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From: schoi@teri.bio.UCI.EDU (Sam Lord Byron Choi)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: sexist space
Message-ID: <9103121241.aa16066@orion.oac.uci.edu>
Date: 13 Mar 91 18:43:12 GMT
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Lines: 54
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: zola.ics.uci.edu

I received this response that I received a little while.  I asked her
to post it on the net because she described an interesting experience
which I think really characterizes what we have to do to combat some
of the sexism and and attitudes of this society.

All I would like to say in preface is that I think a good portion of
the people whom we take as sexist or chauvinistic are actually just
unaware, and in my book that's not a sin.  I think too often I run
into people who reify society as an "other," saying things like
"Society makes us do it" without really recognizing that they too are
a part of this big entity they call society.  Society is a whole bunch
of individuals.  The way to change society is to change those
individuals, one individual at a time.

So here's Natalie's (nriley@bootes.unm.edu) message reprinted with her
permission.

>"Lord Byron" :
>
>Man, I couldn't have said it better. I am in total agreement with your
>statements in your recent posting to Elizabeth about segregating schools.
>This type of attitude towards the problems regarding gender and women's
>ability (or disability as it seems) to overcome inherent inhibitions
>in the classrooms is merely covering up the eminent problems.
>And once the female student hits the real world.....boy has she got
>another thing coming!  As for myself, I had a very interesting experience
>in high school. I, too, was to the belief that my school encouraged a
>totally non-sexist environment, but saw otherwise when taking an honors
>math course my junior year. Being used to actively vocalizing my views
>and asking questions in class, I did so for the first few months.
>But the teacher (and I don't hesitate to put the blame on him) saw this
>as an opportunity to "entertain the class" and often blew me, or any
>other young woman off. Needless to say, I became less and less vocal in
>that class, and consequently my grades were slipping. Well, finally,
>this situation came to a climax of sorts when I went in to see the teacher
>privately and told him exactly how I felt (and how the other handful
>of female students felt in his class; intimidated and inhibited by his
>playful mode of communication. He was unaware that we we took his joking
>so seriously) And wouldn't you know, the guy made a conscious effort to
>change, and we no longer felt inhibited to speak up once we were assured
>of his respect. So, my conclusion from all this is that the inherent problem
>is in the system. Simply segregating the classrooms does not solve anything.
>
>Peace,
>Nat
>
>** Natalie Riley Osorio
>   nriley@bootes.unm.edu

Sam Choi
schoi@teri.bio.uci.edu
(just try and pin my opinions to the university, I dare you)

p.s. I don't really go by "Lord Byron," it's sortavan inside joke.