While we are all waiting for Gulf War II to start I thought I would take a few moments to pound out the next part in this series. This piece is a snapshot of selected news items of what some women currently want, courtesy of Google’s news search engine.
Brazilian City Bans Kissing
Reuters reports, “Seeking to protect female festival-goers from rebel male smoochers, the Brazilian city of Olinda has banned ‘forced kisses’ in this year’s Carnival. The ban for the March 1-5 pre-Lenten bash targets a 5-year-old tradition by which groups of males form corridors on the cobblestone streets of Olinda and smother women passers-by with kisses, usually against their will. The practice has outraged local feminists and city officials, who on Friday unveiled several strict security measures for Carnival. Violators of the kiss code can be charged with sexual assault, bodily harm and ‘unlawful humiliation.’ Olinda, a 16th century colonial gem located on Brazil’s northeastern coast just outside Recife, is one of the country’s most popular destinations for Carnival revelers.”
IT Women’s Salaries Falling Fast
Lisa Vass writes on eWeek, “IT salary increases shriveled in 2002, with women IT workers suffering the worst, according to a new study from Brainbench, an online skills testing company in Chantilly, Va. According to the 2002 IT Salary Survey Report, women in almost every major salary category lost ground virtually across the board, making more than men in only the lowest-paying IT jobs: those salaries under $40,000. Women’s salary losses represent a loss of ground gained in prior years. Survey results in 2001, for example, showed that the percentage of women earning more than $150,000 outpaced that of men by almost double in companies with sales in excess of $1 billion. The ranks of women in IT middle management ranks also swelled in 2001, as more women started earning between $50,000 and $100,000.”
Wages Still Growing For Women
The New York Times reports, “Most American families can thank the woman of the house for nearly all the pay gains of the last year. While men’s wages have failed to keep up with even the low rate of inflation, women’s earnings have continued to grow, giving an important lift to many families and helping sustain consumer spending. The raises have closed the gap between men’s and women’s wages to the narrowest on record, government figures show, resuming a movement that had stagnated for almost a decade.
“The median full-time female worker received a 5 percent raise in her weekly pay last year, while the median pay raise for men…rose only 1.3 percent, to $692. The inflation rate was about 2 percent. ‘The wage trends for men are unequivocally bad,’ said Jared Bernstein, an author of an annual report on the work force and an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, which is a liberal research group in Washington. ‘The fact that we’re deep into a jobless recovery and women’s wages are still growing is good news.’”
Women’s Shelters Start Work Slowdown
Canadian Press reports, “Women’s shelters across Quebec will provide only essential services on a rotating basis this week in a bid to double their annual budget to about $60 million a year. The shelters won’t send staff to accompany women to court, for example, or be able to meet all the needs of women and children staying at the shelters during the work slowdown, Liette Brousseau, president of the network of shelters, said Monday.
“The work slowdown will be done on a regional basis with shelters in western Quebec, the Eastern Townships and Chaudiere-Appalache in eastern Quebec providing only essential services on Monday. The slowdown will touch different regions all week. Brousseau said the Parti Quebecois government handed out more than $500 million in additional funding last week to so-called frontline health services, including community health clinics, but didn’t give the shelters any additional money. ‘What about us?’ she asked. ‘Nowhere is there any response to the needs of women and children.’ There are 84 shelters and transition houses in the province for women who are victims of violence. The provincial government gives them annual budget of $29 million.”
Baldness Affects Women of All Ages
KCRA reports, “Baldness affects mainly men — one out of four by age 30 — but women can also suffer from alopecia or baldness. It affects women of all ages, and in many cases, hair loss has a greater stigma for women than for men. There are some medical remedies, but when those fail, there are other alternatives. At one time, wigs were the only answer to baldness. But the problem with wigs is that they can fall off and many people can tell the difference. But there is a hairpiece that’s different. Called a monofilament unit, the hairpiece is custom made and fitted to the wearer. It’s then glued in place and cut to the hairline.”
Women Who Think Too Much
Susan Ager writes, “Women Who Think Too Much. I think that book might sell. When I heard the title, I groaned and thought, ‘Busted.’ You, too? The good news: Overthinking probably isn’t in our chromosomes. It is, however, in our upbringing, and in our culture. It can paralyze us, alienate our children and drive away our friends. It can lead us into impulsive, bad decisions. Or we can learn to control it, sometimes with a simple command to our frenzied brains: ‘Stop!’
“The new book…subtitled How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life is by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a University of Michigan psychologist. She wondered early in her career if women’s inclination to stew about their emotions could be as toxic as men’s tendency to suppress theirs. Twenty years of research led her to an answer: Absolutely yes. ‘This epidemic of morbid meditation is a disease that women suffer much more than men,’ she writes. Life is harder for overthinkers, who tend to stay stuck in indecision and doubt. Women are twice as likely to become severely depressed as men, in part because they chew too much on their troubles. And they may drink to shut down an overactive brain.”
