From: aap@wam.umd.edu (Alberto Adolfo Pinkas)
Subject: Re: sexism
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:19:46 GMT

In article <1992Oct13.163304.28530@njitgw.njit.edu> dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap) writes:
>
>You have a very skewed view of Orthodox Jewish life.  Very few men
>spend all their time studying.  Most go out and have jobs like the
>rest of humanity.  Before modern times, this job involved long hours
>in fields or in factories.  In contrast, a wife would raise the
>family.

This is sexist.

>
>Now before you have a knee-jerk response and call me a sexist pig,
>allow me to continue my argument.
>
>1) In the home, the woman has the final say.  Her husband does not
>   have the last word on how the house is to be kept, how the children
>are to be raised, etc.
>

This is sexist.



>2) A woman's place in the home is considered to be just as important
>   (if not more so) than the man's place in the workplace.  The keeper
>of the children is the one responsible for the next generation of
>human beings, and this is not a position to be put down.
>

This is even more sexist.


>3) It is a man's obligation to keep his wife happy and content.  This
>   means providing for her needs and as much of her desires as is is
>possible.  As a good example, in some communities, women aren't
>allowed to drive cars - so their husbands are obligated to drive them
>wherever they want to go whenever they want to go.  Whose life is
>worse here?
>
iThe wife's life is the worse. She cannot socialize, and, she is looked at 
as some object.
So, this is even worse than before.




>4) Women are "excluded" from prayer sevices because they are not
>   obligated to participate.  Since women have certain obligations to
>the children, they are not obligated to perform mitzvot which have
>specific times (of day) attached to them.  Judaism believes that one
>who has no obligation can not lead one who is obligated.  This is the
>ONLY reason why women are usually not allowed to lead services, etc.
>
>If you ask why not obligate them, well consider this:  If you're
>taking care of the family (which may involve nurisng the baby at
>3:00AM, something a man can never do), it would be cruel to obligate
>her to get up in order to pray every morning at 7:00AM.


Most women do not nurse every day of  their lifes at 3:00AM.



>
>Etc. Etc.  Far be it from me to change your mind, but get all the
>facts before you jump to a conclusion.

Actually, your facts make her point more conclusive.

>
>If there are any specific sexist actions you'd like me to address,
>post them and I'll see if I know a reason you might not be aware of.
>I do know that women are praised quite often in the Torah, and that
>Women are considered much stronger and more capable in many ways.
>

All the ones you posted are sexist.

>-- 
>David Charlap         |"there aren't 50,000 things for which it's worth writing
>dic5340@hertz.njit.edu| software; and the computer industry doesn't have enough
>----------------------+ programmers to create that much good software.
>Therefore, most of it must be worthless" -- Boris Beizer "The Frozen Keyboard"

AAP

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