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From: cliff@unmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: re: other PEOPLE's wives
Message-ID: <585@unmvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 19-Jan-85 14:03:54 EST
Article-I.D.: unmvax.585
Posted: Sat Jan 19 14:03:54 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Jan-85 05:37:55 EST
References: <498@hou5g.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 39

> ()
> >>		Now certainly there is a lot of petty crime there, and
> >>	a lot of burglery too, but mugging was unheard of, and in order
> >>	to get shot or stabbed you had to frequent the wrong bars or
> >>	the wrong people's wives.  
> 
> It's really quite true that the societal norm is to assume a "person"
> is a man.  If it makes anyone feel better, I notice sometimes that I 
> do it myself.  I assume that people don't want to be sexist.  I also know
> that it is difficult not to be.   I'm quite sure that the person who
> wrote the original lines didn't notice that he called men people.

Are you out of your tree?  News flash:  Men *are* people.

> I
> also don't assume that he actively practices sexism.  But I do believe
> that sexism, like racism, operates at a passive, even subconcious level.
> Thus the need to point it out, and to keep it in mind.

The original letter was about Albuquerque a few years past.  I am in
Albuquerque and although those are not the only way to get shot, there
are quite a few violent crimes perpetrated by jealous men.  In addition
in the last few years there have been some rapes of women by men.  Notice
I am telling you what has happened, rather than saying only men can rape or
only women can get raped.  If I were to say that people had raped women I
would be just as accurate, but not as precise.  Since as you pointed out
that only men can have wives, the phrase "people's wives" is just as accurate
and precise as "men's wives" although the latter is redundant.
 
> Julia Harper
> 
> 
> Lesbians don't "frequent" other people's wives.  They may sleep
> with them, but they don't "frequent" them.  Perhaps this is an advantage
> they have over other members of our species.

Frequent, v.t.: to visit often; ...

				--Cliff