| 10-06 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Woman - Target of the Religious Right...
-- some Homegrown Rhetoric
-- and more, from the Largest Protestant Denomination
-- and more, from Poland
Danu / Anu / Dana
Draga Dejanovi
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTES by Blanche
Weisen Cook, Lisa Leslie, and John Stuart Mill.
Woman - Target of the Religious Right...
In 1983 Shirley Rogers Radl
wrote the well-researched From The Invisible Woman, Target of the Religious
New Right in which she sounded a warning.
The warning needs repeating in light of the increased
attempts against women's equality in the U.S. Congress, on the world stage,
and in the increased actions of the far right elements within the U.S.
Radl wrote, "Among
the first of Adolph Hitler's acts when he came into power in Germany were
the banning of abortion and the shutting down of birth-control clinics.
And, as is true of the New Right, he advocated - successfully - outlawing
homosexuality, quelling the rising women's liberation movement in that
country, and establishing the patriarchal family as 'the basic unit...
"In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote some other words
that are part of the New Right rhetoric: "
'Her world is her husband, her family, her
children, and home. We do not find it right when a women presses into the
world of men. Rather we find it natural when these two worlds remain separate...
Woman and man represent two different types of being. Reason is dominant
in man.' "
Shirley Rogers Radl continues,
"Of the time just prior to Hitler's takeover
in Germany, Richard Evans, author of The Feminist Movement in Germany -
1894-1933, wrote that there existed a view among conservatives in that
nation that: " 'The
women's movement was... destroying the family... by encouraging married
women to take jobs, by supporting unmarried mothers, and by urging women
in general to be more independent. It was endangering Germany's military
potential by discouraging marriage (encouraging family planning and thus
lowering the birthrate). It was outraging nature by campaigning for the
systematic equalization of the sexes and by inciting women to do things
they were unsuited for. It was international in spirit and unpatriotic.'
"Joseph
Paul Goebbels (Hitler's SS head) could have written the religious right's
script: "
'When we eliminate women from public life, it is not because we want to
dispense with them, but because we want to give them back their essential
honor... The outstanding and highest calling of women is always that of
wife and mother.'
"Whether
by design or accident, the 'Nazi Connection' is very clear cut...
"No one is suggesting that the New Right is part
of some covert Nazi conspiracy, but the similarities of the dogmas, strategies,
and tactics are stunning..."
-- From The Invisible Woman, Target of the Religious New Right by
Shirley Rogers Radl. New York: Dell Publishing, 1983.
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-- Some Homegrown Rhetoric to Keep Women in Their Place
"The
feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about socialist,
anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands,
kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become
lesbians."
-- Pat Robertson addressing the cheering 1992 Republican National Convention.
And if that wasn't enough, Pat Buchanan came along
on August 17 and received more cheers:
"There
is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It
is a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be
as was the Cold War itself...abortion on demand, homosexual rights, discrimination
against religious schools, women in combat...it's not the kind of change
we can abide in a nation that we still call God's Country."
...two from Texas - not reelected
"If (rape) is inevitable, just relax and enjoy it."
-- Clayton Williams, Texas gubernatorial
candidate who lost to Ann Richards.
"Do
you know why God created women? Because sheep can't type."
-- Kenneth Armbrister, Texas state senator.
...and from Hollywood
"My
notion of a wife at forty is that a man should be able to change her like
a bank note, for two twenties."
-- Warren Beatty said this in 1986 and in 1999 indicated he would seek
political office - as a liberal!
...from Virginia
"I
don't have a cook except for the one I married thirty years ago."
-- Jerry Falwell, religious right televangelist.
...from the heart of the U.S. Far Right
"Feminism
was established to allow unattractive women access to mainstream society."
-- Rush Limbaugh, ultra right extremist, TV and radio comic.
"They
are trying to prove their manhood."
-- Ross Perot commenting about
women reporters who asked hard questions during his presidential campaign.
