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From: larryc@poe.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Male Feminists
Message-ID: <9943@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 15 Oct 90 21:09:06 GMT
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I also keep hearing statements on the net like "Of course, when a man
does it it's discrimination; when a feminist does it, it's OK."  "Of
course this is just a man's viewpoint; what do you feminists think?"
Such statements are also a bunch of crap.

About 20% of feminist activists are men.  I, for instance, have been
an activist for almost twenty years, off and on.  (In December I had
my 5th burnout after a year-and-a-half of volunteer work for Los
Angeles NOW, spending 5-10 hours a week & contributing more than $1200
to various feminist groups.  Or more than $1800 if you count my
attending the November Pro-Choice Rally in Washington.)

I don't know how typical I am of male activists; I've usually been too
busy to discuss much with other men why we are there.  It's not
because I'm looking for lovers, though I've occasionally found them;
there are much better places to do that.  (I'm intensely interested in
the human mind & heart, & crazy about dancing and acting, so many of
my dates are with therapists or psychologists & amateur or pro dancers
or actors -- the current non-sexist term for performers of either
sex!)  Nor is it because I want to be a woman or dominated by women.
(I'm big, muscular, independent (sometimes to the point of absurdity),
& perfectly happy being a man.)

There are two reasons that are foremost in my mind for my feminism &
my activism.  First, I had several female friends when I was a kid,
some of them cousins or nieces (who were mostly older than I was, due
to my father's re- marriage).  Females never became mysterious, alien
creatures, even when pubescence came around.  We simply explored our
sexuality together -- safely, since I read a lot and knew the dangers
of pregnancy & how to avoid it & passed that info on.  When I became
aware of how badly women were treated, in ways both obvious & subtle,
I was highly pissed that anyone would do that to my family & friends.

Second, as I became more aware of how sexism screwed men, I became
angry for my own account.  A lot of discussion of this has already
been done here, so I'll only mention one.  When my daughter died, I
COULD NOT CRY.  I'd internalized too many of the messages about proper
manly behaviour; it was years before I learned how to grieve and could
get over it.

			Larry Carroll
			"Takes-us" (correct pronunciation of Texas)
			Dancin' Fool