Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!era1987@violet.Berkeley.EDU
From: era1987@violet.Berkeley.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Identifying the "different" (was Re: ... change the language?
Message-ID: <1989Nov25.073938.18484@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 25 Nov 89 07:39:38 GMT
References: <47469@bbn.COM> <1329@uvaarpa.virginia.edu> <1989Nov7.065815.22895@agate.berkeley.edu> <1420@uvaarpa.virginia.edu>
Sender: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Reply-To: era1987@violet.Berkeley.EDU (Mark Ethan Smith)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 39
Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Status: R

In article <1420@uvaarpa.virginia.edu> hb@Virginia.EDU (Hank Bovis) writes:
>Although I agree 100% with your observations here, Mark, I have some
>problems with the prescriptions for remedying discrimination that
>seem to be suggested.  Specifically, the implication here seems to be
>that the only way to truly end discrimination is to eliminate readily
>visible diffferences between affected classes and non-affected classes.

>Nonetheless, I sincerely hope that this is not the _only_ way to solve
>the gender discrimination problem, because it it is, then by analogy,
>the race discrimination problem becomes intractable.  I suppose we
>could all camouflage our faces in some way, but I think that would be
>a rather high price to pay.

Yes, it would be a high price.  Freedom and equality don't come
cheap.  But eliminating racism would not require  people to hide
their faces.  You see, Hank, sexism exists among almost all shades
of people.  And in almost all shades, women occupy lower status than
men and men therefore often consider women to be their property.
By eliminating those visible distinctions that mark women as
property and thereby raising the status of women, you leave people
with much less ability and justification to own women and control
their lives.  There would then probably be a lot more intermarriages.
I personally know of many cases where Caucasian women experienced
sexism and therefore felt a kinship with minority men who had
experienced discrimination, and preferred to marry somebody who
was more apt to treat them as an equal and with whom they could
unite against a common enemy.  The highest status group in our
society isn't just men, Hank, it is white men.  Eliminating racism
won't eliminate sexism, but eliminating sexism will be a major
step towards eliminating racism.

>....preserve the differences
>but eliminate the gender-based correlations, so that everyone, female
>and male, would have the freedom to dress or act according to the
>situation rather than their gender.

Amen.

--Mark


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