[net.news.group] net.women.only

liz@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/19/83)

I'd like to propose a new group.  When I first started reading
news, I just assumed that net.women would be mostly women discussing
issues of concern to women.  What I found was interesting, but not
exactly mostly women discussing concerns of women.  In fact, it
seemed like almost all men contributing to the discussion.  While
there have been more women contributing articles as of late, the
forum is still not one in which I feel free to discuss some of the
things I'd like to discuss, and I know I'm not alone in feeling
this way.

Let's put it this way.  You know how net.singles is almost all
singles discussing things about singles?  Can we have a group which
is just for women?  Let's have a net.women.only!
-- 
				-Liz Allen, U of Maryland, College Park MD
				 Usenet:   ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz
				 Arpanet:  liz.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay

mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (08/21/83)

The obvious reason there are a lot of male people contributing to net.women is
that there are a lot more male people on the net than female people.  It seems
to me that the ratio in net.women is about 2:1 female:male but I could be wrong.
	The other, more important reason is that most of the articles are
really about people and human-value issues rather than "women"'s issues
Perhaps more appropriate would be a net.people for the current net.women
articles, leaving net.women for the things you wish to talk about.
	The nature of the whole net concept is so open that I don't
understand how you plan to have a net.whatever where you will feel comfortable
submitting.  If people start to use a group for something in particular, then
either people will read it, or they won't.  If it is very specific, then it
will tend to attract a limited, specific audience (how many people who are
not single (or contemplating/envying it) read net.single?).  If you start to
submit articles different from the current orientation of a group, either the
tone of the group will change, showing that you have raised a valid point, or
you will be flamed to death.  (Another reason I like net.women is that it is
quite accepting of any topic.)
(It's also possible to get lots of activity and flames, in which case it
really IS time for a new group.)
	But, if you think it's that important, let's move all this general
interest stuff to net.people and leave net.women to women only stuff!
(sorry, but I really don't understand (& I'm sure I'll get flamed for it))

 -- Gandalf's flunky Hobbit --   Dave Mason, U. Toronto CSRG,
        {cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!mason
     or {decvax,linus,lsuc,research}!utzoo!utcsrgv!mason   (UUCP)

debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (08/22/83)

No! For one thing, the idea of a newsgroup which imposes a priori restrictions
on the people who can read/contribute to it seems disagreeable. To my
knowledge, no group (not even net.singles) is "for XYZ only" (this is
exclusive, of course, of local groups for limited geographical distribution).
And what issues, may I inquire, are SO sensitive that having males contribute
their views hampers the discussion?

stanwyck@ihuxr.UUCP (08/22/83)

	This brings me to the point of needing to express a feeling I have
	been fighting with for a while.

<<<<< FLAME ON >>>>>

	WHY IS IT OK FOR {BLACKS, WOMEN, ANY-OTHER-"MINORITY"} TO HAVE 
	A SPECIAL GROUP FOR THEM  WHICH MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL POPULATION
	MAY NOT JOIN, BUT IF MALE WASPS TRY THE SAME THING IT IS
	PREJUDICE??

<<<<<FLAME TURNED DOWN SOME >>>>>

	I have seen over the last several years the growth of a number
	of widely accepted groups pressuring for the advancement of
	particular groups.  These groups have included racial groups
	(polish people, black people, hispanic people, amer-asians, etc)
	as well as womens groups, groups of the elderly, etc.  It seems
	that any so-called minority (note that women are not in fact
	a minority in our population) can have some group pushing for
	itself, but everytime some white (unidentifiable genetic background)
	male suggests that white men in general should do likewise, all
	the other groups immediately shout "prejudice!".  Do not we as
	white men have the same rights as any other member of society,
	or must white men continue to be the second class citizens of
	our society, without equal rights in the judicial and political
	processes?

don stanwyck : ..!ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck : 312-979-6667 : btl @ naperville, il

rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (08/22/83)

Due to the low proportion of women on the net, I think a
women-only newsgroup would die a cruel death.
-- 
Randwulf
 (Randy Haskins);  Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh   or... rh@mit-ee (via mit-mc)

ginger@ssc-vax.UUCP (08/22/83)

        "the forum is still not one in which I feel free to discuss
        some of the things I'd like to discuss, and I know I'm not
        alone in feeling this way."

Here is my vote for net.women.only!  There are many  subjects  of
interest to women which the men who dominate this newsgroup would
probably find silly, tiresome, or otherwise objectionable -so the
subjects  are never raised.  Even "liberated" women get a bit in-
timidated by articles from men with attitudes like this:

        --------------------------------------------------------
        Conclusions: If it really makes a difference to you
        whether I say 'he', 'she', or 'it' in a generic context,
        then you're probably narrow-minded, bigoted, or insecure,
        in which case I probably wouldn't care about your opinion,
        or want your drivel using filespace on my machine. Go
        suck your thumb.
        --------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps, as someone suggested, many of the discussions common  to
net.women  would  be  more  appropriate in a "net.people".  But I
think we would still need a net.women.only.  The purpose need not
be  to reject input from men, but simply to make it CLEAR that it
is a forum by, for and about women -and that men  who  object  to
the  content  are welcome to restrict themselves to using all the
rest of the net.

PLEASE don't misunderstand us, guys!  We *LIKE* you, but this  is
an  issue  that  had bothered some of us women for quite a while,
and (thanks to Liz) we finally found the nerve to mention it.

                                        Ginger Grover
                                        ssc-vax!ginger

guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) (08/23/83)

	I have seen over the last several years the growth of a number
	of widely accepted groups pressuring for the advancement of
	particular groups.  These groups have included racial groups
	(polish people, black people, hispanic people, amer-asians, etc)
	as well as womens groups, groups of the elderly, etc.

Poles are a "racial group"?

	It seems that any so-called minority (note that women are not in fact
	a minority in our population) can have some group pushing for
	itself, but everytime some white (unidentifiable genetic background)
	male suggests that white men in general should do likewise, all
	the other groups immediately shout "prejudice!".  Do not we as
	white men have the same rights as any other member of society,
	or must white men continue to be the second class citizens of
	our society, without equal rights in the judicial and political
	processes?

What?  How are white men second class citizens without equal rights in the
judicial and political process?  (And how does this connect with the
formation of organizations to support other groups?)  White males are, as a
group, better paid than other groups.  We (yes, we; as a white male I don't
feel like a second class citizen) have more opportunity for advancement, have
society more responsive to our concerns (if domestic violence were mostly a
case of wives assaulting husbands, you can bet there would be strong action
against it), etc..  The groups you refer to are shortchanged by society in
a way that white males are not.  As such, most attempts by white males to
set up such groups seem to be attempts to regain lost privilege.

One purpose of net.women.only would be to provide a forum for women to
discuss issues important to them without having to defend the importance of
these issues from the attacks of males not in a position to realize their
importance.

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,mcnc,we13,brl-bmd,allegra}!rlgvax!guy

jim@grkermit.UUCP (Jim Morton) (08/23/83)

	uh huh, right. And all the males on the net wouldn't even 
*think* of reading (or submitting) anything in net.women.only...

liz@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/23/83)

Hmmm.  Let me try to say this again.  I think the "only" part in
the group name is a little strong, but since there is already a
net.women and there are so many men on it...  Let me make the
analogy with net.singles again.  net.singles is >for< singles while
net.women is >about< women.  What I'd like is a group >for< women.
Actually, I like net.women -- I just want something else/more.

As far as keeping men off is concerned:  I don't think there's any
way to keep men from reading the group.  I would kind of like to
keep men from submiting a lot of articles to the group, but even
that would be difficult.  I would at least like to have a group
where most of the articles were by women.

As far as contents goes:  I don't think it would be any more personal
than other news groups -- the net is far too public in nature for
that.  It'd just be a place for women to discuss things and get
feedback from other women without needing to justify the discussion
or the existence of a problem.  Actually, a lot of it could well
be boring for the men out there, anyway.  (When's the last time
you men worried about makeup or monthly cramps?)  Partly, I'd just
like to get to know some of the women out there and find out how
they feel being a woman in such a male dominated profession -- what
problems they have run into and how they have solved them.  Does
this help to clarify where I'm coming from?  Part of this (I admit)
could be done on net.women, but there are so many men in that
group...

For the women out there:  What do you all think?  I haven't gotten
much response from you.  Do you feel a need for such a group?  Is
it worth trying?  Do you think it's appropriate?  What kinds of
things would you like such a group for?

(Submitting this article cautiously -- expecting flames I won't be
able to douse...)
-- 
				-Liz Allen, U of Maryland, College Park MD
				 Usenet:   ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz
				 Arpanet:  liz.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay

rascal@verdix.UUCP (08/23/83)

I know networking is growing in popularity, but I think net.women.only
is taking things a bit to literally.  (Seriously, I don't vote no.)

	Steve Scalpone
	sequel!verdix!rascal
	tektronix!ogcvax!rascal

rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (08/23/83)

about white males not having a group:  everyone loses from this.
White males lose because they feel isolated and ganged-up-on.
Everyone else loses because STILL A LOT OF POWER IN THIS COUNTRY
IS HELD BY WHITE MALES.  (Sorry, but it's a fact.)  When they remember
how militant everyone else is, it tends to make them 
white-male-supremecists.  
-- 
Randwulf
 (Randy Haskins);  Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh   or... rh@mit-ee (via mit-mc)

mark@cbosgd.UUCP (08/23/83)

There is precedent for restricted groups, e.g. btl.all is there only
for Bell Labs employees, and since proprietary things can be discussed,
we damn well make sure nobody outside BTL reads it, even if they
are interested.

In the case of a net-wide group for women, I don't see a way to prevent
men from reading it short of creating a new women.all newsgroup class,
making a new "women" group in /etc/group, and putting all women in that
group.  Then /usr/spool/news/net/women/only (or whatever) could be
mode 770, group "women".  This seems like overkill, and nothing forces
any given machine to cooperate.

As to only allowing women to post, you could make it a moderated newsgroup.
net.announce is nearly ready to start, and if you picked a name like
net.mod.women, only the moderator could post to it.  You'd need a moderator,
and probably a bug fix to 2.10 on the moderators machine.  And of course
the moderator could be fooled by some man claiming to be a woman or
forging the approval stamp, but let's hope the net is above that.

	Mark Horton

thanh@rlgvax.UUCP (Thomas Thanh Ngo) (08/23/83)

...but Jim, I don't think that you can possible miss anything for *not* reading
net.women.only since it's only for ...women only, you *know*. Just wonder
how many men out there ever think about ...sex transplant to be qualified
to contribute to such net group?

			...you die only once ...

braddy@houxl.UUCP (08/23/83)

and shall we also have a net.men.only?
David..

ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu@pur-ee.UUCP (08/24/83)

Say, how do you recognize a news submitter as a male for female ? Obviously
or can't say anything from a login name like qdo, rh, ken, or vu. So ?

pur-ee!vu

ecn-ec:ecn-pc:ecn-ed:vu@pur-ee.UUCP (08/24/83)

How about net.women.men.only for men dicussing women's issue ? (No idee noire.
Don't flame at me. Purdue is going to terminate my account anyway.)
Hao-Nhien Vu.

barbaral@tekig1.UUCP (08/24/83)

I am Chinese American.  At my college, there was an Asian American
Club, as well as a sorority for Asian Women Only.  I support these
groups in their function of helping other Asians feel comfortable
in a primarily white environment.  Many of the Asians on campus were
raised in Chinatown type environments, predominately Chinese people.
When they came to college, they felt like everyone was staring at
them, etc.  I was involved informally counselling some of my Asian
peers.
I refused to join either of the above clubs, for they seemed to take
on the attitude that Asians are better than any other race, almost a
case of reverse discrimination.  If we Asians (or any other minority
group) want others to accept us as equals, we do not accomplish that
by putting ourselves above them....discriminating against them as they
have discriminated against us!!!  Also, these minority organizations
often seem to isolate the minority, rather than integrate them with
the rest of the people.  Many of my Asian friends involved in the
clubs only had Asian friends, and their only social activity was with
the clubs.
I'm still a bit unsure of my stance on these types of groups, especially
since I'm an engineer, and there are women's engineering type groups
around, formal ones, such as SWE, as well as informal support groups.
Like many issues in life, I don't think it's all spelled out in black
and white.  I've been to some get togethers that are very supportive
and helpful.  I've been to other women's get togethers that sit there
and say that "all men are screwed" for two hours.  So I guess it really
depends on the women involved.  In summary, I support minority groups
only to the extent that they help the people involved, but not to the
extent that they are putting themselves above others, or isolating 
themselves from others.

ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (08/24/83)

Liz Allen (...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz) writes, in part:


      As far as keeping men off is concerned:  I don't think there's any
      way to keep men from reading the group.  I would kind of like to
      keep men from submiting a lot of articles to the group, but even
      that would be difficult.

For "difficult", read "impossible".  The net is a very free country.


