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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: womanspace
Message-ID: <1635@randvax.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 21-Jan-84 07:01:29 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.1635
Posted: Sat Jan 21 07:01:29 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 06:27:56 EST
References: <6425@watdaisy.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 31

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I think I can understand some of what Sophie is talking about (albeit
as a bit of an outsider).

As a (male) feminist, I've noticed that a lot of people seem to have
the mistaken impression that many women want to be *like* men, rather
than to have the same rights and opportunities as men.  In a way
this is silly, because a lot of women are in a good position to see
just how stifled and miserable many men are in their own traditional
role.  Why would women want to turn themselves into emotional cripples
just to feel `equal'?  Furthermore, whether inborn or socially caused,
there are differences in the ways most women experience their lives
than the ways most men experience theirs.

So it makes perfect sense to me that a women might prefer the company
of other women.  I can nod sympathetically when a female friend talks
about being discriminated against (or even shake my fist in anger at
the injustice), and I can try to be knowledgable about those things
peculiar to the female experience, but I'll never really understand
the way another woman can.  Just because the female perspective is
different doesn't make it one bit less valid than the male viewpoint
--that is what I understand `equality' to mean.

I can understand how considering people to be `genderless' makes
the equality of the sexes simpler to consider.  The more differences
allowed for the more tolerance required--and tolerance is, alas,
pretty difficult to come by.  But it is the only path to lasting
liberation of *all* people.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall