Theos-Talk Archives (November 1996 Message tl00492)

Richard writes:

>Then something else started bothering me:  Given that it is so obvious that
>~brotherhood~ is a "male-associated" word once it is pointed out, why was it
>possible that it could have included females for so long without most people
>giving it much of a second thought?  Were the people of past generations
>stupid or what?

No, they were products of their time.  Double Duh!!!  And, more often than
not, it wasn't meant to include females. . .what's this "for so long" junk?

>In other words "female writers" could be those who are still
>tainted by the desire/emotional nature arising from one type of "hormonal
>package" and "male writers" from another.

What?

>HPB may have even regarded the female-included usage as an ongoing
>healthy reminder to the males of her day that they ~couldn't~ expropriate for
>themselves a universal term like ~brotherhood~.

Wow! I admire your attempt at "anxiety-reducing rationalization."  That's
some whopper conclusion - quite creative really.

>I don't know how it looks to you, but I see lots and lots of older women
who >naturally seem to add the famous "male problem-solving" mode and older
men who also >become quite comfortable in so-called "female
pattern-following."  Grandma or >Grandpa--what's the big difference after a
certain point?

Ask Grandma and Grandpa.  And you know, golly gee, Richard - some of us
young ones (girlie ones) have managed to already "add" the "famous male
problem-solving mode."  No, wait! let me wrestle with my homones here and
get clarity of mind - I think, yes, I do indeed think that lots and lots of
women, could it be all women?, are just plain BORN with that "famous male
problem-solving mode?"

>I sort of think HPB would have been offended by the demotion of her psyche
>to the level of either sex.

No, I think "Madame" would be offended that you are using her as an icon to
justify the continued use of archaic and insulting verbiage.  I can picture
her actually laying upon your head a mighty thump.

>(Okay, I'm lying. . . .)

You're doing far more than that.

There seems to be some of us who insist on burying our heads in the sand so
as not to see the progression of the world and the inhabitants of it.  Well,
that's fine and great, but you know, those of you who choose to do this must
understand what one looks like when one's head is buried in the sand. .
."butts are us."

In the theosophical spirit,

Kym