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...from the largest Protestant denomination
The 1998 Southern Baptist
conference adopted the following Statement on Family Life:
"The husband and wife are of equal worth before God. Both bear God's
image but each in differing ways. The marriage relationship models the
way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ
loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to
protect and to lead his family. A wife is to submit graciously to the servant
leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship
of Christ. She, being 'in the image of God' as is her husband and thus
equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and
to serve as his 'helper' in managing their household and nurturing the
next generation."
At the same conference
the SB asked Congress support the banning of gays in federal jobs. The
convention also voted to call for an end to training women in the military
for combat and to ask its 15.9 million members to seek a halt to public
financing of PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. Delegates claimed
the two groups sponsor anti-Christian programming and works of art.
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...from Poland's "democratic" reformer
"Women
are to have fun with. In politics I prefer not to see a woman. Instead
of getting all worked up, they should stay are they are - like flowers."
-- Lech Walesa as anti-Communist, pro-religion president of Poland who
was hailed by the news media for his "democratic" policies. He
abolished abortion and birth control, reduced child care facilities, and
overall his policies increased women's unemployment with the general lowering
of their salaries.
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Danu / Anu / Dana
The earth-mother god, the
principle female god of Ireland, the Celts, and much of eastern Europe.
She is, of course, the god of fertility and wisdom. Like Europa, the original
Greek god, Danu is believed to have given birth to the gods, impregnated
by the north wind.
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Draga Dejanovi
Draga Dejanovi (1843-1870)
- Serbian poet and feminist - Although she lived only 27 years, DD was
the leader of the Serbian feminist movement, a poet, and actor. One of
her most noted articles "Are Women Capable
of Being Equal with Men?" was written
the year of her death and inspired great support for feminism. She was
active in the United Serbian Youth Movement. Most of her poems were patriotic
in tone.
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10-06 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS
DIED 10-06-0404, Eudoxia who had great influence
over her husband Emperor Arcadius, the Eastern Roman emperor. She also
served as her husband's regent for a number of years which means she was
absolute ruler of the country at that time.
Eudoxia and was given the title "Augusta"
on 01-09-400 which made her virtually the co-ruler.
She was the mother of emperor Theodosius II (reigned
408-450) and daughter Pulcheria who acted as regent for Theodosius II for
several years. She died as a result of pregnancy.
B. 10-06-1800, Sara Pugh - U.S. teacher, abolitionist,
and woman suffragist. Her house was where the 1838 Anti-Slavery Convention
of American Women was held after a mob of irate men burned down the convention
hall where it originally scheduled. The arson was committed by men protesting
women taking part in political matters, not against abolition. At the time
women were not allowed to speak in public and of course, could not vote.
SP was a close friend of Lucretia Mott, and financially
enabled LM to attend the fateful London Anti-slavery convention where Mott
met Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
With women barred from participating in the abolitionist
meeting in London, Mott and Stanton discussed their common interests will
passing the time sitting on the porch of the boarding house where they
were both staying. Both were irate at being excluded from the meetings
- and one thing led to another.
Eight years later, two women who would never have
met or talked in the normal course of events, organized the first Women's
Rights Convention in 1848.
B. 10-06-1820, Jenny Lind - Swedish-born operatic
and oratorio soprano known as the Swedish nightingale. Her vocal control
and agility were astounding which coupled with a naturalness made her the
toast of Europe and the U.S.
She retired from the opera stage because of sincerely
felt religious views. Following her marriage, she settled in London where
she did some oratorio singing. Sweden recently honored its most brilliant
vocalist with her likeness on a Swedish currency.
JL's vocal range was B below middle C to high G.
B. 10-06-1865, Emily Palmer Cape - first woman
student at what would became Columbia University. EPC was the chief
collaborator, along with her intimate friend Lester Ward, in the writing
and publishing of Glimpses of the Cosmos (12 vol., 1913).
B. 10-06-1887, Maria Jeritza - Czech dramatic
soprano. Vivacious, she sang with a flair that made her a natural for
Hollywood films. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera Company 1921-32.
In particular, she excited audiences with her flair in the lighter, more
bohemian operas.