                                I would at least like to have a group
      where most of the articles were by women.
      As far as contents goes:  I don't think it would be any more personal
      than other news groups -- the net is far too public in nature for
      that.  It'd just be a place for women to discuss things and get
      feedback from other women without needing to justify the discussion
      or the existence of a problem.

So it's only valid to discuss whether the issues you discuss are real issues,
if the person doing so is a woman?  That's sexist.  I admit there are a lot
of unliberated men who will denounce good things, but I don't see that only
men will do so, nor that only good things will be denounced.  Even if what
you say you want was possible, I don't think it would work.
  (Of course, since I'm a man, I suppose I'm laying myself open to a charge
of denouncing a good thing by reason of being a man.  I think it's sexism
I'm denouncing.)


                                      Actually, a lot of it could well
      be boring for the men out there, anyway.  (When's the last time
      you men worried about makeup or monthly cramps?)  Partly, I'd just
      like to get to know some of the women out there and find out how
      they feel being a woman in such a male dominated profession -- what
      problems they have run into and how they have solved them.

I think net.women IS the place for these.  If I don't want to read about
monthly cramps, I can use the n key.  I AM interested in the last topic.


It would be nice to start a convention for net.women like the (spoiler)
convention of net.movies and others, and the (rot13) of net.jokes, where
senders identified their sex in the subject line.  However, the problem
(with all these, really) is that the "f" command tries to replicate the
subject, and women and men will naturally follow each other up (as here).


Mark Brader (not speaking for) NTT Systems Inc., Toronto

ajmitchell@watdaisy.UUCP (A. Jay Mitchell) (08/25/83)

Maybe I should suggest a newsgroup like:

	net.men.twenties.student.grad.compsci.Canada

so that I can coverse about topics really close to my heart.
Give me (and others) a break!  Net.singles is NOT "for" singles;
it is "about" singles. Net.women is the same. Anyone interested
in the issues should be able to relate his ideas without feeling
that he is in intruding. If not enough women submit articles, creating
net.women.only won't solve the situation.

(By the way, notice that I used HE/HIS as genderless pronouns!)

sarah@rdin.UUCP (sarah) (08/25/83)

cFb<*A

    Here's a vote against net.women.only.  I don't think a semi-public forum
    like the net is the place for such an exclusive group.  Also, I think
    net.women has already established itself as a group by, for, and about
    women. Besides, how do you propose to keep men from reading it and 
    submitting to it in a public system like this?  And if you don't propose
    to keep men from reading it and submitting to it, then why create it
    when we already have net.women?

			    Sarah Groves--New York--philabs!rdin!sarah

rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (08/27/83)

I submit to you that this group will eventually be overrun by
men since that is the nature of men.  I will probably even 
do some damage, even though I'll try not to.  I think the
ratio of men to women on the net is such that we will find
that in this newsgroup too the majority of articles will be
submitted by men.  Sorry.
-- 
Randwulf
 (Randy Haskins);  Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh   or... rh@mit-ee (via mit-mc)

guy@rlgvax.UUCP (08/28/83)

#R:verdix:-13800:rlgvax:-103101:37777777600:1911
rlgvax!guy    Aug 25 20:05:00 1983


	I have seen over the last several years the growth of a number
	of widely accepted groups pressuring for the advancement of
	particular groups.  These groups have included racial groups
	(polish people, black people, hispanic people, amer-asians, etc)
	as well as womens groups, groups of the elderly, etc.

Poles are a "racial group"?

	It seems that any so-called minority (note that women are not in fact
	a minority in our population) can have some group pushing for
	itself, but everytime some white (unidentifiable genetic background)
	male suggests that white men in general should do likewise, all
	the other groups immediately shout "prejudice!".  Do not we as
	white men have the same rights as any other member of society,
	or must white men continue to be the second class citizens of
	our society, without equal rights in the judicial and political
	processes?

What?  How are white men second class citizens without equal rights in the
judicial and political process?  (And how does this connect with the
formation of organizations to support other groups?)  White males are, as a
group, better paid than other groups.  We (yes, we; as a white male I don't
feel like a second class citizen) have more opportunity for advancement, have
society more responsive to our concerns (if domestic violence were mostly a
case of wives assaulting husbands, you can bet there would be strong action
against it), etc..  The groups you refer to are shortchanged by society in
a way that white males are not.  As such, most attempts by white males to
set up such groups seem to be attempts to regain lost privilege.

One purpose of net.women.only would be to provide a forum for women to
discuss issues important to them without having to defend the importance of
these issues from the attacks of males not in a position to realize their
importance.

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,mcnc,we13,brl-bmd,allegra}!rlgvax!guy

ken@turtleva.UUCP (Ken Turkowski) (08/29/83)

A newsgroup is created for those who are interested in it, not for
those who are invited.  If I'm interested in women's issues, I'll read
net.women.
			Ken Turkowski
		    CADLINC, Palo Alto
		{decwrl,amd70}!turtlevax!ken

lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (08/29/83)

Hey!  This "net.women.only" sounds like a *really* FUN group
to me!  Where do I sign up?  (Chuckle).  Seriously (?) since
I have a rather "confusing" name gender-wise, they might not
realize that I was male for awhile, and who knows what fun
might be possible?

It sounds to me like we should try to get good ol' "John Norman"
(the author of the horrid "Gor" books) to join the net and
participate in net.women.only.  His views toward male/female
relationships would seem to be at the complete opposite end of
the spectrum from the view we were quoted from net.women.only.
Just think of the useless new traffic that could be generated.

Rot, rot, and more rot.

--Lauren--

pdl@root44.UUCP (Dave Lukes) (08/30/83)

An open reply to don stanwyck (..!ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck):

I doubt that many poles, blacks, hispanics, amer-asians women, etc. would
DARE shout `prejudice' at a male WASP for fear of being beaten-up, raped, etc.. 
Even in these enlightened times, racism and sexism still abound.

The reason why we need groups pushing for {blacks, foreigners, women ...}
is that there is still plenty of reason for their existence.

There is a group still around today which have as their aim the righting of 
(imagined) anti-white discrimination dating from the Civil War
(I hope I don't have to pollute the phone lines by mentioning their name).
And, before anyone accuses me of being a UK chauvinist, we has similar problems.
It is usually members of these sort of groups that go around shouting
``anti-white discrimination'' at the tops of their voices
(N.B. I'm not saying Don is in any way connected with such filth, just
that it makes me nervous when people start sounding off like that).
Notice also that the existence of white, male orientated groups IS
reason to be nervous, for the simple reason that they are likely to propogate
the sort of macho racism and sexism that we all (I hope) have come to hate.

Also, what's this about being `second class citizens of our society' ??
I've heard plenty of complaints of discrimination but WHITE MALES ???
Please cite a few specific examples, I'll be fascinated to hear about them.

			Dave Lukes (...!vax135!ukc!root44!pdl)

P.S. I'm white and happy with it, but often embarrassed by other whites.

ken@turtleva.UUCP (Ken Turkowski) (08/30/83)

I noticed our system somehow received a control message to create the
group net.women.only.  In the same exclusionary spirit, I will send out
messages shortly to create net.men.only, net.gays.only, net.studs.only,
net.nymphos.only, net.freaks.only, net.birchers.only, net.nazis.only,
net.radicals.only, net.labor.only, net.commie.only, and suggestions for
other sensitive sects.
			    :->
			Ken Turkowski

honey@allegra.UUCP (09/01/83)

i'm with you lauren!  where do i sign?
	wendy

mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (09/02/83)

No..I think net.men.only is too general..we need net.white.male or better yet
net.white.anglo.saxon.protestant.male where we could talk about the real things
in life: beer, football, broads (in that order of course).

I hope this is taken as the facetious nonsense it is meant as :-) !!!

Seriously, if there is interest in net.women.only, (as shown by some support
on the net) let's create it (or redirect net.women in that direction and
create net.human) and get on with more interesting topics.

 -- Gandalf's flunky Hobbit --   Dave Mason, U. Toronto CSRG,
        {cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!mason
     or {decvax,linus,lsuc,research}!utzoo!utcsrgv!mason   (UUCP)

thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas) (09/02/83)

Look, the &^%$ group has been created.  How about getting this
discussion OUT OF net.news.group.  It has been beat to death.  The only
thing wrong with net.women.only is the NAME.  So go away, huh?

=Spencer

jeff@tesla.UUCP (Jeff Frey) (09/24/83)

What a waste of net resources!  Judging from the most popular topics on
net.women.only, if we had a net.MEN.only it would contain profound comments
on:

	1. Jockey shorts vs. boxer shorts
	2. Hot Rocks
	3. shaving.

I wonder how many women read that group; seems like an awfully small
spectrum of opinion (and even less of fact)
Jeff

debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (01/25/84)

ihu1g!smann (Sherry Mann):

	> Net.women.only was formed then to set certain guidelines on
	> what would be discussed (or in this case, who would do the
	> discussing).  This worked very well with net.motss, another
	> issue that raises strong emotional responses in people. I did
	> not agree with the need for net.women.only, but am not
	> surprised that the guidelines (no men should post to the group)
	> are frequently ignored.  If net.motss can effectively set
	> guidelines that moral judgements not be posted to the group,
	> then there is no reason why net.women.only cannot effectively
	> set guidelines.  

