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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!randvax!edhall
From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles
Subject: Re: Rape: The Unresolved Trauma
Message-ID: <2182@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Dec-84 16:15:35 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2182
Posted: Sat Dec  8 16:15:35 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Dec-84 03:14:08 EST
References: <1855@sun.uucp>
Distribution: net
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 39
Xref: watmath net.women:3735 net.singles:4793

From sun!sunny:

>                                               ....consider the untold,
> unresolved trauma so many carry for the rest of their lives...
> all so men can assert their dominance... their God given right to use women
> as their slaves.  
> 
> excuse me, I think I'm going to puke...

Hang on a minute; are you trying to substantiate the claims of all
those who accuse you of being a man-hater?  Your over-generalization
upset me, as I suspect it did a lot of men on the net.  Is this what
you intended?

I won't take the slightest responsibility for the heinous crimes you
describe and give statistics for.  I know the statistics well enough,
and I know the life-shattering nature of rape trauma about as well as
a man can.  And I'm not going to stand here while you draw a circle around
me and other men and say that we feel rape is some ``God-given right''.

*Some* men might believe in total dominance over women, and the influence
of this idea is strong in our culture.  But lots of others see the damage
wrought by these attitudes on those human beings who happen to be female.
And they speak out--just as I and perhaps a dozen other men have spoken out
on this net.  Their understandings might be imperfect, and vestiges of
male supremist inculturation remain--just as they, no doubt, remain in
you.  Two generations from now women and men will look back and see
just how far even the most clear-thinking of us was from awareness
of how sex roles bind us.

We should strive for as much of this clear thinking as we can now,
and repudiate not only dominance, but hostility.  Some feminists
seem to get stuck on the anger that occurs when they discover the
magnitude of the injustices they've borne and are witness to.  Such
anger is essential--just as eventually overcoming it and moving on
to more constructive things is essential.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall