Reply #86: It's not "man bashing"----------------->

[Katherine Brengle]

This is a really common way of escaping an uncomfortable situation, especially one involving gender disparities.

I'm sure you a super guy, so please don't take what I am about to say as a personal attack.

Our culture is chin-deep into the idea that male is superior to female. When a woman is physically strong, she is compared to men who are physically strong. When a woman has a high-powered corporate or political career, she is "playing with the big boys." Men are held up as the standard on which all other life-forms are based, and as long as this concept persists, women will never have full citizenship in this country or in any other.

You have a penis--congratulations on that, how extraordinary. (I am sure you agree with this sarcastic comment--it is certainly no accomplishment.) But society treats you and the rest of our male citizens as though you have earned some right in this world to dominate and control, simply because you are male.

You are not a victim. You are part of the social ruling elite, even if you don't even realize it.

Until you all stand up and say, "We're not going to do this anymore. We're not going to allow our brethren to do this anymore. We are going to treat women like the independent, rational human beings that they are and stop oppressing them, stop dominating them, stop abusing them, stop relegating them to a lower social status than we enjoy. We're not going to use our power to shut them up and we're not going to use it to intimidate them anymore"---until you all stand up and say this, you are all guilty, even if you don't see it.

Pro-choice, pro-life, it doesn't matter. Regardless of what comes of the abortion debate, we (men AND women) are all in this together, and the sooner everyone realizes this, the better. All of the things you have done to help women and women's organizations are good things, and you have every right to be proud of them. But it isn't enough.