needlecraft rebirth yields creativity
TRANSCRIPT
THE BATTALIONWednesday, October 7, 1970 College Station, Texas Page 3 Needlecraft rebirth yields creativity
Granny crocheted doilies for armchairs. Today her granddaughter whips up crocheted bikinis and needlepoint p i 1 lo w s espousing "Love” and "Peace.”
Needlecraft has come a long way from its "Home Sweet Home” sampler past. Women of all ages today are stitching, hooking, crocheting and weaving
with a fervor that has caused department store needlecraft centers to enlarge and small needlecraft boutiques to sprout up all over the country.
For the young, the needlecraft renaissance offers a chance to create something of their own and a cheap way to have up-to- the minute fashion.
Experts make girl watching an artNEW YORK </P>—Bird watch
ers spend hours waiting for a glimpse of a rare species, thrill to the sight of a particularly beautiful specimen, have formed societies to give hints to other bird watchers and have written books to catalog their findings.
But for some people there are more thrilling and exciting specimens to be seen when practicing an equally popular pastime—girlwatching. They have their own organization, the American Society of Girl Watchers (ASGW), which currently boasts over 50,- 000 card-carrying members.
When someone joins, he receives a card identifying him as a certified girl watcher, a pin and a guide book. The guidebook catalogs types of specimens and points out likely hunting
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grounds.“We’re a congenial group of
individuals who appreciate women,” said Andy Ettinger, vice president of ASGW.- “We don’t have set meetings. Whenever and wherever two members meet there can be a meeting.”
The society, 16 years old, has no formal membership requirements — although there are no recorded female members. The youngest known member is 11, and Ettinger guesses that the oldest ones are probably in their 80’s.
“Girl watching is a matter of subtleties,” said the form e r photojournalist. “A man should not be overtly trying to catch a pretty girl’s attention. He should just let her know he’s appreciating and complimenting her.
"The Playboy type is more aggressive and obvious. Girl watchers don’t believe in foldout paper dolls. We like real live dollsbetter.”
The 39-year-old publishing consultant and editor practices what he preaches. His wife, Heather, is a top model with Ford and was one of the first girls chosen to be in the TV commercial called The GirlWatchers. Ettinger said shedoesn’t mind his watching girls and occasionally will point outone he’s missed.
“Anyway it’s nonfattening. I have given up my lunch hour, often accidentally, to watch girls.”
The seasoned girl watcher feels the present is a prime time for practicing this healthy sport, mainly because of the wide variety and freedom of styles. His own views on what women should wear are rather laissez-faire.
As for the man watching some women have reportedly been doing, Ettinger doesn’t object. “As long as it’s done as honestly and discretly as it should be, there’s no harm in it.”
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“The idea of girl watching is to liberate woman, not to restrict her,” commented Ettinger about fashion. “But she must decide what she feels comfortable and free in.” He said many ASGW members have written in asking the society to take a more militant stand against the midi.
Nor is he worried about the amount of flesh some of the skimpier skirts expose. “Decency is in the eyes of the beholder — as beauty is. You can’t legislate it. Each woman should do what is best for her.”
His only real beef about a woman’s appearance is the wear-
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All last winter, girls sat on buses and subways crocheting an almost endless variety and number of wool vests. With the warm weather, the needles began turning out bikinis.
The scant suits take only a few hours, a couple of ounces of yard costing abolt $3, and a basic crocheting skill. To do it with a kit costs about $6, but the finished product in a boutique or department store goes for up to $40.
Other women are stitching bright wool flowers into crewel work that can be fashioned into a pillow, a chairback or a wall hanging.
—or knotting, seafarer style,
what appears to be Venetian blind cord into macrame belts, bracelets, chokers and vests.
—or learning florentine embroidery, Bargello, which dates back to the time of the Crusades.
—or weaving straw on miniature looms for skirts, handbags and hats.
Crewel work with an emphasis on bright colors and geometric designs is the frontrunner in popularity, says Elizabeth Cromwell, needlework buyer for New York City’s Altman’s Department Store.
Mrs. Cromwell explained it was necessary for the industry to modernize to keep the booming generation of needleworkers
happy with bright colors, exciting designs and heavy yarns. The result, she said, is that the stores cannot keep the shelves stocked with enough materials.
Altman's reports that needlework sales are growing at a rate three times that of the store in general, that the sale of crewel kits has doubled in 1970 over last year, and that the sale of yarn and canvas, for original work, has tripled over the same period.
For beginners, needlecraft kits for pin cushions or eyeglasses cases cost under $2. For the more adept or ambitious, there are kits for elaborate tapestrylike wall hangings or rugs which can sell for several hundred dol- largs.
New Princeton dean sayssociety cheated of talents
PRINCETON, N.J. (^ — Ultimately it is all about liberation these days—for black people, for women. And although she is not one for street confrontations, when attractive, spritely Dr. Cecelia Hodges Drewry settles back in her office in Princeton University’s West College Hall this September, she will have struck blows, simultaneously, for both groups.
ing of curlers. “We’re having a big stamp out curlers campaign,” he said. “Curlers in public is despicable. There’s no excuse for it with the availability of electric rollers and other new methods of hair grooming.”
“Hair is part of a woman’s armor,” sajd the the connoiseur, who personally prefers long locks. It must be brushed and well-cared for. And I think wigs are a great idea. They give a woman a chance to be several women.”
