| 09-28 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Some 1970s Milestones
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
Helen of Troy
Chimp Females in Charge
Woman - Which Includes Man, Of
Course, by Theodora Wells
Arizona Model Rape Laws
QUOTES by
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Like today, the 1970s were a mixture of moving ahead and falling
back:
In its 1971 conference, the six-year-old National
Organization for Women voted: "A woman's right
to her own person includes the right to define and express her own sexuality
and to choose her own lifestyle."
Two years later the word "lesbian"
was added.
Pope Paul formed a commission on women in 1973 and
the only American woman appointed was a 21-year-old art student Debbie
Schellman from Atlanta, Georgia. Less than 10% of the commission on women
were women.
It's hard to believe but in 1975 Lt. Col. Grace King
was actually dismissed as WAC Commander in Virginia for feminist activities.
She was reinstated.
Lorraine Potter of the American Baptist Church became
the first women chaplain with the U.S. Air Force in 1973.
That same year, the Southern Baptist Church adopted
the following resolution at its convention in Portland, Oregon: "Man
was not made for woman, but the woman for the man. Woman is the glory of
man. Woman would not have existed without man." (The conference
did not examine the conundrum of how men could be born without a woman.)
The Southern Baptists would continue to increase the control men were to
have over women through the years and even in the late 1990s, declared
that women were to be obedient to men, a view that several ultra-conservative
religious organizations concurred with. Several of Southern Baptist churches,
however, left the conference in protest.
At the same time, the mainstream Protestant churches
were broadening women's rights and were increasing the ordination of women
as clergy.
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09-28 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS
B. 09-28(?)-1778, Suzanne Theodore Vaillande
Douvillier, French dancer and pantominist. During a tour of the U.S.
she probably presented the first ballet in the country.
B. 09-28-1839, Frances Willard - U.S. educator,
reformer, pioneer suffragist and pacifist. FW was the heart and soul
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union which she served as president
1839 to 1898. She was founder of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance
Union (1883). Although there were some objections, she broadened the WCTU's
interest to not only working against the dangers of liquor addiction, but
added departments that studied drugs, social health, hygiene, prison reform,
international peace, and women's suffrage.
FW helped form the National
Council of Women and organized the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
She was one of five women elected as the first women delegates to a Methodist
General Conference and who were denied seating because of their sex. FW
was the first Dean of Women at Northwestern University but forced to resign
over differences with the president to whom she had been engaged.
She was elected to the
Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1910. Her longtime secretary and companion
was Anna A. Gordon.
At one time the WCTU
had 39 departments examining all facets of women's lives. Willard was adamant
in her belief in women's rights and constantly reminded women that they
had to make efforts themselves to improve their lot. One famous photograph
shows FW learning how to ride a bicycle, a mode of transportation that
she felt would give women more freedom and confidence.
B. 09-28-1856, Kate Douglas Wiggins - U.S.
educator and novelist. KDW organized the first free kindergarten in
the American West, but she is best known as the author of Rebecca of
Sunnybrook Farm (1903). Her autobiography is My Garden of Memory
(1923).
B. 09-28-1872, Lena Ashwell - British actor
and theatrical manager. LA was well known for her work in organizing
entertainment for the troops at the front during World War I. In 1917 she
was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
B. 09-28-1881, Eleanora Randolph Sears - wealthy
U.S. sportswoman and eccentric. ERS was a champion squash player and
was accomplished in numerous other sports including polo. ERS refused to
conform to the requirement that women to wear corsets which restricted
breathing under even normal conditions and especially when they engaged
in sports activities. She rode horses astride, wore riding pants, and in
general did what she wanted. A devoted horsewoman she persuaded the City
of Boston to retain its mounted horse contingent.
ERS was the four-times
National Women's Double tennis champion in the 1911-17 period, but her
tennis playing ability paled in comparison to the publicity she got when
she decided to roll up her sleeves during a hectic match.
She dared wear jodpurs
onto a men's polo field to ask that she be allowed to play with the men.
The shocked judges refused and a mother's club passed a resolution requesting
ERS wear proper women's attire. She then took to wearing trousers almost
exclusively.
