So what are you saying, Raffi? Are you suggesting that tame poetry that reduces women to sexual objects should be acceptable on this list or anywhere else? As long as there are chuckleheads in the world who think it is acceptable to reduce a women to a tattoo on her ass, I am quite certain there will not be enough open space in the world to change our problems. When you tell me that you are grateful for Ralph's poem that reduced a female to a sexual object, you are closing a whole lot of space for me, Raffi. You are telling me it is OK to sexually objectify female bodies and, intrinsically, females.
Let's try and imagine that the woman in Ralph's poem was your sister or your niece. . . . let's imagine it was Ralph's daughter with the price of beer tattoo'd on her ass; then imagine a bunch of drunks leering at her ass as she interacts with them in a servile manner. . . . Let's imagine you serving me beer, Raffi. Would you be willing to do it in a pair of pants that fully reveals the contours of your package? And would you be willing to serve me beer with the price of beer tattoo'd close to your crotch for me to leer at while I asked you to wait on me? I would like you to wear a string thong with just enough fabric to cover your package and I would like you to have $3.00 tatoo's on your thigh. Is that close enough to the edge for you? I don't know you, of course, but I venture to guess that if you heard jokes that gently and goodnaturedly made fun of a man's package, day in and day out, you would find it increasingly difficult to perceive your world the way you do now. Women have been living under the oppression of this kind of good clean fun for a long time and it is all but impossible for you to imagine the damage it causes, like water on rock. We don't know what the world would look like if women were not reduced to tattoo's on their ass in the name of good fun. I'd like to find out. We can live on the edge you like, Raffi. . . but as long as that edge denigrates women all in the name of silly jokes that are rooted in a deep devalulation of a woman's worth. . . we are not going to solve all the problems of the world. Out there on this edge you like Raffi, would it be ok to share a poem that gently and kindly made fun of Armenian genocide? Do you think that the domination of women comes from a different root in the human soul than genocide?! Ralph, please believe me, I am certain you shared your poem to be harmless and I assume you live in the same sexist culture I do that has long held it to be perfectly OK to reduce women to sexual objects. I did not object to attack you, Ralph. I objected because for the rest of my life I am going to object when overt denigration of women crosses my path. I want to open space in the world for women and men to be free of such male dominator cultural stereotypes. I am 51 and I have probably spent about 45 of those years politely chuckling or ignoring things like Ralph's poem. If every women in the world woke up tomorrow and made the same decision I have made to stop choking such 'harmless' gender stereotyping, it would end. I am doing my part to open space for gender equality. Asking me to not only let Ralph's poem go unnoticed but to also refrain from commenting on Raffi's male-dominator insistence that a joke about a tattoo on a women's ass is a good thing to have on this list serve is asking me to tolerate bigotry, domination, control. . . . I don't need to keep this on the list. I was half regretting that I had objected to Ralph's poem until I read your gratitude, Raffi. I just can't let it pass that you seem to be insisting that it is acceptable to post poems on this list that reduce a woman to a tattoo on her ass. So I am going to conclude that you think reducing women to sexual objects, Raffi, is a good way to build community? Let's get back to talking about OS and using it in our work in the world. * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist