Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00074)

Tim wrote:

>>The general response from people on this list to claims of feminism's
>>having gone to extremes is that such claims are false, insignificant,
>>and/or sexist.

>Tom, no one is saying that except you. 

You must have either not read or forgot about the posts in which my
claims of injustice towards men was responded to by describing it as
"straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel."  And if you don't
believe that my claims have been called sexist, then you are in no
position to make such a positive assertion about who has said what.  

>The issue where you are concerned 
>is not that you think feminism like other reform movements has sometimes 
>been overzealous, but that you seem basically at odds with the aims of 
>the movement, of which Theosophy is an important historical part, with 
>feminism written into its primary aims. 

You have quite an imagination.  Might you have some quotes from me to
support this?

>You seem hell-bent for leather to 
>make it appear from the emotional tone of your writing that you don't 
>like women, don't have any sympathy for the oppression of women, and 
>think women and men who are sympathetic to women's sociopolitical 
>position are members of some ravening, world-destroying movement . Your 
>tone comes across as a barely controlled venting of furious anger.

Could you give an example of that?  I'm angry at recklessly being
labelled as "sexist" when there's no truth to it, but it hardly
amounts to the grandeur that you have described.

>These mistaken ideas need to be explored and defused, but the 
>way to do this is not to come across as a vicious enemy of the liberation 
>of women, as you do.

Could you give an example of my "vicious" enmity towards the
liberation of women?  Or did it just sound good, so you wrote it?  How
you got your entire perception of what I have written is a total
mystery to me.  Could you just be taking the word of biased feminists?
It is quite an interesting pattern - those who say the same thing you
do have the same trouble coming up with any examples that you do and
the same difficulty going into detail in rationally explaining the
reasons for what they say as you do.  For every post of mine that you
believe shows my vicious enmity towards the liberation of women, I'll
show you 10 that shows my admiration for them.  But I'm not about to
let biased, prejudiced people like you make your reckless (and usually
hypocritical) accusations without being challenged.  I wonder how much
people like you hurt the cause of women that you say you support by
deflecting energy which could have gone into bettering everyone into
people's defending themselves against false accusations?