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From: "rivero@dev8g.mdcbbs.com"@mdcbbs.COM
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: On Womanhood......
Message-ID: <1991May28.141421.1@dev8g.mdcbbs.com>
Date: 31 May 91 20:05:59 GMT
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>From: rivero@dev8g.mdcbbs.com
Date: 28 May 91 14:14:21 GMT
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In article <9105211741.AA02780@ariel.unm.edu>, NRILEY@BOOTES.UNM.EDU (Natalie Riley Osorio) writes:
>
>    I appreciate all the responses about my question, and since the
> discussion have become a lot more comfortable (I've also become quite
> sensitised to the tremendous amount of people who use the term "girl"
> for a woman). I guess my discomfort was basically a reluctance to
> lose my youth, but that issue is covered when I perceive myself as a
> young woman. And all in all, if the choice is between being perceived
> as someone who is immature/naive and someone who is competent/mature,
> then I'd much rather take the latter.

  I think it is important to add a small footnote here. Up until
this century, the average lifespan was not that long. It is a sobering
thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 7 years. :-)
Old people, if they weren't dead, were usually of ill health.
Therefore, our society evolved to prize youth, as it related to
a direct assesment of ones health and value as a spouse.
And, at a deeper instinctive level, males tend to be more attracted
to women still in their childbearing years.

  Obviously, with modern medicine able to extend lifespan and childbearing
years, the "Young" look has far less real meaning these days, although
that hasn't stopped the cosmetics companies from exploiting these
ancient biases.

Mike

==========================================================================
\\\\    Michael Rivero      | "I drank WHAT!" | The idea that all men    |
\ (.    rivero@dev8a.mdcbbs | Socrates  -------------------avoid children|
   )>   DISCLAIMER:::       |-----------|Anyone who does  | is an unfair |
  ==    "Hey man, I wasn't  |Looking4luv|not get 8 hugs a |feminist MYTH!|
---/    even here then!"    |Settle4sex!|day is in trouble|              |
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