mickey@illogica.UUCP (Michael Thompson) (09/05/85)
In article <2723@sun.uucp> Ms. Sunny Kirsten writes: >... but there IS womb envy. >Every woman is everything any man is, plus she has the ability to >nurture a child. This is the reason for men's fear of women, that >men are only the spark which ignites the fire of life which burns >within woman. Women are, at least, equal to men. > > Sunny There is something fundamentally wrong with what is being suggested here. Ms. Kirsten implies that females are more valuable to humankind than males because a portion of the development of our species involves a stay of 9 months in the female womb. She also asserts that the existance of this womb is the basis of a fear she believes that males have of females. While I appreciate (read 'acknowledge') the female's role in the reproductive process of our species, I do not believe that a female is a more important or more adequate organism than a male because of it. And certainly, the nature of a woman's role invokes neither fear nor envy within me. But if what Ms. Kirsten implies is true, what will happen when the natural womb is no longer necessary for human reproduction? Will the significance of the female within humankind suddenly dwindle? How much will male-female relations really profit by the loss of 'womb envy'? It is quite obvious (to me, at least), that if either sex were to suddenly vanish, our species would quickly dissolve. The reasons are only partially biological; the moral cloth of civilization itself is intricatly woven from cultured human values - both male and female. Every major society would collapse without the support of one of the sexes. The role that each sex plays in the preservation and maintenance of an ordered society is an *extremely* important one. And I do not think it can be successfully argued that it is not an equal one. In closing: I question the rationality of prejudices based on physical or biological attributes. These philosophies have been labeled as bigotry and sexism and are finally being accepted as being counter-productive to civilized development. mickey m. (Michael Thompson) {ucbvax,decwrl}!dual!vecpyr!altos86!illogica!mickey