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!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!amdcad!decwrl!daemon From: daemon@decwrl.UUCP (The devil himself) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: 'I want to be me' Message-ID: <2148@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 13-May-85 12:56:35 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.2148 Posted: Mon May 13 12:56:35 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 14-May-85 05:33:29 EDT Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 56 Re: 'I want to be me'___________________________________________________________ >> Did you know that one of the questions on a popular personality test (the >> Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory) was (it may still be for all I >> know) a question asking, for men, if you were glad to be a man and for women, >> if you were glad to be a woman? It was a sign of good mental health for a >> man to be glad to be a man and a sign of good mental health for a woman to >> want to be a man. This was serious. A mentally healthy woman is supposed to >> wish she was a man!! >> > An interesting fact which is related to this, I think, is that most rapists > test NORMAL on personality tests. Aackk!! (*Sigh...*) This kind of sexism is, unfortunately, rampant throughout psychology. For example, Erik Erikson's famous "life stages" model was built from studies of men. Lawrence Kohlberg's "stages of morality" were expressly based on a male sample. (In fact, he discarded results from the women who took part in his study because their answers didn't fit into the model he was build- ing!) Both of these (which are addressed in Carol Gilligan's excellent book, _In_A_Different_Voice_) have been applied to people of both sexes, as if men were the representative sex for the species! These aren't the only examples. Starting with Freud's theories (formu- lated in the Victorian Era, when women were overtly regarded as lesser creatures than men), psychology has been the study of males by males with the conclusions extrapolated to the entire human race. Actually that isn't entirely true. Since most psychiatric patients are women (for whatever reasons - but that's a whole new can of worms), much of the research in what is called "abnormal" psychology is based on the study of women. For some strange reason, the results of such research hasn't been extrapolated to the entire human species; they have instead been used to support the notion that women are inferior to men! For more information on this, and since we're all recommending books here, take a look at _Women_And_Sex_Roles_, by Irene Frieze _et._al._ >> Some women HAVE managed to express disdain for men and made declarations that >> they are glad to be women. (*Ahem!*) I hasten to add that one doesn't have to express disdain for men to make a declaration that one is glad to be a woman. My own opinion on the matter is that one who likes being who they are should recognize another's right to like being who they are. I realize that, demographically, it is women who are discouraged from liking themselves. But I don't think that reversing the situation is the ans- wer; I'd say that the answer is for nobody to discourage anybody else from lik- ing themselves. Two wrongs never make a right. <_Jym_> :::::::::::::::: Jym Dyer ::::' :: `:::: Dracut, Massachusetts ::' :: `:: :: :: :: DYER%VAXUUM.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA :: .::::. :: {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vaxuum!dyer ::..:' :: `:..:: ::::. :: .:::: Statements made in this article are my own; they might not :::::::::::::::: reflect the views of |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| Equipment Corporation.