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From: srm@nsc.UUCP (Richard Mateosian)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Only a few nuts rape? (Sonia Johnson)
Message-ID: <1949@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Dec-84 21:32:45 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.1949
Posted: Sun Dec  2 21:32:45 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 07:37:35 EST
References: <10011@watmath.UUCP> <136@ihu1m.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: srm@nsc.UUCP (Richard Mateosian)
Organization: National Semiconductor, Sunnyvale
Lines: 26
Summary: 

In article <1830@sun.uucp> sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) writes:
>Have you done your part to discourage men you know who evidence
>attitudes which do not indicate disapproval of rape?  

Shortly before the election I heard a talk by Sonia Johnson entitled
"Why I'm Running for President".  The reason was that no other candidate
reflected her point of view: all of the world's major problems arise
from the basic concept of "having power over".  Our acceptance of this
concept as fundamental to all relationships from interpersonal to inter-
national grows out our society's promotion of the power of men over women.

The principal tool for enforcing the power of men over women is terror --
the fear of rape being just one example.  Thus, all men benefit from the
fact that women fear rape (benefit in a narrow sense), and the man
who would not consider raping a woman benefits just as much as the rapist.

So Sonia's point, similar to Sunny's above, was that it isn't enough
not to contribute directly to the terror that keeps women "in their place".
Everyone has a moral obligation to act positively to eradicate rape,
domestic violence, violent or degrading pornography, and the like.

She had many other good things to say, and if you get a chance to hear
her talk, don't miss it.
-- 
Richard Mateosian
{cbosgd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!srm    nsc!srm@decwrl.ARPA