She was also a noted
walker, often walking huge distances. She walked the 47 miles between Boston
and Providence, RI in under ten hours.
Her wealth allowed her
to be eccentric and pursue her own ways. She also contributed huge amounts
of money support various sports endeavors.
B. 09-28-1883, Sister Mary Joseph - U.S. nun.
MJ was the founder (1932) and director of the Living Catholic Authors walk
at Webster Groves, Missouri.
B. 09-28-1893, Hilda Geiringer - German-American
scholar of applied mathematicics and a statistician. HG was
about to receive the singular honor of being appointed a professor at the
University of Berlin in spite of her sex when Adolph Hitler came to power.
HG a Jew and a single mother fled to become professor of mathematics at
the Istanbul University in Turkey. At the start of World War II HG moved
to the U.S. where she lectured at Bryn Mawr, and became professor and chair
of the mathematics department at Wheaton College.
B. 09-28-1894, Gladys Hill - UK physician and
gynaecologist. GH who studied under Marie Curie to study the effects
of radiation on patients headed the obstetrics department at one of London's
largest hospitals for almost 30 years. Gaining a medical degree was difficult
because only three schools would accept women in 1925 and she was very
short on money, in fact, she forced herself to eat a cheap food that gave
her indigestion to quiet her hunger pangs. She lived to 103 and was fully
active until her death.
GH was a contemporary
at Somerville with Vera Brittain and Dorothy Sayers. She was a fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons (1936) and of the Royal College of Obstetricians
and Gynaecologists (1943). GH was a terror as an examiner and as a teacher
demanded perfection, especially from women students whom she held to a
higher standard.
Event 09-28-1904: New York City police arrest
a woman for smoking a cigarette in public.
B. 09-28-1913, Alice Marble
- U.S. tennis great and spy for the U.S. government during World War II.
AM won the U.S. tennis singles championship four times, the Wimbledon once
and while at her peak had her career cut short by World War II.
Contemporary (male) sports
writers described her style of play as "masculine" because she
played aggressively with the aim to win instead of engaging in the polite
volleying that they approved of for women. She also dared wear shorts instead
of long dresses. She was named Athlete of the year by AP in 1939 and 1940
and the ranking woman tennis player from 1936 to 1940.
Her style of rushing
the net, aggressively chasing the ball changed tennis forever. She was
turned to tennis by her family who disapproved of her fondness for playing
baseball with boys. It was at the Golden Gate courts that she was raped
by a strange man, an event that she said contributed to her toughness although
it long prevented her from intimacy and left emotional scars.
Former tennis great Eleanor
"Teach" Tennant became her coach and friend and within two years
of Tennant's coaching AM was nationally ranked. AM developed tuberculosis
and fought her way to health with the help of Tennant and movie star Carole
Lombard, one of the many movie stars who were AM's friends through the
years. AM won the U.S. singles titles five times, In England she won the
Wimbledon in 1939. Both in the U.S. and England she won the doubles titles
numerous times with Sarah Fabyan and the mixed doubles a half dozen times
with different partners from 1934 to 1940. She was ranked number one in
the world 1936-1940. Her best years were truncated by World War II.
She championed the membership
of Althea Gibson in the all-white lawn tennis association.
But her most facinating
exploits were off the tennis court. During WWII she was sent to Switzerland
on a spy mission for the U.S government to investigate some financial matters.
She was almost killed and had to reconstruct the evidence from memory.
AM was bisexual with
well known affairs with both men and women. She married once. Her husband
was killed during the war. Pregnant, AM lost a fetus in a automobile accident.
AM was an amazing woman
who had to overcome so many problems: rape, tuberculosis, widowhood, loss
of a baby, etc. She had a fine singing voice and devoted many of her later
years to helping young people.
[SPECIAL
FEATURE on the new laws and penalties on rape in honor of Alice Marble,
the great tennis player who was raped at 15 by a strange man who was never
identified is at the end of the anniversaries list.]
B. 09-28-1913, Ellis Peters - aka Edith Mary
Pargeter, British author of dozens of historical novels and detective
stories. EMP wrote 20 novels that featured the adventures of her most famous
character Brother Cadfael who lived in the 12th century's British Isles.
