Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!dptg!mtunb!jcm
From: jcm@mtunb.ATT.COM (was-John McMillan)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: Wanted
Keywords: sexism
Message-ID: <1602@mtunb.ATT.COM>
Date: 8 Aug 89 12:48:18 GMT
References: <602@mbph.UUCP> <804@bagend.UUCP> <1292@banzai.UUCP> <827@bagend.UUCP> <1590@mtunb.ATT.COM> <2114@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM>
Reply-To: jcm@mtunb.UUCP (John McMillan)
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T ISL Middletown NJ USA
Lines: 46

In article <2114@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> ned%cad@MCC.COM (Ned Nowotny) writes:
 : In article <1590@mtunb.ATT.COM> you write:
 : >In article <827@bagend.UUCP> jan@bagend.UUCP (Jan Isley) writes:
 : >:
 : >>This all reminds me of the signature line in some mail I got last week
 : >>from someone who worked at AT&T and could not get them to work on *her*
 : >>7300...  AT&T, the communications company, except internally of course.
	:
 : >As we receive AT&T INTERNAL SERVICE on our many-many 3B1's on an ongoing
 : >and prompt basis, the above comment should be reconsidered.  (For its
 : >sexist highlighting, alone!  MANY of our staff and 3B1 users are female.)
 : 
 : Excuse me, but I don't see anything sexist in saying that AT&T would not
 : work on her (highlighted or otherwise) 3b1.  It seems reasonable that the
 : sense of the comment is to say that AT&T is not even willing to work
 : on 3b1's *owned* by their own employees.  Whether the comment is true or
 : not, it is not sexist.  The owner of the computer is a woman and it is
 : her computer.
	:

Within AT&T -- in the areas where I support staff -- virtually every
staffer has AT LEAST one computer SUPPLIED for their use.

Since the author DID NOT write "*her personally owned*" computer,
it is reasonable to presume he was asserting her gender as a matter
of significance since the possessive form of the pronoun does NOT
connote OWNERSHIP.

There is & was NO reason to suppose he was stressing OWNERSHIP as opposed
to POSSESSION: if he wished to stress ownership, he didn't bother making
the point in an environment where the majority POSSESS what they don't
OWN.  "AT&T, the communications company, except internally of course"
becomes a rather cryptic and misleading witticism, as placed, if the
adjacent subject is NOT an INTERNAL matter -- ie., a matter regarding
AT&T properties.  If Jan was attempting to say she was having trouble
with her *personally owned* 3B1, (1) he received a mistaken rebuke
(as we all risk when we misspeak), and (2) her plight illustrates the
even-handedness of AT&T ];-)
				- - - - -

I limited my original point to about 80 characters -- probably a
reasonable number for the subject.  The rest of this seems excessive
drivel, particularly since no self-respecting feminist group could
stomache/tolerate the thought of _ME_ as a member!

john mcmillan - att!mtunb!jcm - GROWLING knee-jerk radical feminist fascist pig