Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!ucivax!gateway
From: huxtable@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Diversity
Message-ID: <26364.272c0370@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Date: 29 Oct 90 17:12:06 GMT
References: <1990Oct26.170150.9341@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1990Oct26.204736.17577@iti.org>
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
Lines: 35
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: alexandre-dumas.ics.uci.edu

In article <1990Oct26.170150.9341@nntp-server.caltech.edu> morphy@truebalt.cco.caltech.EDU (Jones Maxime Murphy) writes:
>[...] In my native Caribbean and in Latin America, I
>find men much more open-minded about what's "attractive" in female
>bodies. [...]

In article <1990Oct26.204736.17577@iti.org>, uunet!mailrus!sharkey!hela!iti.org!dhw@ncar.ucar.EDU ("David H. West") writes:
> This idea (that perceived attractiveness should respond to voluntary
> effort of the perceiver, who should find this straightforward to do)
> seems very tenacious amongst women who particpate in gender-issues
> discussion.

> I (and I expect many if not most men) find it baffling because the
> perceived attractiveness of a MOTAS seems an immediate, almost "given"
> reaction, opaque to rational thought in the short or medium term as
> does, for example the perceived "pleasant-tastingness" of a food.  I
> can decide that I don't really want the consequences of eating
> something that may taste good, or that I do want the consequences of
> eating something that may taste bad, but that doesn't change the
> perceived taste itself.

> Of course, both these kinds of perception are known to change in the
> long term, but scarcely voluntarily.

To me, that's the point.  If we don't work for a society where these
perceptions are different we probably won't get such a society.  If we
do, we still might not, but at least we're trying.

I don't expect your feelings to be under your conscious control.  Mine
aren't.  Why should yours be?  But you can influence your feelings by
your thoughts and you can influence your thoughts by your actions.
And yes, it takes time, is subtle, and is only marginally voluntary.

--
Kathryn Huxtable
huxtable@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu