Daughter of No Comment -- January 2000

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All the political rhetoric is giving daughter whiplash and the more she hears the more certain she is that the real issue in this campaign is which party will control appointments to the Supreme Court. Justice Rehnquist, the oldest justice, is in the high seventies and Justice O'Connor is 64 and with three other justices between them in age there is a strong probability that the next president will name up to FIVE new justices to the high court. Presently, the court is almost evenly divided on issues of highest priority to women. Roe vs Wade will likely be under heavy attach in the next presidential term if we listen to the candidates. This means that women's right to reproductive choice could be lost if the president doing the appointing does not want to keep it as law. We need to encourage our friends who are tired of politics or who feel that their vote can't make a difference to get off their lethargy and to work to see that a women's issues president is elected. A national study by Debra Meyerson showing women make up just 10% of senior management in Fortune 500 companies says, "It's not the ceiling that's holding women back; it's the whole structure of the organizations...the foundation, the beams, the walls, the very air." American Journal of Epidemiology reports that heterosexual contact is responsible for 24% of AIDS cases in men and 13% of women infected with AIDS. The American Social Health Association reports 15 million new cases of venereal disease a year. They also report that 50% of the people who have had three or more partners on the last year have a venereal disease. AIDS is a venereal disease that can be largely prevented by barrier contraception methods. Don't leave home without your rubbers. Pentagon Military records from 1992-1996 were reviewed and showed that 50,000 military spouses were victims of domestic violence which is 5 times higher that of the civilian population as reported in Dept. of Justice records. Less that 5% of the accused were court- martialed. A Federal appeals court (9th U.S. Circuit Court) ruled that religious landlords can refuse to rent housing to unmarried couples, declaring the right of religious expression trumps state laws against discrimination. The Alaska landlords, Kevin Thomas and Joyce Baker, who are professed Christians, believe that "facilitating fornication is tantamount to facilitating sin" says Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain in the majority opinion. The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the issue which has far reaching implications. In 1997 there were 600 births by girls, age 10-14 in the state of Florida. Miss World, Linor Abargill, who was sexually assaulted and reported it, said that she wants to serve as an example, "Women who are assaulted must react to the crimes committed against them, even at the price of somepublic exposure so that these incidents do not become an accepted, routine part of our lives." "There aren't enough men to go around." Helen Gurley Brown is quoted as complaining. "Every time there's a plane accident, it's one hundred men dead... and I literally think...Why couldn't some women have been on that flight?" Could she possibly be as stupid as she sounds? Ever thought you might like to try juggling? Pre-eminent juggler Michael Moschen had this to say about his field. "Jugglers are usually stupid. Most of them are in juggling because they want to show off. Most of them juggle to compensate for what is lacking in their personality. Instead of juggling, they should go back and examine the ways their mothers and fathers messed them up. It's obvious that a lot of juggling is a channelling of sexual frustration. It's rare that you'll see a female juggler, and it's really rare that you'll see an attractive female juggler." Murder is more likely to be solved when the victim is a woman because, police investigators say, women are usually killed by someone they once loved. In most of the cases, the woman knew her murderer because he was a current or former boyfriend or husband. Most were killed in or near their homes and most were killed with hand guns. The Caldor Department Store in Norwalk Conn. apologized after releasing 11 million copies of an advertising circular showing two smiling boys playing Scrabble around a board with the word "RAPE" spelled out. Daughter wonders if they can spell stupid. Question to a medical column: Q. I am wondering about a magazine article I read suggesting that women don't really need periods. Instead, we could take birth control pills without interruption. Is this safe? A. Dr. Susan Love answered that women don't require monthly periods while taking oral contraceptives. Dr. Love added that the pill was developed by men who assumed that women would want monthly cycles. They do not seem to have checked with mere women. After all, what do we know? Guess who said this. "Team sports are not quite the moral equivalent of war. But they are artfully contrived challenges that administer stress, demand both collective efforts and individual strivings for distinction, and reward grace under pressure. Add those to woman's intrinsic superiority (suffice it to say they have a higher ratio of philosophical inclinations to animal propensities) and men will live at the mercy of women's magnanimity." This is another example of ERA enemy George Wills' head being stuck in a dark place. The assumption that white women over age 50 are at the highest risk for osteoporosis has been disproved in a study by the National Osteoporosis Foundation. The most at risk women are Asian-American with 65% having low bone density followed by native American women at 59% then come white women with a 50% low bone density followed by African-Americans at 38%. "Your ethnicity does not protect you against osteoporosis and this is a surprise" says Dr. Ethel Siris of Columbia University. Half of all post-menopausal American women have serious bone disease. Those with actual osteoporosis - the stage of bone loss associated with imminent risk of fracture - make up 7.2% of all women. This is a preventable disease where life style changes can have a really big impact. It is a lot easier to prevent than to treat and now that there are some medicines available, the cost of testing has gone way down since the pharmaceutical companies are picking up some of the tab in screening exams. Know what your bone density is now so you can tell later if there are changes you need to be concerned about. We lost an advocate when Russell Inslee Clark Jr. died. He was Yale's dean of admissions from 1965 to 1969 where he successfully lobbied for the admission of women. He was a supporter of equal access to education for girls and women throughout his academic career. Daughter would like to hear about more unsung heros. When Sakura-bana, a Japanese restaurant in Boston needed another sushi chef it trained Jessa-Leigh Stadelhofer who had been a cashier there. It was considered a risky decision because, says manager Hironori Koga, some Japanese believe that women have a higher body temperature then men and shouldn't handle raw fish because when they do, the fish becomes softer, a no-no for sushi. A customer, lawyer Andrew Lemelman, isn't happy and said it was like being served by a blond woman in a Chinese restaurant. He said it loses some of the ambiance. Poor baby. Pity Daughter can't find the kleenex. After one year of sales the "semipostal" (fund raising) breast cancer stamp has raised $7.8 million which is well short of the goal but postal officials say it has been invaluable in building goodwill for the agency. Not quite what the sponsors had in mind. Another unsung hero is medicine Nobel Prize winner Gertrude B. Elion who never got a PH.D. and who tried secretarial school before becoming the only woman in her graduate chemistry course. She was told that her presence in a laboratory would be undesirable because as a woman "I would be a distracting influence." She credits World War II with providing the opportunity for her to get a job in her field. One reason women are having trouble winning top political offices is that those are the jobs men want to keep. The offices most accessible to women are those too low paying to be interesting to men. New Hampshire is a case in point. The state has a woman governor and over 30% of the legislature are women. Sounds good, but the fact is that the legislators only get $100. a year. Still, we need women candidates for every possible office. It is clear that even well intentioned men can't be counted on not to trade away our interests on issues that are mainly important to women. "Losing It: False Hopes and Fat Profits in the Diet Industry" a tell-all book by Laura Fraser, says that diets and the eating patterns they spawn typically go through a four year cycle - from love affair to scorn. A fad usually starts with a diet book bearing a physician's name or endorsement. Next it is pumped by woman's magazines. The current craze is protein this and protein that which some see as a marketing ploy. Stay tuned for the skinny on skinny and to see what is promoted when this one loses favor (flavor). Sociologist, Richard Lampard at Warwick University thinks there is a trend making marriage less of a "public institution" and more of a private contract between two people. The wedding ceremony itself is no longer regarded as the "property" of the local community. Couples are marrying later and paying for the wedding themselves which means they can please themselves instead of following family traditions. Daughter hopes this means the end to giving away the bride.