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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watvlsi!joe
From: joe@watvlsi.UUCP (Joe Morrison)
Newsgroups: soc.singles,soc.women
Subject: Re: Feminists
Message-ID: <3145@watvlsi.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Oct-86 13:17:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: watvlsi.3145
Posted: Wed Oct  1 13:17:27 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Oct-86 21:46:15 EDT
References: <4107@reed.UUCP> <7428@sun.uucp> <153@endot.UUCP> <1116@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU>
Reply-To: joe@watvlsi.UUCP (Joe Morrison)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 74
Xref: watmath soc.singles:257 soc.women:165
Summary: 

kathy:
>>I hope people these days realize that it's entirely possible to 
>>be a feminist without protesting everything.  

cheryl:
>And what is it that you intend to accept rather than protest?
>Do you propose to accept everything, rather than be accused
>of protesting everything?  

joe:
Not protesting everything doesn't necessarily mean accepting everything.
A number of my friends are feminists and I share their views. I don't
"protest everything" but I try and do things that remind my male friends
of my views. I'm not dogmatic about the issue and so my friends tend to
respect my views. In that small way I am doing my part for the feminist
movement, without officially "protesting".

kathy:
>>I mean in the 70's everyone was more radical and it gave 
>>non-feminists a bad taste in their mouths (so to speak).  

cheryl:
>AWWWW, I feel SO sorry for them. We put a bad taste in their mouths,
>when what they deserved was to be run out of town, sued to the
>gills, thrown in jail, had their self-serving laws declared 
... etc...
>I'm SO afraid of putting a bad taste in their mouths, oh, yes.

joe:
Is this supposed to be a rebuttal? Kathy might have worded her sentence
a bit better, but I agree with it! My male friends tend to chuckle when
they hear the word "feminist" and make the usual jokes, because many
feminists *are* man-haters and go out of their way to alienate men.  To
help the feminist cause, men's perceptions have to change. Running the
men out of town, etc. is not going to accomplish this!

kathy:
>>Some feminists just haven't learned that screaming your views at
>>some people don't make them listen--if anything they block their 
>>ears completely.

cheryl:
>And you think that whispering your views will make them listen?
>I've got news for you.  If you whisper, your voice will be ignored,
>just like I almost ignored your timid little mealy-mouthed posting.

joe:
Kathy is right! And stop making the world black and white! People don't
have to choose between screaming or whispering, there are lots of
alternative, MORE USEFUL positions to take.

Also, there is no reason to call a posting "mealy-mouthed" - we're all
paying for this net and no one has the right to intimidate netters who
have something to say.

Cheryl, I hope you don't interpret this posting as a flame. I've been
enjoying this newgroup for a while, and I really hate it when I sense
anger or hatred.  That's mostly why I wrote this. I'm looking forward
to comments about my posting but I hope this doesn't turn into a
name-calling newsgroup.

On a new topic, (and if anyone follows this up, I think you should
delete soc.singles from the newsgroups line) one of my interests is in
genderless writing. This is extremely difficult to do in English. There
is an excellent article about genderless writing by Douglas Hofstatder
in his book "Metamagical Themas", pp.136-167.  Has anyone read this?
Anyone have any ideas or tips about genderless writing?
-- 
Joe Morrison
VLSI Group
University of Waterloo
{decvax,allegra,ihnp4}!watmath!watvlsi!joe
--
"The first fifteen million years -- they were the worst..."