[SPAM?] Re: [LMB] Re: OT: squ/ick in some ``feminist'' sf; wassequential tartthread

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006, PAT MATHEWS wrote:

> >From: "Hendon, Alison" <A.Hendon at brooklynpubliclibrary.org>
> >--- I don't agree that the rights become set in stone because
> >they're taken for granted.  When living memory can remember a
> >time that women were denied access to many
> >professions/universities/etc., I don't think we can assume
> >that they're here to stay.
>
> The kids find that as unthinkable as corsets and no suffrage
> ... an aberration of the distant past. The kids in my class
> don't even understand the sexism of the Agricultural Age
> societies, but react with indignation and outrage to the lack
> of equal opportunity in the age of bronze swords!

I run an online RPG set in the year 1942.  Many of the younger
players, even those with a fair amount of historical knowledge,
have to be reminded firmly that modern attitudes toward sex,
dating and gender roles did not yet exist, and that the attitudes
which are found in the wizarding world (which is far less sexist
and not terribly homophobic, not to mention largely somewhat
irreligious) are still problematic, only in different ways.

It's so hard for the people I meet who were born in the 1980s or
later to wrap their minds around the idea that some folks are
just naturally inferior to others because of skin colour or
gender.  There are exceptions to this rule but those exceptions
are largely people whose families have deliberately instilled
sexist ideas in them and controlled their access to information
during the formative years of their lives.

~malfoy

**************************************************************************
"That wickedness weltering around inside of you, inside of everyone, is
sacred somewhere.  There's a deity out there who digs it.  You can respect
and love your darkest side, disposing only of what is obsolete or
impractical.  It's all about giving yourself permission." --Jack Darkhand

"It is better to be cruel for love than for hate." --Thomas Burnett Swann