B. 10-06-1889, Maria Dabrowska - Polish author.
Her most noted work was Noce i Dnie, (in four volumes 1932-34) (Eng.
trans. Nights and Days) that examined the conditions of Polish peasants
and calls for land reform. Her last novel Przygody Czlowieka Myslacego
translated as Adventures of a Thinking Man examined Polish life
under Hitler's conquering army. She also wrote short stories, critical
studies, histories, and plays. Her best known work in the U.S. was the
short story "A Village Wedding" that has been much anthologized.
B. 10-06-1895, Caroline Gordon - U.S. author.
CG's novels were primarily about Southern American subjects. Her most noted
work was The Strange Children.
B. 10-06-1897, Dr. Florence Seibert - U.S.
chemist. Dr. Seibert developed the process that removed bacteria from
water in a single distillation - a process vital for safe injections and
other medical uses.
Until her process, water wasn't always safe for injection
even after three distillations. She also perfected the first reliable test
for TB that was adopted as the standard in the U.S. in 1941 and worldwide
in 1952. She was tiny, weighing less than 100 pounds and was partially
disabled from a childhood bout with infantile paralysis.
B. 10-06-1902, Elizabeth Janet Gray - U.S.
writer, winner of the 1943 Newberry Medal.
B. 10-06-1905, Helen Newington Wills (Moody)
- U.S. tennis champion, one of the greatest of all times. She graduated
from the University of California with a degree in Fine Arts Phi Beta Kappa
(1928) as the reigning American woman tennis player.
With her tremendous ground stroke teamed with amazing
control and steely concentration, from 1923 to 1938 she won Wimbledon eight
times - a record broken 50 years later by Martina Navratilova with nine
wins. Moody won the U.S. Championship seven times and the French Open four
times - and won two Olympic gold medals.
She also won the doubles at Wimbledon three times
and U.S. doubles four times.
She led the revolt against the long-sleeved, full-stockings
with skirts almost to the ground that was the approved attire for women
on the tennis courts - costumes that obviously hampered their playing.
She dared appear in sleeveless blouses and knee length
skirts without stockings. She was too powerful a figure in tennis to be
disqualified, although there was movement for her to be declared ineligible
for "immoral behavior."
From 1926 to 1932 she did not lose a single set on
American soil!
B. 10-06-1908, Carole Lombard - U.S. film actor.
CL was the outstanding American film actor of light comedy of her time.
Her popularity was still on the rise when she died in a 1942 plane crash
during one of her many war bond-selling trips during World War II.
B. 10-06-1911, Barbara Ann Castle - U.K. politician/statesperson.
BAC served as minister of transportation (1965), secretary of state for
employment and productivity, and secretary of state for social services.
BAC was only the fourth woman to hold a cabinet post in England.
10-06-1914, Mary Louise Smith, chair of the
Republican National Committee 1974-77. She succeeded George Bush who
became head of the CIA.
B. 10-06-1917, Fannie Lou Hamer - Afro-American
civil rights activist. FLH led the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
and risked her life to register voters in Mississippi. She'd became active
with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) although she
only had a sixth-grade education. The group successfully challenged the
various laws that excluded most blacks from voting. It was dangerous as
bigoted whites sometimes resorted to violence to keep blacks from exercising
their constitutional rights.
FLH was the youngest of 20 children of a sharecropper
family and worked the fields at a very young age. She spent most of her
adult life working to improve the economic conditions of blacks in the
south.
Event 10-06-1919: An all-woman bank - from
janitors to president - was opened in Clarksville, Tennessee. It was a
successful operation and the stockholders made a profit. It was liquidated
seven years later when president and founder Brenda Vineyard Runyon became
ill.
B. 10-06-1925, Shanna Alexander - U.S. author.
B. 10-06-1942 Britt Ekland - film actor.
B. 10-06-1945, Deirdre Whittleton Alpert -
U.S. state legislator. DWA was a member of the 78th district California
state Assembly Sacramento, 1990, and chair of the Women's Legislators Caucus.
B. 10-06-1956, Stephanie Zimbalist - U.S. actor.
Her grandmother was the noted opera star Alma Gluck (05-11) and her aunt
was noted author Marcia Davenport (01-09). SZ starred in several hit TV
series.
