feminist/) The FTPs for Catt's Claws being archived by Dorothy Dean are: 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 will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. 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