Don't cry for me Pynchon-l at waste.org

[Diana York Blaine]

I appreciate your note regarding my decision to leave the list and I am
sorry that it was your particular post (along with Bernier's) that finally
caused me to do it--you end up bearing the burden for something obviously
much larger than those two messages. I _have_ been reacting like a jerk
lately on the list and that's one reason I am quitting.  But what I am not
sorry about is that I have called people on their shit, and I don't think
there's "too many" times that feminism can be invoked.  Are there too
many times masculinist perspectives can be invoked?  Didn't think so. I am
reading Bram Dijkstra's _Idols of Perversity_ right now and while I
already knew we lived in a sexist patriarchy I have to admit that this
book has frankly shaken me to the bone.  This is one scary world we've
created and instead of blaming the *intellectuals* and *scientists* who
are responsible (as I think Pynchon tries to do in his own satiric way) we
more often blame the women (and men but women make a much better
target, eh?) who dare to speak up. I will not be silenced but I also can't
pretend  that I enjoy reading those posts that so mindlessly inscribe male
superiority. Of course, if you were to look back at what I have said in
these five months little of it (probably) has pertained to gender, but
one way the patriarchy has continued has been by villifying those few
women brave enough to question anything so that the questions they ask are
never considered. Instead history calls us crazy, witches, bitches, mean,
nasty, man-hating Amazons when we don't go along with the program. So I'm
sorry if I haven't pointed out the gender inequities nicely enough--I
really hope to become that person some day--but I am only human. And I
*don't* think everything's gender, I think race and class and sexual
orientation and every other irrational prejudice they have crammed down
our throats since this great country was formed affects us too.  As you
can see I am not currently in a place where I feel comfortable with
distancing myself from these issues. Nothing personal. Indeed, I am acting
on principle: since there's revolutionaries on both sides of my ancestral
line, as Hank Jr. says, "it's a family tradition."

Diana

p.s. my husband is ribbing me mercilessly for my long, pathetic goodbyes.
Plus, like Steely, you know you cannot get rid of me _that_ easily.
I'll just take a little break, ok?  Maybe I'll vacation in Stepford
and come back in a more acceptable form... ;-)