Global Population Speakout

Here is a beautiful five minute long video that  sums up the the unprecedented, 'perfect storm' of global scale challenges that threaten to derail human civilization as we know it.  The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB6_WsI2YrQ

Americans Need to Relax About Sex

Sex us a totally natural, biological function. Every living species practices it in some way or another. We humans are hard wired to  like sex. There is a biochemical cascade at work in our brains that compels a response to anything akin to sexual stimulation. Additional insight on our sexually tuned brain chemistry can be found in a book I reviewed in this blog. The book, titled The Compass of Pleasure, presents what neuro-researchers have learned more recently about the brain's role in human sexuality. Bottom line; sex is a perfectly normal biological function. Moreover, for humans, it can be a source of a lovely, intoxicating brand of physical pleasure.

Unfortunately, in America, our natural sexual instinct has long been stifled by religious stricture.  The article below addresses the perverse way normal human sexual instinct  is undermined by the American brand of morality. 

______________________

Fantasies of White Sexual Slavery: How Our Nation's History of Sexual Oppression Is Still With Us

By David Masciotra,  AlterNet 

December 31, 2014

For anyone willing to look right in the face of America’s sexual repression, sexist assumptions, and racist fears, Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and The Making of the FBI by Jessica R. Pliley, is at once a magnifying glass and flashlight. It is an indispensable history of all the American anxieties, hang ups, and priggish obsessions in one neat, little package.

Pliley is a Women’s History Professor at Texas State University, and she writes with the predictable detachment of most academics. Her linguistic restraint is likely the result of Olympian self-discipline, given the sheer insanity of what she summarizes and scrutinizes in Policing Sexuality.

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, prostitution was not only legal in America, but widely available in any major city, and even most small cities. Pliley writes that, at that point in American history, “women’s citizenship was defined through her sexual contract with her husband (the marriage contract), and U.S. policy towards women generally emphasized women’s reproductive service to the nation.”

Prostitution, as historian Thaddues Russell often explains, was actually the first model of independent, even feminist, citizenship and life in the United States. Many prostitutes lived according to their own income and accord, wore makeup, and eventually became business owners.

Because it was subversive to the subservience of women to men, and because of its obvious violation of strict social and sexual mores, prostitution became the target of a religious and progressive reformer campaign for regulation, and later, criminalization. The alignment of religious conservatives and feminist liberals on issues of sexual policing is one of the most fascinating stories in American history and contemporary politics. It is one, however, that most people refuse to acknowledge. Pliley’s piles of evidence make it impossible to ignore.

Suffragists and “social hygienists”, whether motivated by Christianity or paternalist “protection” of young women, used a crowbar to enter into mainstream discourse, and advocate for the prosecution of prostitution. Their crowbar was what Pliley calls, “the American myth of white slavery.”

Even though prostitution by coercion, assault, or threat of violence – sex slavery – accounted for less than ten percent of sex worker cases in America during the early twentieth century, the idea of “white slavery” spread like a contagion across the body politic. Millions of people came to believe that young, innocent, virginal white women were victims of abduction and assault, and forced to prostitute themselves for the enrichment of their immigrant pimps. Because black and non-white immigrant women had no inherent value or innate dignity – essentially, they weren’t human – they could not become part of the “white slavery” myth, and were, therefore, unworthy of protection. In response to an actual case of rape against a young, black woman, the U.S. attorney of Arkansas said that in his state it would be impossible to secure a conviction in a case “where any colored people are connected either as subject of victim.”

Raping black women was pretty much legal, and common, but white slavery was a scourge in need of destruction. One can’t help but wonder how different American history would have turned out if politicians and lawmakers spent a fraction of the time fighting actual slavery as they did combating nearly non-existent white slavery, but rationality and race rarely coalesce in the American story. The Mann Act of 1910 made it illegal to transport women across state lines for prostitution, debauchery, and in the especially dangerous language of the law, “any other immoral purposes.”

Even if cases of coercion and force in regards to prostitution were uncommon, aggressively mobilizing law enforcement resources to prevent and punish them was a good idea. It turns out, however, that the Bureau of Investigation (The FBI in its infancy) used the vague and threatening phrasing of the Mann Act to vigorously and viciously persecute adultery, seduction cases, and anything with the slight hint of miscegenation. “Policing domesticity” is a useful phrase that Pliley employs in her analysis of The Mann Act, making it clear and incontrovertible, that the federal government and local law enforcement agencies, along with an army of volunteers, collaborated to enforce traditional morality against women – to keep them in their place, the home, and in the meantime, to keep the races romantically segregated, and to keep the sanctity of marriage synonymous with positive citizenship.

Promiscuity, even among single women, quickly became a substitution for prostitution. Legislators and police officers believed that the promiscuous woman, because she was more likely to contract a venereal disease, threatened the health of married men who might step outside their marriages for sexual adventure. The men, naturally, almost never faced arrest or prosecution. Meanwhile, white men sexually assaulting black women was not a crime, at least in the response it elicited from law enforcement, but consensual sex between black men and white women, was a prosecutable offense.

Such an ambitious enterprise of moral regulation required significant personnel and funding, and when Congress continued to increase the budget for the fledging Bureau of Investigation, it gave birth to the FBI and the surveillance state. The Immigration Bureau and the Bureau of Investigation moved into nineteen cities, and enlisted a “white slavery squad” – men of moral repute who voluntarily went undercover into brothels, vice districts, and other places of prostitution, to monitor, track, and create a record of sex workers. It seems that the worst assumptions modern critics of State power can make about law enforcement and surveillance don’t go nearly far enough. The rise of the FBI and State sanctioned spying – in its methodology, its practice, and its reason for existence – is inseparable from misogyny, racism, sexual repression, and bizarre, Christian notions of moral purity.

Follow the genesis of the FBI and the surveillance state, through the Red Scare, McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, and the political war against dissent in the 1960s, the assassination of Fred Hampton, and the imprisonment of Assata Shakur, and the warnings of Edward Snowden become even more urgent, important, and frightening. From J. Edgar Hoover to the data mining of the NSA, short of wearing eyeglasses upside down and plastering tin foil over the windows, there is no such thing as paranoia in the face of the American State. 

Policing Sexuality is irreplaceable in any library of American history, but also in the effort to gain an understanding of an increasingly regressive form of domestic politics. Immigrants don’t just constitute a threat to the health and safety of America right now. They were a danger to the virginal bliss and innocence of women and American families in the early twentieth century. Unarmed black men are not just now a menace worthy of police execution. They were ready to rape, kill, and pimp white women a long time ago. Women’s sexuality is not up for negotiation and discipline just because they want their health insurance policy to cover contraception, they’ve always been subversive sluts.  

