From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihps3!ihps1!lro Newsgroups: net.jokes.d Title: Response to Linda Seltzer Article-I.D.: ihps1.106 Posted: Thu Sep 9 10:59:07 1982 Received: Fri Sep 10 04:17:44 1982 I just finished reading your "Open letter to Steve", and I don't under- stand why you feel so offended by co-ed jokes. Co-ed jokes are simply another form of ethnic, and religious jokes that constantly appear on the net. (Or maybe you are offended by those also and don't read them.) Jokes such as those are only as insulting as the reader makes them. Granted there are males in society that still view woman as sex objects and feel that their place is in the kitchen, but people such as this will always exist in society. The important thing is that they are quickly becoming the minority. As for your point about the first women in engineering, I don't see how they had it worse than pioneers in any other field. I realize women had to face many problems to become accepted in the engineering universe, but anytime people try to change they will face some kind of obstacles. I am a Japanese American. My grandparents came to America just before the start of World War II. In 1942, my grandparents, my father, and three of my aunts were place in relocation camps, even though two of my uncles fought in the war on the side of the United States. (Very logical isn't it?) After the war the situation was not much better. My grandfather was educated at Wasada University in Japan, one of the best schools in the country, but be- cause he was Japanese he grew old without the social respect of equally intelligent WHITE men. The point is, I could remain very bitter about these things, and I could hold Americans responsible, but it does no good. I am just thankful that I have a better life because my ancestor were willing to face these things. Also, I may not know what it is like to sit a classroom full of males who consider me a sex object and a social outcast, but do you know what it is like to walk into a bar, and have someone begin talking at the top of his voice about how he hates "gooks", and how they shouldn't be allowed in public places. As I said before, people like that are always going to exist in society, there is nothing you or I can do to eliminate them. Even though I have had people act prejudicedly towards me because of my race, I still see nothing wrong with ethnic jokes, even those that make fun of the Japanese. (Did you ever hear the song, "I'm turning Japanese", which was popular a couple years ago?) One year in college, on Dec. 7, ("Slap a Jap day" as it was affectionately called) some guys on my dorm floor dressed up in ROTC uniforms, came to my room, carried me to the showers, sang The Star Spangled Banner, and then threw me in. I consider that one of the funniest things that ever happened to me. I see nothing wrong with Co-ed jokes and I think that satirizing women in the way that the jokes do can actually make people realize how ridiculous some of our ideas of women are. Maybe you should look at them as jokes instead of taking them seriously, some of them really are funny. Lance Ogasawara ihps1!lro P.S. Women engineers are not the only social outcasts. Engineers in general stereotypically wear thick plastic frame glasses, walk around with calculators hanging from their belt, and dress as if they are expecting another great flood.