B. 09-28-1915, Ethel Rosenberg - the only woman
ever executed for espionage in the history of the U.S. The trial and
execution is still a cause célèbre since a number of her
alleged fellow conspirators got short jail terms (except her husband who
was also executed).
Both Rosenbergs maintained
their innocence to the end. The seven other men involved in the case were
sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison, including the men who confessed
to stealing the U.S. secrets.
Her husband Jules, a
member of the Communist party, was an engineer employed by the U.S. Army
signal Corps during WWII. He and his wife, Ethel, were accused of furnishing
vital information about the atomic bomb to Soviet agents in 1944 and 1945.
The major witnesses against
them was Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, an employee at the Los Alamos
atomic bomb project. Greenglass testified that he fed top-secret data about
nuclear weapons to the Rosenbergs and for his statements he was sentenced
to only 15 years in prison. The Rosenbergs were convicted under the Espionage
Age of 1917, and when they were sentenced to death, it sparked worldwide
protests.
Despite the many and
varied pleas that their lives be spared, primarily because of the questionable
evidence supplied by Greenglass (who saved his own life by naming the Rosenbergs),
President Eisenhower refused to commute the sentence and Ethel and Jules
were executed 06-19-1953.
B. 09-28 1920, Bridget Biddy Martin Grundy
- UK Air Commodore. BG was the first woman to reach Air Rank with the
Women's Royal Air Force apart from the director.
Her service as a pioneer
in the WAAF ranged from examining drains to a commanding officer. Her postings
ranged from air bases in Ireland to intelligence. One of the great pioneers.
B. 09-28-1932, Madeleine M. Kunin - governor
of Vermont.
B. 09-28-1934, Brigitte Bardot, French motion-picture
actor. BB became an international sex symbol in the 1950s and 60s.
She appealed to men with her pubescent-like immature pouty sex image. She
became an active wildlife conservationist.
Event 09-28-1939: America's most noted woman
pilot Jacqueline Cochran wrote Eleanor Roosevelt to suggest women pilots
could release American men pilots for combat duty in the war that was certainly
coming. It would take until July 2, 1941 for a meeting to be scheduled
between JC and ER. ER then asked President Franklin Roosevelt to join the
discussion. The president agreed to Cochran's plan but politics would hold
up implementation of the WASP program for another year.
B. 09-28-1973, Gwyneth Paltrow, U.S. actress.
GP won the 1999 Academy Award best actress award for her work in Shakespeare
in Love.
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Helen of Troy
"Helen of Troy, in Greek legends, the most
beautiful woman of her time. She was the daughter of King idareus, and
had suitors from all parts of Greece. By advice of Ulysses, the choice
was left to Helen and she opted Menelaus. Three years after this marriage,
she fell in ove by Paris, the son of Priam, and fled with him Troy. The
Grecian princes, in accordance with an oath that they had taken when suitors
together at the court took up arms to restore to Menelaus his (wife) and
the Trojan war was the consequence (about 1100 B.C.)
"Paris was killed during the siege, and Helen
returned and received her husband's forgiveness. After the death of Menelaus.
she was driven into exile, and retired to Rhodes, where the queen of that
island, whose husband had been killed in the Trojan war, caused her to
be seized while bathing, tied to a tree, and strangled.
"The Spartans honored her as a goddess, and built
a temple to her at Therapne, which is said to have had the power of conferring
beauty upon all women who entered it.
"The abduction of Helen of Troy, and the war
that followed, are the subjects of Homer's Iliad, perhaps the greatest
epic poem in literature."
-- Joseph
Adelman, Famous Women, an Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the
Ages with Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. New York, The Pictorial
Review, 1924.
[WOA Note: More men and women
know of mythical Helen and her face that launched a thousand ships than
know of Mary Robinson, who is in the top echelon of the United Nations
- one of the most powerful women in this world today.
That is the power that
the myths written by male historians/writers/creators of fiction whose
prejudices and dreams in the less "enlightened past" still rule
every woman's life today. BTW, a goodly percentage of people still believe
men have one less rib because of the Biblical mistranslations regarding
the creation of Eve.]
