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From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Imagine a non-sexist society...
Message-ID: <1753@psuvax1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 19:01:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1753
Posted: Wed Aug 28 19:01:21 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 06:43:41 EDT
References: <931@oddjob.UUCP> <235@whuts.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ.
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> > 	A couple months ago I posted an article asking people to suggest what
> > sorts of qualities they imagined a non-sexist society to have. 
> 
> BORING!!!!
> 
> Unless the gene-splicers come up with a way of making us
> androgynous....................

  I personally do not think that non-sexist or less-sexist society is
necesserily a bad idea.  There is a lot of sex separation in America
which is not as natural as it seems.
  Scouting provides an example.  I was a scout, but not a boy scout.
In my country, scouting is usually coed.  My girl classmate was a
troop leader.  It was a nice example of an enviroment where sex was
not taken into account.  (On the summer camps we had separate tents.)
  I do not expect ever to see parental leaves being shared equally,
so some pay inequalities are bound to persist.  Also, women tend
(statistically) to have smaller quantitative skills, so I expect less
female programmers than male ones.  Truck driving will persist
as a male dominated profession.  But I think that under pressure,
many of rabid inequalities will vanish.
  I do not think that it requires gene-splitting to achieve result like:
equal percentage of woman between workers and formen (forpersons?),
now we can read about factories with 90% female workers and 90% male
administration; proportional share of female doctors (the same qualities
which make women good nurses should make them good doctors) etc.
  Unlike the author of the original posting, I do not think the way
shall be socialist (unless Canada is socialist, then yes).  Soviet
block countries reversed many anti-female biases, only to freeze in 
rigid, male dominated power structure.  A way appropriate for
America seem to be based on continuing pressure and coalition building.
  Education seem to be very important, thus my scout example.  Let the
boys know from the very beginning that girls are not a different species,
that in mixed groups girls may be leader as frequently as boys etc.
Then infamious TV.  Refuse to buy detergents with sexists ads!
Do not watch soap-operas with their stupid stereotypes! 
Make some reasonable postulates concerning cartoons for kids!
Experiece shows that TV may change under pressure.
  As a male, I see feminist movement as a promissing force of change.
Sometimes funny (sorry), but what I hope for in the era of wimpy
liberals?  The best I can think of is the bunch of gutsy woman.

Piotr Berman