Tolerance of the State policing the consensual sexual activities of adults, just because the exchange of money is involved, is not only ironic in a nation always priding itself on freedom, but deeply cruel considering that, as Pliley demonstrates in her conclusion, “Laws intended to police sex trafficking rarely benefit those who have been trafficked; instead these laws mark women as bodies to be policed.”

Sex positive feminist Carol Queen has coined the term “absexual”, to describe people who “get off complaining about sex,” and find their stimulation through the moral imposition of their mores on the adventurous and open minded, whose source of pleasure fascinates and frightens them. It doesn’t require the insight of Sigmund Freud to see how absexuality plays a fundamental role in the shaping America’s sexual norms, from the condemnations of puritanical Christians to the concerns of paternalistic feminists. The absexual finds the whiff of what he or she ridicules too alluring to stay away completely, but too scary to actually practice.

Policing Sexuality offers a sad and absurd glimpse into the troubled psyche of a nation that never developed a healthy, sophisticated, and adult sense of sexuality. The punishment it inflicted on prostitutes, promiscuous women, and interracial couples a century ago is a great shame and real sin. The pain it produces in the lives of sex workers right now is nothing short of depraved and barbaric.

It is that very depravity and barbarism that conceived and nurtures American law enforcement and the modern surveillance state.

 

---

Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/gender/fantasies-white-sexual-slavery-how-our-nations-history-sexual-oppression-still-us

 

Man Prayer

This is an extraordinary short video written by Eve Ensler, one of the brightest lights in the feminine galaxy.

This very engaging video has a lot to say, particularly to males of the species.  My gender has had its hand on the throttle and steering since people left caves for permanent settlements.  Often,  humanity has advanced, not because of  male dominance, but mostly in spite of the things men have done. Until very recently, women have been dominated by men and subjected to many forms of violence and mistreatment. They have been deprived of education, and in some societies, reduced to a form of property. 

In recent years, in the more developed nations of the world, woman have made great strides. In the U.S., women have fought for and, to a great extent,  attained  equality and access to education and opportunity.

That's not say the battle is won for women.  There are still conservative voices that want to limit women's reproductive choice and their right to be who they wish to be.  There are still too many lesser developed nations in the world where women's rights remain pretty much non-existent.

Eve Ensler is one of the world's most important voices on equality and women's issues. The group she founded, V-Day, has become a global force.  With V-day, the principle focus is on ending violence against women by men. V-day is everywhere these days, but its work in Africa and the Congo in particular, is particularly notable and inspiring.

Eve Ensler is a creative genius and a treasure to humanity.   This 'Man Prayer' video is a powerful reflection of V-Day's effort to engage men and encourage them to join with women to remake the world in a manner that is life affirming and sustainable.

In V-Day parlance,  I am a V-man.

You guys that are not already in the club, I have to ask, 'What are you waiting for?'   If a man wants women to appreciate him, it starts with treating them with compassion and respect. 

Here is a link to the V-day website...  http://www.vday.org/


 

Slut Shamers Need To Get A Life

Slut shaming is the principle way that modern society represses self-expression in girls and women.  If a female doesn't conform to a conservative line on behavior and appearance in public, she is labeled a slut, which translates to brazenly oversexed and immoral.   

First of all, who gets to decide what constitutes being oversexed and immoral?  Conformity is a cultural construct that has been used for centuries to repress women.  It began eleven thousand or so years ago, when humans traded the stone-age, hunter-gatherer nomadic way for living in permanent communities dependent on agriculture for survival.  The move to settlements also gave rapid rise to a male aggression/dominance paradigm that has shaped human societies ever since.  

Women have been subjugated and treated as little more than vessels for child bearing ever since.  Women who dared step out of the very dark shadow looming over them were given a scarlet label, or even worse, brutally made into fearsome example by being burned alive at the stake.

In modern, developed societies women have shaken off most of the limits that prevented them from achieving their full potential in earlier times.  These days, women's voices are loud and clear. They have demanded equal treatment and, for the most part, they are getting it. Some battles, like equal pay for equal work and reproductive choice, are still being waged, so the fight continues.

One area where younger people, and young females in particular, remain in conflict with older people is in how they express themselves by appearance and personal behavior. Female sexuality is a powerful force that has been almost entirely repressed since the invention of the wheel.  Not anymore. We live now in an era awash in sexual expression.  Forty percent of the traffic on the internet is sexual in nature, much of it extremely so.

Young girls born into the age of the internet and cellphones are now getting peer pressure to engage in 'sexting', where the private exchange of sexually provocative images is the norm. This is a broad form of sexual expression that is far beyond anything seen in previous eras. 

Religious conservatives and traditionalists are apoplectic about the rise of female power and sexual expression.  They lament the passing of the female modesty that was once the norm, and they are quick to apply the 'slut' label to any girl who choses to express herself overtly, by what she wears and how she behaves.

Here's a bit of information I'd like to share with anyone who dares condemn another person, because they function outside of a cultural straightjacket.  We humans are hardwired to be interested in sex. It is how we are made. The brain sends us strong bio-chemical signals in response to sexual stimuli. That's what nature intended. 

That's not to say that freedom includes license to behave any way one likes. Some judgment is required. But it's not young people who are open in their sexual expression that need to change so much as it is older people, who are quick to apply ugly labels.

Bottom line. Being sexual is normal for men and for women.  Every person, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, has a right to own their sexuality, and express it as they wish, without fear of attracting a 'scarlet' label.

There's been a lot of hoopla lately about the privately taken and shared nude photos of celebrities being stolen by internet hackers, who then put those images out on the net for public consumption.  Who deserves to be castigated? Should it be a celebrity, whose privacy has been violated, or the internet trolls who stole the images and 'exposed' them without permission?   The answer seems clear enough to me.

Through the ages,  sex workers have been the subject of ridicule and scorn.  Many of them choose to express themselves through that career choice.  Should they be condemned for doing so?  Or should they be accepted for who they are, within a framework of  public policy that regulates their work to protect them from exploitation and violence, with law enforcement focused on stopping the  exploitation of adults, and particularly children, who are forced into sexual servitude?  The answer to this also seems clear to me. Europe, to a large extent, is already taking this tolerant approach. 

I love women who are comfortable expressing their sexual power. As a man, I believe it's entirely normal to think that  way.  That doesn't mean that men should behave like alley cats when they see an attractive woman walking down the street.   It's okay to appreciate a woman, without ceding complete control to one's limbic brain.

I've wanted to express myself on this issue for some time.  Just today, I ran across a video produced by Hannah Whitton, a  young  girl from London in the U.K., who does a lovely job of putting slut shamers in their place.

