Abnormal attrition

[Meg Larson]

"Too many textbooks and discussions leave students free to make up their
minds about things"
                                  --- Mel Gabler, Texas textbook critic 

Meg Larson
Saginaw Valley State University
mgl at tardis.svsu.edu              

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> From: Diana York Blaine <dyb0001 at jove.acs.unt.edu>
> To: Dkipen at aol.com
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Abnormal attrition
> Date: Tuesday, March 04, 1997 7:55 PM
> 
> On Tue, 4 Mar 1997 Dkipen at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > hey diana--
> > 
> > don't go away mad! don't go away at all! who's gonna laugh at my puns
now? at
> > this rate, m&d'll come out, and i'll have only the other lurkers to
cogitate
> > about it with, silently. rick moody'll review it in the atlantic and
call us
> > all a bunch a soreheads. can't we all make like little dogies and git
along?
> > 
> > best,
> > david
> > 
> Thanks to David and others who are e-mailing me in private not to leave
> the list.  Fortunately for you I cannot figure out how to get off of this
> thing yet as the majordomo results keep telling me I'm not on it. (Quite
> Pynchonian).  Frankly it's not the attacks from men that bother me--those
> I expect.  But it's just so heart-wrenching to have women attack me for
> daring to question male privilege even in the minor ways I do and on this

No where did I say that you shouldn't question "male privilege", but I was
implying that not everything is simply reducible to a question of gender. 
Maybe in your experience it is, but not mine, so now I'm apologizing for
not being feministic enough.  It took me a long time to become a feminist
as well; I just don't think that _everything_ begins and ends with gender
bias.  If you chose to take my post as an attack, then I'm sorry for that,
but you seem to wield that "f" sword a little too freely.  So, Diana, you
stay because no where did I imply that you have nothing worthwhile to add
to the list.  I guess I just haven't seen enough of whatever you've seen to
understand your position . . .   

> silly list that's mostly for fun that I just can't stand it.  It took me
a
> long time to become a feminist because the pervasive cultural messages
are
> so cruel to any woman who wants to reject the status quo, and of 
> course everything that's held up as valuable culturally is associated
with
> masculinity. So I hated having to *become* a feminist and fought it like
> hell. Really. There was a time in my life when you guys would've thought
I
> was the coolest chick you'd ever met.  But in light of the overwhelming
> evidence of misogyny that I encounter every day, I simply am unwilling to
> trade approval for what I know now to be true:  we're not equal even

> thought I was brainwashed into thinking we were for a very long time.  So
> if these women want to enjoy the p-list without a feminist daring to
>
 question what is said here, 

It's not a matter of what you question, it's a matter of how you do it and
over what issues you do it--I guess I'm just not astute enough to question
*everything* in terms of my gender.

I'll go, because in some way I know where they
> are coming from.  But it's a damn shame.  Ah Pynchon, Ah humanity.
> 
> Diana
>