While I try to keep track of feminist heroines, I'm afraid I'm not keeping up with the times.

Yesterday the feminist heroine was Queen Isabella; today I see that Hillary (who has been considered a "feminist heroine") is now the Queen of Pork:

When it comes to earmarks, an issue that voters responded to more than any other in the last election except for Iraq, her record is about as bad as it gets. If Dennis Hastert was the king of earmarks, Hillary Clinton was his queen. Republicans had their ``bridge to nowhere.'' Hillary has her knitting mill.

Sure enough, Hillary has a knitting mill. At least, she's funded one.

Here's the caption:

September 1st, 2006 11:17:06am
"Clinton in Seneca Falls"
Senator Hillary Clinton discusses the future of the Seneca Knitting Mill as the home of the National Women's Hall of Fame during a visit Thursday. Clinton announced she has secured a $800,000 federal grant to start renovations on the mill. Network television crews from ABC, CBS and Fox were traveling with Clinton in Seneca Falls. Photo by Greg Cotterill.

But hey, maybe I should get with the program. After all, it's all outlined here, and they start with a quote from 19th Century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

"Come, come, my friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving." -

There's a whole lot of stuff in there, including an elaborate, high priority "Website Overhaul" (which is supposed to take three months, and I'd love to know how much someone will get billed for that one)

Improve the Economic Development section of Seneca Falls' website. Information on the site should include basic demographic statistics and projections (population, age distribution, income levels), details on the surrounding area (canal, wineries, Wildlife refuge, other activities), average housing costs, statistics on area schools, a summary of available business assistance and tax incentives and detailed spec sheets on available industrial sites and buildings. The site should provide links to the school district, local attractions, realtors, and other amenities. Links to Greater Rochester Enterprise, Syracuse MDA, NY AgriDevelopment Corporation and other relevant regional economic development actors should be included. Contact information should be listed for the Economic Developer, the Seneca County IDA, and the Seneca Chamber of Commerce.

In terms of design, the community should hire a professional designer to create a new logo and tag line that reflect the community's new theme of women's history, growth and development; these should be included in the website and on any other materials produced by the Town or Village.
Priority: High
Lead: Economic Developer
Timeframe: 3 months

The big one is the Women's Hall of Fame

Perhaps the most significant opportunity is the expansion of the Women's Hall of Fame. The Hall's new home in the Seneca Knitting Mill will provide ten times more exhibit space than they have right now. The Hall currently draws approximately 15,000 visitors per year to Seneca Falls. Executive Director, Billie Luisi-Potts, cited the planning study the Hall commissioned for its expansion, which estimates that in five years the number of visitors per year will be 50,000 and in ten years it will be 100,000. It will require a good deal of planning on the part of Town and Village in order to accommodate these visitors.

But there's no reason Republicans can't get involved. One of the directors of the Women's Hall of Fame is Republican Senator Nozzolio -- about whom Seneca Falls locals complain ought to have the redeveloped local hotel named after him. He's obviously a major mover and shaker in the project (and he's pictured to the left with Hillary). He does seem to have a knack with hotels in the area as he somehow steered $100,000 to help a nearby Marriott. (Hey, at least the town is named "Aurelius." Seneca isn't bad either. Hey, I can't complain about Classical towns!)

The Women's Hall of Fame factory knitting package is not the only Hillary Clinton pork that's been attracting attention. She's also sending a million for a Woodstock museum:

$1 million for the Museum at Bethel Woods, which is dedicated to recreating the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival experience and will feature "An interpretation of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Fair" exhibit in 2008, according to the museum's website. The earmark is at the request of New York Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer.

Can't we get into the spirit of things and wipe the dew off our spectacles?

The world is moving, and I say it's time for bumperstickers!

There's a major effort underway to involve the National Pork Park Service in what appears to be another very expensive project called the National Women's Rights History Project Act:

The National Women's Rights History Project Act would achieve three major goals.

First, the bill would establish an auto route linking New York State sites significant to the struggle for women's suffrage and civil rights. The route would be administered as part of Women's Rights National Historical Park, and the National Park Service would work to promote historically significant locations along the route. To that end, the Park Service would support the development of a guidebook, a signage system, indoor and outdoor exhibits, and interpretive and educational programs to enrich the experience of visitors.

