Subject: gender: Re:
From: Christianne Edlund (c.edlund@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Sun Sep 15 1996 - 16:33:54 CDT
Anne,
I don't think Lindsey’s point is necessarily because she feels uneasy around
Del because of who he is. I think that she is trying to say that it's kinda
odd that if any alpha male would have said that about a women, we would be
all over him and would have been quite offended...at least i know i would
have. However, because Del used to be a female, it was hard to know how to
feel because in a way he was talking about his own gender...or something
like that. And most people don't make it a tendency to put down their own
"kind" so to speak... So why does he have special permission to make
assumptions and generalizations about either gender? I think it is a lot of
these types of generalizations and stereotypes that are keeping the genders
into such separate categories, which I don’t particularly like because
although I am female, i fit very few of the characteristics. I don't think I
or anyone for that matter should have to be thrown into the huge lump of
the "female characteristics" and have to be seen or treated a certain way
because of it.
Just my opinion...
----chrissy
> lindsey wrote:
>
>Basically what I heard is that we women manipulate others thru
> > conversation. Hmmm... I found myself thinking that if he/she (insert
> > appropriate pronoun here) were of a gender we could easily define, then
> > most of the females in the class would have been all over that arguing
the
> > counterpoint. I found myself suddenly (and uncharacteristically)
> > unconfrontational due to the nature of the subject. It was a minor
thing,
> > but i noticed it.
>
>lindsey, i think your problem of finding it hard to define del's gender is
>your uneasyness or something, what is there so hard to define about del's
>gender. he has spread it all out for you, is as open showing it as you can
>have, is it so hard to see people who are in between of the traditional
>genders? who are neither men nor woman nor mix of the binary? if you talk
>with del it feels quit natural the way he behaves in his gender. i don't
>see your point. and i guess there is a point that women are used to
>manipulate through conversation... that this is a female gender
>caracteristic. men do it slightly different i think. women put all the
>emphasis on the conversation, men have more body there. women tend to
>either get the focus not on their body, or put all the focus on it to use
>it to their advantage. men have other strategies going on there.
>
>
>anne
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Thu Sep 16 1999 - 23:04:43 CDT