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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!tymix!whitehur
From: whitehur@tymix.UUCP (Pamela K. Whitehurst)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Masculinity is "Normal"
Message-ID: <555@tymix.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 12:24:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: tymix.555
Posted: Mon Oct 14 12:24:43 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 05:27:26 EDT
References: <472@ttidcb.UUCP>
Reply-To: whitehur@tymix.UUCP (Pamela K. Whitehurst)
Organization: Tymnet Inc., Cupertino CA
Lines: 43
Summary: 

In article <472@ttidcb.UUCP> jackson@ttidcb.UUCP (Dick Jackson) writes:
>This is my first, and unless I get flamed enough, probably my last to
>net.women. I read this group because I still have the hope that one day
>I will understand women  ...

What type of understanding do you want?  It is probably possible to come
up with enough statistics to claim that in a given situation 53% of all
women of a certain educational level, race, and income bracket will react
in 'this' way.  That will get you through most situations where you do not
care about individuals.

If you want to understand women as individuals then, as with men, you get
rid of as many generalizations as possible, and then you listen.  Just be
careful not to assume that what is true for one woman is true for another.

>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?

Perhaps it is time to ask, what is it you are really feeling when you
feel feminine/masculine?

I associate feeling feminine with feeling gentle, usually quiet, and
very aware of myself.

I feel masculine when I am feeling physically protective of someone, not 
nurturing.

Most of the time I just feel "normal". Is my normal feeling the same as
your normal feeling?

-- 
          PKW
hplabs!oliveb!tymix!whitehur

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