Here is a link to Hannah Whitton's  wonderful video repudiating the social phenomenon known as slut shaming...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3bQLq9QGA4

Potty-Mouthed Princesses

This video is awesome. It's little girls dropping  F-bombs, talking about sexism, equality, respect, etc.  Cheeky and fun, and also right on with its message. 

We need a level playing field, where men and women are concerned. No gender discrimination. Equal access to education and opportunity. Equal pay for equal work. Equal rights in all ways.

Check this out. If you want the best for women, this will make your day...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHYzYn3WZw

Antonio Banderas - A Man Who Cares About Women

 I just viewed a PSA done by the actor, Antonio Banderas for the United Nations 'Stop Violence Against Women Campaign'.  Well over half of the world's female population have been raped, beaten, murdered, or abused in some fashion. That is a shocking fact.   And, let's face it. The abusers are and always have been men.

Antonio Banderas

The paradigm of male dominance  entrenched itself about 10,000 years ago when humans began to live in permanent communities dependent on agriculture for survival.  The strongest males began to specialize as  warriors.  Culture evolved with women relegated to 'doormat' status. Religion reinforced the male dominant paradigm.  Christians, Muslims, Jews; whatever the brand, religion was shaped by men, for men.  Human history reflects endless conflict and bloodshed as one group of men worked for advantage over another. 

More recently, in western culture, women have made strides, but there is still a long way to go where equal opportunity and wage parity are concerned.  In the US, women still make about 20% less than men doing the same job, and there is still a problem with some men behaving abusively toward women.

In other cultures, it remains far worse. In too many places, women continue to be little more than the  property of men, abused, denied opportunity or access to education, oppressed in so many ways.  Cultural and religious dogma in Africa, the Middle East, and some parts of Asia and Latin America, work together to keep men dominant and women subservient. 

This must change. We must evolve our global human society to a place where women are equal to men in all ways.   Women are entitled to the same respect as men. They are entitled to live free of and without fear of violence. They are entitled to equal access to education and the same opportunity to achieve their full potential.  They are entitled to dream and experience joy, and to be all that they can be,

Every man should want such a world for women. They are our mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends.  I want that, and Antonio Banderas wants that.

I've been a fan of Antonio Banderas the actor ever since he became Zorro in the movies.   Now,   even more, I admire Antonio Banderas the man, and outspoken champion for women.

Here is Antonio Banderas speaking out for the world's women...ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3fyoHFuFgQ

Why Elizabeth Warren Should be the Next President of the United States

In her own words, Senator Warren speaks to Netroots Nation Conference and lays out what she stands for.  She is the leader that we desperately need to be the next President of the United States.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Here is the link...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDOsAAwTKes

Lupita Nyong'o - An Exceptional Human Being

I watched the Academy Awards last night. I found myself completely charmed by a young woman named Lupita Nyong'o.  Ms. Nyong'o was born to Kenyan parents.  She received the Academy Award for 'Best Supporting Actress' for her role in Twelve Years a Slave, the film that won the award for 'Best Picture'

I was very taken with this young woman.  Her  speech accepting her Oscar was the best of the entire event.  Afterward, I came across another video of Ms. Nyong'o speaking to a meeting of black women film professionals.  She talked about beauty, and her own struggle to accept her 'blackness'. When she was young, she felt bad that her skin was not lighter.  Her speech about that is very moving.  Lupita Nyong'o is a very impressive human being.  I think we are going to hear a great deal more from her.

Lupita Nyongo

Here is the wonderful  'You Tube' video of Lupita Nyong'o talking about her struggle to accept her own personal beauty... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCkfARH2eE

Jackson Katz on Gender Bias and Violence

I never heard of this guy, but I like what he says.  I found a link to his TED talk on Facebook.  Turns out his work is focused on training men in the military, on sports teams, in business, and in other venues to become leaders in standing up to gender bias and violence. His paradigm is simple, but also formidable.  He wants men in positions of power and influence to take the lead in calling out instances where women, or any other ethnic or gender category persons, are subjected to verbal abuse or violent behavior. 

Acting like a clueless prick doesn't take balls. The courage lies with those who stand up to that brand of mindless misanthropy. Let's face it, some women are jerks, but most jerks are male, and those jerks need to be called out when the step over the line. That's how the line gets redrawn.

Jackson Katz

Here is Jackson Katz's TED talk on gender bias and violence... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTvSfeCRxe8

Deganawida -The Great Peacemaker

Who is the greatest American most people never heard of?  If you ask me, that person is Deganawida, the native American spiritual leader who inspired the creation of the great Iroquois Confederacy. The binding laws of the Iroquois Confederacy provided much inspiration for Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin,  and their co-creators of the U.S. Constitution. 




Etching of Deganaweda

Deganawida is thought to have been born sometime in the 13th or 14th century.  What is known about him is imprecise because it all comes via oral history.  He was born into the Onondaga, or also possibly the  Mohawk tribes, both of which are indigenous to New York state, and the surrounding region. At the time of Deganawida's birth, the native American tribes in that region had a long history of bloody, intertribal warfare.  

Deganawida was a prophet.  Along with his disciple Hiawatha, he provided the vision and leadership that replaced confrontation and war with cooperation and friendship among six tribal nations, which became known as The Great Iroquois Confederacy. This Indian confederacy was quite possibly the first true democracy in the history of humanity.  The tribes that made up the confederacy were the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Tuscarora, and Cayuga.  Together, they came to be known in native language as Haudenosaunee, which in English is the Iroquois Confederacy.

Deganawida's vision provided a powerful place for women in the process of governance. In the structure of the confederacy, the clans that made up each of the tribes were led by male elders, who were elected by the clan's women.  Decisions were made with thoughtful consideration for future generations.

Were credit given where credit is due,  the Iroquois Confederacy would be recognized in history books as a prime inspiration for the Constitution of the United States.  Moreover,  we might be celebrating  Deganawida, the Great Peacemaker with a national holiday in October instead of a brutal thug named Columbus.

Elizabeth Warren for President

I believe in Elizabeth Warren. When I look at all the personalities practicing politics in America,  I see no other that is her equal. She's smart. She's courageous.  She's  honorable and caring.

I admire Senator Warren.  In 2016,  I very much hope she runs for President. We desperately need her brand of compassionate, no nonsense leadership.

This video just popped up of Senator Warren standing tall against the morally bankrupt, bullshit slinging of the political right...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTxWMkW8s_c

Kamala Lopez - Equal Means Equal

A few days ago, I wrote a blog piece called I Am a Feminist.  I am pleased that it resonated favorably with my women friends.

