BOOS, BRAVOS AND TIDBITS

Before we go on to this month's column, we would like to say that the Bitches do not really have bionic ears and we need to hear from readers to really get the best tidbits. So get out your postcards and start sending in those little known facts about the women in your life!

BOO: To the Cleveland fetus fanatics who felt compelled to waste gas and pollute the atmosphere in Cleveland Heights by driving around Severance Shopping Center with anti-abortion slogans and little red, white and blue ribbons on their cars. When they got tired of that, they all settled in at St. Ann's parking lot. Looked like a political rally at first glance. Anyone for a pray-in at Rightto Life headquarters (3441 Lee Road)?

TIDBIT (women's history): Dr. Martha May Elliot, former chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, who was responsible for a dramatic decline in maternal and infant death rates, died in early March at the age of 86. In 1921 she left her private pediatric practice to study rickets and, along with Dr. Edward Parks, discovered the preventative value of sunshine and cod liver oil. She was the first woman to be president of the American Public Health Association (1947).

BRAVO: To those unnamed heroines who finally communicated to Cambridge Coatings that women are tired of being sexploited, by splashing red paint on a large sign near Carnegie and E. 102nd. The sign says "We have something for everyone" and pictures a number of gorillas carrying painting and wallcovering materials. The largest gorilla is carrying a fainting, scantily dressed blonde.

BOO: To Cleveland Trust and Visa, for offering credit life and disability insurance to its customers that discriminates against women. Guess what's not covered "pregnancy, childbirth, abortion or miscarriage, other than miscarriage caused by accident." The Bitches suggest you refrain from using your card and write M. Brock Weir, President of Cleveland Trust, at his downtown office and let him know why.

BRAVO: To Cleveland Rape Crisis Center volun. teers who were honored in February at a special dinner at the Three of Cups. Volunteers are the life blood of the CRCC. If you are sitting home thinking the world is getting better for women, go down and train as a volunteer. Last year 67% of CRCC rape victims reported the rape to police but only 11% of those resulted in arreests. That's a lot of rapists running loose in this town.

TIDBIT: An up and coming female athlete, winner of a gold and silver medal in last summer's Macabiah at the Jewish Community Center, Lara Tabac, 8, now aspires to be an actress. But those who know her best say she should be a stand-up comic. She does hilarious take-offs on TV commercials and should definitely be recruited for next year's Variety Show.

BOO: To Saudi Arabia, which still punishes adultery with the death sentence. News recently came out that last July, Princess Aziz, victim of an arranged marriage that didn't work, was convicted of adultery when she and her lover tried to slip out of the country. She was shot to death and her lover beheaded. Last year one of the Saudi kings

By the Bionic Bitches

drowned his daughter in a swimming pool at thei home when he learned she had been to bed with a man before her marriage.

BOO: To Fayette County Common Pleas Judge Evelyn Coffman, who denied a woman prisoner permission to be at the bedside of her 3-year-old son when he died in a hospital of hepatitis. Her reasoning: "I thought it would have been an inhumane thing for her to go down there and see her child in that condition." Joan Sloan is in Fayette County Jail on charges of traffiking in marijuana. She was in a van with three other women when police stopped them. She was the only one convicted. She also was the only black.

NOW COME

QUIETLY!

Post Amerikan/cpf

TIDBIT: Been reading the want ads lately? Wanted: Person Friday. Must type 50 wpm, must have experience and have figure aptitude." Three for the price of one female. Or this one: "Diversified, must type 50 wpm, able to lift 40 lb. packages." How many men do you know who can type? Eunuchs only need apply?

BOO: To RTA which, as of March 15, 1978, will replace 150 part-time Cleveland policemen assigned to various stops and stations to insure passenger safety, with 35 RTA security guards.

BOO:

To the mixed messages conveyed in the March 5 Sunday Magazine article about Liz Richards. On one hand she complained about the confining featherhead ingenue stereotype she must portray on TV 5's "Morning Exchange", and on the other she says, "I play the role I do (because) nobody likes to see a strong assertive woman win an argument. Sez who? Liz Richards is a visible woman in a professional position who could be a positive confirming image to many women. Will the real Liz Richards please stand up?

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BOO: Again to the Sunday PD Magazine for the article on being flatchested by "Wanda Wishful”. A lot of space was given to perpetuating the damaging notion that women want male attention even if it takes the form of harassment and violence. Wanda wistfully confesses that she has never been attacked or even hooted at by construction workers. Who is this Wanda anyway? If s/he really talked to some women, s/he would find out that thanks to Madison Avenue brainwashing (to say nothing of the Judeo-Christian Industrial Complex), women of all dimensions are unhappy with their bodies. For something good on the politics of measurements, read Nora Ephron's "Growing Up Flatchested in the Fifties." Incidentally, we wonder if the PD would give three pages to a bit of froth penned by "Tiny Tom" or "Limp Larry".

BRAVO: To all the Pro-Choice activists who've consistently shown up in large numbers to articulate their point of view and to counter the compulsory pregnancy folks who are forcing a review by the Cleveland Heights Law Department of the 1973 city ordinance on abortion facilities.

SCHOOL NURSES FIRED

Fifty-nine women, all school nurses, were fired by the Cleveland Board of Education on January 26, 1978. The Board's rationale for this action is budgetary restraints. Yet no other group has been eliminated. Doctors, dentists, custodians, administrators and special teachers have been reduced in number, but only nurses have been eliminated.

We need to question the priority by which this decision was made. Cleveland school nurses need support. Letters of protest may be mailed to Arnold Pinkney and other Board members at:

1380 East Sixth Street

Cleveland, Ohio 44114. Other Board members include George Dobrea, John Gallagher, William White, Mary Geraci, Joseph Gallagher, and Berthina Palmer.

--Mary Ostendorf

Noble Aims for Senate

(HerSay) Newsweek magazine reported that Massachusetts State Legislator Elaine Noble is expected to make a bid for the U.S. Senate.

The magazine says that Noble, the only avowed Lesbian currently holding high office in the U.S.. will seek the state's Democratic nomination to run against incumbent Edward Brooke.

Brooke, the Senate's only Black member, last year authored legislation which would have permitted poor women to obtain Federally funded abortions FOR HEALTH REASONS.

A House-Senate compromise later, further limited the access of poor women to abortions.

Anti-Gorilla Tactics continued from page 1

Women from many

Chester Avenue last year, organizations wrote letters and visited the company, demanding that it be removed. It seemed that the women succeeded, for the billboard was taken down. Apparently, however, the Goldlust boys waited for the women to cool off this year they simply put it back up on Carnegie and East 102nd Street.

Action Taken:

Who: Angry women who felt that Cambridge was insulting the women in the Cleveland community by ignoring our last year's efforts.

What: We hurled red (K-Mart) paint on the gorilla in the billboard late one night Mission accom plished without casualties.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

We urge all women to take action at whatever level she feels comfortable exercising to hold Cleveland companies accountable to women -to eliminate violence and sexual exploitation of women in adver tising.

Some Ideas:

Jam Cambridge Paint Co. phone lines (932-2700 and 779-8500). This can slow down incoming business.

Buy paint in their stores and return it. This can tie up sales personnel, slowing business.

Write letters to the Goldlust boys, demanding an end to their violent advertising. If enough women do this the second time around, they may get the message.

Write Foster and Kleiser, the advertising agency, 4600 Carnegie Ave., whose billboard it is.

March, 1978/What She Wants/Page 3