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From: gwyn@pangea.stanford.edu (Gwyneth Williams)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Uproar over challenge to campus date-rape study
Summary: reasons for uproar
Message-ID: <1991Jun6.055523.12257@morrow.stanford.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 91 05:55:23 GMT
References: <1991May31.195050.12567@netcom.COM> <1991Jun4.095137.1@dev8b.mdcbbs.com>
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Organization: Stanford Univ. Earth Sciences
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Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
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Originator: nadel@aerospace.aero.org



In article <1991Jun4.095137.1@dev8b.mdcbbs.com> rivero@dev8b.mdcbbs.com writes:
>In article <1991May31.195050.12567@netcom.COM>, greg@netcom.com (Greg Bullough) writes:
>>
>> The article, by a Cal Berkeley social welfare professor, which
>> challenges the findings of a campus date-rape study has caused
>> a tremendous media uproar.
>> [some deletions]
>> It makes me wonder if these people want accurate information,
>> or any information accurate or inaccurate which supports their
>> position.
>>
>> This strikes me as a classic case of politics attempting to bully
>> science.
>>
>
>  Like, this is a surprise? There is historical evidence to support
>the contention that the men who condemned Galileo for violating
>church doctrine privately agreed with his findings, but condemned him
>anyway as a matter of protecting the church's perfect image. Likewise,
>records have been discovered which show that many judges in the witch
>trials (the middle ages, not today) did not, themselves' believe
>in witchcraft, but were motivated by political necessity, or
>plain greed.
>
>  Galileo's conviction did not change the reality that the Earth moves
>around the Sun. Likewise, all the political rhetoric will not
>change the reality that the majority of men are NOT lust crazed
>date-rapists, but average decent men who want a good family life.

I think I must agree with your last statement, but have to suppress
a knee-jerk reaction to disagree.
Perhaps this is because when I hear "the majority of men want a good family
life", partly I wonder what martians I have found in my personal life.
IMHO this statement trivializes date rape and the variety of 
oppressions which women must undergo. Saying "those type of men are only
a minority" suggests to me "they are erratic cases, exceptions, and
therefore negligible and don't count". Of course, this is stretching the
point, but it seems the underlying attitude is there.

After all, a dictator may only be 0.000001% of the population, but that
doesn't mean he's negligible. :^)