ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac) (03/20/84)
Laura,
Personal experience may be the source of all we know, but
this shouldn't be used to deny the existence of collective
experiences. When any group of people finds
itself being compulsively stereotyped by many of the people
they meet, then a collective response is appropriate and
beneficial. There are indeed feminists that attempt to
replace one set of stereotypes with another. However, the
majority of feminists that I know are concerned with eliminating
oppressive stereotypes, not with getting even by persecuting men.
We live in a culture with a very high rate of rape. The
reasons for this cannot be dismissed as the result of many
coincidental personal experiences. Something is wrong here, and
fixing it demands that we understand how our culture encourages
rape. Brownmiller's comment that "all" men benefit from rape
is offensive, since it assumes that it somehow benefits me to
live in society of intimidated women, but it contains an
element of truth. Rape is one way in which women have traditionally
been kept intimidated, and this intimidation enhances the personal
power of the vaste majority of men.
A woman can refuse to be intimidated, just as a slave can refuse
to work, but such defiance is not without a price. No one should have
to face a large risk of being (raped/beaten/murdered) in order
to live their lives as they see fit.
"Just another Cosmic Cowboy"
Ethan Vishniac
{ut-sally,ut-ngp,kpno}!utastro!ethan
Department of Astronomy
University of Texas
Austin, Texas 78712