msmith@dasys1.UUCP (Mark E. Smith) (10/24/87)
In article <21790@lll-tis.arpa> mcb@lll-tis.arpa (Michael C. Berch) writes: >flamed by Smith (hey; it's happened to me too, for some sort of twaddle >about "diminutive pronouns" that was totally unrelated to the matter at >hand); Smith for having to worry about people trying to take her >account(s) away -- certainly a legitimate concern. But this isn't the issue. If, while denying my right to free speech, people deny my right to equal terms, my right to equal terms becomes as much an issue as my right to free speech. While Michael may think that certain rights, or the rights of certain people, such as, perhaps the rights of women to equal terms, or the rights of minorities to equal access to public places, are trivial or "twaddle," those subjected to disparate treatment may legitimately differ with her views. Indeed, if she thinks that my referring to her *exactly* as she referred to me was a "flame," then it is obviously not a trivial matter. Indeed, the hidden reason my accounts were pulled, may well have been the insistence of certain people that they were entitled to accord others disparate treatment based upon sex. More specifically, they believe that certain terms are the sole privilege of biological males, just as they once believed that certain jobs and fields of study were the sole privilege of biological males. I've taken the trouble of posting to soc.women an article on the subject of equal terms (the subject line reads, "Offensively David Canzi (Was...Edward C. Kwok)" that only an original intentionalist who rejects the Bill of Rights could fail to understand as being a legitimate concern and not mere "twaddle." If you refer to someone in terms they consider discriminatory, and they defend their right to equal terms, and others also defend their right, and you then go into an administrative office or boardroom so that you can continue to refer to them in a discriminatory manner, and that administrative office or boardroom is a public place, don't be too surprized if they defend their rights wherever you see fit to attack them. Nobody will know what discriminatory things you say in a private club or a locked office, instead of a public forum. --Mark -- Mark Ethan Smith {allegra,philabs,cmcl2}!phri\ Big Electric Cat Public Unix {bellcore,cmcl2}!cucard!dasys1!msmith New York, NY, USA {philabs}!tg/