Second, the Act would expand the National Register of Historic Places' online database dedicated to women's history, Places Where Women Made History. The website currently lists locations of historical importance throughout the United States. Rep. Slaughter and Sen. Clinton's legislation will support a collaborative effort incorporating the input of state historic preservation offices nationwide so that a more comprehensive listing of women's history sites can be provided online, along with new and relevant information concerning them.

Finally, the Act would require the Department of Interior to establish a partnership-based network to offer financial and technical assistance for the development of educational programs focused on national women's rights history.

Senator Clinton was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2005 and has recently worked to secure preliminary congressional approval of $250,000 for the restoration of the historic Seneca Knitting Mill, the future home of the National Women's Hall of Fame.

As usual I'm getting far afield from my original point, which wasn't supposed to be so much whether Hillary has earned the title of Queen of Pork, but whether she should be considered a "hero" or a "heroine."

This might touch on word usage changes involving sexism in language:

5. Gender: Sexist Language and Assumptions

§ 5. -ess

Many people feel that sexist connotations may be implicit in the use of the suffix -ess to indicate a female, as found in words like sculptress, waitress, stewardess, and actress. According to this view, the sexism lies in the nonparallel use of terms to designate men or women: the ending for men, -er or -or, seems neutral or unmarked in a word like sculptor, and sculptress by comparison seems to be marked for gender, suggesting that a man in that role is what is expected and a woman is somehow unexpected or different. 1

While it is true that the specific terms actress and waitress are in wide use and are largely acceptable, in general the use of such pairs of terms as actor/actress, steward/stewardess, and waiter/waitress to indicate gender is sometimes considered offensive and is often unnecessary. For occupational titles, the use of -ess is usually considered inappropriate and has been almost completely replaced by newly formed gender-neutral compounds or by the -er/-or forms. When you board an airplane, for example, you are now assisted by a flight attendant instead of steward or stewardess. British peerage titles formed with -ess, such as duchess and countess, however, are technically correct and unlikely to offend. 2

The suffix has a long history dating to the Middle Ages. But several similar suffixes, such as -ette, as in suffragette, and -trix, as in aviatrix, also have long histories and have proved no match for the neutral -er/-or ending. So it appears likely that -ess will meet the same fate.

Take the word "seamstress," of which I'm sure there were many laboring away in the knitting mill that's to become home to the new Women's Hall of Fame.

How on earth is that suggestive that a man in that role is what is expected? To the contrary, I think the male version "seamster" is far more suggestively unexpected.

Yeah, I know. Some smartass commenter will probably come along and ask what female members of the Teamsters Union should be called. Come on! Let's get surreal, and get with the program! Some words just don't contemplate different endings, while others do. The word "Teamster" would include truck driving women, and there can be male and female teamsters, just as there can be male and female lobsters. (Surely no one will argue that there is such a thing as a "lobstress.")

I better do a Google check, because every time I look, it turns out that I'm not as kooky as I might have thought I was. Not only is "lobstress" a well-established word, but the seamster/teamstress issue has been discussed and resolved.

A male seamstress is a tailor.

A female teamster will kick your sorry behind if you call her a teamtress. :)

I have wicked eyestrain for real so I need to get away from this seductive computer, or I suppose it could be a computress. I get this tired, I start declining nouns like they're Latin. If a woman who sews is a seamstress, is a man who sews a seamster? Then can you be a teamstress? A huckstress? A prankstress? A mobstress? A lobstress?

Maybe we should leave it up to Hillary? It should be pointed out that Hillary used the word "heroine" in describing Harriet Tubman when she compared her struggles with a broken microphone to Tubman's struggles to free slaves and bring them North on the Underground Railroad:

"This reminds me of one of my favorite American heroines, Harriet Tubman," the senator told 1,800 cheering supporters when her mike was restored.

Or would that be heroinism?

*AFTERTHOUGHT: Speaking of coincidences (and Woodstock), wasn't the Woodstock developer involved with Hsu?

(FWIW, I think that old saying that a woman can't have too many Hsus is sexist!)

UPDATE: Via Glenn Reynolds, a great post by Pieter Dorsman about a real heroine -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- and her shabby, cowardly treatment by the Dutch government.

Hirsi Ali belongs in the Women's Hall of Fame, but considering that the feminists at NOW have not uttered so much as a word in her defense, I think that's unlikely.

More on Hirsi Ali:

She has received numerous awards for her human rights work, and in 2005, was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.