Lives of Interesting Women 2015

At the turn of the secular calendar year lots of people make lots of lists. Having always loved lists, I'm in the mood to recall notable women whose lives have ended in the past year. It's not that easy to find them, but I'll have a go. Meanwhile, the start of the search brought me to a list of women scientists that should be better known. I'd not heard of any of them except Rosalind Franklin. Have you? Have a quick read about:

Emilie du Chatelet
Caroline Herschel
Mary Anning
Mary Somerville
Maria Mitchell
Lise Meitner
Irene Curie-Joliot
Barbara McClintock
Dorothy Hodgkin
Rosalind Franklin

So many admirable women, often discouraged from studying science, often not acknowledged for their contribution.

In 2015 we also lost:

Claudia Alexander 
(geophysicist & top NASA scientist) Astronomy Magazine obituary

Grace Lee Boggs
(philosopher & feminist) obituary

Eugenie Clark aka "The Shark Lady"
(ichthyologist) Telegraph obituary

Ronnie Gilbert 
(singer, the Weavers) obituary

Mary Ellen Mark
(photographer) Vogue retrospective, obituary

Melissa Mathison
(screenwriter, best known for ET the Extraterrestrial) obituary

Cynthia Robinson 
(trumpeter for Sly & the Family Stone) obituary

Dorothy "Dottie" Thomas, considered the mother of bone marrow transplantation.
Obituary

This is, of course, a tiny and random selection of names. I present them for consideration and possible inspiration. Happy 2016!

Nivchar shem may-osher rav - a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches (Proverbs 22:1).

Understanding Anger

“I recognised the connection between my anger and my will to live. My anger was my will to live turned inside out. My life force was just as intense, just as powerful as my anger, but for the first time I could experience it as different and feel it directly. In that first moment of surprise, I had a glimpse of something fundamental about who I am; that at the core of things I have an intense love of life, a wish to participate fully in life and to help others to do the same. Somehow this had grown large in me as a result of the very limitations that I had thought were thwarting it. Like the power of a dammed river. I had not known this before. I also knew that in its present form, as rage, this power was trapped. My anger had helped me to survive, to resist my disease, even to fight on, but in the form of anger I could not use my strength to build the kind of life I longed to live. And then I knew that I no longer needed to to it this way. I knew with absolute certainty that my pain was nobody’s fault; that the world was not to blame for it. It was a moment of real freedom.”

from 'Kitchen Table Wisdom' by
Rachel Naomi Remen MD

Feminist Cartoonist Fights Back!

This is one of a series of Orangina ads in France. The ravaj has always thought Orangina to have the best-tasting diet orange soda. But if you know as much French as the ravaj, or more even, then after reading this (via the fascinating Blog d'une Chienne de Garde) you might have to join us in rejecting the product because of its sexist advertisements.

Ms. Chienne has also shared her perspective via the following cartoon:
If that doesn't put you off the boisson ...

Baroness Park of Monmouth RIP

I know I know another blinking obituary. They are just so compelling. This one, for example: the top spy of her time. It is just irresistable! Here are some excerpts from the Telegraph:

"Daphne Park demonstrated that a woman could be an immensely competent officer on the ground. Extracting information in the middle of an African jungle or burning top secret documents (and then hiding the ashes in her knickers) were simply part of the job."

"Here (in the Belgian Congo), Daphne Park dealt with the inevitable death threats and lawlessness of society with habitual sangfroid. On one occasion, when living alone, she chased off an intruder by leaning out of her window and shouting: "I am a witch! And if you don't instantly go away your hands and feet will fall off!""

"The family home was a mud hut without running water or electricity. Daphne pegged her first gold claim aged three, finding a single nugget which she then lost. She had no formal education until the age of 11, when she walked three days to the nearest road and hitched a lorry ride "through a cloud of locusts" to Dar es Salaam."

Go and read the rest for yourself. It's here. Another amazing woman - she puts me to shame with her energy and initiative.

What is Wrong With This Picture (iii)?

Absolutely nothing is wrong with this picture from the September issue of Glamour magazine. Well that's what I say. Strangely enough, the comments have come not because the model is, albeit tastefully, naked. Rather it is the small, the o so small roll of fat on her stomach that has caused a furore. "Hurrah for showing a real woman" was the main sentiment of the myriad e-mails that flooded the magazine's website. The model herself, one Lizzie Miller, was less gung ho about it. She "admitted that seeing her small roll of flesh in the magazine made her cringe. "I'm just like every girl or person with insecurities," the 20-year-old said. "You zone in on the (worst) part. Let's just say you're your own worst critic." "

Look here for more or just google Ms. Miller

Triumph and Disaster

Love this photo - wish I'd taken it. England win. New Zealand lose. End of.

