| 10-08 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Jills and Janes (Jits and Jats)
From the"N - MISCELLANEOUS" file
Why Are There No Great Women Artists?
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTES by Abigail
van Buren, Isaak Dinesen, Delores Clairborne, Helen Fielding, and Abigail
Adams.
Jills and Janes (Jits and Jats)
Bits of Herstory
In about 478 BC, Pindar wrote a tale of the old
gods in which the huntress Cyrene vanquishes a lion by hand in an unarmed
struggle. It is witnessed by the god Apollo who promptly rapes the woman
using his godlike powers to overcome her resistance. (And we teach children
admiration of the ancient Greeks and teach them the legends.)
Approximately 10% of the U.S. armed forces in
the non-violent occupation of Haiti of 1994 was female. The women reported
stares and culture shock from Haitian military.
The first forward-deployed commander of the operation
was a woman - Lt. Colonel Joyce Fulton, Fort Bragg, N.C.
"The delegates of the annual conference are
decidedly opposed to modern Abolitionism, and wholly disclaim any right,
wish, or intention to interfere in the civil and political relation between
master and slave as it exists in the slave-holding state of the union,"
as adopted by the Methodist Episcopal Church: General Conference, Cincinnati,
May, 1836. The position was, of course, changed somewhat later.
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Jills and Janes
From the "N - MISCELLANEOUS" File
Nammu is the primeval earth goddess of Sumerian
mythology.
Circa 3000 B.C. Sumerian goddess Nintu, also called
Ninhurgad or Ninmah, is believed to have created human beings in six varieties,
molding them from clay. Almost all cultures have such legends although
most of the modern religions have a male god doing the creating.
Elizabeth Noyce - EN gave away millions of the
dollars she received under California laws when she was divorced by the
co-inventor of the microchip, Robert Noyce in 1975. EN who retired to Maine
often said she saw her fortune as a tool to protect Maine's economy. She
was a major benefactor of Maine museums and charities. She died there in
September, 1996.
Evelyn L. Newell - after paying her dues as a
locomotive fireman, Evelyn L. Newell attended engineer's school and in
January, 1974 began driving Southern Pacific trains in California.
Nijo - Supressed for 640 years! Because she used
real name, her five-volume autobiographical work of Japanese Buddhist nun
Nijo, Unasked Words was hidden in the Imperial library for 640 years
before becoming public in 1940. It told of her love affairs starting at
age 14 with the 89th emperor Gofukakusa and his brother. She also used
real names for everyone she wrote about.
Comtesse de Noailles - considered the most distinguished
living woman writer in France in 1923.
Dr. Ann C. Nobel - in 1976, she was the only woman
on the faculty of the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University
of California at Davis. "After all there
are few areas that are really denied..."
Ida Noddack [nee Tacke] - German chemist. IN 1934,
she is one of the first, if not THE first, to suggest fission. The idea
was ignored until 1939, but she has never gotten the full credit she deserved
from her work. Her husband is generally given the main credit for the discovered
of the element rehenium although it was the result of years of heavy joint
research.
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Why Are There No Great Women Artists?
"It is certainly not realistic to hope, as
some feminists optimistically do, that a majority of men.. will soon see
that it is actually in their own self- interest to grant complete equality
to women or to maintain that men themselves will soon realize that they
are diminished by denying themselves access to traditionally feminine realms
and emotional reactions.
"After all there are few areas that are really
denied to men, if the level of operations demanded be transcendent, responsible,
or rewarding enough: men who have a need for feminine involvement with
babies or children can certainly fulfill their needs adequately, and gain
status and a sense of achievement to boot, in the field of pediatrics or
child psychology, with a female nurse to do the more routine work ...
"[On the contrary] how many men would really
be willing to exchange their roles as teachers and researchers for that
of unpaid, parttime research assistants and typists as well as full-time
nannies and domestic workers that they expect from women and their wives.
"It is only the extraordinarily enlightened or
altruistic man who can really want to grant - the term itself is revealing
- equality to women, and he will certainly not offer to switch places with
one under present circumstances; on the contrary, he realizes that true
equality for women will certainly involve considerable sacrifice of comfort,
convenience, not to speak of ego-support and 'natural' prerogatives, even
down to the assumption that 'he' is the subject of every sentence unless
otherwise stated.
DESPITE LIP SERVICE TO EQUALITY
"As John Stuart Mills pointed out, 'Everything which is usual appears
natural. The subjection of women to men being a universal custom, any departure
from it quite naturally appears unnatural.' Most men, despite lip service
to equality, are reluctant to give up this natural order of things in which
their advantages so far outweigh their disadvantages; for women the case
is further complicated by the fact that, as Mill astutely pointed out,
theirs is the only oppressed group or caste whose masters demand not only
submission, but unqualified affection as well; thus, women are often weakened
by the internalized demands of the male-dominated society itself, as well
as by a plethora of material goods and comfort: the middle-class woman
has a great deal more to lose than her chains.
"This is not to say that the oppression of women
does not, in some way, disadvantage the dominant male in our society: male
supremacist attitudes may distort intellectual matters in the same way
as any unquestioned assumptions about historical or social issues. Just
as a very little power may corrupt one's actions, so a relatively minor
degree of false consciousness may contaminate one's intellectual position.
-- Excerpted from Linda Nochlin's marvelous and incisive essay "Why
are There No Great Women Artists", as published in Women in Sexist
Society, edited by Vivian Gornick and Barbara K. Moran, New York: New
American Library, 1971. For the feminist student and women seeking their
intellectual and emotional centers, this is an excellent book.
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10-08 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS
B. 10-08-1515, Margaret Douglas Lennox, Countess
of - prominent Roman Catholic conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I in
her attempts to secure the English throne for her son. MDL had been a close
friend of Mary I of England and following Mary's death had retired to country
where her home became a hotbed of Roman Catholic conspiracies against Elizabeth.
She was the mother of Lord Darnly, wife of Mary Queen of Scots.
MDL was sent to the tower twice and lived her last
years in terrible poverty. Her grandson was chosen by Elizabeth as her
successor and he ruled as James I of England (James VI of Scotland) without
reviviving the religious wars.
B. 10-08-17943, Caroline Howard Gilman - U.S.
author and editor. CHG was publisher of the Rose-Bud, an pioneer
children's magazine (1832), and author of a number of magazine articles
and books. Her one abiding theme was trying to explain the similarities
between the peoples of the North and the South just prior to the Civil
War. She was active in the Confederate cause and lived in South Carolina.
B. 10-08-1826, Emily Blackwell - U.S. physician.
Like her sister Elizabeth Blackwell who was the first female doctor in
the U.S. and the first in modern times, Emily sought a medical degree and
was turned down by a number of colleges.
She was even forced out of a Chicago medical facility
by male pressures.
Finally Western Reserve in Cleveland admitted her
and she gained her degree there.
EB worked with her sister in setting up the New York
Infirmary for Women and Children, then administered it and expanded it
to include a nursing training program. She then added a medical college
that graduated almost 400 women doctors. EB maintained a private practice
as well as being dean and a professor at the college. The college was later
transferred to Cornell University when it agreed that women would be admitted
on an equal basis with men.
EB lived and traveled with Dr. Elizabeth Cushier.
An excellent reference of Dr. Emily and her sister
Elizabeth, etc., is E. R. Hays'. Those Extraordinary Blackwells
(1967). One must, however, remember the book was written by a man in the
days before the "second wave of feminism" demanded realistic
portrayals of the entire woman.
B. 10-08-1847, Rose Scott - Australian activist.
RS was president of the Women's Political and Educational Association of
New South Wales, Australia and an ardent activist in the battle for the
vote and social reform.
B. 10-08-1858, Marie Van Zandt - American-
Franco opera star for whom Leo Delibes wrote Lakme. Her mother was
a successful concert and operatic singer.
MVZ became the toast of Europe but as an American
engendered great jealousies. Her voice broke during a performance in 1884
and she was accused of trying to perform while drunk. She attempted to
resume her career but a riot broke out and she moved on to Russia where
she was successful before returning to the U.S. and starring at the Metropolitan
Opera. She was then able to return to Paris where she again starred.
B. 10-08-1872, Mary Engle Pennington - U.S.
chemist. MEP was the authority on the preservation of food with refrigeration.
In 1892 she was refused a B.S.by the Towne Scientific
School of the University of Pennsylvania because of her sex. Instead she
was given a certificate of proficiency although she fulfilled all requirements
and scored well. She earned and was awarded a Ph.D. from UP later.
Her research with bacteria led to methods adopted
throughout the U.S. to preserve and safeguard milk.
MEP had to take the U.S. civil service test in 1908
under her initials disguising the fact that she was a woamn so she could
be appointed chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Research
Laboratory.
She devised methods of preserving and handling perishable
foods that were adopted by the entire food handling industry. She even
invented a sharp knife for killing and plucking chickens. She designed
and set the standards for railroad refrigerator cars.
B. 10-08-1892 (N.S.), Marina Tsvetayeva - one
of the greatest modern Russian poets. Her first poetry was published
in 1910. MT married a White Army officer and vocally opposed the Bolsheviks.
