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Women NOW or Never ToC | Home |
NOW's mission is to bring women into full political, economic, legal, and social partnership with men.
This is the time of year that stockholders receive proxy voting cards. Please be sure to 'encourage' your holding companies to diversify - not so much their assets as their board rooms. Most companies list the first names (for a hint at gender) as well as the last names of candidates for their board of directors. stockholder of them will list first names (for a hint at gender). Many will even publish snapshots (for a hint at race AND gender). Although there is nothing wrong with voting a straight gender/race ticket, we encourage you to support the most women-friendly, anti-racist candidates. Maybe the board room expertise you vote for some woman or non-white person will be the experience and encourgement required to run for public office. If there are no non-white, non-male persons in the running for the board of directors, it is perfectly appropriate (and strongly encouraged) to write: "DID YOU EVER HEAR OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?".
Also try this on for diversity: The 1996 annual meeting of shareholders of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. will decide these proposals:
1. To vote on shareholder proposal requesting that the compensation and stock option committees link executive compensation to social issues. (sounds good to me)
2. To vote on shareholder proposal requesting that the board of directors prepare a report ascertaining the costs incurred by the company due to the alleged "continuing controversy" regarding its policies toward gay men and lesbians. (sounds great to me)
If you would like to add your 2 cents (whether or not you are a stockholder):
Editor's note: I agree with C.H. with one proviso- the radical right has begun to co-opt the language of the left and words like "social issues" can mean "agreeing with the fundamentalist Christian/ radical right religious and legal agenda" as easily as it can mean "supporting equal rights for women and minorities." So before signing on the dotted line, read the fine print.
At the November meeting, B M-P presented a summary of the welfare reform bill that was recently enacted by Congress. The Welfare Reform Act
"They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state. There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore." (Pat Robertson, The State, Columbia, South Carolina, Nov. 14, 1993.)
"I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called on by God to conquer this country.We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
"I recognize no rights but human rights I know nothing of men's rights and women's rights; for in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. It is my solemn conviction that, until this principle of equality is recognized and embodied in practice, the church can do nothing effectual for the permenant reformation of the world."
I wasn't there the first time when we said NO MORE!
The time a punch was finally thrown back like a hand grenade,
The time the sin that knew no name, named itself gay pride,
But I was there for the anniversary march,
There with my sisters and brothers,
I was there in the street with millions,
There for a moment of silence.
A million stood stark still in the streets of New York.
Instead of New York stopping gayness, gayness stopped New York!
Stopped traffic. Stopped cops. For a second stopped the hearts of those not yet ready to march that day. . .
We are many and we CAN BE loud and proud
but we can also be visible and sacred
like we were when New York froze in a gay moment.
I can never forget Stonewall.
I was there in my childhood when I didn't know who I was.
There in the lockerroom in my awkward teenhood
more girlish than the girls.
It was THERE waiting to be born.
There when I misunderstood, misused men.
Anguished in my womanhood, cautious in my motherhood, career,
Walking arms close to the body, Short steps. . .
Alive only in dark bars, drugs, alcohol,
dancing, dancing, dancing.
I am not here yet in my life. I'm caught in the twilight zone
between gay and straight, nothing done well -
telling you this is a way of coming you to you.
I can't write this poem about Stonewall
with a door on my closet.
I existed since the beginning of time
but I began at Stonewall and I grow
with my sisters and brothers - flesh now of my flesh -
family of choice - by common blood shed,
hope of my hope, and more than hope.
I was not only there at Stonewall. I was Stonewall.
Stonewall is not a wall of stones,
but a LOVESCAPE we can live on and never live gaily without.
I can never go back. We can never go back.
We will never give up.
We will never give in.
We will never give up.
We will never give in. NEVER!.
This non-profit, 501(C)19, national organization was established in New York in 1990 to function as a liaison between the government and female veterans and to provide a support group for women who have been victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault (including rape) in their military workplace. WVA achieves these aims in part by educating female veterans on their benefits (primarily access to the Veterans Administration medical centers), by helping them make VA claims, and by legislative lobbying on behalf of female veterans.