There was a very nice comment left with that piece by Kamala Lopez, who it turns out is a friend of Alexandra Paul, a much valued friend of my wife and me.

Like Alexandra,  Kamala Lopez is an accomplished actress and filmmaker herself.  She provided a link to a website of her own ERA Education Project. I went to the site. It's focus is on educating people about  the fact that women still do not enjoy equal rights with men under our Constitution. 

Kamala Lopez

Among other things, Kamala Lopez has directed her considerable talents as a filmmaker to making a series of very engaging and effective PSAs  that call for the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment.  Such an amendment to our Constitution would be a huge step forward, literally and symbolically.

I totally support Kamala's very impressive effort to elevate the public discourse on the need for an Equal Rights Amendment.  Like our mutual friend Alexandra Paul, Kamala is an irrepressible force for positive change. I can't say enough about her commitment to making a difference on the issue of equal rights for all.

I am revising my declaration on feminism... I am a Feminist and I support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution; an amendment called the ERA that recognizes that women have equal rights under the law with men.

Here are some links to a couple of Kamala Lopez's very well done PSAs on equal rights for women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOsSw7MkX24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxHLnQZLq20

I Am a Feminist

I am also a mature, white heterosexual male.   So why am I making this declaration?  Because women are equal partners with men and should be treated as such.  There is no male person alive that didn't start life in his mother's womb.  For me, it feels good and right to be a  feminist.  Being a male feminist means that you embrace the best for women as being normal and basic as well as right. You want women to be treated equally with men.  You support equal pay for equal work. You support equal access to opportunity. You believe that  healthcare and reproductive choice are rights that all women (and men) should have. You believe girls have a right to an education just as boys do. You believe violence, intimidation, indeed any kind of gender based bias, has no place in human society. Shouldn't everybody be for those things?

I'm not suggesting there are no differences between men and women.  The socio-biological research conducted by E.O. Wilson and others suggests that the gender based behavioral patterns seen in other mammal species apply to humans as well. Human males can be territorial, and aggressive. Females are more often nurturing.  Broad generalizations for sure, but when we look at the historical record, isn't that pretty much what we see?

Author Riane Eisler, in her books, The Chalice and the Blade being one example, reveals clear gender patterns in the evolution of the human species. Long ago, when humans were nomadic, hunter-gathers, the anthropological record indicates that men and women lived more or less as equals in small clans. Their lifestyles revolved around the seasons and rhythms of nature. Women's fertility was celebrated as a part of the sacred mystery of life.

Things changed when the age of agriculture arrived 10,000-12,000 years ago.  Humans domesticated plants and animals, and began to grow their food and live in permanent settlements.  This was the beginning of societies ruled by dominant males.  Women were subjugated, with their roles narrowly defined around the act of child-bearing and nurturing. 

Male dominance brought us the hierarchical church. It brought us tyrant emperors, kings and warrior elites bent on bloody conquest, and an industrial age defined by a rapacious, male dominant economic system in which the few were hugely rewarded at the expense of the masses. To a large degree, it's still that way.

To be sure, early in the 21st century, in the developed nations at least, women have overcome many obstacles on the road to equality. In the United States, many women now hold political office. More and more job descriptions are free of gender bias.  Still, the issue of equal pay for equal work remains unresolved, and reproductive rights are under heavy assault from conservatives. In many developing nations, the situation remains far worse. In too many places, women are still treated as chattel, subject to violence, denied access to education, denied reproductive choice. 

Despite the often destructive nature of the male dominant paradigm, humanity has made progress since the age of cave-dwellers. But there are now seven billion plus humans on planet Earth. We are pushing the planet's resources to the brink. We are relentlessly exploiting our water, forests, soils, and other critical resources. We have polluted our oceans. Our dependence on fossil fuels like coal and oil have caused unprecedented climate change. We are approaching a point of no-return with the damage we have done to the biosphere each of us depends on. The way we live must change. That's true in the U.S., in  the developed nations, and in all of those places yet to achieve the dignity to which every human being has a right.

As a male of the species, it troubles me that I have to admit that it has been my own gender that has  gotten us into this mess.  I'm not saying every male is a rapacious sociopath, but that is an apt description for too many of those who  end up with power and influence. Bottom line: Men alone are not going to get us out of the trouble we're in.

I am a feminist because championing equal rights and treatment for women is absolutely the right thing to do.  The full participation of women is absolutely indispensable to any kind of sustainable future.

We must have a political system that is open and accountable to all citizens, not just the privileged one percent. Corporations must be reigned in and made subject to appropriate controls. Banks must be tightly regulated, putting the public interest first.   I see no possibility of this kind of human evolution until women are included at the table as equal partners to men. 

I'm with you, ladies. I am a feminist. 

I am making this declaration, with one caveat. I am a heterosexual male. As such. I have the same sexual cravings as other hetero males. I have no shame about that.  I mention this because there is one brand of  feminism that is quick to label expressions of male sexuality as objectifying and offensive to women.  I'm sorry. Heterosexual males are hardwired to have a sexual interest in women.  I'm not saying women don't get objectified. It happens all the time. It's men being men. The problem lies with men who are only able to see women as sexual objects. A lot of men are like that. Probably 30% are like that. These same guys are also, very often, stridently opposed to all forms of sexual expression and reproductive freedom. The way forward is to leave them behind.  Marginalize them. Ignore them. Vote them out of power.  In the U.S. at least, these Neanderthals are mostly older white males. They are already on their way out.

My guess is that 40% of American adult males are already sensitized. They may not describe themselves as feminists but they support reproductive freedom, equality in the workplace, etc.  If 40% of males are already with you, and another 30% will never be with you, that leaves 30% that are open to persuasion.

My point is this; let's not stigmatize all men because 30% of the male population are incorrigible  misogynists. The way forward is to nurture the 70% of adult males who are already feminists or who can become that way with some thoughtful encouragement.

Where sexual expression is concerned, the brand of feminism I subscribe to is reflected in the approach taken by a group called, Feminists for Free Expression (FFE). Co-founded by Nadine Strossen, who for 17 years was President of the American Civil Liberties Union,  FFE takes well reasoned positions on reproductive freedom, censorship, pornography, prostitution, and sexual expression in general.  Most of Europe is already where FFE believes America should be; sex work is legal and regulated,  most forms of consensual, adult sexual expression are tolerated. 
 
The world is not going to fully embrace a sustainable pathway until women have an equal voice with men.  There are many civilization scale challenges that demand our attention. All of them can be more effectively addressed with women fully empowered as participants in shaping the future.

I am a feminist...