Helen, according to the legends,
was sired by Zeus who took the form of a drake (male swan). The tales vary
slightly mother but they agree that Helen was the product of the rape of
either Leda or Nemesis. According to most tellings, Helen betrayed her
husband Paris (who was a womanizer, etc.) to his brother Menelaus who she
then married and they lived happily ever after in Sparta. Most, however,
ignore that she had been married to Menelaus before Paris and had even
had a daughter with him. Helen's perfidy was because Aphrodite cast a spell
on Helen that forced her to fall in love with Paris via the golden apple.
Another version says
that after the fall of Troy she was hanged by a queen widowed in the Trojan
war and yet another says that the real Helen was left in Egypt and a false
Helen sent to Troy.
Helen was regarded as
a goddess and had a festival in Laconia and a temple at Rhodes where she
became Dendritis, the tree goddess.
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Female Chimps More Liberated Than Once Thought
A scientific study of female chimps published in 1997 showed
that they are not pawns of the males.
In fact, they have a great deal of control over their
lives and their importance in the group depends on their female friends
and relatives, not any male sex partners.
In a 1997 report in the presigious journal Science
cowritten by Jane Goodall who used her 37 years of observations of
chimpanzees in Tanzania.
Co-author Jennifer Williams from the University of
Minnesota said, "[The study] actually gives
you a picture of females who have a lot more control over their own lives."
The reason the correct conclusions were slow in being
recognized was that female dominance is much more subtle.
"[Male chimps] use displays
which are these big shows of how amazing and wonderful they are; they rattle
trees and drag boulders down, things like that... every day, many times
a day," Williams said. "Females
might [only] show [signs of dominance] a couple of times a year."
Thus the societal hierachy of male chimps was easy
to spot. It took close, unprejudiced observations to see that females with
high rank "managed to dominate the choice patches
of food and managed to have more progeny in quicker succession than less
dominant females. Their young also survived at a higher rate and their
daughters matured faster," according to the scientists.
Williams said chimp behavior is similar to human behavior,
pointing out that adolescent boys are often openly obnoxious and will fight
with other boys, adolescent girls will use different methods to establish
status, such as shunning.
Researchers are still not sure why certain females
acquire dominance. [Based on a REUTER news dispatch 08-07-97.]
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Woman - Which Includes Man, Of Course
by Theodora Wells
The following selection is an "experience
in awareness." Read and feel it slowly and deeply.
There is much concern today about the future of man,
which means, of course, both men and women-generic man. For a woman to
take exception to this use of the term "man" is often seen as
defensive hair-splitting by an "emotional female."
The following experience is an invitation to awareness
in which you are asked to feel into, and stay with, your feelings through
each step, letting them absorb you. If you start intellectualizing, try
to turn it down and let your feelings again surface to your awareness.
Consider reversing the
generic term Man. Think of the future of Woman which, of course, includes
both women and men. Feel into that, sense its meaning to you - as a woman
- as a man.
Think of it always being
that way, every day of your life. Feel the ever presence of woman and feel
the nonpresence of man. Absorb what it tells you about the importance and
value of being woman - of being man.
Recall that everything
you have ever read all your life uses only female pronouns - she, her -
meaning both girls and boys, both women and men. Recall that most of the
voices on radio and most of the faces on TV are women's - when important
events are covered - on commercials - and on the late talk shows. Recall
that you have no male senator representing you in Washington.
Feel into the fact that
women are the leaders, the power-centers, the prime-movers. Man, whose
natural role is husband and father, fulfills himself through nurturing
children and making the home a refuge for woman. This is only natural to
balance the biological role of woman who devotes her entire body to the
race during pregnancy.
Then feel further into
the obvious biological explanation for woman as the ideal - her genital
construction. By design, female genitals are compact and internal, protected
from outside attack to assure the perpetuation of the race. His vulnerability
clearly requires sheltering.
Thus, by nature, males
are more passive than females, and have a desire in sexual relations to
be symbolically engulfed by the protective body of the woman. Males psychologically
yearn for this protection, fully realizing their masculinity at this time
- feeling exposed and vulnerable at other times. The male is not fully
adult until he has overcome his infantile tendency to penis orgasm and
has achieved the mature surrender of the testicle orgasm. He then feels
himself a "whole man" when engulfed by the woman. If the male
denies these feeling, he is unconsciously rejecting his masculinity.