There IS a difference between the guidelines regarding net.motss and those
regarding net.women.only: net.motss was formed to cater to the concerns of a
certain group, and having homophobes vent their spleen didn't serve this
purpose in any way; net.women.only was formed to cater to the needs of
women, so presumably we have (implicit) guidelines saying misogynists
aren't to rant and rave there. In both these cases, the reason for having
these guidelines is clear: "let's get on with meaningful business without
wasting time screaming at each other".

I can't see the analogy between this and the guidelines that restrict men
from posting to net.women.only SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE MALES!  The
presupposition appears to be that if a person is male, he cannot, IPSO
FACTO, have anything meaningful to contribute to a discussion on matters of
interest to women.  That's a pretty strong assumption, isn't it? (When
considering the global population of males, it's tempting to point to all
the gynecologists and hairdressers out there ...!)

Restricting read/write access to a group on such grounds as colour/race/sex
seems to me to be taking a step backwards: I can't see any logical
refutation - given the hypothesis that only women can contribute to
net.women.only - to groups such as net.whites.only (in South Africa they
call it "apartheid"), net.blacks.only, net.men.only ...

Criticize articles for what they *SAY*, if you will, not what the
contributor *IS*.

I dare say I'll get flamed for this! Oh well ...

-- 
Saumya Debray
Dept. of Computer Science
SUNY at Stony Brook

		{floyd, bunker, cbosgd, mcvax, cmcl2}!philabs!
							      \
	Usenet:						       sbcs!debray
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	CSNet: debray@suny-sbcs@CSNet-Relay

phil@amd70.UUCP (01/26/84)

"Restricting read/write access to a group on such grounds as colour/race/sex
seems to me to be taking a step backwards: I can't see any logical
refutation - given the hypothesis that only women can contribute to
net.women.only - to groups such as net.whites.only (in South Africa they
call it "apartheid"), net.blacks.only, net.men.only ..."

	There is a difference. Consider that Eddie Murphy can make
	all the "kill the white man" jokes he wants and people think
	it funny (including me) while it is considered poor taste
	to make "nigger" jokes.

	The difference is that the white man is in power. In the case
	of net.women.only the key phrase would be "the man is in power".
	(I see nothing wrong with net.blacks.only if there were demand.)

	Besides, I'm tired of reading about circumcision in net.women.only.
-- 
Phil Ngai (408) 988-7777 {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd70!phil

david@bragvax.UUCP (David DiGiacomo) (10/30/84)

This is Sunny Kirsten (sun!sunny) 's explanation of net.women.only:

>The group is not a fraud.
>
>The group net.women is for discussion of subjects of interest to women.
>
>The group net.women.only was formed to allow some women some space to chat
>without being dominated by the men, but again, the men intruded and 
>prevented any woman-space.  [??]
>
>Therefore an underground mailing list was created for a moderated group
>whose focal interest is feminist issues.  A FEW men are included.
>
>net.women.only is the last vestige reminding us what assholes men are
>with their itchy rmgroup fingers, and their dominant attitudes to control
>everything!  Back off!  It still serves for women to request to be
>included.  Their replies are answered by mail, not by news.  Get it?
>Please go play in net.women,
>and stay out of net.women.ONLY   ONLY, get it?   Geesh!!

I get it, but is this a reasonable use for a news group?  I think a
"women-only-request" mailbox would be more appropriate.  (Of course I
would be happy to set up such a mailbox here at bragvax.)  Why should
articles like the following be shipped to Korea?  Geesh!!, indeed!

>Please add me to the mailing list too.
>I'd like to be added, too..
>Please add me to the list too!
>Add another one!  But where's the list?
>Please add me to the mailing list (if it does exist!).  Thanks.

>Please add me to this hidden list if it exists.  I must
>admit I was baffled by the lack of submissions to the 
>mailing list...

-- 
David DiGiacomo, BRAG Systems Inc., San Mateo CA  (415) 342-3963
(...decvax!ucbvax!hplabs!bragvax!david)