Malala

In October 2012,  in Pakistan while on her way home from school, 14 year old Malala Yusafzai was shot in the head at point blank range by Taliban assassins, who intended to send a message warning girl children not to seek an education.  Malala survived the attempt on her life. After months in hospital, she has recovered remarkably, and has become a worldwide symbol for the rights of girls to dignity and access to education.

 

 

This past week, Malala's 16th birthday was celebrated at the United Nations, where she spoke powerfully about her right and determination to complete her education..  Her courage and articulate representation of the causes she symbolizes is very inspiring.



 

It also seems that Malala was destined to play a role on the world stage.  Her courage, poise, and charisma would be remarkable for any person, let alone a young girl raised in a backwater town in a country like Pakistan. This is a girl whose culture discriminates massively against women and traditionally denies girls access to education. 

Here is what Malala says about the cowardly Taliban assassins who attacked her.  "They thought the bullets would silence us, but they failed.... We realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns. The extremists are afraid of books and pens.... We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back."

 

 

 

 

I admire this child, and very much hope that she is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Such recognition would only elevate her voice further. That would surely be a very good thing.

 

Here is a link to Malala's incredibly impressive speech at the United Nations....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtprX8i2k-Q

 

 

 

 

 

One Third of All Women Are Victims of Violence

One out of three women are victims of violence, according to a new study by the World Health Organization. That is an astonishing number, a truly astonishing number; shameful and entirely unacceptable.

In many traditional cultures,  women are still treated like chattel,  denied education, considered valuable only for the work they can do and the children they can birth. 

Attention cavemen for whom misogyny is the norm.  Get real dudes. Loving women, nurturing them, giving them the respect and the access to opportunities they are entitled to is a whole lot more satisfying than hurting them, degrading them, or causing them to suffer in any way.    

 ______________________

WHO report highlights violence against women as a ‘global health problem of epidemic proportions’

New clinical and policy guidelines launched to guide health sector response

News release

20 June 2013 | Geneva - Physical or sexual violence is a public health problem that affects more than one third of all women globally, according to a new report released by WHO in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council.
The report, Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence, represents the first systematic study of global data on the prevalence of violence against women – both by partners and non-partners. Some 35% of all women will experience either intimate partner or non-partner violence. The study finds that intimate partner violence is the most common type of violence against women, affecting 30% of women worldwide.
The study highlights the need for all sectors to engage in eliminating tolerance for violence against women and better support for women who experience it. New WHO guidelines, launched with the report, aim to help countries improve their health sector’s capacity to respond to violence against women.

Impact on physical and mental health

The report details the impact of violence on the physical and mental health of women and girls. This can range from broken bones to pregnancy-related complications, mental problems and impaired social functioning.
“These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO. “We also see that the world’s health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence.”
The report’s key findings on the health impacts of violence by an intimate partner were:

• Death and injury – The study found that globally, 38% of all women who were murdered were murdered by their intimate partners, and 42% of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner had experienced injuries as a result.
• Depression – Partner violence is a major contributor to women’s mental health problems, with women who have experienced partner violence being almost twice as likely to experience depression compared to women who have not experienced any violence.
• Alcohol use problems – Women experiencing intimate partner violence are almost twice as likely as other women to have alcohol-use problems.
• Sexually transmitted infections – Women who experience physical and/or sexual partner violence are 1.5 times more likely to acquire syphilis infection, chlamydia, or gonorrhoea. In some regions (including sub-Saharan Africa), they are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV.
• Unwanted pregnancy and abortion – Both partner violence and non-partner sexual violence are associated with unwanted pregnancy; the report found that women experiencing physical and/or sexual partner violence are twice as likely to have an abortion than women who do not experience this violence.
• Low birth-weight babies – Women who experience partner violence have a 16% greater chance of having a low birth-weight baby.

“This new data shows that violence against women is extremely common. We urgently need to invest in prevention to address the underlying causes of this global women’s health problem.” said Professor Charlotte Watts, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Need for better reporting and more attention to prevention

Fear of stigma prevents many women from reporting non-partner sexual violence. Other barriers to data collection include the fact that fewer countries collect this data than information about intimate partner violence, and that many surveys of this type of violence employ less sophisticated measurement approaches than those used in monitoring intimate partner violence.
“The review brings to light the lack of data on sexual violence by perpetrators other than partners, including in conflict-affected settings,” said Dr Naeemah Abrahams from the SAMRC. “We need more countries to measure sexual violence and to use the best survey instruments available.”
In spite of these obstacles, the review found that 7.2% of women globally had reported non-partner sexual violence. As a result of this violence, they were 2.3 times more likely to have alcohol disorders and 2.6 times more likely to suffer depression or anxiety – slightly more than women experiencing intimate partner violence.
The report calls for a major scaling up of global efforts to prevent all kinds of violence against women by addressing the social and cultural factors behind it.

Recommendations to the health sector

The report also emphasizes the urgent need for better care for women who have experienced violence. These women often seek health-care, without necessarily disclosing the cause of their injuries or ill-health.
“The report findings show that violence greatly increases women’s vulnerability to a range of short- and long-term health problems; it highlights the need for the health sector to take violence against women more seriously,” said Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno of WHO. “In many cases this is because health workers simply do not know how to respond.”
New WHO clinical and policy guidelines released today aim to address this lack of knowledge. They stress the importance of training all levels of health workers to recognize when women may be at risk of partner violence and to know how to provide an appropriate response.
They also point out that some health-care settings, such as antenatal services and HIV testing, may provide opportunities to support survivors of violence, provided certain minimum requirements are met.

• Health providers have been trained how to ask about violence.
• Standard operating procedures are in place.
• Consultation takes place in a private setting.
• Confidentiality is guaranteed.
• A referral system is in place to ensure that women can access related services.
• In the case of sexual assault, health care settings must be equipped to provide the comprehensive response women need – to address both physical and mental health consequences.

The report’s authors stress the importance of using these guidelines to incorporate issues of violence into the medical and nursing curricula as well as during in-service training.
WHO will begin to work with countries in South-East Asia to implement the new recommendations at the end of June. The Organization will partner with ministries of health, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and sister United Nations agencies to disseminate the guidelines, and support their adaptation and use.

Notes to Editors:

In March 2013, Dr Chan joined the UN Secretary General and the heads of other UN entities in a call for zero tolerance for violence against women at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. During the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in May 2013, seven governments - Belgium, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, United States of America, and Zambia - declared violence against women and girls "a major global public health, gender equality and human rights challenge, touching every country and every part of society" and proposed the issue should appear on the agenda of the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly.

