chabot@amber.DEC (Chevrolet Chabot) (09/29/84)
Brent Rector = > > I personally do not recall many (or more than a small fraction?) of the 'boys' > in high school using the word 'slut'. It always seemed to be that it was used > mainly by the 'girls' of unquestionable virtue and morality (used in the > sense it meant in those days) as a label for the 'girls' who they thought to > be 'easy'. Is it only my imagination or did anyone else notice the same. Rather than a matter of the imagination it may be more a matter of environment and social circles. Or which aisle your locker was in in the gym. Or whether or not you were in a college prep "track". And what sort of notice you took of groups not in your circles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But I should like to digress into the matter of morality. In some societies women are threatenend with verbal abuse regarding "inappropriate" sexual behavior; in others a more direct, physically painful method is used to limit a woman's enjoyment of sex. The facts that women take part in the name-calling and, in the latter example in preceding sentence, that women are in charge of the physical mutilation, does not deny the acquiescence of men who are a part of the same society--individuals may have qualms or may disapprove, individuals of both sexes--but since the activities continue, as a rule they are part of the accepted morality. Therefore, the blame for the threatening or restrictive behavior does not only lie solely in the women who are noticed in taking an active role--they are acting in support of the accepted morality which in many societies is disapproving of women's sexuality. And there are deep-seated prejudices that have found root in most of us, despite our external and normal daily behavior (Evan Kane's poem "Impressions of Tim Harvey" had a description of the cloaking of another kind of prejudice). Not to say that the prejudices are unconquerable. (Vanquishable I will not say.) If any of us can claim you've never had the prejudices, then examine yourself more carefully, especially those things you've done or said or thought in anger. L S Chabot UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot ARPA: ...chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA USFail: DEC, MR03-1/K20, 2 Iron Way, Marlborough, MA 01752