Prejudices

[David Casseres]

Joe Varo sez

>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.

So, you have an example of a feminist (yeah, I think she's one) who has 
said something that raises some problems.  So what, Joe?  Shall we all be 
down on the racial equality movement because of some highly controversial 
position that some black leader has taken?  And what does any of this 
have to do with Camille Paglia?  And what does any of it have to do with 
Thomas Pynchon?  Some people in these discussions have stated feminist 
viewpoints on Pynchon's writing, and what happens?  Others respond with a 
lot of very ill-informed hostile commentary on feminism itself.  What are 
we supposed to think about that?

What would we think if someone offered, for example, a Jewish perspective 
on Pynchon's treatment of Nazism, and a bunch of others replied to it 
with a lot of ignorant remarks about Jews?  What if someone complained 
about that and the answer was, do you know about that guy Menachem Begin? 
 He was a real pushy bastard!

>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.

So where's your line, Joe?

I have nothing against discussing feminism.  I have nothing against 
people who have a problem with feminism having every opportunity to vent 
it in any forum where feminism is even mentioned.  But I, too, have to 
draw a line somewhere.

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

Thanks -- honest!


Cheers,
David