Speaking on women’s liberation, Ettinger discussed the society’s views. “We go along with giving women all the freedom they want. But they have got to act like women.
Dr. Drewry, dramatist and former professor at Douglass College, the women’s affiliate of Rutgers University, was named as an assistant dean of the college at Princeton. As a black person and as a woman on a campus which has been almost all white and all male for most of its 224-year history, hers is a singular accomplishment.
A classroom educator for almost 20 years, Dr. Drewry took the administrative position because of her commitment to higher education. She says she feels that as a dean she can do more to implement needed changes.
“Modern education should be geared mainly toward freeing students from some of the rather rigid and meaningless disciplines which now exist,” Dr. Drewry said. “We must give thoughtful, sensitive consideration to deciding which requirements are unreasonable or irrelevant to today’s world.
“Yet by the same token, every demand and discipline need not be swept away. There are things from the past which are still of value and ought to be saved.”
Born in New York City of West Indian parents who stressed the importance of black heritage, Dr. Drewry has always been interested and involved in black cultural activities. A trained actress, she has concentrated in recent years on works done by black authors. But the stage has had to take a back seat to the classroom.
In 1969, Dr. Drewry postponed her scheduled departure from Douglass College, where she had taught for seven years, to head a newly established department
“To me feminity means a woman who is at ease with herself, and who is not false.“You’ve got to be yourself. Do what you want to do and to hell with what society thinks.
“Everyone is beautiful to someone,” he concluded.
Protective lawshamper women
Women are moving into many new fields, but they are still restricted in their choice of jobs by a variety of so-called “protective laws.” Women have been called “victims of protection” for they are often excluded from betterpaying positions by these laws.
Ten states specify the maximum weight women can lift or carry. It’s maximum 10 pounds for carrying up and down stairways in California. Eighteen states prohibit night employment and 25 states prescribe the number of hours women can work. In 25 states there are laws based on social conceptions of what is a proper job for a woman; no woman may be a bartender in Kentucky or Rhode Island, for example. No gas or electric meter reader in Ohio. No bellhop in Washington.
It isn’t that hordes of women want to be bellhops and bartenders, say crusaders for women’s rights, but shouldn’t they be allowed to choose for themselves ? The U.S. Court of Appeals declared in one case that the individual woman should have “the power to decide whether or not to take on unromantic tasks.”
The Equal Rights Amendment recently approved in the House by an overwhelming majority would invalidate many of these protective laws and would, in essence, require that men and women be treated the same under the law.
For the first time in the 47 years similar bills have been proposed, this one seems to have an excellent chance of becoming law,
thanks to the efforts of women’s groups throughout the country and the political skill of Rep. Martha Griffiths, one of its proponents.
According to a study made by the Citizen’s Advisory Council on the Status of Women, these would be some of the probable effects of the amendment:
—Restrictions on property rights of married women would be unconstitutional, as would he restrictive work laws.
—Women would be equally subject to jury service and to military service.
—Custody and support of children in divorce decrees would he determined for the welfare of the children without favoring either parent because of sex.
Since the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, more than 9,000 charges of sex discrimination have been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — more than 25 per cent of its case load. Women themselves are becoming increasingly aware of their legal rights and the last few months have seen suits filed against several major manufacturers and publishing companies, including Time-Life and Newsweek.
A major victory for women occurred a few weeks ago when the Department of Justice for the first time filed a suit against the Libby-Owen Glass Co. charging it did not hire, train, promote or pay women equally with men.
(To be continued next Wednesday: Women and Politics.)
of African and Afro-Americanstudies there.
With the help of concerned students, she devised course content for the inter-disciplinary program, set up curricula and recruited new professors.
In addition to her duties as department chairman, she also counseled students, was adviser for the Douglass Black Arts group and taught a course on black literature in the evenings at Princeton.
“There is a definite need for cross-fertilization of ideas among black people and between blacks and whites,” Dr. Drewry said, addressing herself to the increasing furor around the issue of black studies.
“Yet it is crucial that programs in black studies be stable and well constructed so students who take the courses with an eye to returning to the black community will be that much better prepared. The courses should serve the needs of the moment, but they should also have depth and breadth.”
Dr. Drewry shares her involvement and enthusiasm for black studies with her husband, Henry N. Drewry, director of the office of teacher preparation and placement at Princeton University. He also teaches a course on Afro- American history at Princeton and with his. wife has written a book, “Rea-dings in Afro-American History.” It will be available in the fall.
Dr. Drewry, as the second woman dean at Princeton, will join Mrs. Halcyone H. Bohen, dean of women, who was named to her post last year when Princeton first admitted coeds to the college. Dr. Drewry’s position involves men as well as women undergraduates.
Dr. Drewry explained that while she was not personally aware of the problems which tha coeds faced last year, she had heard that many of them encountered difficulties.
“There were so few women at Princeton that the men just were not sure how to deal with them,” she said, referring to the ratio in the 1969-70 academic year of 170 women to 3,200 men.
“Society has cheated itself of the talents of women in the past, just as it has cheated itself of the talents of blacks. We must move toward full constructive use of women by the society as a whole.
“Some activities of women’s liberation groups are rather frivolous, hut I think that just as the demands of black students got more solid as the movement progressed, so the same thing will probably happen with women.”
As assistant dean, Dr. Drewry’s duties will include academic counseling, liaison with the admissions committee and supervision of student applications for foreign fellowships. She will also be in charge of all students transferring to the college after 1970.
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