From: DJ Vollkasko (DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net)
Date: Thu May 06 2004 - 00:38:19 PDT
>From: "mouse1701" <mouse1701_at_SYMPATICO.CA>
>Subject: Re: [NTLK] [OT] Adult Newton Software
>Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 21:41:58 -0400
>
>in the workplace i fight my own battles..i find if you become friends with
>the men instead of enemies..not only do you not have to endure anyone
>getting way over the top..they dont feel the need to compete..men can be and
>are very good friends...i don't want 'the movement' as you put it ruining it
>for me..it took a long time to build trust..cause they thought i would
>complain about being callled 'sweetie' and 'darling' but i don't mind..and i
>have given the guys pet names as well..."hunk" and "studmuffins" are just a
>couple..and well all LAUGH about it.
>
>that is the way it should be..jovial..feminists take the movement..their
>lives and everything around them WAY TOO SERIOUSLY
Excuse me if I butt in here, but there's feminists and there's feminists.
I used to know a couple people in NOW and participated in some activities
of that organisation. I found the other people I met to come from all walks
of live and all sorts of genders (need I mention it was a colourful bunch,
too?). They were very much not into alienating, wild accusations and
wailing and whining all the time. There were a mothers and dads, and even
folks who'd met through the movement and got married. Adult, responsible
citizens and taxpayers, not some juvenile hotheads or college kids who had
just discovered something new and fashionable (no offense to juveniles and
college kids in general intended). These people were very friendly, kind
and focused on eliminating injustices. Mark you, they were not about any
matriarchaical baloney, they were about equal rights and justice for all,
about making their society a good place for all of them, and not about
exchanging one unfairness for another. It's not about women against men
against women. It's about the advancement of the people and a better life
for all.
Maybe you don't make use of your right to vote, but hey - you could,
though, if you wanted. That's not something that was there since the
beginning of time, or granted freely to women by male regents who'd
suddenly been thunderstruck with benevolence and enlightenment while
sitting on the loo - no, it was won after many hard fights of the
suffragettes and spread slowly over decades. When did your country give
women the right to vote?
Same goes for the fight for equal wages, which I understand still not to be
the standard in most industrial countries: If you don't stand up for it and
hold your own, your situation will never improve. How much do "hunk" and
"studmuffin" earn, and how much do you get? Who getting the promotion
first, "sweetie" or the boys? How does it look in your friends' workplaces?
Feminism is not about no more joking with the buddies on the job, or who's
the nicer people, men or women. Actually, I found that while there's often
a chauvinist slur in all-male work teams, it's often much more open and
explicit in all-female work teams. The best and most enjoyable and
productive work situation I've found in mixed teams. So I think that shows
the way to go: Not put up any DMZs between the people, but work together,
pull weight together, and live a good live. Like we all do here at NTLK. Amen.
End of sermon, back to work and the regular NewtonTalk programme...
DJV.
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