Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway From: baranski@meridn.enet.dec.com (Jim Baranski) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Power economics, genders, and the status quo Message-ID: <9101141526.AA28821@easynet.crl.dec.com> Date: 14 Jan 91 15:46:43 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 33 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: blanche.ics.uci.edu -Message-Text-Follows- In article <9101072114.AA06178@rutgers.edu>, jdravk@speech2.cs.cmu.edu (Jeanette Dravk) writes... "But all in all, what is the purpose of outlawing same sex groups? It was a good idea 20-30 years ago, when women had no real power in the social structure other than the power to vote, but now that's no longer the case." "Now this group had originally been founded 120 years ago as a German men's choir, and has since grown to include 3000 male members of the political/social/business scene in Erie... ... Why resort to laws that can be gotten around and take time and money to pursue when the means of making the "female membership" clause a reality already exists? It exists because women today have something that women of thirty years ago did not have to such an extent: economic power. Clubs have expenses to pay, bills to met and members to keep happy in order for them to continue to exist. Among other things, this club hires it's building out for weddings, bingo games and other community affairs. Not to mention the fact that women are not by *any* means excluded from entering the club with a member, i.e. a man. So now what would happen if all of a sudden the wives, girl friends, and other female relatives of club members refused to enter that building? What if women refused to be married there? What if women refused to attend dances and bingo games there?" All these courses of action were available 120 years ago. What makes the difference is not that women have the almighty dollar, but that they have the gumption to take a stand. How many of these activities do you think the women attending are actually shelling out the green stuff? Not the majority. Jim.