From: michael@neuron6.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Michael Rivero)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: men crossing the street at night to avoid frightening women
Date: 5 Jan 1993 17:20:06 GMT
Organization: JPL Pasadena CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

In article <1993Jan3.112329.14704@monu1.cc.monash.edu.au> pol253b@monu1.cc.monash.edu.au (Ms D Alexander) writes:
>In article <9212292355.AA02165@york.cs.ucla.edu> gds@ficus.cs.ucla.EDU (Greg Skinner) writes:
>
>>Would you say that steps ought to be taken to empower women to defend
>>themsleves against these men?  In other words, does avoiding
>>frightening women really help them protect themselves?  If women are
>>given (and take) the means to protect themselves, what purpose does
>>the non-threatening men keeping a respectable distance serve?
>
>Perhaps it will prevent them from having their heads blown off?  What
>exactly do you mean by "means to protect themselves"?
>
>Dey

  The statistics are that men will get their heads blown off far more
often in the streets than women, Selecting women as a class for special 
treatment/protection is sexist. Even worse, trying to convince men to
alter their planned path of travel merely because thay happen to be a 
man approaching a woman is not only discrimination, not only smacks of 
slaves being told never to look the Roman patricians in the eyes, but 
is an outright infringment on male liberty and is therefore unconstitutional!

 I for one will go where I damned please, when I please. Since I am personally
not a rapist or abuser, I'll be damned if I am going to engage in any
behavior that presupposes potential guilt on my part.

  If women are afraid, that's THEIR problem. I refuse to be held responsible
for the feelings of total strangers whoes only knowledge of me is
assumptive based on the myth that all men are rapists. If someone is afraid of
all members of a class simply because they belong to a class, that's not
precaution, that's prejudice.

  How many people would sit still if we decided to keep the Blacks or Chicanos
away from the banks because most bank robberies (at least here in LA)
are committed by those particular groups, and we wanted those women
behind the teller windows to feel more secure? 

  The fact remains that the numbers of actual rapists and bank robbers remain
very small segments of the population. Blacks and Chicanos have every
right to be customers of the bank, and I have every right to walk the
shortest distance between two points. 




<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
|  Omigod, he's BACK!  The Animator From HECK and his unchained PIXELS!   |
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
|                                                                         |
|  Thanks to some very generous support by folks whose names are          |
|  omitted to protect the insoucent, I once again have net access.        |
|                                                                         |
|    My sojourn at this email address will be brief as the Animation      |
|  Attic will soon take delivery of a UNIX workstations and will then     |
|  acquire it's own net-feed.                                             |
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

-- 
Michael Rivero michael%neuron6@jpl-mil.jpl.nasa.gov


-- 
Post articles to soc.feminism, or send email to feminism@ncar.ucar.edu.
Questions and comments should be sent to feminism-request@ncar.ucar.edu.  This
newsgroup is moderated by several people, so please use the mail aliases. Your
article should be posted within several days.  Rejections notified by email.