Therapy is thus indicated
to help him adjust to his own nature. Of course, therapy is administered
by a woman, who has the education and wisdom to facilitate openness leading
to the male's growth and self-actualzation.
To help him feel into
his defensive emotionality, he is invited to get in touch with the "child"
in him. He remembers his sister's jeering at his primitive genitals that
"flop around foolishly." She can run, climb and ride horseback
unencumbered. Obviously, since she is free to move, she is encouraged to
develop her body and mind in preparation for her active responsibilities
of adult womanhood. The male vulnerability needs female protection so he
is taught the less active, caring virtues of homemaking. Because of his
clitoris-envy, he learns to strap up his genitals, and learns to feel ashamed
and unclean because of his nocturnal emissions. Instead, he is encouraged
to keep his body lean and dream of getting married, waiting for the time
of his fulfillment - when "his woman" gives him a girl-child
to carry on the family name. He knows that if it is a boy-child he has
failed somehow - but they can try again.
In getting to your feelings
on being a woman - on being a man - stay with the sensing you are now experiencing.
As the words begin to surface, say what you feel from inside you.
-- Theodora Wells took an
MBA at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles and at the
University of Southern California. President of Wells Associates, a management
consulting firm. She is coauthor of Breakthrough: Women into Management
(1972) and Keeping Your Cool Under Fire: Communicating Non-Defensively
(1980)
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Special Feature: Arizona Model Rape Laws
In honor of Alice Marble, the great
tennis player who was raped at 15 by a strange man who was never identified.
In 1978, the criminal code of Arizona was revised and became a model
for the nation. The word "rape" is no longer found in the code;
it was replaced by "sexual assault."
First, the definitions: 1)
"Oral sexual contact" means oral contact with the penis, vulva
or anus.
2) "Sexual contact" means any direct or
indirect fondling or manipulating of any part of the genitals, anus or
female breast.
3) "Sexual intercourse" means penetration
into the penis, vulva or anus by any part of the body or by any object
of manual masturbatory contact with the penis or vulva.
4) "Without consent" includes any of the
following:
a. The victim is coerced by the
immediate use or threatened use of force against a person or property.
b. The victim is incapable of
consent by reason of mental disorder, drugs, alcohol, sleep or any other
similar impairment of cognition and such condition is known or should have
reasonably been known to the defendant.
c. The victim is intentionally
deceived as to the nature of the act.
d. The victim is intentionally
deceived to erroneously believe that the person is the victim's spouse.
And here is the exact sexual assault statute:
13-1406 Sexual assault
A. A person commits sexual assault
by intentionally or knowingly engaging in sexual intercourse or oral sexual
contact with any personal without consent of such person.
B. Sexual assault is a class
2 felony, and the person convicted is not eligible for suspension or commutation
of sentence, probation, pardon, parole, work furlough or release from confinement
on any other basis except as specifically authorized by [...other state
statute codes...] until the sentence imposed by the court has been served.
If the victim is under fifteen years of age, sexual assault is punishable
pursuant to [...code again - stiffer penalty] ...weapon was used in the
sexual assault or if physical injury resulted... punishment is life in
prison with no chance of any kind of release until at least 25 years has
been served.)
This section of the AZ criminal code also refers
to spousal sexual assault which is a class 2 felony.
As you can see, AZ's sexual assault law is
gender neutral. It also includes oral sexual contact and in the definition
of "sexual intercourse," includes penetration by instrument.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
CLINTON, HILLARY:
"If women don't thrive,
the world won't thrive...We must do more to ensure equal rights for women,
along with equal pay and equal access to health care, education, and political
power... Women must be a part of the process within the UNited Nations
as we search for answers, and women must continue to demand that their
rights and opportunities be respected in nations around the world."
"As long as discrimination
and inequities remain so commonplace around the world -- as long as girls
and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not
schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes - the potential
of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be
realized."
--
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 09-05-95 at the U.N. Conference on Women, Beijing,
China. The full text of her speech can be found in the WiiN
library.
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