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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Feminism and the double standard
Message-ID: <1822@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Apr-84 12:58:26 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1822
Posted: Mon Apr  9 12:58:26 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Apr-84 00:22:12 EST
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Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
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To rephrase the question in still another way:

Suppose that our hypothetical office politicker scores points against a
co-worker not by flirtation, but by feigning friendship?  Does it make
a difference that the deceit is practiced on a non-sexual level?  [You
can fill in the blanks in the scenario with male and female
manipulators and manipulatees as you like.  Does this make any
difference in the conclusions you reach?]

Even in academia, I've seen some pretty slimy bastards who would be
anyone's good buddy one minute and ace back-stabbers the next.  I
hardly find it encouraging to hear that some feminists might
rationalize the sexual equivalent of such behavior as acceptable
practice in the corporate world.

As far as I am concerned, faking an interest in another person (sexual
interest or not, in a member of the opposite sex or not) to achieve
selfish goals is not a very admirable act.  It might be a necessary act
for one caught in a very difficult situation not of one's own making
(for instance, a female professional expected to get work done in a
department full of hostile MCPs), but would still be nothing to be
proud of.  When used simply as a tool in office guerrilla warfare, such
tactics become despicable.

I have always thought that the whole point of feminism was to treat
people of either sex as worthwhile human beings, not as objects to be
used.  Am I missing something somewhere?

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle