Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!harvard!ksr!alcatraz!benson From: benson@alcatraz.ksr.com (Benson Margulies) Newsgroups: soc.women,news.misc Subject: Re: Response to abusive email. Message-ID: <144@ksr.UUCP> Date: Thu, 21-May-87 07:28:25 EDT Article-I.D.: ksr.144 Posted: Thu May 21 07:28:25 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 11:27:15 EDT References: <365@dasys1.UUCP> <6278@reed.UUCP> <489@gryphon.CTS.COM> <18872@uc <3101@well.UUCP> Sender: nobody@ksr.UUCP Reply-To: benson@ksr.UUCP (Benson Margulies) Organization: Kendall Square Research, Cambridge MA Lines: 59 Xref: mnetor soc.women:3909 news.misc:425 > >Why am I getting the distinct impression that any disagreement >with Mark Ethan Smith is tantamount to a personal attack and/or >harassment? > >--Tom Mandel mandel@well.UUCP > This is not a flame of Tom. He just provided the excuse. Its too bad that none of you seem to have been active in 60's civil rights. If you were, you would twig quicker. When a person's perception of their life experience is one of constant and unremitting discrimination, denigration, and other hostility, even seemingly "minor" additional examples of the acts or attitudes are going to become intolerable. Comments that doubt that 6 million died send a lot of jews, including myself, right off the wall, no matter how "reasonable" or even "humorous." Its quite obvious that Mark is extraordinarily attuned to the discrimination and denigration of women which is a constant and unremitting feature of life in this society. Whether or not you personally agree, and whether or not you personally feel any responsibility for this state of affairs, the least you can do (if you want to have any solidarity with feminism) is to grant folks like Mark the right to their rage. You may not like it, it may not be pleasant to hear, but that's just too bad. Note that this is NOT a defense of anything Mark has or will say or do. It's not my intention to defend him, especially since I haven't seen any of the traffic on soc.women. He may have done the moral equivalent to blowing up building. That's not my point. This post is entirely designed as an answer to people like Tom Mandel (and even to a certain extent Erik Fair) who don't seem to see what the fuss is about. Back in the 60's, there were a lot of white people who didn't do much of anything in the way of active discriminating, and didn't see what the fuss was about. Those institutions seemed OK to them. Now it seems that most people see it differently. Whatever you personally think about the use of him/her/he/she, its no excuse not to see that the dispute stems from some pretty serious nastiness in society. But I can't resist suggesting one thought-experiment for people who disagree with mark, and are males. Imagine being referred to as "she" on an ongoing basis. Imagine it hard. Examine your feelings. I'll be very surprised if down there somewhere you don't feel insulted, and that the "accuracy" of the reference is the least of the issues. Benson I. Margulies Kendall Square Research Corp. harvard!ksr!benson All comments the responsibility ksr!benson@harvard.harvard.edu of the author, if anyone.