Girl in the Locker Room!

Decoration Day and the Truth

Mon, 28 May 2007 15:03:26 GMT

courtesy arlingtonvirginiausa.com

A pause from women's issues to reflect on Memorial Day.

Adam Cohen in the NYTimes reminds us that, traditionally, as originated after the Civil War as Decoration Day, it was a day for commemorating the war dead and the war's moral cause. And that for this current war, there is no grand cause to commemorate, as the rationale for war was trumped up and the ongoing descriptions of the cause a series of fictions.

Adam Cohen:

When Memorial Day began, the war dead were placed front and center. The holiday’s original name, Decoration Day, came from the day’s main activity: leaving flowers at cemeteries. Today, though, we are fighting a war in which great pains have been taken to hide the nearly 3,500 Americans who have died from sight. The Defense Department has banned the photographing of returning caskets, and the president refuses to attend soldiers’ funerals.

Memorial Day also began with the conviction that to properly honor the war dead, it is necessary to honestly contemplate the cause for which they fought. Today we are fighting a war sold on false pretenses, and the Bush administration stands by its false stories. Memorial Day’s history, and its devolution, demonstrates that the instinct to prettify war and create myths about it is hardly new.

But as the founders of the original Memorial Day understood, the only honorable way to remember those who have lost their lives is to commemorate them out in the open, and to insist on a true account.

Awesome Sports Reporters

Sat, 19 May 2007 13:55:34 GMT

I'm in Dallas at the 20th annual meeting of an AWESOME group -- which is how they pronounce AWSM, the acronym for the Association for Women in Sports Media.

They number in the hundreds now, women writing, broadcasting and editing sports reports. When I started out in 1973 there were only a handful of us -- actually only four that I remember -- doing national sports reporting. Last night two busloads of reporters rolled to a reception at the Texas Motor Speedway -- where everyone donned firesuits and helmets and took several mind-blowing spins around the track (as passengers!). Just being in a bus filled with women doing sports journalism was a surreal experience for me. Much has changed since I left the field in 1978 and became a health and science writer.

Still, there's more recuitment and hiring to be done. Too many of the women are still the only female journalists covering their team -- whether it be hockey or basketball or football. When a female journalist can literally be yanked from a locker room by the lanyard of her press pass -- because all the security guard could see was that she was female so she COULDN'T be a bona fide member of the sports press -- well, we're not far enough from the good old days.

And in The Dallas Morning News this morning -- a nice feature story on 20-year radio veteran Suzyn Waldman STILL the only woman broadcasting baseball games. [AWSM members, correct me if the newspaper has it wrong; I'd love to be wrong]

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Lawyers

Thu, 03 May 2007 01:03:53 GMT

Radcliffe Institute

Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard University President-elect

While a cheering crowd of 500 filled a theater space in Cambridge today to hear the five female Ivy League Presidents discuss women and leadership, the Boston Globe front page told us that female lawyers are dropping out of law firms in alarming numbers, drying up any pipeline to leadership in business, justice system, politics, academia...you name it.

From the Globe:

Of the 1,000 Massachusetts lawyers who provided data for the report, 31 percent of female associates had left private practice entirely, compared with 18 percent of male associates. The gap widens among associates with children, to 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively -- reflecting the cultural reality that women remain the primary care givers of children and are therefore more likely to leave their firms for family reasons.

The dropout rate among women lawyers is overwhelmingly the result of the combination of demanding hours, inflexible schedules, lack of viable part-time options, emphasis on billable hours, and failure by law firms to recognize that female lawyers' career trajectories may alternate between work and family, the report found.

The report, "Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership," which was produced by the MIT Workplace Center in conjunction with several of the state's major bar associations, is rife with devastating commentaries on law firm life, including one female lawyer's remark that "I would not encourage my daughters to enter the legal profession."

-RH

The Young and the Restless

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 10:37:45 GMT

Abstinence programs don't work. If you have teens, you knew this would be the case. Now a government-commissioned study of four programs has nailed it, studying two groups of kids; one group got the program in elementary and middle school, the other didn't. Bottom line: in both groups about half the kids had sex before age 17, and of the kids who had sex, the median age was 14 years and 9 months. This study is well done. Very hard to argue with. Maybe that's why the Bush Administration's Department of Health and Human Services didn't release it. Congress did. Read it yourself.

Kids know when you're not giving them the whole picture. They have great radar for hypocrisy. Some reality talk, contraceptive information and acknowledgement of their relationships, might buy some time and certainly protect their health. Abstinence programs, ineffective and ignorant, are dangerously unhealthy.

-RH

It Took A Village

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 01:22:36 GMT

From Les Moonves' memo to CBS staff after firing Imus in the wake of objections from staff at NBC and CBS and across many professional and social groups....objections that led to a stampede of advertisers away from the "product". This doesn't excuse the man, either man, or speak to the money made by CBS on the back of victims of Imus' hateful speech, but this is the larger point about cultural norms:

One thing is for certain: This is about a lot more than Imus. As has been widely pointed out, Imus has been visited by Presidents, Senators, important authors and journalists from across the political spectrum. He has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our Company.

-RH

Ho No

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:44:05 GMT

It's been awhile, but the "nappy-headed hos" remark snapped me out of it. Sure, radio jock Imus is a lousy, rude jerk, but one white guy with a big radio audience is only the next exploiter after all the rappers who've been calling their black sisters hos for a decade and making lots of money off of it, especially for music conglomerates. Imus stepped over a line by directing the epithet to a particular group of identifiable black women (the fabulous Rutgers basketball team), instead of nameless writhing women on the music videos or the imaginary women addressed on the CDs. Where's been the rage over that? Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post sidesteps the rappers. But author Jill Nelson has the big picture.

(AP)

Football Followup

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:39:39 GMT

Football Followup:

I'm interested in the Archie/Peyton/Eli dynamic. Here's what Archie had to say, the lessons Eli (and Rex Grossman) could grab from the Colts' Super Bowl victory. I think he was just trying to remind people that they're young quarterbacks and have much to learn and time to learn it.

USC Kicker Mario Danelo. Coroner's finding announced today. Drunk when he fell from the cliff.

"Person of Interest" in Darrent Williams shooting case is back in jail on a parole violation. Coroner says the Denver Broncos cornerback was killed by a single bullet to the neck.

NFL crime roundup including Bears' Tank Johnson and the nine Cincinatti Bengals. What a year.

Also former NE Patriot Ted Johnson on football's concussion problem.

-RH