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From: desjardins@h-sc1.UUCP (marie desjardins)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: PMS and incompetence
Message-ID: <483@h-sc1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 20:33:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: h-sc1.483
Posted: Tue Jul 30 20:33:08 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 20:51:38 EDT
References: <993@ubc-vision.CDN> <202@ihlpl.UUCP> <282@timeinc.UUCP> <206@ihlpl.UUCP> <592@mtung.UUCP> <173@whuts.UUCP> <324@ti <360@timeinc31 Jul 85 00:33:08 GMT
Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
Lines: 40

> In article <462@h-sc1.UUCP> desjardins@h-sc1.UUCP (marie desjardins) writes:
> >> Since *some* women get VERY weird due to PMS, and these women
> >> (if elected to office) would conceivable have their emotions doing
> >> weird things during some important decision process, shouldn't this
> >> be taken into account?                               ^^^^^^^^^
> >
> >Make up your mind, Ross, do you have an opinion or don't you?  If
> >not, you should learn how to phrase a question properly, so as to
> >avoid any confusion (seems this gets you in trouble over and over,
> >doesn't it?) If so, then for Chrissakes just say what you think, 
> >and if you get flamed for it then take it like a man instead of 
> >constantly backing down and whining "I didn't mean THAT!"
> 
> I'll try not to back down, that wouldn't be a manly thing, you claim.

Touche, I should have said "Like a person who has thought out what
he (she/it/etc.) has to say carefully."  However, I really do think
you should go back and reread your article.  This time, look at
it from the perspective of a woman who is tired of having people
say "gee, I dunno if we should hire a woman, what if she has --
y'know, problems -- every month?"  It's not an easy thing to deal
with, especially since about 1/2 of the population has had absolutely
no experience, and doesn't seem to realize that most women are NOT
severely affected by PMS.  Maybe about as many as there are men with
uncontrollable sexual urges, or men with a macho-image problem (no,
I'm not referring to you -- I hope).  The point is that the catch-
phrase "PMS" is used as a justification for a lot of unfair things,
and whether or not you were trying to use it in that way, I really
think it would make all of us feel a lot better if you tried to
be more sensitive to the problem.  Wouldn't it have been equally
useful for your purposes to phrase your question as:

"Do you think that PMS is a severe enough problem in some cases
that it could affect women's decision processes?  If so, should
this be a consideration in choosing (for example) elected officials,
and if so, how do make this determination?"

I think the above is much more neutral than your original article.

	marie desjardins park