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From: wombat@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Rape by Women?!?!? - (nf)
Message-ID: <6039@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Mar-84 22:47:31 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.6039
Posted: Mon Mar  5 22:47:31 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Mar-84 05:22:52 EST
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#R:inmet:10900047:uicsl:16400052:000:2875
uicsl!wombat    Mar  5 16:07:00 1984

I got into this by trying (I thought) to point out where these two
people were differing, because it looked like Quarterman was going to
rant and rave about one person's personal opinions. Why I did it, I'll
never know.

J If she tries to defend statements like "The only solution is for you men
S out there to stop raping us!" on a public network as a valid political
Q contribution to the problem, she has made it not just her business but
. mine as well.

The statement was probably not made as a rational political argument, but
rather out of frustration at her personal limited ability to do anything
about a male (typically larger and stronger) attacking her. She most
likely doesn't feel this same frustration about cases of men being
attacked by women or herself being attacked by another woman. I don't for
one minute believe that you, JSQ, worry nearly as much about where you
park your car at night, where you walk at night, how you react to
strangers on the street, how late you're willing to stay at work, ...
as many women do.

J Yeah, sure.  I'm just *dying* to be violently attacked.  And if you ever
S get raped it'll be because you wanted it, no doubt.  Besides, women *should*
Q pay attention only to problems that directly affect them, and men *should*
. pay attention only to problems that directly affect them:  separate but
. equal worked so well for race problems, why not for sex-related ones?
. In particular, no men should pay attention to women being raped, because
. men are not being directly threatened.

That isn't what I said. Mazur wasn't personally interested in the
problem of women raping men. You tried to convince her to look at the
larger problem, but she didn't care to. You are trying to condemn her
for sticking to the smaller problem. Face it, sometimes people will only
take an interest in something that could directly affect them. You
yourself are welcome to look at the problem any way you like, but
you may not force that view on someone who isn't interested and then
flame at her because she doesn't take to it.

J	In any case, if you present statements like "the problem is
S	men (unqualified) rape women" as legitimate political statements,
Q	you might as well expect objections, because some men don't like
.	being accused of rape.  Furthermore, that sort of rhetoric
.	contributes nothing to solving the problem.

Some men don't like to be accused of rape; some women don't like to
be raped. Like I said before, nobody promised life would be fair. Also,
like it or not, if you walk down a dark street not far from a woman who
doesn't know you, she is probably going to consider you as a potential
rapist for her own protection. Are you going to consider her as a
potential rapist? What's a good solution to this problem?
Would do a better job on this, but must catch a bus.
						Wombat
						ihnp4!uiucdcs!uicsl!wombat