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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 stories  can 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