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From: crs@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: IEEE cover
Message-ID: <32217@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 15:23:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: lanl.32217
Posted: Mon Oct 21 15:23:26 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Oct-85 08:20:52 EDT
References: <1267@cornell.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 50

> We're talking about the cover of the latest IEEE publications catalogue
> here, I assume.  I've handed people it, saying, "There's an upside-down
> nude female figure on the cover," and they (once cued in this way) spot
> it quickly. And I'll bet it is registered subconsciously even if it takes
> "ten minutes to find it."  
> 
> As to the rest of the quoted posting, I must assume the author forgot
> to :-), because I find the cover inexcusable -- but I'm saving
> my flames for my letter to the IEEE.
> 

First I apologize for singling out this example.  There have been
several.  I hadn't seen -- No! that isn't right.  I had seen the
catalog in question but hadn't noticed the silhouette of a nude woman
when I read the first article complaining about it.

I don't believe this!

What is next, a call to arms to picket your local museum, because they
have all those nasty *naked* statues and paintings in there?

Here we are in a world where toxic waste (conventional and nulcear) 
is accumulating at a rate that is growing exponentially and we *don't*
know how to handle it safely -- our environment is being seriously
polluted every day of our lives -- the threat of nuclear war continues --
people are not safe on the streets and the mongers of simplistic
solutions think that outlawing guns and setting criminals free will
make everything alright -- new diseases crop up regularly -- a large
fraction of the world in general, and too many even in our own country
haven't enough to eat -- and on and on...

And you worry that a pleasant piece of graphic art happens to include
a silhouette of a nude woman, a silhouette that a dirty old man like
me didn't even *notice*?  Have you looked at television lately?  Have
you been to a movie?  Have you seen the generic violence to which no one
seems to give a second thought?  And you are this distressed over the
portrayal of a nude?

Please, don't tell me that this is net.women and that women find "this
sort of thing" offensive.  If your problems are so few that this is a
problem for you, you are, indeed, lucky.  All of the problems listed
above affect *women* too.

How many of you have actually seen the cover?  Just curious.
-- 
All opinions are mine alone...

Charlie Sorsby
...!{cmcl2,ihnp4,...}!lanl!crs
crs@lanl.arpa