From: seid@popov.ee.cornell.EDU (Steve Seidman)
Subject: slamming Women's Bookstores
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Date: 28 Dec 92 00:50:46 GMT

I have a bone to pick with a local women's bookstore,
and I hope that my beef will have implications toward
certain concepts that will apply to "gender-differences
between men and women" in books and also net.discussions.

There's a somewhat famous women's bookstore in Ithaca, NY.
Besides carrying books on women's issues they also have many
community activities such as poetry readings.

The other day I went into that women's bookstore with a friend.
He happened to ask for a book that might have fit their
collection profile.  The clerk got up from behind the counter
of healing crystals and said:

	We don't have that book.  We don't carry books
	written by men.

I didn't get into a disussion with her about the store policy,
but will list every counterargument to every possible reason
for such a horrible store policy. (can't be sure I hit every
point...but maybe someone will help in the followup-posts ;-)

I don't care whether 99.5% (or even 100%) of their books are by
women but I think that it is awful that they won't carry books
by men as a matter of principle.  Here's why:

1) I think that the idea that a book by a man might contain a
   man's essence that would be poisonous, contaminating, subversive or
   infiltrating to women, no matter what's in the book is a horrible
   way to think about the world.  I suspect that it's ideas like
   these that had lead people to complain about too many men
   on soc.feminism; and how the men express themselves differently etc. etc.

2) The idea that this bookstore wants to support women's writers,
   and that men writers already have an infrastructure of support
   through the publishing industry and other mainstream bookstores
   is ridiculous.  It will do nothing but further shut out certain
   male authors not in the mainstream who may fit the women's boostore's
   collection profile.

3) The idea that allowing in male authors will dilute the purchases
   of books by female authors is nothing more than a perverse insult to
   the female writers.

4) Such a store policy may promote the idea of cutting oneself off
   from a male-dominated world.  This can be dangerous.  I believe
   that some women may benefit from seperation from men (for various
   reasons that I won't go into).  I would hope that most of the time
   this would be part of a healing process, and possibly not a permanent
   lifestyle.  The store policy may promote the idea that seperation
   will always be permanent, that bridges to men are always impossible,
   and that men will never (in principle!) connect to women...even in books!

5) Obviously the differences between men and women are due to some
   combination of biology and social constructionism, and right now
   it is impossible to make easy delineations between this combination;
   but in the name of intellectual honesty I think that standards other
   than sex/gender of author needs to be considered when reading a book,
   net-posting or deciding whether a women's bookstore ought to make
   certain books available to their patrons (or matrons ;-)

6)  I haven't decided wether women's-only activities are always bad.
   It may be appropriate in certain sports, and social and educational
   environments.  But when it comes to the print media (whether books,
   or net-postings) anything suggesting of "women's-only" will
   always stick in my craw.

Steve Seidman
seid@ee.cornell.edu


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