From: sheaffer@netcom.com (Robert Sheaffer)
Subject: Re: "The Oppressed"? (was: proposed vote of confidence)
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 92 05:55:27 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <DF.92Sep2164954@anableps.berkeley.edu> df@anableps.berkeley.edu (d) writes:
>  Any woman who speaks her mind (e.g. muffy, etc.)
>obviously must be stripped of her force, by ridicule, or actual seizure
>of her position as moderator (which gives small power, by any standard).
>I imagine if she were a man, then the tone on this newsgroup would be
>very different.
>
>>  Is only silence permissible?
>
>  Only if it is the oppressed who are silenced.

What absolute codswollop to call women "the oppressed" in America today!
They have far more rights and far more options than men do, both in
law and in social custom. 

They can get difficult-to-obtain jobs for which they are only marginally-
qualified, in preference to white males who demonstrate far greater
competence.

They can pursue careers if they wish, or they can marry a high-achieving
male and be a homemaker, or can do both at different times. No man has
any such option, because a career woman sees a 'male homebody' as far
beneath her. ("Why, he can't even earn as much as *I* do! What a loser!")

They can act soft and feminine, if they want, and this is acceptable.
Or, they can be as domineering as they want and are still beyond
any possibility of criticism in Politically Correct circles, for no
one dares criticise a woman for aggressiveness or dominance. A man
who strives for dominance, however, will be disparaged as the very
model of a "male chauvinist pig."

They have entire departments in universities whose sole function is to
broadcast womens' complaints to the world. Men have no such thing.

Feminists are free to insult and slander men all they wish, and we
are expected to endure it in silence. But should any man say anything
that is considered insulting by feminists, at the very least he will
be soundly denounced; his career may even be over.

Federal and state governments have "equal opportunity" commissions to
which any woman can turn when she has a complaint against an employer.
Even if her complaint is not well-grounded, the employer still faces
much difficulty in proving that it is NOT guilty of wrongdoing. Men
(white men, that is) have no such recourse.

Feminists can often bring much pressure toward banning, suppressing,
or silencing whatever they do not like to hear or see. Many university
careers have been compromised for failure to adhere to "correct" dogma.

Women live eight years longer than men, probably because they do not typically
find themselves under such unremitting pressure to support themsleves
and their family. They control MORE than 50% of the wealth of America,
in spite of having earned considerably less than 50% of the income. The
"oppressed", I say, are those who end up with LESS than what they earn,
while those who end up with more than they have earned are in fact privileged.

Oppressed, you say? The feminists' clients are the new Mandarin class, with
powers and privileges far beyond those of ordinary men. And on top of
all this power and privilege, their complaints about being
"oppressed" continues to accrue them ever greater power.
 
-- 
  
        Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - sheaffer@netcom.com
  
 Past Chairman, The Bay Area Skeptics - for whom I speak only when authorized!

       "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
        Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has
        broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or
        where it will end."
                               - Emerson: Essay, "Circles"
Newsgroups: alt.feminism