what's wrong with being pc?

[Kyburz at asu.edu]

On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Henry M wrote:

> Bonnie -
> 
> Really! Surely you must be joking that "Feminists are rarely, IMO, 'in
> a hurry,' as most understand the 'long haul' nature of changing
> patriarchal culture(s)." And to think that I ever thought that, as a
> radical lesbian feminist friend once told me, you can tell that you're
> in a feminist book shop because it doesn't have a humor section.
This is funny to you?  Who do you hang with?  I don't get it (thus 
exposing myself to ridicule).  To be a feminist, one does not need be a 
dreamer/idealist with no foot in reality.  And really, the "takes two to 
tango" quip is beneath you, Henry.  Tell it to a 12 year old Nigerian 
girl who's being mutilated in the name of her [own?, personal?] 
virginity.  Oh, yeah, she must have asked for it.

> 
> I've lived in Wash, DC a long time; the ex and I hung with Ellie Smeal
> and other NOW luminaries. Blah, blah, blah. I was a sensitive new-age
> guy when it wasn't cool. However, I must say, the backlash comes from
> haste and the exclusion of anyone who might have the nerve to suggest
> that it has always taken two to tango (uh-oh, leaving myself open for
> the party-line "that's what the oppressor class always says"), and that
> it will take a better analysis than "good/woman, bad/man, good/dark,
> bad/light) to even begin to get to a place that will be more
> comfortable for everyone.
> And herein lays the issue of time I'd originally made.  Such complex 
analyses, which require first that we can bypass dualistic thinking that 
makes such illogical pairings, takes time.  Most feminists I know 
understand this, and have made life's work out of their projects, however 
hopeful their rhetoric regarding radical change.  Sometimes radical is 
conflated with "immediate," not always rightly.  My point.

 > Heres to the PC 
menage a 
trois: Two lesbians and a eunuch. > > There... I feel better now.
> 
> I am Not a bicycle,
> 
> Henry
> 
> P.S. - Oh, yeah. On a more agreeable note:
> 
> Of course you're right, Bonnie, concerning our ability to say that
> something is wrong, even if it outside our culture. I thought that was
> what I was saying (I guess I didn't make that clear) in the message
> that you responded to. But "a 'culture,' as in the patriarchal
> Nigerian folk," Bonnie? Yes, it Is a culture, no matter how much you
> and I may hate the practice. If it is such a patriarchal culture (as
> our own), the why, in spite of childbirth, do the women outlive the
> men. Many men are tired of supporting a culture that sends them off to
> war and maims and kills them. "Honey, I think I heard something
> downstairs." "I'll check it out." Boom! "I want a brave man; I want a
> cave man..." A-and don't tell me that it's men who set this up.
> Frankly, I don't care! The Situation is perpetuated by all parties.
> Blah, blah, blah...
So where do we draw the line?  Is letter-writer for Amnesty Int'l 
barging in to radically change other cultures?  I suddenly wonder if the 
concern is simply for feminists and the power they've acquired over the 
years--suddenly seems like a blink of an eye?  It wasn't.  But back to 
NIgeria:  as a woman, as a human being, I could never condone the 
practices in question.  I could argue passionately against my own 
position here, as cultural norms are and should be determined by the 
culture, not from the outside.  And yet, for myself, as for others (say, 
the founders of Amnesty INt'l) there is a space wherein cultures can 
converge--simply, on the matter of torture and pain.  Am I wrong?

This is sure to kick up a storm;  I've been oh so quiet lately cause I 
always do just that.  
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> On 30 Oct 96 at 14:49, Kyburz at asu.edu wrote:
> 
>  Date:          Wed, 30 Oct 1996 14:49:50 -0700 (MST)
>  From:          Kyburz at asu.edu
>  Subject:       Re: Re[2]: what's wrong with being pc?
>  To:            Henry M <gravity at dcez.nicom.com>
>  Cc:            pynchon-l at waste.org
> 

Bonnie L. Kyburz, Instructor
Department of English			(602) 965-7756 (office)
Arizona State University		kyburz at asu.edu
Tempe, AZ  85287-0302			*or* surfus at chuma.cas.usf.edu