Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!zehntel!dual!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-miles!chabot
From: chabot@miles.DEC (Bits is Bits)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: A white man speaks his mind. (Part 2)
Message-ID: <1790@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 20:01:29 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1790
Posted: Tue Apr 23 20:01:29 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Apr-85 08:30:29 EST
Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 61

David Canzi
>It is considered commendable for a woman to be proud of the accomplishments 
> of other women, when a large component of this pride is based on their shared 
> membership in the female sex.  It is considered disgusting for a man to be 
> proud of the accomplishments of other men, if that pride is based on their 
> shared membership in the male sex.  (It's commendable if that pride is based 
> on shared membership in the human species.)

The reason why it is acceptable for women to think about the accomplishments of
other women is that for a long time women have been conditioned to think that
they were incapable of accomplishing such things; for instance, there were 
Victorians who rewrote histories eliminating women who were architects for
cathedrals in preceding centuries.  In other fields, such as literature,
women authors are largely ignored or their art attributed to masculine 
influences: the 19th century writer Rebecca Harding Davis and her novels about 
industrialization and about the War Between the States is an example of the 
former, and Virginia Woolf is a silly but true example of the former.

Young males are not subject to this same indoctrination towards non-achievement,
although individual cases (such as destructive parents or influences due to
racism) may differ.  Job-orientation practices I remember from school days
were largely male-directed: in kindergarten we went on trips and discussed 
exciting jobs such as fireMAN and postMAN, but when I had to rack my young 
brain for an answer as to What I Wanted to Be, I realized they wanted me to
answer "Mommy".  (Yeah, hell, so I probably did--who wants to be found out as a
pink monkey.)  Typical Day in a Life of an X kits in junior high yielded
typical days for only males in the professions I chose (mathematician,
musician (and it was even a flautist, which was right for me), cartoonist (but
it's my mother with the art talent), secondary school teacher (I think primary
school teacher was a woman); I began to feel suspicious that maybe I'd get
caught again, so luckily I'd run out of the number I was allowed to choose.
I wonder how many of them were portrayed as women?

It is only considered disgusting to be proud of the accomplishments of one's
group if this pride is used as a proof of that group's superiority, and,
frankly, that's only the opinion of some.  _The_Mismeasure_of_Man_ contains
many examples of how pride in one's group and the need to prove that group
superior corrupted thinking and scientific research, and the results of this
corruption were displayed with pride.  Another example is that women who are
militant female-supremists are considered disgusting by many; Malcolm X was
considered disgusting too.  The disgust is probably felt by those oppose
searching for such rankings, and also by those who think the rankings fall
the other way - in their favor.

I haven't had occasion to see highlightings of accomplishments by women with
a goal of leading women to believe in their superiority; I have seen it used
to reinforce confidence in women that they too needn't be passive in life.
I have seen arguments listing white christian men's accomplishments as
proof of their superiority--sometimes from the horse's mouth, sometimes in
discussions of opinions such horses held in historical times (er, longer
ago than last month? :-).  Perhaps some people need to boast about their
superiority in order to retain confidence in themselves (or at least excuse
themselves for such ridiculous behavior!); these people might then see
the actions of any therefore inferior group to reinforce their own self-worth
as destructive to the confidence of the "superior" group--without that being
the intent of the "inferior" group.

L S Chabot
...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot
chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
DEC, LMO4/H4, 150 Locke Drive, Marlborough, MA  01752