Both major goals of this organization are laudable. Our female veterans are both deserving of and entitled to the same benefits as our male veterans. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape in the workplace, especially the military, are as old as history. Men have always felt free to use political and economic power to force women into sexual affairs. From the slave owner, to the nobleman exercising his "right of the first night", to the conquering army, to the local factory owner promising a woman a job for her husband in return for her sexual favors, to drunken soldiers at a convention groping and fondling, men have always demanded sex from women as a condition of employment. It is nothing short of rape. The women in Women Veterans of America are willing to help all women, military and civilian, who have been forced to trade sex for a job or a career.
The organization has grown to 11 chapters with members in all states. The local chapter, Chapter 3, was established on March 1, 1993. Regular membership dues, for eligible women veterans with a DD214 honorable discharge, is $12/ year. Wing (Auxiliary) membership dues, open to all friends to women veterans, is $10/year. The local chapter meets on the second Wednesday of the month. The next meeting will be on December 11, 1996 at VFW Post 176 behind Casey Chevrolet (24 Forest Drive, Newport News) at 7:00 pm. For more information write to LaDawna Saylor at 12906 Fitzhugh Drive, Newport News, 23602-7534, call her at 249-5304, or send e-mail to txys68b@prodigy.com or lady_top@prodigy.com.
17 ) Putting the victim on trial
19) Projecting the writer's preconceived notions into the story
20) Making violence against women acceptable while making violence men unacceptable
21) Minimizing the story
Violence by "friends": Giving front page coverage to young, rich, successful, photogenic, white women while relegating coverage to victims who are African-American or women of color, older women, poor women, or average women to small briefs on the back pages.
22) Continuum of violence
23) All men benefit from violence against women
Ideas for the above came from Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing by Jill Radford and Diana Russell
While investigating physical violence against women, I discovered that physical violence against women is only one type of violence on a continuum of violence that men use to oppress and subjugate women. Over the next few months, I will be investigating some of the many other ways that misogyny has manifested itself in various times and places. A summary of some of these methods is given below:
Economic Violence Against Women: using the power of the purse (the ability of a woman to find food, clothing, and shelter) to subject women to other forms of violence
Emotional Violence Against Women: using words and gestures to undermine a woman's self-confidence or deprive her of intellectual space to control her behavior
Intellectual Violence Against Women: stunting women's intellectual development as a method of control, depriving women of education as a way of establishing economic control
Legal Violence Against Women: using the law to condone or enforce violence or discrimination against women Medical Violence Against Women: performing unnecessary medical treatments on women or refusing medical treatment to control their behavior
Physical Violence Against Women: using raw physical power to control women
Religious Violence Against Women: using religious teaching to invoke "God's will" to control and to justify controlling women
Reproductive Violence Against Women: controlling women's reproductive decisions as a way of controlling women's behavior
Ritual Violence Against Women: using torture as part of religious ritual as a way of controlling women
Sexual Violence Against Women: reifying women as sex objects
Spiritual Violence Against Women: using a position of religious authority as a tool in controlling women
Verbal Violence Against Women: using words that sting and burn to control women
For those on the net who would like to know about women in the military, check out http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb
As the fall harvest season draws to a close, as the winter solstice approaches, heralding the onset of winter, as the current year ends and a new year begins, many, indeed most, of us give praise and thanks to God/dess for her/his bountiful gifts of life, health, family, friendship, and love.
Anthropologists speculate that the earliest images of God/dess were female images based on women's miraculous power to give life. Surely, god/dess must be female since she created a world so full of life. Her leading servants were priestesses, not priests and her message was one that celebrated life, not death. Gradually, as men acquired more power, the female Goddess was replaced by a male God and her female servants became his male servants. Yet even in the times and places where patriarchy was strongest, a few, often quiet, almost silent voices, remembered that women were made in the image of God/dess. Today, feminist theologians in all religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, etc., are reclaiming the female/ feminine aspect of God/dess.
