Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero-c!nadel From: uunet!infmx!robert@ncar.UCAR.EDU (robert coleman) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Perceptions (was Re: ... mutual erotica exist?) Message-ID: Date: 25 Apr 91 01:50:58 GMT References: <1991Mar20.050507.24027@informix.com>> <1991Apr13.141835.7142@panix.uucp> Sender: uunet!infmx!news@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Usenet News) Organization: Informix Software, Inc. Lines: 48 Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org Status: R Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org panix!mara@cmcl2.NYU.EDU (Mara Chibnik) writes: >In article >uunet!infmx!robert@ncar.UCAR.EDU (robert coleman) writes: ->[ ... ] The ->construct we call reality is known through our *senses*, and only a ->part of the input to the senses comes vicariously through ->representations. Our preferred method for constructing reality is ->through our personal experiences; for that which we cannot personally ->experience, we accept the poor substitute of other's representations. ->Thus, an abused husband believes he's been attacked even though nearly ->all media representations of family life ignore the possibility (as ->once they did for abused wives). -I am somewhat surprised to read this. I disagree with it. That -there are abused husbands who believe (correctly) that they have -been attacked is certainly true, but if there were more support for -the cultural notion that women can and do sometimes attack/abuse -men, more abused men would be likely to recognize what has happened -to them. Our disagreement is, fortunately only a matter of semantics. My point was that a the man will recognize that he has been knifed even though the cultural representation of women contains almost no backing for this idea; whether he can then identify it under the general cultural icon of "abuse" is really a different question, and we agree. If society does not define this behavior as abuse, he's unlikely to call it abuse, but this is a matter of semantics; nobody will be able to convince him he hasn't been knifed by telling him that women don't ever abuse their husbands. His personal experience is much more powerful than his vicarious experience. Your