From: Mikelis Bickis <BICKIS@sask.usask.ca>
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Segregation by sex, cont'd
Date: 29 Jul 1992 18:43:15 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

Rick Russell <<wrr3118@tamsun.tamu.EDU>> writes in reply to me:

> >P.S. (I spent two years in an all boys high school.  Somehow I can't see
> >that this has had any appreciable effect about my attitudes towards
> >myself or towards women.)
>  
> I spent all four years of
> high school ... in a private single-sex
> institution, ..
> ...
> Overall, I'd say the experience was positive. Since there were no
> girls, I was not prejudiced against them in any way. 

Well, maybe it had more effect on me than I acknowledge, because this is 
pretty much my attitude too, but I didn't really attribute it to my 
school experience.  I did grade 9 in a mixed class, and was fascinated 
by a cute redhead who squeezed me out of the top of the class.  Our 
competition only made her that much more attractive.

> I didn't see or
> hear any male high school teachers denigrating women in class (or at
> all, really); I didn't ever see a teacher talk down to a "girl's
> level", I didn't ever see a teacher intentionally reduce the
> difficultly of the work (e.g. in science & mathematics) to supposedly
> make it easier for the girls; 

Well, I never saw it either, even in the mixed classes.  Maybe I was 
very naive, or insensitive, or just lucky about the teachers I got.

> I never saw girls 'play dumb' to get a boy's attentions. 

I certainly saw lots of *that*.  (Although I had no girls in my classes 
in gr. 10&11, I had contact with them through other activities.)  It 
annoyed me even back then, as much as boys 'playing tough' to get a 
girl's attention (especially when it worked).  'Dumb = sexy' was never 
an identity in my book, no matter how much I saw it.

Sharon O'Neil <<oneil@cwis.unomaha.edu>> adds:

> I will concur with you that men who attended all-male institutions are
> often some of the best men to associate with -- they are very often
> less sexist than their counterparts who attended coed institutions
> during the formative teenage years.  My best friend during my teenage
> years was a boy who attended the boy's school down the street (which
> was not affiliated with the all-girl's school I attended.)  

Well, one of *my* best friends in high school was from the neighbouring 
girls' school (which *was* affiliated).  She was one who didn't suppress 
her intelligence in the presence of boys.  Although I have lost touch 
with her, last I heard she was doing a PhD in physics.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>bickis@sask.usask.ca<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Mik Bickis       \,,,       .*#*.  \    University of Saskatchewan
Department of        \,,,  ^\\|//^  ```\   Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Mathematics & Statistics \   )|(        ```\   Canada      S7N 0W0
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<S|A|S|K|A|T|C|H|E|W|A|N|>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>



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