For more information please contact:

Fadéla Chaib
WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 3228
Mobile: +41 79 475 5556
E-mail: chaibf@who.int
Jenny Orton/Katie Steels
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7927 2802
E-mail: press@lshtm.ac.uk
Keletso Ratsela
South African Medical Research Council
Telephone: +27 12 339 8500, +27 82 804 8883
E-mail: Keletso.Ratsela@mrc.ac.za

About the report

The report was developed by WHO, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council. It is the first systematic review and synthesis of the body of scientific data on the prevalence of two forms of violence against women – violence by an intimate partner and sexual violence by someone other than an intimate partner. It shows for the first time, aggregated global and regional prevalence estimates of these two forms of violence, generated using population data from all over the world that have been compiled in a systematic way. The report documents the effects of violence on women’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. This was based on systematic reviews looking at data on the association between the different forms of violence considered and specific health outcomes.

Africa, Women, and FGC - My Evolution of Understanding

A few years ago,  I began working on a novel titled, Virtue.  At the center of the story is a hardcore conservative media magnate. Imagine a younger version of Rupert Murdoch.  Anyway, this guy experiences a life threatening health scare that causes him to do much soul searching.  During his recovery, he meets a young woman who has focused her life on elevating women in the world's poorest places. The guy is oil, the woman is water. They don't mix well, but the passion is definitely there.

The media magnate's name is Greg.  The young woman he becomes enamored with, Daria, directs her outreach efforts in two places; Haiti and Ethiopia.  Her primary focus is on developing and implementing a  program called Bright Eve, built on interactive learning modules in the languages spoken by the local people.   One of the places Daria choses to test Bright Eve is a slum settlement called Mabwe  on the edge of Ethiopia's capital city, Addis Ababa.

 When I was developing  Daria's connection with this Ethiopian slum,  I was doing research on life in these poorest of poor places in Africa.  I discovered a cultural practice that girls anywhere from age three to ten have endured for perhaps a thousand years or more.  In this practice that I first came to know as female genital mutilation (FGM),  a girl child is subjected to the ritualistic removal of her clitoris and the labia surrounding her vaginal opening.  It is thought necessary to assure the purity of the girl for marriage as she grows older.  Needless to say, it is a shocking practice, painful to the extreme, and often accompanied by a whole range of serious health problems that can last a lifetime. In these cultures, girl children are treated as property, deemed unworthy of education, good only for house keeping and child bearing.

I have long believed that solving the colossal civilization scale problems that we face, like climate change and mindless population growth, first requires a leveling of the playing field, with equality and dignity for all becoming the norm. A crucial part of this is the empowerment of women.

In Virtue, Daria's focus is on elevating women in the world's poorest places.   When I learned about FGM, I sensed that it was something Daria would want to confront as well. Long story short, I was able to integrate an FGM subplot into Virtue.  After finishing the 100,000 word manuscript for Virtue,  I sought out editorial feedback, and over a number of revisions, I was able to make the story work nicely.

While working on revisions for Virtue,  I read a book titled, Half the Sky by Nicolas Kristoff and Sheryl Wu Dunn.  That book was a compendium of true stories of heroic women around the world pushing back against oppression, exploitation, and gender violence.  One of the stories in Half the Sky was about a women named Molly Melching,  who had created a non-profit organization called Tostan in Senegal in West Africa.  Tostan is a word that means breakthrough in  wolof, the most widely spoken native language in Senegal.  It's an apt description of Molly Melching's work.  Other efforts had been made to encourage the end of FGM.  Tostan evolved a model that delivered unprecedented success in educating and encouraging the repudiation of the culturally entrenched practice of FGM.

So, when I read the story of Tostan in Half the Sky, I knew what the next step for me needed to be.  I had to reach out to Tostan. I wanted my work to serve their noble efforts to affect change on the FGM issue in Africa, where it is actually happening everyday to young girls across the continent. 

Near the end of 2012, I made contact with Gannon Gillespie, Director of Tostan's office in Washington, D.C.  Gannon was pleased that I had written a work of fiction that included a plot element on female genital cutting.   He  agreed to read the Virtue manuscript, and he also arranged for Julia Lalla-Maharajh, founder of The Orchid Project, another global non-profit focused on the issue of genital cutting in Africa to read it

The feedback they gave me reflected disappointment because the way I presented female genital cutting in Virtue was not accurate.  Because it was not the main plotline of the story,  there's no denying, I didn't spend as much time trying to understand FGM as I should have.  Fortunately, Julia and Gannon  supplied notes, and I was able to make needed adjustments in the story  I didn't want Daria to be a hero like Molly Melching. At least not on the FGM issue. I wanted Daria to be deeply unsettled by FGM on an emotional level. I wanted her to respond emotionally to it initially, but pull back in time to a more measured and pragmatic posture. Most important, I wanted the depiction of FGM to be a useful reflection of the reality.

The first thing I learned from Gannon and Julia is that the term female genital mutilation has largely been replaced by female genital cutting (FGC), as a way of properly addressing the cultural sensitivity of the subject.

In April of 2013, a new book was published about Molly Melching and Tostan, the title of which is However Long the Night.  I wrote about this book in the blog entry that immediately precedes this one.

For me, this new book, authored by Aimee Molloy,  was a revelation  It helped me to understand and appreciate the way Tostan and also the Orchid Project are encouraging the end of FGC.  Working at the village level, Tostan facilitators, all of whom are local people themselves,  teach women that they have basic human rights; that they are entitled to dignity and proper treatment under the law. They teach lessons on reproduction, and the health effects of  FGC.  It's the patient, non-judgmental encouragement of community buy in, along with women, for the first time, understanding that they have rights, that makes Tostan's model for positive change work so well.

Most of the people in Senegal are Muslim. Tostan recruited local Imams to assure their followers there is nothing in the Koran that calls for women to endure genital cutting. Tostan and the Orchid Project encourage communities to come together as a whole to  abandon the practice of cutting, because it is the right thing to do for the health and welfare of their girl children. As of April, 2013 in Senegal alone,  5,423 communities have pledged an end to FGC.  This is a remarkable achievement, but there is still much work to be done.

The informal association I now have with Tostan and The Orchid Project assures that the subplot involving FGC in my novel Virtue will present the issue in the best way possible to serve the interests of their work.   I have also made a commitment to them that a substantial share of whatever I earn from the book and movie rights to Virtue will go to Tostan and The Orchid Project.  For me personally, I can't 'imagine anything more gratifying than to support these selflessly dedicated people with their efforts to empower women in Africa.

Here is a link to Tostan  http://www.tostan.org/

Here is a link to the Orchid Project  http://orchidproject.org/


 .

However Long The Night

I just finished reading a marvelous non-fiction book, beautifully written by Aimee Molloy.  However Long the Night is the story of Molly Melching and the extraordinary work she and her non-profit educational outreach organization, Tostan, have been doing, mostly in Senegal in West Africa.

Molly Melching in Senegal

Tostan is a word in Wolof, the most widely spoken of several languages particular to Senegal. It means 'breakthrough'.  That is exactly what Molly Melching and Tostan have facilitated in villages throughout Senegal, and in several other African nations. Tostan's work centers on using education and awareness of human rights as a platform for empowering the people to make thoughtful and informed decisions that might improve their lives.  Tostan's outreach is community based and most often begins with the women. Traditionally in virtually all African cultures, women have a subservient role to men.  They are often treated as chattel, sold into marriage at a young age, considered unworthy of education, good mostly for birthing and raising children.   One very unsettling aspect of life for females throughout Africa is something called, 'the tradition'. It involves the ceremonial cutting of a girl's genitals,  specifically the clitoris and the labia around the vagina opening, at a very young age.  For perhaps a thousand years - no one know exactly how long -  this practice, called female genital cutting, or FGC, has been a rite of passage for a girl,  thought to be crucial to a girl child's worthiness for marriage and motherhood.  Those who endure FGC are subjected to extraordinary suffering. Beyond the terrible pain that comes with having these most sensitive tissues mutilated, almost always without anesthetic, FGC is often done with an unsterile blade that has been used for the same purpose multiple times.  The health effects of FGC, including severe hemorrhaging and infection, are often permanently debilitating, even deadly. 

World Health Organization studies indicate that 140 million women around the world have been subjected to FGC,  101 million of those in Africa. 

Aimee Molly's book,  However Long the Night is a powerful narrative of a young woman, a Caucasian American, who arrived in West Africa in 1974, pursuing a master's degree in French language, hoping for a future as a linguist/translator. Almost forty years later,  Molly Melching has created of one of the most effective educational outreach non-profits operating on the African continent. 

As of April, 2013,  in Senegal, 5,423 communities have abandoned the practice of female genital cutting.  Much of the credit for this goes to Tostan.

 

 

 

 

Tostan employs a patient, culturally respectful style in its community based education, conducted by Senegalese facilitators, in the local language. Reading, writing, basic math, farming technique, water management,  hygiene, and personal health are at the core of the Tostan learning. Perhaps the most important lesson imparted to the women who participate is the knowledge that they, as human beings and citizens, have certain 'inalienable rights'.  When they learn this, illiterate women from the smallest backwater villages begin to rethink their lives.  This process has led to the renunciation of FGC in thousands of communities in Senegal,  the widespread repudiation of early childhood marriage, and a new acceptance of women in community leadership roles.

I love However Long the Night.  My admiration for Molly Melching and her team is boundless.   How can one not be inspired by a person, whose tireless commitment and perseverance has transformed an entire nation in dramatic fashion in one generation? 

I'll save the rest of what I have to say on this subject for the next blog entry,  which will tell my own personal revelation on this subject and how my recent connection with Tostan, and one of its leaders, Gannon Gillespie, has been a great benefit to my own writing.

Here is a link to the Tostan website    www.tostan.org

Something Big

As we move further into the 21st century, the number of civilization scale challenges we face is unprecedented.  Seven billion plus humans are competing for a share of our earth's rapidly diminishing resources.  Economic and social inequality remain rampant. Outright discrimination is a huge factor in the lives of well over half the world's population.  The culturally ingrained oppression of women continues to be a particularly corrosive fact of life. 

My life experience has led me to a firm conclusion: the path to a sustainable, dignified future for humanity requires that, to the extent possible, all forms of discrimination must be eliminated.  Equal opportunity and fair treatment must become more than just a platitude. The empowerment of women in the economic and political arenas is  critical to achieving this goal.

We are also deeply troubled by the ongoing war in the Congo in Africa. For well over a decade,  armed interests have been killing each other each other, while wreaking bloody violence on  the Congolese people, particularly those living in the Eastern Congo.  Women have a particular target of this violence.

The fact is the entire African continent has been used and abused for two centuries by Europeans, and later Americans,  who colonized and exploited its human, biological, and mineral resources. Perhaps the most egregious example happened late in the 19th century, when Leopold, the King of Belgium, had the audacity to claim the Congo, an area larger than all of Europe combined, not for his country, but for himself.  Starting in the mid-20th century, the European nations abandoned their African colonies.  The whole continent has, for the most part, been a politically dysfunctional quagmire ever since.

A few years ago,  I was inspired to assert myself and try to make a difference for the people of Africa and particularly the Congo. I am deeply concerned not just about the people, but also about the other living wild animal species in that nation, many of which can be found almost no where else in the world.  The Congo wildlife legacy is severely threatened by human population growth. Despite the ongoing genocide, the population in the Congo is expanding at a rate of nearly 3% annually.  As of 2013, the population is about 75 million,  up 350% from where it was 50 years ago. Moreover, a very substantial share of the Congo population depends on bushmeat (wild animals killed for food) for survival.  As a consequence, in many parts of the Congo, wild animal numbers are plummeting.  This includes gorillas, chimpanzees, and other primates; the closest living relatives to humans.

Despite the severe nature of the challenges, the Congo is a place worth saving. 

My approach to making a difference for the Congo has been to develop a theatrical movie project, designed to entertain and to inform.  I have some skills. I've been a successful writer/producer.  I have an Emmy and some other awards for my work. 

When I started thinking about a Congo project, I did it with some assumptions. The first was that I could not do a story that actually takes place in the Congo.  Movies set in Africa generally have not done well at the American movie boxoffice.  Another assumption was that the future of Africa, and the world in general, requires that women become fully equal on all playing fields with men.    As for genera, dramatic comedy felt like the best way to go. The movie studios covet the 18-25 year old audience.   I was determined that my movie story carry a strong message about the Congo and about the championing of women.  I chose to embed those ideas in a fun, highly entertaining package that will appeal to  young adult movie goers.

The story I came up with is about a successful Hollywood writer who, while struggling to get his new script about the Congo made into a movie, becomes a champion for the dignity and empowerment of women.  As I was laying out the structure for this story,  I was joined as a business partner by a young designer/photographer named Chad Kirkpatrick. He and I share a similar worldview. Both of us believe that a sustainable future will be achievable only when women have an equal place at the table with men.

With Chad providing valuable feedback, I wrote the script for this project,  which is now titled,  Something Big.   We have taken it through many drafts,  making improvements based on feedback from movie industry insiders. 

 Here is what Tracey Becker, Producer of the Sony Pictures theatrical feature, Hysteria, said about Something Big... 

