Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!laura From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Brownmiller & Rape - A Personal View Message-ID: <3657@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Sun, 18-Mar-84 17:15:50 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.3657 Posted: Sun Mar 18 17:15:50 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Mar-84 17:15:50 EST References: <1997@mcnc.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 94 Rape is not a battle campaign in which the ``men'' try to score points on the ``women''. There is no way in which one can say ``all men benefit from rape''. Clearly, there may be some individuals who benefit from rape, but to generalise to the whole is to destroy the meaning of individual experience, which still counted for something the last time I looked. Your statement is meaningless. It is a reasonable to say ``some women benefit from rape'' as ``some men benefit from rape''. You get raped and discover that nobody can take care of you. This is a good thing to discover, and something that everybody needs to learn. Something tells me that this is not a very good argument for rape is a beneficial thing, however. The sort of person who wants to feel pitied all her life can make a huge emotional gain out of her ``the horrible night on which I was raped'' story. (These people exist. Remember that the people who make up rape storiescan get raped as well.) Something tells me that rape isn't a good thing, nonetheless. The trick is that everything that can happen to you in life can enrich your life (if you choose it to) or make it miserable (if you choose it to). But if you crawl back into the crowd and react in non-thinking stereotyical ways to your life it is no wonder that you are never enriched. Especially when there is such a premium on being miserable (after all, other people pity you and try to make you feel better, which is precisely why a lot of people really want to make their lives miserable). Feminism is racism. The basis for racism is to define a basic, common group where all member can automatically ``belong'', derive comfort, and not have to think. In the past, it was easy to belong to the group ``White'' or ``Black'' and racism prevailed. (note: do not make the mistake of saying that when a White guy hates a Black guy it is racism, but when a Black guy hates a White guy it is all right. Racism is racism, no matter which group is deemed ``over-privledged'' and which is deemed ``under-priveledged''. This is not to say that the Black guys don't have REASONS for hating the White guys either. Of course they do. And the White guys have reasons for hating the Black guys. We have just decided that the action (hatred) is not justified by the reasons.) Now we have racism again -- along sexual lines. Have you lot never heard of Sturgeon's Law? 90% of everything is crap. This goes for human beings as well. 90% of the men are lousy human beings. 90% of the women are lousy human beings. Maybe some of them will improve; lots will not. (Note again: this does not mean ``lousy as in - Why doesn't somebody kill the bastards?'' but that for various ethical and personal reasons you believe that these people are falling far short of their potential and are being less-than good people as a result of this. For instance, I lump all ``feminists'' into the category of lousy, although on an individual level there are a fair number of feminists that aren't all that hard to take. Which is another argument against seeing people as a member of some group. However, when you are looking at 100% of all women to see if they follow Sturgeon's Law as well, you can not help but see them as a group.) Now we can get into a debate over ``well, what is feminism'', but as long as you distinguish it from ``humanism'' (something that I think by and large is a good thing, though I think that its philosophy has been used to justify some not-so-good things) I think that we will be talking about the same thing. Any philosophy which stresses that there is something ``special'' ``priveledged'' or ``underpriveledged'' about certain individuals on the basis of their sex is racist. All women aren't fantastic. All men aren't boors. And rape is an act between 2 or more individuals, not between 2 collectives which have no real existence. Laura Creighton utzoo!laura Yes, I think that the mailing list is a very bad idea. No, I am not on it. No, I don't want to be on it. And I think that static cling, like body odor , is a non-real problem which marketing people have made into a disaster through making people believe that having somebody not approve of you (or, God-forbid, hate you) is a major disaster in your life. This is a terrible lie. It is really quite easy to live though others dislike you (or are offended by your static cling) once you look at others critically, objectively, rather than as objects to combat your own ontological insecurity. Every kid who has been too short, or too fat, or too ugly, or too smart, or too pimply at school has learned how to live with it. (this too is easy. find people who don't mind shortness, fatness, ugliness, smartness or whatever. Granted, if you are short, fat, ugly, smart, and pimply it may take some looking...) It is not as nice as having somebody who likes you, but it sure doesn't kill you. However, until you learn this, you can never demonstrate the courage that is necessary to maintain one's integrity throughout life. Your integrity will always suffer whenever you feel that you might allow people to dislike you. Integrity, however, is a lot more important than friendship. As a friend of mine used to say: ``you gotta sleep with yourself, first'' Laura Creighton utzoo!laura