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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!oddjob!cs1
From: cs1@oddjob.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.flame
Subject: now is the time for all good men...
Message-ID: <749@oddjob.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-May-85 02:32:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: oddjob.749
Posted: Sun May 26 02:32:16 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 26-May-85 23:42:56 EDT
Reply-To: cs1@oddjob.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart)
Organization: U. Chicago, Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lines: 77
Xref: watmath net.women:5287 net.flame:10130

>>I was serious.  I really think that the generic term for a person should
>>be "man", and that the generic pronouns should be "he", "him" and "his".
>
>Oh my goddess, she *was* serious.
>
>>The psychology of this is phenomenally powerful...it does not demand that
>>anyone change his concept of "manhood" to one of "personhood", but rather
>>that a female of our species be considered part of mankind.  It also
>>acknowleges the fact that it IS a "man's world", and it does not place
>>any importance in radically changing that man's world into a "persons
>>world".  It rather puts the burden on individuals to live up to cerain
>>standards of job performance, self-reliance, and social dominance
>>necessary to survive in an unchanged man's world.  If everyone were a
>>"man", it would be no longer possible to speak of "women's work" any more
>>Furthermore, the use of the word "man" to refer to a human being of either
>>sex would force men to consider social, financial, intellectual,
>>technical and scientific accomplishments as something very, very
>>different from simple biological endowments.  If you're the best man for
>>the job, you're the best man for the job--no matter what your plumbing,
>>parentage or early social environment was like.  The push for THIS kind
>>of change in the use of the language would have a different connotation
>>from the bleeding-hearded whine "but we're all people, aren't we?"
>>associated with mutilations like "to each his/her own". Rather, it says,
>>"Dammit, I'm as good a man as you, and what I do is just as important as
>>what you do, and if you have a dispute with me, you'd better prove it."  
>
>Gibberish.  Knee-jerk, unintelligible gibberish.
>
>>And dammit, this is a good idea, a new idea, and a lot more worthwhile
>>than than the drivel about rape and high-heel sneakers I've been reading
>>about in this newsgroup lately.
>
>Cheryl, dearest, the "good idea, new idea" you're proposing is *no change
>at all* in our language.  How the h*ll is not making any change at all
>going to influence people's pre/misconceptions?  (Well, technically, it's
>changing *back* to the language that had us brainwashed before, but the
>progress we've made is still new enough to be non-standard.)
>
>>Is the idea just too simple and effective a solution to gender-connotation
>
>It's simple alright.  But effective?!?!  Stand around and do absolutely
>nothing, and everyone will undergo a "phenomonally powerful" mind shift.
>You're looney-tunes.
>
>>It just makes too much sense to argue with, doesn't it?
>
>It makes too *little* sense to argue with.
>
>>                              Cheryl Stewart, BMOC
>
>aka Eliza II
>
>-- 
>
>--JB                                             "The giant is awake."
>

Your first mistake, beth, JB, giant, or whatever it is you call yourself, was
to stoop to a snide, name-calling tack.  If you want to discuss this topic
man-to-man, grow up.  You can save your childish backbiting for sorority-house
meetings or wherever it is that kind of thing is deemed acceptable.  Your second
mistake, beth@sphinx, was to completely misunderstand my proposal.  I proposed
that grownup females be referred to as men.  This constitutes a significant 
departure from the current use of the English language.  You claimed that 
I proposed that no change be made.  Clearly, simple logic escapes you.  I'd say
you have a lot to learn.

                                            Cheryl Stewart

"A question in your nerves is lit 
 yet you know there is no answer fit
 to satisfy and assure you not to quit
 to keep it in your mind and not forget
 it is not he or she or them or it 
                            that you belong to"    

 -Bob Dylan