rounding up posses (fwd)

Richard,

Please, do not over-dramatize the issue here. It is not my intention to
outnumber you. I was just making a comradely invite to bring you to
justice on the question of gender. I appreciate your guerrilla tactic, but
I am not a US helicopter you need to fire at. Direct your gun at the
right person, not sincere marxist-feminists who aim to invite men to
become conscious of their sexism. Marxist men are the only men who can do
it, but I don't know why you are resisting.

Regarding your last question, let me reiterate that gender is a social
construct. There are two biological sexes or variations between the two.
To be honest with you, I am not expert on sexuality or why people develop
different sexual identities. As I said, your sexual organ is not
definelty an indicative of your sexuality and gender identity. Our
enviroment, gender system so to speak, largely defines what it means to be
a man (or woman) or how to behave manly "in addition" to you as being a
biological male. Furthermore, you may develop a different sexual
orientation through time. I guess homosexuality can be learnt too.

What I know is that gender has nothing to do with the biological basis of
sex differences. It is okey that women give birth to children, a capacity
which men lack, but we can not logically assume from this that they should
be the primary agents of childbrearing. To argue otherwise is to limit
women to household and define women only in terms of their domestic roles,
and naturalize the unequal and unjust division of labor between the two
sexes.


Historically speaking, capitalism played important role in the
"reorganization" of gender relations. Capitalism removed children, men,
women from the household. It threw them into market place as rightless
proletarians. While it curtailed men's participation in family life to
exploit them efficiently in factories, it began to exploit women
both in the market place (cheap labor) and at home (unpaid labor). It
created double oppression for women. Capitalism liberated women only 
partially, by extending the gender divison of labor to the market place.
Women still spend their time with children wheras father is rarely a
child's primary parent. Moreover, household is not the only place of
women's oppression. Sex industry, pornography exploit women by justfying
the need for pornography in terms of sexual freedom and erotic
pleasure. Power and politics always underwrite how we perceive sexual
differences even. Capitalism reproduces the gender system and division of
labor by commodifying women's bodies, and still representing this as
a natural order of things..Capitalism is not a gender neutral system. On
the contrary, it has a gender, and this gender system is sexist...

An adequate understanding of gender is a necessary precondition to achieve
substantive equality betwen men and women, and hence a socialist society..



good night,


Mine



 ---------- Forwarded message
---------- Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 20:19:56 -0700 (MST)
From: Richard N Hutchinson <rhutchin@U.Arizona.EDU>
To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Cc: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: rounding up posses

>Mine-

>You don't need to round up a bigger posse to bring me to justice, you've
>already got me outnumbered.  I'm the one who needs a posse!

>If I don't get any backup I'll be forced to retreat by superior
>firepower,
>like guerrilla retreating to the hills in the face of U.S. helicopter
>gunships...

>RH