Re: male terrorism against females

Linda Purrington (lpurring@earthlink.net)
Wed, 25 Mar 1998 15:41:35 -0800


Actually, bashing girls does help enforce oppression, intimidation, and
the entire system of male privilege. Witness the massacres of female
students in Montreal, Kenya, and now in Arkansas. It is not male bashing
to object angrily and in strong language to this kind of
terrorism--which goes on daily in the schools over a wide spectrum of
intensity. Yes, terrorism against women benefits all men. There is no
equivalent form of bashing by women anywhere. the cry of male bashing is
used (1) in ignorance of sociological and historical evidence, and (2)
deliberately as a way to suppress women and women's rights activists.

Linda Purrington Title IX Advocates <lpurring@earthlink.net>

andrea marcus wrote:
>
> Pointing out that things are more difficult for girls does not provide proof
> that boys have an easy time of it either.
>
> Both boys and girls in this culture could use a little support and
> acceptance of who they are. Bashing one has never benefitted the other.
>
> At 11:02 AM 3/24/98 -0800, you wrote:
> >When I roused up edequity@tristram.edc.org about Title IX, one teacher
> >remarked that he was said boys had to give up so much of their humanity
> >to become men; this was one reply. thought you might be
> >interested--Linda:
> >
> >"--- writes that he looks to the day that teaching will release
> >boys from boy stereotypes so that " 'becoming a man' will no longer
> >requires that we set aside so much of our humanity".
> >
> >---, becoming a man does not require you set aside your humanity. It
> >heaps reward and profit on boys for setting aside their humanity, a
> >reward and profit that boys and men can CHOOSE to give up any time they
> >want.
> >
> >Boys graduating from high school right away make more money than girls
> >graduating from college.. Boys can give up this money any time they
> >want. Girls, however, are not free to take this collosal money
> >difference from the boys.
> >
> >Teenage boys do an average of three hours work around the home every
> >week. Their teenage sisters do an average of ten hours work around the
> >home every week. Boys are completely free to increase their hours of
> >work any time they want. Girls are not free to abdicate their chores.
> >
> >It is outrageous to say that boys are REQUIRED to take more than their
> >share of the playground, hog the computors, rape girls, make more money
> >than girls, have later curfew, do hugely less hours of housework than
> >girls and use or condone violence to keep this grossly unequal system in
> >place. Boys (and men) are FREE to give up these activities any time they
> >want. But they don't want to because these activities give them so much
> >reward and profit and power.
> >
> >Girls are not free to take back the playground and computors from boys
> >who bully, they can't stop the nearly million rapes of girls every
> >year, nor are they free to take their share of the money back, nor to
> >stop the exploitation of their labor in the home, nor extend their
> >curfew to equal the boys, nor stop the violence of boys.
> >
> >---is also frustrated because there isn't much in the research on
> >the raising of boys!!!!!!!
> >
> >Does --- choose to ignore the entire canon of human history, of
> >psychology, of pedagogy? All of which is based on the study of boys. And
> >now in the smallest sliver of recent time we have a few dozen books on
> >girls and --- and so many other "nontraditional males"
> >take their outsized share of free time in the world and their hugely
> >outsized share of media access and they cry victim.
> >
> >INCREDIBLE!

Marie de Santis
> >
> >


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