Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!ames!elroy!ucla-cs!uci-ics!tittle
From: tittle@ics.uci.edu (Cindy Tittle)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Definition of feminism, can a man be a feminist?
Summary: Maybe, but I wouldn't argue it (with list of some books)
Keywords: note
Message-ID: <17822@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 89 20:48:06 GMT
Sender: news@paris.ics.uci.edu
Reply-To: lunde@nuacc.acns.nwu.edu (Albert Lunde)
Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks
Lines: 52
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu

[What follows was posted twice to soc.feminism but seems to have
gotten lost between acns.nwu.edu and the newsgroup and/or moderators.
I'm not sure how timely this is by now, though I'm saying something a
bit different. --Albert Lunde]

I would like to think of myself as a feminist.  I agree this is not
beyond question, and do not insist that anyone agree with me. If the
politics and ideology of feminism derive from and are defined by
women's experience, men are marginal to it.

How I, as a man, relate to feminism, seems to me to me to be easier to
resolve with Tao than theory.  Confrontation seems at cross purposes
with supporting feminism.  Women's self-definition is an important
principle.  I would rather risk being uncomfortable than have feminism
watered down.

I would suggest to C. Williamson that he might want to ask the
permission of the organizer when registering for woman's studies
courses, to avoid cases where her preference is that the class be
women-only.  Beyond this, try to be tactful and try not make an issue
of oneself.

I still have mixed emotions when I approach these topics.  I feel I'm
on "both sides" when I talk about it and I'm also of two minds on how
much to say.

I would like to suggest some reading which bears on the relation of
sympathetic men to feminism, which has moved me in important ways:

 -  Every Mother's Son            by Judith Arcana 
            (1st ed. Doubleday/ 2nd ed. Seal Press)
 -  The Women Say, The Men Say    by Evelyn Shapiro & Barry Shapiro
            (Dell Pub.)
 -  The Anatomy of Freedom        by Robin Morgan
            (Doubleday)
 -  For Men Against Sexism: a book of readings   ed. Jon Snodgrass
             (Distributed by The Crossing Press)
 -  "A Creed for For Free Women * ...
      (* and such men as feel happy with it)"   from the book:
    Sapphic Songs: eighteen to eighty      by Else Gidlow
             (Distributed by Naiad Press)
 -  "I am a Dangerous Woman" by Joan Cavanagh  from the book
     Reweaving the Web of Life     ed.  Pam McAllister
             (New Society Publishers)

Finding a bookstore that sells them is half the fun :-) ...

[Does anyone want to post a review of any of these books?!  --Cindy]


  Albert Lunde                                       lunde@nuacc.acns.nwu.edu
 "We are all part of one another" - Barbara Demming  lunde@nuacc.bitnet