 

Something Big is 'a rarity': a well-crafted ensemble drama that entertains highly, while also almost accidentally enlightening the audience..... With a deft combination of political messages, and outrageous yet embraceable characters,  it has a twisty plot that would make the religious right weak in the knees.  Something Big is a fascinating mash-up of  'pick-your-wing' politics',  professional wrestling,  Hollywood insiders, reality television disgraces, the sex worker  trade, and modern romance.... From a marketing perspective,  there is so much to recommend about this script.... The characterizations will likely attract a high caliber cast.... The fascinating world the author has created should speak to audiences on many levels.  At first glance, Something Big  is pure entertainment,  but on closer inspection, the themes of greed, self-aggrandizement  and the co-opting of global causes to benefit enterprises that might not have started off so high-mindedly, all contribute to the richer tapestry of this script.

Something Big is a good project. Our intent is to assign a substantial share of any income that comes from Something Big, the movie, to the causes featured in the story. One group we hope to forge a relationship with is V-Day, a global NGO founded by the esteemed feminist playwright, Eve Ensler.. Working with a highly respected group like V-Day, will help protect the intellectual integrity of the Something Big project, while allowing us to maximize the revenue we are able to direct to them and to other groups and individuals that share our passion for elevating the status of women worldwide.  

'Art has the power to transform thinking and inspire people to act.'  That is a core principle for V-Day, and that is exactly what has motivated us in the development of the Something Big project.

Stay tuned...

 

 

 

Why I Admire Women Pilots

For most of the time since the Wright Brothers first flew at Kittyhawk in 1903,  aviation was considered a man's business.  Probably because in the early years it was risky, and well outside the traditional roles for women.  Even so, a few women found ways to get past the gatekeepers, right from the beginning

1908 - Therese Peltier  (USA)  -  first woman to pilot an aircraft
1910 - Raymonde De Laroche (France) - First woman to have a pilot's license
1921 - Bessie Coleman - First African American (male or female) to have a pilot's license

Amelia Earhart, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Pancho Barnes,  and Jackie Cochran  achieved notable milestones in the early decades of aviation.  They were not the only ones, but women in the cockpit were rare until world war two.   During that war, with male pilots in short supply, the Women's Army Service Pilots were organized.  Women were trained to pilot every type of aircraft, including fighters and bombers, and were tasked with flying them to wherever they were needed for the war effort.

WW II WASPs with B-25 bomber

After the war, the WASPs were disbanded and women were denied the access they had so admirably earned.  They were given no chance to fly for the military and almost no opportunity to fly commercially for the airlines.

I have a special place in my heart for lady pilots.  The best news is they are no longer a rare commodity.  These days, there are women flying every type of aircraft. Most airlines around the world now have female pilots. The senior ones are captains assigned to many different aircraft types, including jumbo jets. 

More than thirty years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles, I developed a wonderful friendship with a young woman named Cindy Rucker.

Cindy Rucker

Cindy was remarkable in so many ways.  She was an accomplished musician and graphic artist,  but the thing she was most passionate about; the thing she loved above all else was aviation. I first met Cindy when I was flying out of Pioneer Aviation at Van Nuys Airport in Southern California's San Fernando Valley.  It was early in Cindy's career as a Boeing 727 pilot with Western Airlines.




Western Airlines Boeing 727

Cindy was female hire number six for Western. The road to airline employment has very difficult for her.  She spent every dollar she had on building flying time. Later, she took the 727 flight engineer ground school, and eventually became an instructor, teaching the course to male pilots who were getting hired ahead of her.  It was the seventies and the feminist movement was picking up steam.  Cindy was finally hired by Western as a 727 flight engineer in 1977.   Once she began flying a regular schedule, things went well for her.  She purchased a Stolp Acroduster, a single place biplane designed for stunt flying.  On April 26th, 1981, Cindy was flying the Acroduster at an airshow in El Mirage, California.  Tragically, she was doing a maneuver close to the ground and something went wrong.   I knew she was flying the show that weekend, but was working and out of touch when the media reports came through. I didn't find out about Cindy's death until three weeks later.  It was devastating, and made worse because I had no chance to say goodbye. I had to mourn her loss privately.

A newsletter published by Stolp, the manufacturer of her Acroduster biplane, included the following quote about flying aerobatics from an interview with Cindy. She said, "Fear doesn't enter into it for any of us...who wants to die?  But I'll admit, for me, facing death is the way to know you're truly alive."  Cindy Rucker was a wonderful friend, and an exceptional human being.  Her determination, and courage were remarkable.

A few years later, as my own career as a media writer/producer was blossoming, I spent considerable time developing a TV reality series called Women with Wings.  I found an Air Force C-5 Galaxy jumbo transport pilot, an Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle pilot, a Norwegian Air Force helicopter pilot, an Indian Airlines first officer,  a Northwest Airlines 747 jumbo Captain, and an Alaskan Eskimo bush pilot; all women, all willing to tell their stories and inspire young girls and boys to believe in themselves and their possible dreams. Unfortunately,  I was unable to generate any enthusiasm with broadcasters for the idea, and I had to move on to other things.

These days,  many women are serving as pilots in the world's militaries, and as commercial pilots with the airlines.  Women are flying the most advanced aircraft and the newest air transports, including the Airbus A-380 jumbo jet. Little girls who are growing up with a passion for flying know the door is open to them.

Air Force F-15 Fighter Pilots

Airline Captains

 

If Cindy Rucker were still with us, she would be a veteran airline captain flying the newest generation of Air Bus or Boeing jetliner.   She earned her place in the cockpit,  I think in heroic fashion. She helped pave the way for the current generation of female professional pilots.

Given the opportunity, women have proven themselves worthy and entirely competent in their work as aviators. As I write this, these women with wings are getting it done quietly, and mostly without fanfare.  They're just getting it done. As a pilot myself, I know how much they enjoy going to the office.  In the cockpit, gender should be, and now mostly is, irrelevant. 

Whenever I cross paths these days with a woman pilot, I think of Cindy Rucker.  She would be so proud of her flying sisters. As for me, what I feel is admiration.


Here is a link to ISWAP, the International Society of Women Airline Pilots... http://www.iswap.org/


Here is a link to a video about a young woman Lufthansa Airlines aviator,   co-piloting the A380 jumbo jet, the largest airliner in the world. By the way, Lufthansa also has a female A380 captain.  This video is in German, but don't let that put you off. It's a very engaging video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDSE9b9fzRg

Here is a video about Lt. Colonel Nicole Malachowski, the US Air Force's first female Thunderbird pilot....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmYYmaxZNNg