bamst3@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Brian A. Mermon) (03/04/90)
I'm going to make a proposal, and Teri's posting has shown me where I should begin. Please feel free to post your ideas and help get the ball rolling. tmiller@hpccc.HP.COM (Teri Miller) writes: >We have discussed things like ear piercing, women's shoes, >makeup, sexual this-n-that. We don't often discuss men, and almost never >men in general. >I have to say, though, that my approach to Brian's comments aren't so >much whether or not I can stand up to them. It's more that they're not >worth wading through. I have yet to see anything that I thought was >well-thought-out enough to consider. When the amount of those types >of postings becomes a lot more than the postings I find interesting, >I lose interest in posting to a group. >Now, if the purpose of a group is to encourage women to speak out on >issues that they feel are important to them, then comments like Brian's >are counterproductive to that goal, no matter how justified he may feel >in making them. Yes, it is his right to make them. It is also my >right to feel stifled by them. I don't feel his insults are called-for. >If he feels powerful and macho by spewing forth in the notesgroup, I >may decide to concentrate my energies more in other directions, like >the above-mentioned Women's Evenings. If he happens to be interested >in actually hearing what I'm saying, then adopting a stance that >encourages me to speak would be much more worth his while. Now my proposal is this: We need to find a way to help women avoid cretins such as myself: Men (or males) who disagree with their viewpoints and say so. What to do? Well, it seems that since the creation of net.women a way to keep cretin males out of the WOMYN newsgroup has been needed. In the past, no solution was available, due to the requirements of USENET to vote on proposals and WOMYN being in the minority. No easy way to exclude just men (or males) was at hand either. Also, the refusal of the backbone cabal didn't help any chances of propogation of a group. TODAY we have the ALT net and the internet transport scheme. The ALT net will allow us to quickly create a new group without having to beg for votes. If the group proves to be popular, a vote can be taken for a group with a better distribution. The internet transport scheme has taken the wind out of the sails of the mighty backbone cabal the would refuse to carry such a WOMYN's group. Moderation by a femm, rad-femm, or somebody who can tell the difference between a man/male/shouter and a true WOMYN'S posting should take care of the "male" posting style that threatens women so much. So, my proposal is this: Let's create ALT.WOMEN for the exclusive use of women. This will be enforced by a moderator who will screen out postings by men. (Forgeries, will be a problem, but they're already a problem on the net. Any "nasty" postings can be assumed to be the work of forgers and should be ignored. They'll go away). Now, all we need is a suitable moderator. Many womyn from soc.women come to mind, but we really need some one to come forth! It would not do for me, a male, to suggest anyone. The moderator's job would be to trash postings from cretin males. After a while, these postings would go away, since they would never see the light of day, the fun in trying to post them would evaporate. So the moderator's job would be an easy one in the long run. So there you have it. A way to avoid cretins like me, have a "protected" womyn space, and never have to complain again, about men shouting you down. Everything is in place. Except I think it will never happen. I really believe that there's too many of you who enjoy crying "poor poor pityful me". Why don't you prove me wrong and do something about it? Brian
msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) (03/04/90)
I can tell you part of why it won't happen. A large piece of the Internet transport mechanism for UseNet is run through Universities. Most Universities have a clause in their charter (or whatever) stating "discrimination on the basis of sex is not allowed" (among other discriminations not allowed). Thus, alt.women as a women-only group will be against the policy of most major Universities. Women-only means discrimination on the basis of sex. Now, a mailing list is an entirely different matter.... Mark -- Mark Smith, KNJ2LH All Rights Reserved RPO 1604 You may redistribute this article only if those who P.O. Box 5063 receive it may do so freely. New Brunswick, NJ 08903-5063 msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu