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From: jdravk@speech2.cs.cmu.edu (Jeanette Dravk)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Society vs the individual
Message-ID: <1991Apr05.184237.29566@ora.com>
Date: 4 Apr 91 21:56:56 GMT
Article-I.D.: ora.1991Apr05.184237.29566
References: <9104021701.aa25301@ICS.UCI.EDU>
Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz)
Organization: Barbie's Dream Dungeon
Lines: 34
Approved: ambar@ora.com


In article <9104021701.aa25301@ICS.UCI.EDU> tittle@zola.ICS.UCI.EDU (Cindy Tittle Moore) writes:

>And yet, I have time and time again encountered discrimination; partly
>for just being female and partly for having abandoned the traditional
>female role.  These ranged from the man who thought I should have sex
>with him to make sure that I was not lesbian to the woman who thought
>I would make a terrible mother since I was so "unfeminine" to the
>countless people who assume that I have no idea of what a computer
>*is* (even a few folx on the net!).  Now, I will agree that these can
>be viewed as individual actions, but I think they still need to be
>looked at as a whole.  What is the cumulative effect of individual
>actions of this type?  What is the effect from deviating from socially
>acceptable norms?  Some deviations are more acceptable than others;
>why is this so (e.g., women wearing pants versus men wearing dresses
>(& scottish kilt doesn't count!))?  I think this is what Jeanette was
>getting at.  How does your model take into account experiences like
>mine (which are not at all unique)?

I agree.  I believe that it is just exactly examples like this --
wherein individual change did not stop unwanted behavior -- which
implies that there is something going on at a level other than the
individual.  Not to devalue the worth of individual actions, but I
would like to claim that there is a force which is operating as a
trend towards what a general sample of the population will probably be
influenced by in its members' personal ideological beliefs.  For lack
of a better term I use society.

j-

-- 
#*#*#*#*#*#	Transient Creature of the Wide, Wild World	#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

   "Time is not linear to me, it is a nebulous web of existential freedom."