>**If you have thoughts you would like to share with me personally please do
>so off the list.**
>
>-Jessica
i don't understand why you think this is not germane to the topic. so i
will post my reply to this list.
some of the arguments are plain but need stating. i am not suggesting that
anything i say is not already known. it is for the purpose of argument.
women are socialised differently to men. women are socialised to be
dependent on men. women are socialised to compete with other women but
always to let ALL men win everything 'otherwise they won't like you dear'
(anyones mother). Men are socialised to see women as inferior and other
men as equals. they can compete with other men but all this is 'just good
fun'.
i think that due to the way we are socialised we will attack each other
much quicker and see fault in each other much quicker than we will see in
men or that men will see in each other or in us. Of course many men simply
view us as such inferiour beings that they don't see us at all.
This is actually why i knew that jason (even though he used aggressive and
foul language to me) was seen as no worse than me. even though i was never
rude to him and i didn't say the things he has implyed that i said. i have
been temped to be rude to him but like a good girl I have held back. and
for what . women will always be doubly damned for the same act that a man
does.
but enough of that.
>On a daily basis I notice that there is a lack of "sisterhood" among
>women. This lack of "sisterhood" makes it difficult for me to make
>friends with other women, feel as an equal with other women or feel as
>though I have support just by being a women. Maybe this is a rare
>experience, but my intellect tells me that it is a general condition. Why
>do women have this experience? Why, when I walk into a public place do I
>feel disconnected and estranged from the women who surround me? Is it the
>way they look me up and down and not in the eye. Is it their careful
>consideration of my attractiveness and any perceived threat they
>therefore attach to me. Is it this perceived threat that keeps women at a
>distance from one another? Or is it that women find it hard to value
>other women because of their own insecurities?
>
>>From another dimension I have also viewed this phenomenon. Do men have
>a similar experience and therefore could this phenomenon be a general
>human condition? Do men feel disconnected, competitive or otherwise
>estranged from one another? My suspicions tell me no. Men have a great
>blessing in that they are "accepted" because of what they are. This does
>not mean that they are unfailable, it only means that men have a support
>system, a "club" to belong to even if they are failures. Failure may make
>someone socially less appealing but, men still belong to that "club".
>
>Why do men have a club and women do not? Well, as you are all conscious and
>educated, you know that we live in a masculine society. In a masculine
>society, anything masculine is elevated. Anything not
>masculine therefore exists somewhere beneath masculinity.
>Hurray for men they have created this network, this club where masculine is
>superior. And, what have women been doing in the mean time? With much
>struggling women are beginning to reunite, build feminine
>networks, and feel a great strength rising up. This strength is called
>togetherness I see this growing
>strength in my peers and in my younger sister's generation. I see powerful
>new
>messages in movies and on T.V. (created by women), messages that are
>telling of strength and
>growth. We all need to take part in order to see things through, we need
>to make our women's network, believe in each other's talents and support
>even the strangest of strangers. We are women.
>
>
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