Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!ora!daemon
From: dgross@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Dave Gross)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Media E.R.A.
Message-ID: <1989Dec26.075051.888@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>
Date: 2 Jan 90 18:17:19 GMT
Sender: ambar@ora.ora.com
Organization: Youth International Party
Lines: 63
Approved: ambar@ora.com

Disclaimer:  The following is a piece of intended HUMOR.  It is taken from the
             book "The 90s:  A Look Back."  This book is a satirical attempt
             at a retrospective of the 1990s as it might be written in 2000.
             It is completely tongue in cheek, as is evidenced by some of the
             article titles:  The Facially Impaired Rights Movement, The
             Tragedy of the Second-Homeless, Pope Whoopi the First, etc.

MEDIA E.R.A.
 
 1) Women shall not be presented in a negative light in any medium.

 2) If women must be portrayed in a less than positive light due to historical
    circumstance (e.g., the life story of Eva Braun), they shall be portrayed
    as unwitting victims of a male-dominated system.

 3) In such isolated cases where women in public life (or characters represen-
    ting them in the media) have committed objectively illegal, unethical, or
    immoral acts, they shall always be portrayed as unwitting victims of a
    male-dominated system.

 4) All success and/or preeminence achieved by women in any field of endeavor
    shall be presented equally and uncritically, however questionable the
    legal, ethical, or moral standards of the field of endeavor, or the means
    by which the success was achieved.

 5) Aggression in personal relationships, contempt for natural life forms,
    exploitation of the underclass, victimization of the poor, old, or young,
    espousal of crypto-military corporate concepts such as "winning," "taking
    no prisoners," etc., shall be presented as obnoxious if pursued by a male,
    and courageous, pioneering, and beneficial to the women's movement if
    pursued by a woman.

 6) No woman involved in education, educational theory, educational media, or
    any other activity pertaining to the upbringing of children shall be
    required to have children of her own.

 7) The right of women to use their bodies, and/or other women's bodies, to
    sell clothing, cosmetics, cars, food, beverages, drugs, real estate,
    financial services, travel and transportation, leisure products, or any
    other goods, through the use of titillation, arousal, incitement to sexual
    congress or any other legitimate sales technique, shall be inviolable.

 8) Rape shall always be presented as the ultimate crime.

 9) The use of terms and concepts such as "sexism," "phallocracy," etc., shall
    be presented as naive when applied to political issues (e.g., defense,
    racism), but apposite and compelling in discussions of income differential
    and sexual harassment.

10) All accounts of the recent history of the women's movement shall portray
    its early commitment to fight exploitation, poverty, environmental des-
    truction, and militarism as naive and/or youthful exuberance.  The devel-
    opment of priorities such as income and personal health and enhancement
    may be presented humorously, but not sarcastically.  The use of irony, or
    saying something other than what is meant to dramatize its absurdity, is
    absolutely prohibited...


-- 
***************************dgross@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU**************************
* Walter Cavanaugh has 1,196 different valid credit cards.
* Two-thirds of American men believe in love at first sight.
* 60% of drug test labs are estimated to meet forensic standards.