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From: crs@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Masculinity is "Normal"
Message-ID: <31764@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 13:35:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: lanl.31764
Posted: Fri Oct 11 13:35:36 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 05:37:35 EDT
References: <472@ttidcb.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 33

> I wonder if this is because many men feel as I do, neither masculine nor
> feminine but just "normal". If so this would reinforce the view that the
> mainstream world is a male one, which womanish things are "outside".
> Am I blundering into what to others is a glaringly obvious idea? Maybe,
> just as some people live a long time not realizing that they are
> heterosexual writers of prose, I need to have it beaten into me that my
> world is not "normal", but male?

Bingo!  I think you have put your finger on the confusion I felt when
I, a man, tried to think what my answer was to "when do I feel most
masculine/feminine" in response to the earlier question.  You're right.
I don't feel either; I feel normal.  That is not to say that I don't
have feelings that are sometimes considered masculine or are sometimes
considered feminine.  But they don't make me *feel* masculine/feminine;
They just feel normal to me.  Well, most of them do -- sometimes the
cultural bias rears its ugly head and I feel uncomfortable about one
or another.

I guess I have to disagree with what you say about your world not
being normal, but male.  Wouldn't we all be better off if we felt
*normal* with what we are, rather than feeling male or feeling
female?

Am I missing some subtlety?

Thanks for your article.  I enjoyed reading it and thinking about it.

-- 
All opinions are mine alone...

Charlie Sorsby
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