From: gcf@panix.com (Gordon Fitch)
Subject: Re: The Prejudice Against Men
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 04:21:12 GMT
Organization: mydog in exile

There's something else I want to say about this thread.
I've been thinking about it every time I go past someone
living on the street, the subways, or the Port Authority
Bus Terminal -- in other words, about half the time I'm
out in the city.

One of the connections I see between the name of this
newsgroup and the homeless is this: practically all of the
people I know who are actually involved in dealing with
homeless people are women.  Some do it professionally, and
some as volunteers; but there are practically no men
involved in the business, at least not on the front lines,
around where I live.

Now, I would guess that the most of these women are
feminists, and that most feminists are liberal -- in the
modern sense of the word; that is, they believe the
community, including its government, should do something
about poverty and homelessness.  This makes the ploy of
imputing the presence of homeless men on the streets to
prejudice on the part of those who care for them 
particularly cynical, because it was the great anti-
liberal "revolt against the poor" of the 1980's that
put the homeless on the streets in the first place, and
is contributing to keeping them there today.

But I'm probably imagining that.  No one would stoop
so low as to use the plight of the homeless to make
cheap rhetorical points, would they?  Of course not.

No doubt some of the people who deal with the homeless are
prejudiced, although I'll bet there's considerably less per
capita prejudice about homeless men among them than among,
say, the population who post on the Net.  But it's a simple
fact that they are not as strong as a lot of men, and that
kind of consideration is going to enter into how willing
they are to let a person of erratic behavior into a shelter,
or to keep him there if it appears that he wants to wander
elsewhere.

About one-third of homeless persons living on the street are
deranged.  Rightists like to blame this fact on the emptying
of the mental institutions, which they attribute to
liberals, but my own experiences indicate that being on the
street is ample cause for derangement in almost anybody.  I
can go into detail if you would like.  That means if you are
running a homeless shelter, and people are simply let in on
the basis of showing up, about one-third are likely to be
deranged.  If some of these are reasonably healthy,
reasonably strong men, and you and the rest of the people
running the shelter are 110-pound women, you may have a
problem.  Figure out, for instance, how you would handle a
fight between the time it broke out and the arrival of the
police an optimistic five minutes later.

Men, whether feminist or not, can make some real
contributions to the problem of homelessness, but not by
"educating" other people or pointing out their errors.
There's been plenty of that and is hasn't done a bit of
good.  One thing you can do is get behind public -- or, if 
you don't believe in them, private -- efforts to build 
housing for the homeless.   Right here in New York, there 
are organizations that take _no_ money from the government 
and have provided homes for hundreds of people.  They need 
your money and your labor.  And secondly, you can go down 
to the local homeless shelter and volunteer your services.  
They need some big, strong, young men who have the physical 
strength to deal with other big, strong, young men who may 
want to stay over, should the latter get out of hand.  That 
way you can ensure that no prejudice remains.
-- 

 )*(    Gordon Fitch    )*(    gcf@panix.com    )*(
( 1238 Blg. Grn. Sta.,  NY NY 10274 * 718.273.5556 )
Newsgroups: alt.feminism