childbirth etc./AND P CONTENT!

[Charles F. Albert]

Davemarc,
I was more than satisfied to discuss this with you in detail off 
list, but you have apparently opted to go public with your rebuke. By 
all means then, let's go.
> Let me get this straight.  Charles feels that nature has screwed over
> women?  That the male medical establishment hasn't?  


Please identify the agent that mandated that women bear children.

Still waiting.....

Does the nature of the medical establishment change now that women 
are included? And I still ask, is it thumbs down on ob\gyn or not?
 
> Even if I weren't aware of the points Dana raise (the well-documented AMA
> assault on midwifery and normal female biological functions), my awareness
> that many male doctors colluded to put unwanted wives in the loony bin and
> typically made light of women's pain--from menstrual cramps to depression
> to typewriter-wrist (a working woman's maldy that finally became
> legitimized as repetitive stress syndrome as soon as men started using word
> processors)--

You make a point of stating "MY awareness". Are you assuming that I 
am non-sentient? Even worse, are you suggesting that I am unaware of 
what you describe above? I think some of these gender issues are no 
longer relevant, and that some elements of feminism border on 
hysteria. That does not preclude me from objecting to what is truly 
repressive, I just don't take every opportunity to get up on the soap 
box to glibly generalize and hurl unwarranted accusations. But, Dave, I am profoundly 
moved by your superior capacity to feel.

I've read enough Pynchon (say, the plastic surgery scene in
> V.) to realize that Charles's contemptuous rhetoric

You have, in the past, proven a pretty reasonable guy, but this is 
bullshit. And as I recall, no-one coerced Rachel (did I remember that 
right?) to have the rhinoplasty. It was the free choice of a 
sovereign individual.

> only illustrates the
> case she's making.

If she has made ANY case to you in the past few days, then I would 
suggest you develop a critical faculty. As you have noticed, other 
members have objected to the tone of Dana's more exaggerated notions, 
but I am sure you will set them all straight by trying to make an example out 
of me.

> Keep it up, Charles old sport--you're doing great work.

This does call for appropriate response, but I'll let it pass this 
time in the interest of de-escalation.
And, PLEASE, if any more vitriol need be spent on this topic, let's 
keep it off list. 
love,
cfa