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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