From: venu@cirrus.com (Venu Nayar)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.asian-indian,soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Excluding men
Date: 17 Nov 92 16:24:37 GMT
Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc.

In <1992Nov16.224135.23117@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
usubrama@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Uma M Subramanian) writes: 

[stuff written by me deleted]

just for the record, i would like to state that i have no policy opinions on
the mailing list. my opinions about why it would be advantageous to have
male readership is not to be construed as implying that i am calling for
list policy changes...since the list is essentially private, the policies
are those of the members.

i also want to clarify that i didn't mean to imply (since many seem to have
understood it so) that the moderators of the mailing list are making
arbitrary decisions without considering member opinions. by "moderators" i
meant decision-makers (however the decisions were arrived at). 

here's a relevant part of an email reply by me to uma's post:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

i respect (and think i understand) the feelings of the list's members or the
moderators (as i earlier thought), which is why i just made a suggestion,
and then didn't discuss it further, when they made their decision. after
all, like i said in my cross-post, it is a private mailing list, and not a
usenet forum, and thus the final organizational decisions are upto the
members and the moderators.  

however, i still feel that allowing a male readership, but no contributions
cant do any harm. it allows men who are interested to participate through
reading, at least. a more proper way to set up anonymity of the female
members who feel the need would be for one of the moderators to anonymously
post the article. that would also increase the efficacy of the forum, since
one of its purposes should be to make men aware of indian womens' opinions
and feelings on various issues.  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

however, in the light of uma's experiences as a group-member,

>As a member of this group, and not as one of the moderators, I would like
>to say the following: I personally don't mind men as being members,
>and I thought a forum with men is essentially the same as one without
>men all things being equal. But the first week of participating
>in an all-women forum has taught me that there is a fundamental
>difference between the two kinds of forum. I've been vociferous
>on women's issues on SCI and I never considered myself as timid
>or shy while writing on SCI and I've been painfully outspoken
>on SCI. But being a member of an all-women group has been a 
>very different, much more supportive experience for me. When
>I'm outspoken on this email group, it's not because I'm provoked by people
>constantly discounting women's experiences; it's not because I'm so
>angered that I feel someone ought to speak out even at the cost of
>speaking out about things that they'd rather not discuss with
>strangers, and if that someone has to be me, so be it. But
>this is strictly my personal opinion as a member, not as a moderator.

maybe i am wrong.
-- 
Venu Nayar			|		Internet: venu@cirrus.com
Cirrus Logic Inc.		|		(510)-226-2100 X3737 
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat,
and wrong.