From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!woods Newsgroups: net.women Title: Re: real women"s lib Article-I.D.: hao.415 Posted: Tue Jan 25 17:10:48 1983 Received: Fri Jan 28 06:53:46 1983 References: hao.413 Christine Guzy (and others too!) needs to realize that like it or not, the positions of power in our society are currently filled by men. Since women only make up half the population, and not all of those want to be "liberated" from homemaking, it should be clear that in order to get any real progress on women's "liberation", it will be necessary to *actively* enlist the support and help of men who favor the social changes you seek. Many feminists I know (this is not a reference to Christine) seem to have the attitude that "Women's problems should be solved by women. Men are the cause of the problem and therefore cannot be part of the solution". This is bull. It may be true that men have oppressed women, I don't want to argue about that. The point is that it doesn't matter. That is all in the past and that is where we should leave it. The feminists will need the political clout of favorably-disposed males in order to more easily accomplish the major social changes they desire. The recent defeat of the ERA, in spite of the fact that polls show a majority of Americans favor it, clearly demonstrates this. If we want to get the ERA passed, we need to work together, males and females on the same side. Forget about trying to "unite women", that is probably impossible, and phrases like that tend to draw hostile reactions from the very people whose support we need. There are too many Phyllis Schlafly's out there for the women to do it all on their own. We have to get out of this female vs. male mentality. It is very destructive. Let's work together and always remember that "women's lib" is really a misnomer. What we really want is an end to sex-role stereotyping. I'm for the freedom to be *human* regardless of whether you happen to be male or female. Hooray for androgyny, GREG ucbvax!hplabs!hao!woods menlo70!hao!woods harpo!seismo!hao!woods decvax!brl-bmd!hao!woods