B. 10-06-1963, Elisabeth Shue - U.S.actor.
B. 10-06-1970, Amy Jo Johnson - U.S. actor.
B. 10-06-1973, Rebecca Lobo - U.S. basketball
player. RL led her Connecticut University team to a perfect 35-0 record
and the NCAA title. While she was winning a Phi Beta Kappa key for herself
with a 3.6 grade average She is an outstanding center-forward player for
the New York pro women's basketball team. Unfortunately she had to sit
out the 1999 season because of an injury. She stand 6'4" and usually
weighs about 180.
Fortunately, in spite of the significantly lower pay
of the WNBA as opposed to the NBA, RL landed several promotional contracts
that made her a millionaire - but nothing compared to what she'd have received
had she been a man as the premier draft pick of her year.
Event 10-06-1978: The U.S. Congress passed
the bill that forbade the cross examination of a victim's prior sexual
history in rape trials. The bill was introduced by Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman
(D-NY). At the time, the victim's sexual history was open and subject to
the court scrutiny and cross examination, but the past criminal/rape/sexual
history of the accused (as now) was closed.
Event 10-06-1993, Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's
former prime minister, regained office when her Pakistan People's party
won a plurality in the National Assembly. Bhutto was elected prime minister
by the Assembly. BB had become Pakistan's first prime minister who was
also a woman in 1988. She held office for two years before being ousted.
She was returned to power later.
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QUOTES DU JOUR
COOK, BLANCHE WEISEN:
"No
censorship law can be enforced -- will ever be enforced -- in the interests
of, or in the defense, of women. To expose the enemies of women, we must
struggle to maintain absolute freedom of speech, press, and assembly."
--
Blanche Weisen Cook, author of that marvelous two volume biography of Eleanor
Roosevelt.
LESLIE, LISA:
"People
are surprised by how intense (women's basketball) is. Fans watch their
college team and watch us sweep up in all aspect of the game. They're really
shocked. They didn't know there was that much of a difference. They didn't
realize how much faster we are and the fact that we are so much stronger
than the other girls. Some of them go, 'Wow, you guys have muscles. You
look like women.' I say we are."
-- Lisa Leslie in a New York Times story 12/1995 during a
promo trip to hype the women's all-star basketball team that went on to
win the 1996 Olympic gold medal. The women's team got only a fraction of
the publicity that the professional men's basketball team got... and yet
drew crowds and TV viewing audiences that matched the men's play.
MILL, JOHN STUART:
"The
principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two
sexes--the legal subordination of one sex to the other - is wrong in itself,
and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement... it ought to
be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege
on the one side, nor disability on the other."
(Mill proclaimed that inequality of women under the law was derived
from antiquated rule by the strongest, that it amounted to slavery, and
that it was kept in place by indoctrination of women to believe they were
inferior beings. Under such repressive circumstances, it was impossible
for women to recognize the true extent of their own capabilities. A strong
proponent of women's education, Mill attributed the lesser achievements
of women to their being barred from equal education.)
"The
only educated women are the self-educated"... (Therefore, it
was inconceivable that they could compete with men in arenas in which they
had been denied knowledge. Mill also recognized the greater personal demands
placed on women that deter them from creative work)... "There
are other reasons... that help to explain why women remain behind men,
even in the pursuits which are open to both. For one thing, very few women
have time for them... Independently of the regular offices of life which
devolve upon a woman, she is expected to have her time and faculties always
at the disposal of everybody. If a man has not a profession to exempt him
from such demands, still, if he has a pursuit, he offends nobody by devoting
his time to it; occupation is received as a valid excuse for his not answering
to every casual demand which may be made on him . . . . [However, a woman]
must always be at the beck and call of somebody, generally of everybody.
If she has a study or a pursuit, she must snatch any short interval which
accidentally occurs to be employed in it."
--
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) British philosopher and economist. Along with
his wife, Mrs. Taylor (sic) to whom he gave full credit for assisting him
in not only his work but his reasoning, Emily Davies, and others,
he assisted in the formation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage
Societies in 1867. After an eight year delay because of political activism,
he published The Subjection of Women in 1869, an amazing classical
theoretical statement of the case for woman suffrage and legal equality.
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