gcf@hombre.masa.COM (10/30/90)
RA04@Lehigh.UCAR.EDU writes: >.... But the point I was making is that our culture's "man against," >"conquest of," and similar conceptions are unnecessarily competitive >yet valued, whereas cooperative conceptual models are unnecessarily >devalued as "weak." The valued and the devalued are by false analogy >connected to notions of "strong / masculine" and "weak / feminine"; in >this context, feminism can encourage world-views in which humans work >within natural systems without trying to dominate or annihilate them. judy@altair.la.locus.com (Judy Leedom Tyrer) >Your statement seems to boil down to "men have ruined the earth because >they are inherantly competetive and women will save the earth because >they are inherantly cooperative." This is a prime example of the >"everything evil is caused by men" diatribe which I think is so >detrimental to the feminist movement. It is sexist, patently false, >and overly simplistic. The fact remains that until quite recently, historically speaking, the values of aggression and domination were associated with men and were highly valued, and the values of cooperation and care were considered second-rate, if not despised, and were associated with women. This system of values obtained for many centuries, and much of the ruin of the earth, as well as an enormous amount of human suffering, seems to derive from it. So, while it may be simplistic, and seems sexist, it is not patently false. As for everything evil being caused by men: for a long time, it was taken for granted that everything, period, was caused by men, so that all evil would have to be included as part of the territory. Feminists, it seems to me, would have to confront this set of facts in working out their feminism, because they would have to decide whether they wanted to get the right to adopt the aggressive role of the traditional male, work for some other system of values, or achieve some mixture of the two. >Cooperative conceptual models are necessary for team sports such as football >(male) and the conversion of rain forest to cities (bad for the environment). My experience, as a male, of the conceptual models for most team sports and for corporate life as well, is that there is a good deal of competition and domination involved, as well as cooperation. Cooperation is partially obtained through subjugation and victimization. If someone would like to take issue with this, I would be glad to provide details. >Not to mention that women are as competitive, uncooperative, and selfish >as men. Are they? They're not _supposed_ to be. And if they are, how come they got assigned the "second-rate" attributes alluded to above? Should they give them up, now that they're not second-rate any more? -- Gordon Fitch | uunet!hombre!mydog!gcf