rafferty@cmu-cs-edu1.ARPA (Colin Rafferty) (06/16/85)
Well, I've just gone through about 400 past articles and I am impressed.
Here I am, a newcomer from net.origins, where they had no idea at all what
the word "discussion" means (present company excluded, of course). I am
very pleased to see people actually having their minds changed (forcibly
sometimes) by the other posters, and I have learned a great deal about the
opposite (and better looking) sex. Just a few things that I'd like to state
for the record.
First of all, I am definitely against rape. There is absolutely no excuse
that a man can have for having sex with an unwilling partner. I've had my
share of meetings with lampposts because of the way that some women have
been (un?)dressed, but I still cannot comprehend the attitude that some
macho jerks have that the woman is "asking for it". It just blows my mind.
Number two, I will always try to complement a girl who looks exceptionally
good that day, if it seems that she wouldn't mind. I hate to say it, but it
makes me feel good to know that I've made someone else feel good. And I
feel sorry for the ladies on this net who can't take a compliment because of
their innate fears of men.
Number three, I will always offer to walk a female co-worker home,
especially when she gets off work at one in the morning. I have, in fact
done this a number of times this summer, and nothing has happened yet. But
I offered my services, and I am willing to stand by them, even if it means
doing something that I might not be able to walk away from. (actually, I'm
not sure if I'll be able to, but I hope I will, if the time comes (actually,
I hope I never have to find out))
Number four, I think that it is sad that there are so many women in the
world who don't want equality, who are very happy being catered to by the
men (as they see it), and are scared of not being able to say "But I'm only
a girl." It would be useless for me to say that I am all for female
equality, because I think that I'm already past that stage. In fact, I
think that any reasonably intelligent person my age (20) is beyond that,
simply because we grew up during the seventies, and no one ever had the
opportunity to feed us the sexist tripe without any opponents.
Note well: what I mean by "beyond that" is that I actually don't think that
men and women are equal. We never will be. Simple biology. But I just
don't think that either one is superior. In fact, it really sickens me to
see women go out of their way to try and be "just like a man", when they
aren't. A woman is a woman, and shouldn't try to fit into some image of a
male. It is ridiculous to try and ignore the fact that men and women are
different, and I, for one, would be very depressed if there weren't all the
differences.
Well, that's all I can think of now. Be talking to you guys later.
(By the way, when I say "guys", I mean people, with no man-dominance
connotations.)
----
Colin Rafferty { Math Department, Carnegie-Mellon University }
"I suspect that CMU would deny ever knowing me, let alone sharing my views."