Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Wed, 23 Dec 1992 09:23:30 -0600
From:         Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik <amadeus@CCWF.CC.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Deep beliefs
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Comments: cc: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Wed, 23 Dec 1992, Aaron L Dickey wrote:

> Sometime I wonder if all the poor "sexually harrassed" women of this world
> don't actually know how good they've got it. (NOTE: In this instance I'm
> referring to sexual harassment of the whistles-and-catcalls-on-the-street
> variety; I don't doubt there's a lot of honest rape and job-on-the-line
> harrassment going on as well.)

I don't guess you've ever been hooted at and ogled on the street by
perfect strangers too often.  Ya know, each time it happens I keep waiting
for that special inner glow -- that one that tells me that Cindy Crawford
and I are this close, and I too can soon have my own workout video -- and
it hasn't come yet.  Must be some defect in my character... or maybe I
just need a good, well, you know.

> Okay, you're an amazingly attractive woman with a perfect figure.  You get
> hooted at and ogled all the time.  Just keep in mind that this same
> Neanderthal atttude is the same one that allows you to get better jobs and
> promotions, gives you at least a shot of being a famous star, and allows
> you to actively date, in the hopes of someday finding the right mate and
> having a happy family life.

Oh, that's what it was doing for me!  I see.  Now I welcome those
catcalls, I really do.

BTW, I don't consider myself amazingly attractive.  I'm pretty, I have
(well I did before I had a baby) a nice figure, and I have slightly larger
breasts than average for my size (except for now, when I could feed
Somalia without much effort).  It's that latter thing, I think, that has
contributed to most of the involuntary salutes I've gotten in my life.

> The moral here is: Sexual harrassment works both ways, and I'm getting a
> little tired of hearing what assholes we men are when many of us (and many
> women) are just as persecuted as the Beautiful People, only in the
> opposite direction.  Life ain't fair...get used to it.

You would rather have people howling at you on the street than get turned
down for a date?

I agree with you that sexual harrassment works both ways.  But what are
you angry about?  Which group are you trying to champion here, men or
not-pretty people?  I think if you look at the numbers, women of all
levels of attractiveness are still getting discriminated against --
whether not hired for a job because she's not pretty enough or turned down
for an opportunity because they need someone smart not pretty, and she
might be a temptation -- more than men.

It's not men so much as it is the system set up by men and, sadly,
maintained by men.  To say that all men are assholes is just as foolhardy
as saying all attractive people have it easy.

(BTW, have you read _The Beauty Myth_?  Some interesting points on this
very subject...)

> Oh, Happy Holidays by the way. :)

To you too. :)

-----Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik-------------------------------*<:-)-------------
"Queens never make bargains."  -- The Red Queen, _Through the Looking Glass_
----amadeus@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu--------------The University of Texas @Austin---