the digital giraffe

All About Women
Our Persons of the Month Award for September, 2024, goes to everyone who competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, all genders, all nationalities, for their courage, their dedication, their skills. Whether you reached a podium or not, you are a hero just by being chosen to compete. It also seems inappropriate for anyone to criticize style, performance, or mishaps of these outstanding athletes.

A brouhaha erupted at the Paris Olympics this year in the field of women's boxing. The row over what constitues a gender extends to science as well. Both chromosomes and hormones participate in the process of gender identification. What is currently accepted is that during pregnancy not all reproductive organs develop the same way, a situation called DSDs, or differences in sex development. Two boxers, one from Taiwan and the other from Algeria, were originally disqualified at last year's Womem's World Championships but subsequently cleared by the International Olympic Committee.

A stand-up comedian named Bella Humphries has made her menstrual periods the subject of onstage laughter. Humphries was diagnosed with PMDD, or Premenstrual disphoric disorder, which can cause depression, anxiety, joint and muscle pain, and wide mood swings. In her case, she suffered through suicidal ideation every month which she thought was normal until she was diagnosed. Bringing the condition to light through comedy should help educate both women and medical personnel to a frequently hidden and often misdiagnosed reality for many women.

A TED talk last year by Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of the anti-Putin resistance group Pussy Riot, illuminated the fears and struggles of this courageous woman and her sister protestors. As she states, "our job was to show the people of Russia that resisting is indeed an option." Her personal description of what she went through and how she survived makes for compelling reading.

In 1997 the International Gymnastics Federation raised the minimum age for women gymnasts to 16. The result has been more mature females competing, stronger and more powerful. Delaying the time to compete has allowed healthy bones to fully mature. In addition, the women have better psychological balance and a greater sense of independence. They also are better able to participate in decisions about their training.

It appears that there are some sports in which women outperform men. In swimming, for example, women are better able to withstand extreme cold. They also are better at pacing in marathon runs and seem to recover faster after exercise. It is also possible that women have less stiffness than men since they have greater flexibility. Pistol shooting is another sport in which women excel, perhaps because they seem able to stay calm under pressure.

After nearly 30 years in the job, White House Chef Cris Comerford is finally retiring. Comerford is the first woman and the first person of color to fill that position. She served 5 different presidents and oversaw state dinners, social events, receptions, holiday parties and official luncheons.

Due to drought and poor public water systems, women in Mexico City are harvesting rain water. Members of the cooperative group Pixcatl, which translates to 'harvest of water' in the indigenous Nahautl language, keep the process functioning while also teaching local residents how to maintain the fragile systems. Some residents have to line up from 3 am to 2 pm to get water from distribution trucks. There are even times when homes have gone for a month without water. Rainwater harvesting is being developed to help survive these crises and the Pixcatl women are at the forefront.

The US Department of Homeland Security is going to scan and analyze the faces of migrant children, including newborns, at the border, claiming that this process will help improve the government's facial recognition technology. They specifically want to know whether a photograph of a young child will help to identify that person later in life. Strenuous objections to this enforcement of a survellance state have met with little success.

A research finding has confirmed what many women already know, that household chores damage the mental health of females. The combination of planning, anticipating needs, organizing and delegating, knowm as the "mental load", takes a substantial toll on the cognitive well-being of home-makers. The study reveals increased signs of depression, relationship dissatisfaction, stress, and general burnout. Studying 322 mothers of young children revealed that the mothers had to handle roughly 73% of all cognitive jobs and 64% of all physical labor. The greater cognitive load had an intense effect on the womens' psychological well being, making it extremely difficult for women to get full-time paid jobs out of the house and adversely impacting their sense of balance and self-worth.

A new outlook on their bodies is appearing in today's Olympic runners. Where previously a sense of how their bodies looked seemed to predominate, women athletes today focus more on strength and performance. Slim and thin have been replaced by strong and fit, stamina rather than fashionably undernourished. A new definition called REDS (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports) has taken hold. Disordered eating, once encouraged, is now acknowledged to be harmful although it has taken years to understand and be accepted.

A judo bronze medal at the Paris Olympics was awarded to a woman who brought her infant daughter with her to training sessions. Clarisse Agbegneou of France was born prematurely herself, had kidney surgery as an infant and was in a coma. She is now a hero to the French people. She is also a 6 times world Champion who won 2 gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, so the audience went wild in Paris when she lifted her own baby aloft.

It appears that single women in China have to travel abroad if they want to freeze their eggs. Only married women are given access to ‘social egg freezing’ services or any sort of reproductive counseling and technology. Many young educated urban women are delaying marriage and motherhood, leading to a decline of almost 3 million in China's birthrate. "Social egg freezing" is frustrating to China's leaders who want to encourage "national rejuvenation."

The U.K. government has decided to treat misogyny as a type of extremism, an ideological trend that is seeing an alarming uptrend. Hatred of women, both online and in the streets, leads to violence which is antithetical to democratic beliefs. Also of concern is the radicalization of young women and men as well as any belief system that advocates "harmful and hateful beliefs and violence".

Be sure to email giraffe@giraffe.com with your suggestions, be they articles, videos, images, cartoons, music, or comments, so that we can share our celebrations and our concerns with each other.

Last updated July 1, 2024 - 30 years of monthly Web publication

Corinne Whitaker - Artist, Editor, Author, Poet, Sculptor, Publisher, Composer, Betaphysician, Chief of the Newanderthal Tribe

Best of Foster City 2016
Best of Palo Alto 2013

Golden Web Award, 2001 and 2000

Artist of the Month, Artisan Bazaar, 2000

Best in Cyberart Award, 1999

winner of BATech's "Catch of the Day"

winner of Fractal Design's "Artist of the Month"and "Image of the Day"

Featured Master Artist, Shadowart Galleries, 1997 and 1998

Guest Artist of the Month, Hampton Click Salon Online
Exhibit below from Virtual Gallery online