Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site randvax.UUCP 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