OT: RE: Write differently for women?

Subject: OT: RE: Write differently for women?
From: david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 17:45:59 -0500

A man killing a man is what, a sad thing. A man killing a woman is what, a
sad
thing. But, a man killing a wife, any wife is the perfect example of what
NOW
wants to push as stereotypically male behavior that gives women an
entitlement.
An entitlement already granted to some to kill men with impunity with only a

claim as a defense. It is an active political statement, not a sad example
of
unconscious prejudice. There is no more effective carrier of this political
message than the statement as it was originally written. Too bad some editor

didn't go PC and fix it, and muddle the its un-PC message that ALL men
deserve
to be discriminated against (killed)--, but I forgot, that is PC speech.
It's
on the agenda. It may take a decade, but one morning men will wake up and
find
themselves legislatively labeled as wife-beaters, because of tiny little
curriculums like this. Rue the day.

And, no a woman killing a husband wouldn't be a big deal either. It's the
stuff
of movies. Even Lifetime, TV for Women, is more even handed. One weekend
it's
wives killing husbands. The next its husbands killing wives. Women killing
men,
men killing women.

Frankly, I don't see myself as a TW writing a manual about killing a wife.
Installing a bidet maybe. Using one, not hardly. Finding blood splatters
maybe.

Difference enables politics. So what is it this week? Same or different?
Victim
or actualized person? Politics or reality? Minority or mass? Getting more
than
half from your spouse in the divorce?

The writer was looking for specificity. Aren't we taught that. And, in our
current societal biases wife carries more weight than woman. Unconscious
prejudice is separate from the
act of discrimination. It is discrimination that is illegal and vile, not
seeing differentiation, or writing specifics. Unconscious prejudice is the
basis
for common sense, and society itself, as unfortunate as that is.

Why did someone who lost it for the convenience of the criminal defense pick
the
neighbor's wife? Was it accidental? Ask the police detective (rewritten to
be
gender non-specific)? Not hardly. He killed his lover. That is not conveyed
by
saying "he killed his neighbor." And, lover is not a claim that the writer
could support in a court of law, but the supposition was intended.

Protect us from the truth. Let's live a lie. Join me now as we dance around
the
mulberry bush out here in La (PC) La (PC) Land where truth, equality, and
respect were never the
aim.

David Locke


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