mom@sftri.UUCP (M.Modig) (12/22/84)
I'm sorry if people are offended by this article since it is more of a personal reply, but the mail link between where I am and ihnp4!sun!sunny doesn't seem to be working too well... OK. First we get a lot of song and dance about how men are into dominance and that a sort of "my thingy is bigger than your thingy" and wanting to be the biggest buck in the herd has led to the nuclear arms race, and the possibility of a nuclear winter, and athlete's foot, and income taxes, etc.... After a lot of heat, we get an article on syntax and semantics in the English language trying to explain that "men" as in "men are into dominance" refers to only some men, not all men. Nice try. Now, looky here, we've got a *NEAT* poem! Gee, what are some of the lines in the neat poem trying to say? <...> many of us do. He's the hairy beast in man. EVERY man has one. My wife of a week, almost left me, rather than face him again. All you men out there, here me. Is dominating any one, any country, worth destroying the whole planet? I am a man, like you. <...> It's a lifelong struggle, to stop that hairy beast. But he lives in EACH and EVERY man alive. He who seeks to dominate is the hairy beast. <...> For all you women, who hear this story. Know and understand this: The hair beast is too big to face by any man alone. Yet he must do it, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So. ALL men have a hairy beast and a need to dominate. And, the excerpts imply (as does the whole poem) that only men have this "hairy beast". (Guess we're just lucky...) Come on! First, not every man has a need to dominate in the way you are so down on. Not all men are into dominating every little piece of their world, including their women. Second, everybody (men AND women) has some desire to exert control over their environment. This kind of dominance is, in my opinion, both normal and necessary. Naturally, there are bounds on what is and is not acceptable, and when those bounds are exceeded, it can turn into the kind of dominance mentioned above. This is also not a problem confined to men. Women can also go overboard in this manner, although they almost never resort to physical domination; they usually are more subtle about it. Doesn't make it any better, tho. Yes, nuclear war is a problem. Nuclear winter may be a possibility. Athlete's foot may be exterminated by the end of the century. And there really isn't too much anyone can do about income taxes. But why do you continually link these problems with gender? I find this very confusing. Are we supposed to assume that a woman in position to build nuclear weapons would not do so? I don't think that's a good idea, and besides it isn't true (Meir and Gandhi). Your continual harping about the maleness involved doesn't change anything, and besides, it disguises the real point. Yeah, I'm worried about the finger on the button; it doesn't make me any more worried that the finger belongs to a male. Why should it? [If you're going to raise an argument about differing personalities or qualities here, please restrict yourself to examples in real life; lab experiments on people don't count] Attitudes in people are only going to change through education, which is a long-term investment. Being a politician or leader depends on you having the right sort of attitudes, and those attitudes can be developed in males or females, so replacing all these males you rail about with females is not a good idea. As far as the problems you are so worried about are concerned, there have been no concrete solutions, but there is still discussion going on, and groups are forming. If you wish to discuss these topics rationally and without dragging in the (to me) irrelevant fact that most of the people who make the final decisions in these matters are currently male, there are proper places to do it. This newsgroup, however, is not one of them. I've written enough; I'm tired, and I've really just about had it with you and your articles. It's getting to the point that I'm beginning to wonder why I bother reading net.women and net.singles at all, and I've not been reading stuff off the net for very long [a few months]. I'm interested in finding out more about what women think; I am not interested in being told that I am some sort of creature who presumably should be kept in his cage with electrified bars most of the time. Please stop. Mark Modig ihnp4!sftri!mom