“Older generations of women tend not to overthink. Instead, they pray. They do busy work. Newer generations are bred to believe they ought to feel good all the time and get upset when happiness eludes them. Pop culture has taught us to analyze ourselves and our friends and mates, and seek quick fixes for every itch, twitch or hiccup. Women are also prone to lean on friends who encourage wallowing rather than getting over it and marching on.”
Northern California Women’s Prison Closing This Week
Nancy Price writes, “A handful of inmates chatted quietly as they wandered last week around the grassy recreation yard that serves as the hub of the Northern California Women’s Facility. In the past, the yard would have been alive with the buzz of several hundred inmates dressed in blue jeans and white shirts, and staffers clad in olive green uniforms. But the mood last week was subdued, signifying that inmates and staff, many of whom had lobbied heavily to keep the Department of Corrections from closing Northern California’s only women’s prison, were resigned to the prison’s impending closure this week.
“Gov. Gray Davis announced last month that closing the NCWF would save the state $1.5 million this year and $10.2 million next year. The Department of Corrections has proposed converting the prison into a men’s reception center that would be an annex of Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, but such a conversion would cost at least $10 million and would require legislative approval.”
Four New Canadian Women’s Prisons to Open This Week
CBC News reports, “Four new maximum-security prisons for women are slated to open this week, but a prisoners’ advocacy group has already filed a human rights complaint against the facilities. The new prisons in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta will house some of Canada’s most dangerous female inmates.
“The inmates are currently being held in men’s prisons around the country. Corrections Canada made the decision to move them after a riot at Kingston’s Prison for Women in 1994. When inmates started attacking guards and one another, male guards were called in to subdue the prisoners. The female inmates were stripped, shackled and dragged from their cells, all of it caught on videotape. The incident triggered a flood of complaints about how the female prisoners were treated. Tim Krause of Corrections Canada says moving the women to male prisons was always seen as a temporary measure.”
Women’s Center To Fill Free Condom Void
Joy Fasanya writes, “Free raspberry flavored condoms provided by the [Lehigh University] women’s center have always been available to students, but they have gained popularity ever since the health center started charging for condoms this semester. Several hundred condoms have been distributed by the women’s center since September. This is still a small amount compared to the estimated 12,000 to 14,000 that the health center distributes per year according to Marie Brown, head nurse.
“Since the health center announced it would start charging for condoms, interns at the women’s center said they have seen an increase in the number of students taking advantage of the free condoms. ‘I don’t want students to be deterred from having safe sex and realize there are still doors open on campus to get free condoms,’ Jamie Kovens, ’05, said.”
So, what are we to make of these news items? Let’s see: a.) Women want government protection against being kissed at Carnival in Olinda, b.) IT women want to portray their recent salary increases as “falling salaries” because their increases were smaller than IT men’s even though the median full-time female worker received a 5% raise while the median full-time male worker received a 1.3% raise last year, c.) Canadian women want more federal handouts for women’s shelters and they intend to get them through a work slowdown to reduce services to their clients, d.) Women want to have their own hair or a hairpiece that looks natural, e.) Women want to be more decisive and effective and they hope to accomplish that by thinking less, f.) Northern California women inmates want to keep their about-to-close prison open while Canadian women are complaining about four new women’s prisons that aren’t even open yet, and g.) Women want “free” raspberry flavored condoms from the Lehigh University women’s center.
Based on my feedback from mostly male readers and the above news items it would appear that women, as a group, want it all, their way, for free. Barring that, they want to complain loudly about their perceived plight as victims to politicians who will then pass even more legislation to accommodate their ceaseless demands for more services and more federal funding for their constantly changing and never fulfilled wants.
A reader writes, “Women want more of everything, it doesn’t matter what it is, they want it all.” This sentiment was reiterated numerous times by my male readers. Because of the selfishness of American women some men have implemented one (or more) of the following rules to avoid the issue altogether:
1. Do not date American women.
2. Do not date women educated in the U.S.
3. Move overseas and date foreign women only.
I will say this: a.) If women thought less about their hair maybe they wouldn’t lose it and b.) There is no free lunch, raspberry flavored or otherwise. The “free” raspberry flavored condoms given away at the Lehigh University women’s center are provided at no cost by Planned Parenthood–funded by your federal tax dollars–whether you like it or not, unlike those provided by the health center which are funded by its budget. Raspberry must be popular because if it wasn’t I’m certain that unhappy and complaining women would be demanding something else, like strawberry or watermelon, even though they are “free.” Or will that be next?
Related Articles:
What Women Want: Who Cares?
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part II)
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part III)
What Women Want: Who Cares? (Part IV)
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”