An Interview with Susie Orbach

Was just reading Decca Aitkenhead's interview with Susie Orbach in the Guardian today. Orbach is probably best known for her book 'Fat is a Feminist Issue', written about 30 years ago. Nu - I'd love to fill this post with quotes from the interview, because it is having a strong impact on my thinking - today is supposed to be the beginning of my new eating regime! I shall content myself with one, and let you read the rest here if you wish.

"Her latest book, Bodies, maps the progress of our alienation, from a time when we took our bodies for granted to one where they are an endlessly perfectible work in progress. "When I was growing up," she explains, "one or two girls were beautiful, but it was not an aspiration, right? We didn't expect to be that sportsman or that beauty queen. That was OK, that was what movie stars were for. That wasn't something that was essential for all of us." Yet today, movie-star looks are not just an aspiration but an imperative, and ordinary people think nothing of starving or surgically enhancing their bodies in a tireless campaign to make them look as though they belong to somebody else altogether."

And how did that evolution come to pass? Insert rant about diet and cosmetic industries. *sigh* It so happens that losing some weight should cause a drastic improvement in my current health. I need to reach that goal first, before obsessing about the looks of forty-something movie stars and why I don't look like them. To tell you the truth, I am more likely to lust after such women. The bodies that I really admire would be those of footballers like Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo; or the physical strength of the Williams sisters, although my mind does keep slipping back into thoughts of Nigella :-)

First Ladies

Thank you Dorothy Snarker for this:
Not content with the sleepless nights you have evoked through your tank-top Tuesday photos, now you've really done it! How am I ever supposed to sleep again?

Eri Yoshida

Opening Day for the baseball season is under a week away in the USA. In Japan, it has already begun, and the first big story covered over here is a female pitcher playing with the big boys:

"OSAKA, Japan (AP)—Japan’s first female professional baseball player made her debut Friday, striking out one batter in the ninth inning. Eri Yoshida, a 17-year-old who throws a sidearm knuckleball, took the mound during Kobe 9 Cruise’s 5-0 season-opening win over the Osaka Gold Villicanes in the newly formed Kansai Independent League. The 5-foot, 114-pounder walked the first batter leading off the inning on four pitches and allowed a stolen base before striking out the next batter swinging at Osaka Dome. She was then replaced after facing two batters.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything other than just going out there and giving it my all,” said Yoshida, who is hoping to stick with the Kobe team. “I think this was a bad result but the stadium is great and the fans were really cheering me on. I want to be able to pitch more innings and become a pitcher who can be relied upon.” Yoshida created a stir when she signed a contract in December. Some speculated the move was more of a publicity stunt to generate interest in the new league. There were 11,592 fans in the 45,000-seat stadium Friday.

Yoshida started playing baseball when she was in second grade and hopes to emulate Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Until now, no woman had played against men in Japan. A women’s professional baseball federation was established in 1950 but it stopped after two seasons. The Cruise and the other three teams in the Kansai league are more like farm teams and are a far cry from Japan’s mainstream pro teams."

Catching Up

Here are a couple of stories that I found interesting during the sad hiatus of the past week. Was just too sad to post. Better now.

1. Horror of horrors, from the Telegraph:

"Chocolate should be taxed to control obesity epidemic, doctors are told ... Chocolate should be taxed in the same way as alcohol to control Britain's obesity epidemic, a medical conference has heard"

What is wrong with people? No, let me restate that - what is going on in the UK? It seems like the government has decided to make laws to fix every problem, rather than finding ways to encourage people to fix themselves. Tax chocolate? Not while I am alive! Of course, that may not be long if I eat it since I am diabetic. Nevertheless, surely this is not the way to go:

"Dr David Walker said chocolate used to be a treat, but has become a harmful addiction, causing weight problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and back pain. Consumers are often eating more than half a day's worth of calories when they polish off a bag of chocolates in front of the television, he claimed."

Excuse me for a moment, I think there is an old piece of Ritter Sport with hazelnuts in the back of my cupboard. Back soon.

2. The Prince must be fumigated, from the Times:

This turns out to be an ecological issue, rather than a political statement.

