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girl what?!


Date: Jan 11 1998

Hey, I’m all for girl power, but not by that silly term that conjures up pictures of 'baby spice' in ponytails and 'ginger spice' in skin-tight clothing, and not if it means "male oppression". Ugh. I think any woman with a brain would be offended if guys went around yelling "boy power!" all the time. Being a girl or a guy is not something you can choose (at least not without a lot of money and a good surgeon), so why make such a big deal out of it? 'Girl power' is just a cutesy term for gender role reversal a.k.a. militant feminism. Gross generalizations do not help anything.

It is hideously unfair to say 'women are good and men are EVIL!' because some women are catty bitches and some men are wonderful. I guess the whole idea here is that in a perfect world, no one would oppress anyone else based on things they can't help, such as race, gender, sexual preference, "beauty", etc. But since its definitely not a perfect world in which we live, it's up to every person (not just girl/woman) to define the way they want to be treated by other people. 'Society' (ooh, that big bad undefinable power) tries to force us, men and women alike, into gender-typed roles, even as 'girl power' and 'sensitive men' become the fad of the day. But we can't be forced to do what society says. We define ourselves. If a woman allows herself to be the submissive partner in a relationship, there's no use blaming it on the man. There will always be groups of people who believe they're better than other groups and try to oppress them (at least in our lifetimes; I’d like to think they'll disappear eventually, but I know that's a bit optimistic); our job is to make sure we're not members of the oppressive groups.

Everyone is ultimately responsible for themselves. There's no shirking that blame.

I guess that's enough from me for one message. I'd like to hear what you all think - fill out my comment form!

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This page by Sparky. Email me at kumquat37@hotmail.com.
Written 01/12/98.