From: cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: another poem
Date: 28 Sep 92 16:34:33 GMT
Organization: University of California, Irvine

In article <1992Sep27.224750.1039@ncsu.edu> barclay@RAIL9000.gatech.edu (Barclay Blanchard) writes:
>In article <1992Sep27.213907.28694@ncsu.edu> blchapma@eos.ncsu.edu (BEKKI LYN) writes:
>>
>>They
>>still think I'm coming on to them just because I nod my head in their
>>direction when they ask me the time of day.  I've outright told men
>>to get lost and that I'm not interested.  (Men who I've never had
>>any sort of intimate relationship with).  Does it work?  NO!!!! They
>>don't listen.  Oh gee whiz, I must be lying to them.  I can't really
>>be serious.  GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  NO MEANS NO, DAMMIT!!!!!!

Well, you just COULDN'T be turning down such a marvelous piece of
masculine virility, now could you?  Hey, honey, lookit my new wrist
calculator . . . 

>Really.  There seem to be so few men who take women seriously, especially
>when it comes to sexual matters.  The attitude you describe is perhaps the
>most infuriating to encounter.

And the most common.  The one line that men pull out that pisses me off
the most is, "Aw, come on . . . " whenever you say no.  These three
simple words will reduce me to utter anger and peevishness.  I said NO
you microcephalic jackass, now go get on someone else's nerves.  "Aw,
come on . . . "  Them's fightin' words!

>Seeing your, Janis's, and Ailsa'a posting about what it's like to be a woman
>has really helped me.  I haven't talked much about feelings like this before,
>or often when I did I wasn't taken seriously.  Or I've been called a militant
>feminist.  

Barclay, you're a militant femininst if you act in the slightest way
different from the plastoids femmes in beer commercials. 

>People often say "militant feminist" as if we should be ashamed for 
>feeling passionate about experiencing and delighting in our femaleness. Aarghh.

One very early feminist (Rebecca West, I think the name was) said
something like -- there IS an exact quote -- "I don't really know if I'm
a feminist or not.  I just know that everyone calls me a feminist when I
express opinions that distinguish me from a prostitute, or a doormat."  

>>Whew!  That felt much better.  Sometimes it feels good to ramble.
>
>I like rambling, too.

And ain't it wonderful when you find out that other people have the same
stuff to ramble about as you?  When all your life you've been seeing
things that other people told you weren't there, you start doubting
yourself.  I think that intelligent women may have some of the same
problems as abused children and children who grew up in households that
had something to hide.  

"Mom, Daddy's drunk!"  "No, dear, he's just resting.  Why do you always
have to say that in front of company?"

"Hey, that was my idea!"  "No, it wasn't.  Geez, what're you getting so
upset about?  Is your period starting or sumthin?" 

In both cases, you've been hearing voices in your head all your life and
been told that they're not really there, and no one else hears them, and
what's wrong with YOU anyway?

Think of it -- recovery for having been born a woman . . .

Blessings,
Janis