"The normal procedure for greeting royal visitors involves a red carpet, an official welcoming committee and possibly a fanfare or two. Last night, however, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall received a rather less gracious reception on their arrival in the Galápagos Islands, when they were thoroughly fumigated before being allowed off the plane."

The rest of the story is here.

3. England win the World Cup of cricket, from the Telegraph:

"Charlotte Edwards thus joins Rachel Heyhoe-Flint and Karen Smithies as the only English cricketers - of either gender - to lift a global trophy, "I don't think it will sink in for a while," said Edwards afterwards, "but this is a special moment and we'll remember this for the rest of our lives. The team have been amazing."

No-one can doubt that England were the best team in a tournament they dominated from the start. They only lost one match - and that a dead rubber against Australia with qualification already guaranteed. Claire Taylor finished as the World Cup's leading run-scorer and off-spinnner Laura Marsh the leading wicket-taker, but the real quality of the squad was in its depth."

Yes, ok, I snuck a sporting reference in here at the end. However, this is a major achievement. And a major achievement for English women. So three cheers for the English cricketers: Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Nancy-Bird Walton RIP

Another amazing aviatrix bites the dust. She did, however, have a pretty good run, living to be 93. Known as "The Angel of the Outback", Nancy-Bird Walton operated an air ambulance service in New South Wales between the two world wars. The Telegraph wrote of her early flying years:

"Setting off with a co-pilot, Peg McKillop, in a fourth-hand Gipsy Moth with two open cockpits and a cruising speed of 80mph, she barnstormed throughout New South Wales, offering joyrides at fairs, occasionally carrying aerial advertising and taking part in air pageants. They navigated over the featureless western plains by wristwatch, compass and road map, sometimes landing in rough paddocks and claypits to ask the way. At night they often had to tie the Moth to a fence for the night to ensure it was not blown away by storms and hope that cattle had not chewed through the fabric by next morning."

This afternoon, I was sitting at my desk in front of this computer, gaily instant-messaging with a friend at her desk about 3000 miles away. It is almost impossible to imagine what it was like in the early years of technology - flying by wristwatch?

The rest of the obituary is here.

Mazal Tov to R. Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus!

Photo: Hara Person
This week the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the umbrella organisation for Reform rabbis in N. America) meets in Jerusalem for its annual convention. There, Ellen (seen above earlier today at a service by the Western Wall) will be installed as the second female leader of the oldest rabbinical association in the world. Apart from the fact that she is a member of two families dedicated to their Judaism for several generations, or that her father-in-law A Stanley Dreyfus z"l was my beloved teacher, or even that she is a cousin of my godmother in England; I want to shout out that she is a mensch. I have not met so many in my professional experience, and so I am delighted that she will be our leader for the next couple of years.

The Chicago Jewish News has a nice piece about her here.

Conchita Cintron RIP

I love women who break new ground with their careers. Conchita Cintron was one of the first women to become famous as a matador. Yes I am a vegetarian and think killing bulls for sport is cruel, so maybe she only gets four stars instead of five. I hated Margaret Thatcher all through her career, but I can still admire the ground that she broke. The New York Times wrote:

"Cintrón was seriously injured in 1949 in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a bull gored her in the thigh. Carried to the ring’s infirmary, she pulled away from doctors, returned to the ring and killed the bull. She then fell unconscious and was rushed into emergency surgery. That same year in Spain, where a law prohibited women from dismounting to fight a bull on foot, she simulated the kill by touching the bull on the shoulders — where the sword would go — as it passed her, drawing cheers from the crowd."

Now wouldn't it be better if they all did it like that? *sigh*

Portrait of a Fighter - Rusty Kanokogi

Read about another female pioneer, this time in the world of judo. Joshua Robinson writes in the NY Times:

"Rusty Kanokogi learned to scrap when her name was still Rena Glickman and she wandered the Brooklyn boardwalk. She learned to struggle when her parents ignored her in a tiny house near Coney Island. She learned to attack when she discovered judo in a dojo on Flatbush Avenue. She learned to argue in plush offices when she lobbied for women’s judo to become an Olympic sport. And at age 73, Kanokogi is still fighting."

One could make a good case that she is single-handedly responsible for getting women's judo recognised as a medal sport in the Olympic Games. This is one tough lady.

