Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 17:47:19 -0500 (CDT)
From: rebecca elizabeth zorach <rezorach-AT-midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: Re: "Woman=good" (?)




Chloe, thanks for, after all that, admirably re-stating Don's initial 
question! I'm sorry you're not the stereotype you claimed to be, but 
then I'm not the one I claim to be either.

As has probably become obvious, it bothers me that we've been unwilling 
to tolerate questioning of assumptions. Granted, it becomes ridiculous 
after a point to be constantly educating newcomers to a particular 
discourse; I've seen lists die for this reason. But it seemed to me that 
there was a particular animus forming along gender lines, and I think 
that's something to be examined. I really honestly took Chloe at her 
word when she said she was "man-hatin'" and that IS a view that I think 
should be okay to express here (and even sympathize with in some rare 
moments of abject rage). I don't "disapprove" of all forms of separatism. 
Taken to an extreme, it's not a world I would want to live in. But I do 
believe in a strategic essentialism which accompanies some forms of 
situational or temporary separatism. 

A related theme I've noticed in a couple of recent posts (some by 
DDD, I think) is the notion that "because of our radically different 
assumptions, there is no point in continuing this discussion." It might 
be more productive, I think, not to imagine that we can succesfully
"convert" each other to our own ways of thinking, but to be willing to 
live that conflicted zone of risk and possible failure to "convince." 

-Rebecca