From: utzoo!watmath!jamcmullan
Newsgroups: net.women
Title: Re: Let's hear from the women!
Article-I.D.: watmath.4771
Posted: Wed Mar 23 19:07:23 1983
Received: Thu Mar 24 06:20:19 1983

I hardly think the women had control over whether people would use net.women
as a forum for the abortion debate. No use blaming women for "sitting idle
while a news group...would be lowered to such a level". I mean, you might
as well get mad at everyone on the net because there are lightbulb jokes
in net.jokes. People submit what they please.
Anyway, to get to the point of the original article, I think I have to agree
with Tim Maroney. There seem to be more men than women on the net and
submissions to this news group are simply a reflection of that. I don't think
net.women should be "put to death" because men are submitting more articles
to it, than women.
I am hitting the 'n' key on abortion, but it is interesting to me to read the
other articles men put in, with their opinions on women. I have found them
encouraging, enlightening and discouraging. I send some flames (by mail) and
I post responses occasionally. The continuing stream of
articles being posted to net.women seems to indicate that it should stay
on the net.
I am not answering the silly questions. They are too reminiscent of the old
technique of naming women as victims and then blaming them for it. I refuse
to accept that "articles from men" is a problem and I refuse to take the blame
for it!
To respond to the point about why I (a woman) am not submitting more articles,
I should say that I see the newsgroup as a forum for networking amongst women
(other people may view it differently). I would wish to post when I had a
problem (with my boss, with my legal rights) that I wanted opinions on or
coping techniques for. It just so happens that I personally have not had
any networking needs since I have been on the net. I certainly am not going
to start posting "How I Dealt with Sexist Construction Workers" articles
unless I come up with something totally revolutionary. So far, the most
brilliant way I've dealt with that problem is to give them the finger and
my dirtiest look -- hardly worth an article.
Lastly, could you explain the totals from the figures in your article?
(Things like this drive me crazy).
    Articles concerning abortion:       47
    Articles concerning other issues:   34
Total: 81
    Articles submitted by men:                  45
    Articles submitted by women:                14
    Articles where sex could not be determined: 21
Total: 80

  --Judy McMullan