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Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 23:42:52 -0400 (EDT)
To: improvetheworld &AElig umich.edu
From: Daniel Reeves <dreeves &AElig umich.edu>
Subject: feminism debate's swan song
Status: O

I said I'd take this off the whiteboard and archive it.  That's what this 
email is doing.  The improvetheworld archives (including this message) are 
available at
   http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/improvetheworld/archives.txt
which is useless for web-browsing but you could import that file into your 
mail client and browse it that way (it's a standard unix/pine mail 
folder).  Now that I work for Yahoo maybe I can come up with a better 
solution than that!

  From the whiteboard:

Feminism Debate [this will be taken off the whiteboard and archived soon]

Last Straw Poll:  What label do you use for yourself with respect to the
feminist movement?

Radical feminist: Victoria, Michelle, Augie, Danny (insomuch as I try to
subvert the dominant gender paradigm)

Liberal feminist:  Danny, Clare, Angela

Feminist: Kapoo, Lisa, Bethany, Victoria, Michelle, Augie, Danny,
           Josh, Clare

Pro-feminist: Ian (I feel all alone in the category)

Sex-positive feminist: Kevin L, Danny
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-sex_feminism)

Not a feminist but not *not* feminist: Martin (Danny's dad), Rachel,
                                        John (Kapoo's dad)

Depends: Eugene, Dave(I want definitions before I commit)

Other: Monica, Melanie, James, Laurie
   (really, I think if you share the goals of the feminist movement you 
should have the labia to identify yourself with it --anonymous coward)

For the ERA: Danny, Victoria, the state of michigan, Laurie, Michelle,
              Rachel, Clare, Rob

Against the ERA: jerry falwell, george bush, the state of illinois (!)


Things we can do:
  1. ratify the ERA
  2. subvert the dominant gender paradigm
  3. get more females in the sciences through affirmative action
  4. speak out against unfair gender stereotypes and discrimination
  5. insist on Ms. instead of Mrs. or Miss
  6. fight against the catholic church
  7. elect a female president
  8. use nonsexist language (singular they, shun "you guys", shun
     gender-specific labels)
  9. increase daycare options and/or minimum wage
10. rebel against chivalry (males: don't do it.  females: react to it by
     actively reciprocating)
11. Emily's List  (http://www.emilyslist.org)

Why you might shy away from the label "feminist":
  4. The best way to eliminate the oppression of women and insure social
     fairness and equality of the sexes is for the whole world to be
     'gender blind', just as the best way to eliminate racism is for the
     whole world to be 'color blind'.  [Who said that?  I (Danny) agree but
     I think it's a pretty radical idea!  In any case I don't remotely see
     it as a reason to not call oneself a feminist since feminism describes
     the movement that has gotten us the progress we've seen so far.]
  5. worry that it alienates potential recruits from the political center
  6. it sounds radical
  7. people might think you advocate raising only test tube babies
  8. don't want anyone to think you're a lesbian
  9. Pat Robertson might blame you for terrorist attacks
10. believe that labels are categorically bad

DEFINITIONS:
   Feminism: the radical notion that women are people
   Liberal Feminism: make women equal, focus on changing laws and
opportunities
   Radical Feminism: turn social institutions upside down


-- 
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  search://"Daniel Reeves"