Eluned Phillips RIP

Another incredible woman utterly unknown to me until I read her obituary was Eluned Phillips, the Welsh poet who has died at the age of 94. The Independent writes that she:

" ... was unusual among Welsh writers of her generation in that she embraced a bohemian lifestyle which took her to pre-war London and Paris, where she made the acquaintance of such major artists as Augustus John, Dylan Thomas, Edith Piaf, Jean Cocteau, Maurice Chevalier and Pablo Picasso, the last of whom showed her the unfinished Guernica with the paint still wet on the canvas. She even made it to Casablanca, where she might easily have fitted in among the habitués of Rick's Bar. Nearer home, she was only the second woman to win the Crown, one of the major literary prizes awarded at the National Eisteddfod, and this she achieved on two occasions: first in 1967 and again in 1983."

I have probably said it several times, but I am constantly amazed at the achievements of women who lived in circumstances circumscribed by the general limitations on women in their particular time and place. Phillips is another to add to that group. Do read a little more here. The obit concludes:

"She explained that she had written her memoirs in English (and on a computer acquired in her 90th year) so that her many friends all over the world could read about the life of "a simple country girl with itchy feet". The book ends with her standing mischievously in the wet concrete of the Millennium Centre then under construction in Cardiff Bay and the typically spirited advice she gave to many a young writer: "Try to make as many footprints in the concrete as you can – and treasure them."

Salma Hayek Feeds Sick African Baby

Saw this in the papers online today. Forget the stupid words of the anchors after the clip, I just remember the saying that I know from Judaism (and I also know is found in Islam) - To save the life of one person is to save a whole world.

Dorothy Brant RIP

Dorothy Brant, who has died at the age of 102, was a vital part of the development of female emancipation in Britain that followed the winning of equal voting rights in the late 1920's. The Telegraph notes that:

"The rhetorical skills she exhibited (at half a guinea a time) made her particularly valued. Her efficiently organised women's branches provided speakers' classes to enable women to hold forth on the issues of the day."

Brant's career lasted for nearly 40 years:

"In the post-war Conservative Party she held positions that no woman had occupied before. From 1947 to 1954 she was deputy head of the party organisation in the north west, playing a leading part in the arrangements for Churchill's 1947 visit to receive the Freedom of Manchester, when agile supporters hung from lampposts cheering wildly. She never forgot the furious Churchillian roar which greeted his discovery of an enterprising journalist hiding under a table in his room at the Midland Hotel."

Read more about her here.

Where are the movies for women?

Wanting to find a new angle in award-winning season from which to write, the showbiz editor of the Telegraph tries to grab the attention of women ignored by Hollywood. Worked for me :-)

"Women have flocked to see Mamma Mia! because they are otherwise ignored by Hollywood, according to Meryl Streep. Mamma Mia! has taken nearly £402million worldwide and is nominated for three Baftas. The feelgood movie has smashed box office records, overtaking Titanic and Harry Potter to become the highest-grossing release of all time in the UK.

Streep, the Oscar-winning star who played the lead role in the musical, said women are woefully under-served by Hollywood and jumped on a film which was made just for them. "I know the studio is gobsmacked by its success, and a lot of the critics have been surprised, but I wasn't. It was a no-brainer," the actress said of the film, which features the songs of Abba and is based on the West End stage show. "I knew it would do well because it was aimed at an audience that has been neglected in recent years in film offerings - women. They are the last group anybody ever cares about.""

This is a perennial complaint. In the end, my attention was grasped by the question of whether or not Ms Streep would actually use the word "gobsmacked".

odetta r.i.p.

odetta, the folk singer that influenced luminaries such as harry belafonte and bob dylan, died yesterday in new york city.

""What distinguished her from the start was the meticulous care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs; to understand the emotions of a convict in a convict ditty, she once tried breaking up rocks with a sledge hammer," Time magazine wrote in 1960. "She is a keening Irishwoman in `Foggy Dew,' a chain-gang convict in `Take This Hammer,' a deserted lover in `Lass from the Low Country,'" Time wrote.

Odetta called on her fellow blacks to "take pride in the history of the American Negro" and was active in the civil rights movement. When she sang at the March on Washington in August 1963, "Odetta's great, full-throated voice carried almost to Capitol Hill," The New York Times wrote."

i happen to be interested in family trees, although i prefer the german word "stammbaum" because for me it has more of a sense of origin not just via blood. odetta was part of one of my favourites: dan bern by bob dylan by odetta by woody guthrie by leadbelly. i know there are myriad branches ... this is how i see it today!

associated press obit here

young rachel maddow

don't know the magazine, or the reporter, or the photographer. what i do know is that when rachel maddow was just entering the great wide grownup world, she was quite adorable. found this article on a fan-site. if you click on it, you may be able to read the blurb that goes with the pic.