From: Will Steeves <goid@zooid.guild.org>
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: "sexual favors" as a
Date: 5 Oct 1992 16:26:36 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

muffy@mica.berkeley.EDU (Muffy Barkocy) writes...
MB> In article <92Aug29.220126edt.11957@zooid.guild.org> goid@zooid.guild.ORG (W
MB> Steeves) writes:
MB> >muffy@mica.berkeley.EDU (Muffy Barkocy) writes...
MB> >MB> [...] Meanwhile, once in the context of a marriage,
MB> >MB> men still have more power.
MB> >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

MB> >This really depends on what you call "power".  If "money is power,"
MB> >then yes, men *do* have more power.  [...]
MB> >So, if you consider closeness with one's children to be
MB> >more of a power issue than money, then without a doubt, women still
MB> >have more power in that area.

MB> >As I have always said, and will keep on saying, power isn't just on
MB> >the side of men ; it goes both ways, and ignoring one side for the
MB> >other will not get anyone *anywhere*.

MB> Will, I said that men have *more* power in a marriage.  What that means
MB> is, that if you add up *all* the sources of power, then I believe that
MB> you will find that men have more *in total* than women.


Muffy, I wasn't disagreeing with what you said here ; I was only stating that
the determination as to "who has more power?" depends in large part on what
things constitute power, *in the eye of the beholder*.

Because of the fact that "power is in the eye of the beholder," some people
view some things as being more heavily weighted, while others might view
these same things as less important, or even unimportant.

It is for this reason that many men's groups have said "women have more power"
while many women's groups have said "men have more power," and *both* groups
have both accused the other of being out to lunch.  In other words, it is
not a matter of "one *has* to be right and the other has to be wrong" ; it
is a matter of the fact that each group has different perceptions of power,
and thus come to different conclusions as to who has more power.

I believe that you may have accidentally misinterpreted my position, ie., I
believe that you mistook me as saying "women have more power (in general)".
In fact, I was not supporting *either* position, but was merely trying to
point out that given a set of biases regarding what constitutes power, one
could come to the conclusion that women *or* men "have more power".

Your own biases tell you the former, while others' biases may or may not
differ.  It seems as though you thought that I was denying what you said,
when in fact I was not.  I apologise for the misunderstanding.

---
Will Steeves, goid@zooid.guild.org                      "Neil Hull is GOiD"
ZOOiD BBS, Toronto, Ontario - The Zoo Of Ids            "GOiDS Rule"
(416) 322-7876
---
 * SLMR 2.1a * Saddam Hussein still has his job.  Do you?


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