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From: tittle@blanche.ics.uci.edu (Cindy Tittle)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: BOOK REVIEW: _Gender Blending_
Message-ID: <25C9FF6C.16128@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Date: 2 Feb 90 21:45:16 GMT
References: <25C26AAE.27180@paris.ics.uci.edu> <922@calmasd.Prime.COM>
Reply-To: tittle@blanche.ics.uci.edu (Cindy Tittle)
Organization: University of California, Irvine: ICS Department
Lines: 49
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
In-reply-to: nef@calmasd.Prime.COM (Nancy Fox)

In article <922@calmasd.Prime.COM>, nef@calmasd (Nancy Fox) writes:
[Commenting on my review of _Gender Blending_]

|I am frequently mistaken for a man.  This occurs most often over the
|phone, but has also occurred occasionally in person.  I'm a lesbian,
|and I usually wear pants and flannel or cotton shirts.  This mistaking
|me for a man though has always made me and my friends curious, though,
|because I don't really look masculine.

Holly Devor made much the same comment about some of the women that
she interviewed -- she found it hard to believe that people would
think of them as men.

|One thing that has occurred to me is that, though I don't look
|masculine, I don't act or look feminine, so that leaves masculine
|as the alternative.

Devor covers this in her book.  There have been studies done
that show people really require very few cues to determine
masculinity, but more to determine feminity.  Thus the absense
of feminine clues leads to assumption of masculinity, but not
the reverse.

|> give up their masculine behavior.  Many were actually mysogynistic to
|> some extent, feeling that other women could and should take the same
|> route that they did.
|
|I don't understand what you're saying here.  In what way is that
|mysogynistic?  I sometimes get very frustrated with what I call
|"fembots" or those women who play into the helpless female role.
|It makes it more difficult for all of us to move ahead out of
|sexual stereotyping when some women are still actively playing
|the game.  Is this what some of the women were expressing?

They would criticize and belittle feminine women, mostly for
reasons described above.  Others tended to be sympathetic.  I
may have used too strong a word here.

|Thanks for the review.  I'll pick up the book.

You're welcome!  Please let me (or the net) know what you thought?

--Cindy

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