[LMB] Pat's questions for the females on the list OT:

[Tzivia Adler]

> The question I want asked is, if you didn't have all the underlying 
> gender-based social assumptions to deal with, would you still want to be 
> male?  Things like (snip list) And so on.  Whether the item in specific is 
> based on physical differences or not...
>
> Megaera
>

just been reading terry pratchett's 'making money'. one character is a 
golem:  a half-ton, walking, talking *genderless* lump of clay.  for 
purposes of cleaning the ladies' loo, it has been declared 'gladys' and 
given a dress.  (other golems don't wear clothes, although some have paint 
to resmemble uniforms.  looks more spiffy that way)

'gladys' spends the whole book changing her personality to fit various 
self-help book the other girls give her, from helpful housewife to demure 
maiden, which is amusing on a half-ton lump of clay.  it is not so amusing 
considering that the other girls in the place also read these books.

in real life as well, books exist teaching girls how to be a good door-mat, 
cook and clean and launder and don't do anything 'unlady-like'.  this is not 
funny at all.  there are still many places wehre where 'kinder, kuchen, 
kirche' is the be-all and end-all, and girls who want something else have 
something wrong with them.

ziviya, who never realized that full time child-minding is so darn much 
*work*.  and a woman can't quit from this completely unpaid job without the 
severest social ostracism, much more than men.