She was forced into exile and lived in Paris for years. She had studied
at the Sorbornne before her marriage. She returned to Russia at the beginning
of World War II and was still subjected to official persecution. When Moscow
was evacuated when Hitler's army neared, she was moved to a remote village
where living in intellectual isolation, she committed suicide.
Just before her exile, she read some of her poetry
that was decidedly anti-Bolshevik, in fact openly praised the White (loyalist)
army. She explained:
"I was guided by two, no three,
four aims: (1) seven poems by a woman without the word "love"
and without the pronoun "I'; (2) proof that poetery makes no sense
to an audience; (3) a dialogue with anyone, a single person, who understood
(oerhaps a student); (4) and the principal one: fulfilling., there in Moscow
of 1921, an obligation of honour. And beyond any aims, aimlessly, stronger
than aims, a simple and extreme feeling of what if I do?"
A life of many sorrows, she was also a woman of
many lovers. Several volumes of her work have been translated into English:
Above selections from Marina Tsvetayeva by Elaine
Feinstein published as part of the Peguin series of Lives of Modern
Women. Feinstein also wrote a study of Bessie Smith.
B. 10-08-1908, Martha Eccles Dodd - U.S. educator
forced into exile. Although a strong opponent of Fascism, MED became a
victim of the Joseph McCarthy "communist" witch hunt and was
indicted on espionage charges in 1957. She fled to Czechoslovakia.
MED was the daughter of the American Ambassador to
Germany 1933-1937 and wrote of her experience in Through Embassy Eyes
(1939). She claimed that the anti-communist movement often hid pro-fascist
sentiments.
B. 10-08-1918, Alla Genrikhovna Massevitch,
Russian astrophysicist, professor of astronomy at Moscow University.
B. 10-08-1929, (Hilda) Gracia Baylor - Australian
politician, municipal councillor 1966-78, first woman Shire pres 1977-78;
member of Legislative Council for Boronia Vic 1979-85; 1st woman sworn
in as member of the Legislative Council 1979, member of the new inner shadow
cabinet.
B. 10-08-1934, Faith Riaggold, Afro-American
artist. Much of her art combines the feminist viewpoint and the black
liberation movement. She changed her style from being based on white male
European to African influences.
She also started to work in fabric and soft sculptures,
sometimes depicting women from Harlem with open mouths because black women
need to find their voices. She has been criticized by some white critics
and especially by black male artists who claim her work should be classified
as crafts, not art.
In 1984, she became professor of art at the University
of California, San Diego.
B. 10-08-1936, Rona Barrett - U.S. personality
columnist.
B. 10-08-1949, Sigourney Weaver - U.S.actor.
SW received Academy Award nominations for her portrayal of Dian Fossey
in Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and for her work in Working Girl
(1988). She is best known as Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1992) with its many
sequels. Her mother is Elizabeth Inglis, a British actor.
She changed her first name to Sigourney after reading
The Great Gatsby. She is 5"11" which limits her choice
of male leads in an industry that seems to feature small men.
B. 10-08-1956, Janice Voss - U.S. astronaut
with more than 909 hours in space in four space flights. She is scheduled
for another space journey at the end of 1999. JV holds doctorates in electrical
engineering and aeronautics/astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1977 and 1987, respectively. She worked as a crew trainer,
teaching entry guidance and navigation, then mission integration and flight
operations support for the Transfer Orbit Stage. She was payload commander
on one of her flights. Dr. Voss became an astronaut in July 1991. See http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/voss-jan.html
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QUOTES DU JOUR
VAN BUREN, ABIGAIL:
"The
turning point came when a friend told me how much she regretted putting
off divorce until her children were grown (because) her daughter assumed
that a verbally abusive relationship was normal and she married into one.
Set a good example for your children. (Be) a woman who loves herself enough
to refuse to tolerate an abusive mate."
-- From a 1996 Dear Abby column.
DINESEN, ISAAK (Karen Blixen):
"I
do not think I could ever really love a woman who had not, for one reason
or another, been upon a broomstick."
CLAIRBORNE, DELORES:
"Sometimes
being a bitch is all you have to hang on to."
-- The Delores Claiborn character in the excellent movie of the
same name.
FIELDING, HELEN:
"Single girls in their 30s and homosexuals have natural affinities,
both being used to being treated as disappointments to their parents and
as freaks by society."
-- From Fielding's book Bridget Jones's Diary.
ADAMS, ABIGAIL:
"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and
that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like
the grave, cries "Give, give!"
-- Abigail Adams in an 1775 letter to her husband John Adams.
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