Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!laura From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Gender Advertisements - (nf) Message-ID: <729@utcsstat.UUCP> Date: Tue, 28-Jun-83 13:46:53 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsstat.729 Posted: Tue Jun 28 13:46:53 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jun-83 21:28:52 EDT References: <125@ucbcad.UUCP> Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada Lines: 33 A line in a recent article by Michael Turner caught my eye: "after all one's sexuality is integral to one's identity" I wonder if it is. I also wonder if what is termed "one's sexuality" is something learned. My "identity" seems to be linked to people whome I like or respect -- we have the same "identity" so to speak. I have very few women friends but a fair number of male friends. The sorts of things which generally appeal to women (at least according to the advertisers) soft colours, cute things, children, fragrances, women's fashion, makeup et all... dont really appeal to me. On the other hand, any complicated gadget (be it a cuisinart or a new lineprinter) I find fascinating even if I dont buy it. The thought of TAKING things APART and SEEING HOW THEY WORK -- traditionally a "male" thing fills me with joy... When people complain to me "but dear havent you lost all your feminity by working with those nasty, inhuman machines" I reply that I never had any femininity to lose. This keeps them quiet, at any rate, and I have done this argument too many times already. maybe I dont have any "femininity". I can guarantee that I have sexuality, though, and it's "male-oriented" at that. In any case I find it hard to recognise how my sexuality has influenced my concept of identity, perhaps because I am too close to the problem. I believe that I have more identity in common with male members of my (white, English speaking, from Ontario) culture than with any random female, and have much more in common with scientific thinkers than non-scientific people of either sex. Laura Creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura