Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!ames!elroy!usc!orion.cf.uci.edu!uci-ics!Will.Johnson@itsgw.rpi.EDU From: Will.Johnson@itsgw.rpi.EDU Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Feminism outdated? Message-ID: <17421@paris.ics.uci.edu> Date: 10 Jun 89 21:13:24 GMT Sender: news@paris.ics.uci.edu Reply-To: WILLIAM_JOHNSON%mts.rpi.edu@ITSGW.rpi.edu Organization: AdriCo Ltd. Lines: 40 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu "William A. Turnbow" says: > One of the perfect examples I was thinking of in recent times >was the insurance rates. Women were fighting for equality in health >insurance rates and life-term payouts (even though statistically it >did cost more for women than men). They did NOT however, fight for >equality in driver's insurance rates where they have a distinct >advantage. This really went over like a lead balloon with me. > > If women want equality that is one thing, and it is fine. But >if women want 'rights', that men don't have. That's another thing, >and I think that's wrong. > >-wat- You are confusing fighting for and not fighting against. Women are not fighting against (for the most part) equality in the driver's insurance, they simply aren't fighting for it. I don't think any but the most militant of feminists would condemn men for wanting equal insurance rates, particularly in the light of the above, but as I've said in my own defense before: why do you expect them to be more concerned with your problems than with their own? There is a limited capacity for working for change, and for obvious reasons feminists want to use the energy they have for their own benefit. My complaint comes whenever a feminist group lobbies AGAINST a group of men trying to fix inequalities against them. It seems that many feminists feel as you do only in reverse: Since the problems of women are far and away worse than anyone else's (or at least men's), men taking time to work for their own equality in some areas are being sexist and trying to re- assert male superiority. They (and you) don't seem to recognize the difference between working for your own ends and fighting against someone elses. Will. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- William Johnson, 76 1/2 - 13th Street, Troy, NY 12180 WILLIAM_JOHNSON%mts.rpi.edu@ITSGW.rpi.edu adric@pawl.rpi.edu Disclaimer: I don't disclaim ANYTHING, dammit!!! "Hey, Dad...wanna have a catch?" -- Ray Kinsella