Prejudices

[Joe Varo]

On Mon, 2 Dec 1996, David Casseres wrote:

> Well, I bet if you showed me a "feminist" who really takes Paglia 
> seriously I would start nit-picking over whether this was a Real Feminist 
> and the debate would go nowhere.  So I'll just say that I'm not impressed 
> by Paglia, don't see why a feminist would be, and don't think it's wrong 
> for a feminist panel to refuse to take her seriously.

David,

Okay.  We'll have to agree to disagree on Paglia.  I like some of what she
has said, you don't care for anything she has said.  No problem.

But I have to ask you, is Gloria Steinem a Feminist?  The reason I ask is
that I happened to see her on some television show or another which was
dealing with feminist claims and goals.  One part of this show dealt with
the lowering of physical qualifications for female firefighters, i.e. that
the females not have to meet the same physical demands as males.  They did
not have to be able to carry the same amount of weight, the weight of an
average person whom they might have to carry out of a burning building.

When Ms. Steinem was asked about this, she responded that the female could
drag the victim to safety.  Dragged down a flight of stairs? the
interviewer asked.  Well, everyone knows that there's more oxygen nearer
to the ground, she replied.

This is all paraphrase and I can't recall on what, when or where I saw it,
but it is accurate.

Until we saw this program, my wife was a staunch Steinem advocate.
Afterwards she was quite embarassed for her.

I have nothing against women.  I have nothing against women having every
opportunity in the world to do whatever they please.  But you've got to
draw a line somewhere.

Joe

P.S.  I liked your post on the MMPI vs. Rorschach.  Honest.