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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!cca!ima!ism780!jim
From: jim@ism780.UUCP (Jim Balter)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Names can never hurt me.....
Message-ID: <28@ism780.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Sep-83 04:38:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780.28
Posted: Wed Sep  7 04:38:00 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Sep-83 06:22:58 EDT
Lines: 41

re:
	Before the feminist movement decided to wage war on the
    English language, "girl" was a term meaning both "little girl" ...
---
I doubt that you actually believe that anyone's motive was to destroy or
or in any other way maim the English language for the sole purpose of
doing so, so this would seem to be dishonest manipulative rhetoric, denying
or at least not addressing the clear fact that there are people acting in
good faith on their honest beliefs.  Who was this evil Ms. Feminist Movement
who perpetrated this terrible crime?  Was not in fact the popularity of these
attempts to change language usage a reflection of feelings held by a large
number of people?  There would not have been such a reaction throughout
the print industry if there were not many many people backing these changes.
If the words "boy" and "girl" had been in equivalent use, if words equivalent
to "Mrs." and "Miss" had been in use to distinguish married and unmarried
men, there would not have been the fuel for such change.  Is there a NEED
(your emphasis) for a distinction between nubile young *men* and older,
settled, *males*?  Such "needs" are reflections of very old social placements,
which are undergoing attack.  Denying the reality of large social movements,
attacking the massive number of people who consider themselves feminists as a
group, as though they were a handful of crackpots, is asinine.
If you want to attack someone, do it by name; there has been too much talk
in our recent history of "them".

The word feminism, according to my dictionary, means "the principle that women
should have political, economic, and social rights equal to those of men".
There are many many feminists, with many many variations in their beliefs,
ideologies, and approaches.  I am a feminist man, but I am not in a war
against men.  I do know of feminists who are, but their existence does not
send me into a reactionary tail-spin.  Are you so insecure that you cannot
enter into dialogue with these people or, if dialogue seems futile, simply
ignore them and find feminists of a flavor you find palatable?
I am not afraid to fight with strong women over the guilt of men,
the sexual nature of men, the desirability of women taking on male traits,
the nature of pornography and its censorship, the advisability of single-issue
politics, and a dozen other hot topics.  Women and men will never be equal
until we stop being afraid of each other and treat each other as equals.

Jim Balter (decvax!yale-co!ima!jim), Interactive Systems Corp

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