By returning the female to the godhead, soon it will no longer be accepted as intellectually honest for men to rule women with divine sanction as the kings of old ruled by divine right for all will accept that women, like men, were created in the image of God/dess. A time will come when all will say, God/dess is neither male nor female and God/dess is both male and female because God/dess both transcends and encompasses our limiting concepts of male and female.
Hopefully a time will come when God is not defined as Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Taoist for all these images of God/dess are just that, fleeting glimpses of the one all encompassing God/dess. Hopefully a time will come when we see God/dess in the innocent young maiden, in the mother with a babe at her breast and another at her feet, in the face of a wise old woman, in the back and hands of a strong, virile young man working to support his wife and child, in the balding, middle aged man studying God/dess's creation, and in the wise old Grandfather playing with the child in his lap. All of us, women and men, white, black, brown, yellow, red, blue and green, rich and poor, young and old, of all intellectual abilities and philosophical bents (yes, even the fundies) were created in the image of God/dess. All religions agree that we honor God/dess when we honor her/his handiwork. So may the holiday season and the year to come find you healthy, warm and safe in the company of friends and family with all the necessities and comforts of a happy life, including the respect that you deserve as a creation of God/dess.
For a holiday present for the special girl in your life, try Barbara Walker's Feminist Fairy Tales (Harper San Francisco, 1996). Gone is a comatose Sleeping Beauty waiting for Prince Charming to kiss her and bring her to life. Many of the old classics were rewritten to give women the starring roles. Meet Snow Night, Gorga the Dragonslayer, Cinder-Helle, The Littlest Mermaid, and Jill and the Bean Root. I've given several copies of the book to pre-teens as presents and their fathers, dreading the term FEMINIST Fairy Tales decided to read the stories to their daughters. Well, even they liked them. So, for some tales of dynamic women, try Barbara Walker's Feminist Fairy Tales.
Many of us have Judeao-Christian roots and the Bible is a sacred book to us. To honor our spiritual heritage, this month Feminist Foremothers brings us the rather obscure Biblical story of two dynamic women, Deborah and Jael. Their story is found in Judges 4 - 5 of the Common Testament.
The Israelites were a conquered people, under the dominion of King Jabin of Canaan with Sisera as the military commander. The Canaanite army had 900 chariots, the Israelites had none. It seemed as foolhardy for the Israelites to battle the Canannites as it would seem today for an infantry battalion to engage a tank battalion. Yet, Deborah, wife, mother, prophetess, and judge of Israel summoned Barak and commanded him in the name of God to assemble an army at Mount Tabor to fight against Sisera. Barak refused unless Deborah would herself lead of the army. So Deborah lead the army which Barak assembled and successfully defeated Sisera.
As Sisera was fleeing the battle scene, he came upon the tent of Jael. Some speculate that Sisera had been a regular visitor to Jael, that he had taken her as his concubine. She recognized him, greeted him warmly and gave him food and drink. He bade her to keep watch while he slept. While he was sleeping, Jael drove a tent peg through his head. (The Bible gets a bit gory, now and then.) When Barak arrived at her tent, she showed him what she had done. In the victory feast following the battle, the heroines Deborah and Jael were celebrated in song.
We notice that even in this patriarchal age, women were religious leaders (prophetess), powerful political leaders (judges) and army commanders in Israel. Women played important roles in all aspects of society including on the battlefront and in the home. Women used their wisdom and cunning to overcome men's raw physical force, delivering their people from subjugation. These women were not willing to let events control their lives but they did everything they could to control the events that shaped their lives. I do find some parts of the Bible truly inspirational.
sunshine@pinn.net
Sunshine for Women encourages you to support our feminist sisters by purchasing their books, reading them, disseminating the ideas they contain, but most especially, by making their book available to our sisters, our daughters, and the community at large by requesting your school library, your public library, and area bookstores to carry their books. Remember it is not enough to write literature, history, and theology, we must pass these works on to future generations. Help us to preserve these works for a new generation by putting them on library bookshelves.
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