From: aj982@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Kerry Eady)
Subject: Re: Aphrodite -- a mailing list for women witches.
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 15:38:55 GMT

[Kerr is referring to the announcement of]
[a mailing list for women witches only.  ]

The hostility exhibited towards this announcement is reason enough for
*some* women to feel more comfortable discussing spiritual issues in a
woman only space.

Perhaps it's the male to female ratio on the Net that accounts for
what i'm about to describe, or maybe it's the backlash against
feminism that explains it.  Either way, many women involved in pagan
religions and groups don't feel comfortable posting on alt.pagan
because any constructive discussion is mired down with a zillion
flames against the "women's issues" that exist within their
discussion.

Alt.pagan really isn't a good place to discuss feminist issues.
However, many women in the pagan community were drawn to paganism
through feminist activities or by a disillusionment with patriarchal
religions like christianity.  Therefore, feminism is part of the web
that makes up their version of the Craft.  If alt.pagan is not a
constructive place to discuss issues that arise from such an outlook
then the creation of a mailing list like Aphrodite is a better
solution.  The same sort of separation has occured with the people who
come from various family traditions.  The flames and disbelief
levelled at individuals who've expressed an interest in discussing
their fam trads has meant that some of us are only carrying on this
discussion via e-mail.  It really is alt.pagan's loss that we can't
feel comfortable discussing things here, but it is the reality.

Kerr

-- 
The energy has dropped - let's raise it sisters!
===

From: oneal@astro.psu.edu (Doug O'Neal)
Subject: Re: Aphrodite -- a mailing list for women witches.
Date: 10 Jan 1994 01:41:28 GMT

   aj982@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Kerry Eady) writes:
>   >The hostility exhibited towards this announcement is reason enough
>  >for *some* women to feel more comfortable discussing spiritual issues
>  >in a woman only space.

scott@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Scott Goehring) writes:
>  Yes.  Misandrist women would need a woman-only space.

   Oh, come on.  Even I, feminist, liberal, pagan guy that I am 
   (not to mention one who has many close female friends) like to 
   get together with my male friends and watch a ball game once 
   in a while.  That doesn't imply that I hate women, does it? 
   Merely that when I watch the World Series I want it to be with 
   other people who have an understanding of and appreciation for 
   the game of baseball.  The group I watched some of the games 
   with includes one woman, and we welcome her and appreciate 
   her presence because she is interested and understands the game. 

   I know that's an extremely mundane analogy, but I can easily see 
   why some women would sometimes need a female-only spiritual 
   space.  There are women's spiritual matters that the majority 
   of men wouldn't have the same appreciation or understanding for 
   (and vice-versa, doubtless).  Men wouldn't be welcome in such 
   a space because we wouldn't have the same level of understanding 
   as other women would.  Not because they hate us.

>   >Perhaps it's the male to female ratio on the Net that accounts for
>  >what i'm about to describe, or maybe it's the backlash against
>  >feminism that explains it.

>  Not feminism.  I, one of the "backlashers" have been described as a
>  "feminist", with reasonable accuracy.  My wife, a FEMALE radical
>  feminist, also thinks what they're doing is unreasonable.  The
>  backlash is against _MISANDRISM_, not against feminism.

   This has come up before, and it's my opinion that man-hating has 
   more existence in stereotype than reality. 

							Doug 
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   "Il y avait en Vestphalie, dans le chateau de monsieur le baron 
    de Thunder-ten-Tronckh, un jeune garcon a qui la nature avait 
    donne les moeurs les plus douces."
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