school teaching and dietetics. In a seco...

school teaching and dietetics. In a second study by Matina Horner, women college students were asked to write a story based on the following sentence. "After fust term finals Anne finds herself at the top of her medical school class ..." The same sentence is given to men students by the name is changed to John. Most women's stories described Anne as an '"unattractive acne-faced girl who is unhappy because nobody likes her." Or they describe Anne as "wise enough not to make this mistake again on the next exam so that the men she likes can do better". These studies do suggest that women have internalized a sense of second rateness, particularly with regard to doing meaningful and competent work in the society. Most of the important, interesting, and creative work of the society that is recognized is done by men. They are the writers, philosophers, artists. historians, engineers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, architects, and administrators. True, some women enter into these male fields, but most women work in the home as childbearer, and housekeeper or in related fields like teaching, nursing and waitressing. Also open to women is work involving the "sexual sell" such as modeling and prostitution. Our society puts us in contradictory roles, some which we value like child-rearing, teaching and nursing and some which we don't, like "sexually selling" ourselves. What angers us is that all the other capacities of women tend to be underplayed or ignored and consequently women feel inadequate in other areas. And in a sense we don't have a choice. In colonial America this societal division of labor made some sense in that the population had to be maintained and women had to bear many children, so they worked in the home. Work outside the home involved physical strength; men are considered more suited for heavy physical work. But in 1970 most work does not involve physical strength and can be done competently by both men and women. Also women now have more time available for work since they use birth control to limit their family's size. Still, women are told they are not competent in fields outside the home and have internalized this sense. Since men do most of the innovative work in the society, it is not surprising that women find a male point of view or bias in much of the writing, media, and social institutions that they encounter. A humorous account of how male bias might appear in a biology text is written by Ruth Herschberger in her book Adam 's Rih. She writes two accounts of human reproduction. One account is a conglomeration of outpourings from "patriarchal biologists". Here is an excerpt from that section. The simple and elementary fact behind human reproduction is that a fertile female egg awaits impregnation in the fallopian tube and the active male sperm must find the egg and penetrate it. The female sex apparatus is a depression to receive sex cells; the male organs are advanced in order to expel cells. She then writes a fictitious "matriarchal biologists" account. The simple and elementary fact behind human reproduction is that the active ovulating egg must obtain a male sperm before it can create a new life. The male apparatus is a "tiny factory" which continually manufactures sex cells for the female reproductive system. In a similar way male bias is written into marriage manuals, sex education literature, and medical texts. When we become aware of this dominant male point of view we begin to see male bias everywhere. Most novels have male as opposed to female sexual fantasies. Movies are directed by men who see women through men's eyes. A friend of mine notes how she was listening to a poetry reading of a love poem from a woman to a man. The poem talks about how the woman desires the man's body in a sensual way. My friend notes how she became slightly embarrassed in that she never publicly heard a love poem from a woman before. It is no wonder that women tend to view themselves through men's eyes since they have had very Hule experience hearing a woman's point of view, we don't value it as much as a man's. Nut only do women tend to view themselves through men's eyes, but they view other women through men's eyes. An artist friend of mine brought her etchings to an art gallery to enter in an exhibition. The male director told her that her work was fine but refused to exhibit her etchings because he was showing too many women artists. My friend replied that she didn't know there was a sex quota. At this point the director's female secretary replied, "Listen, Miss, didn't you hear. We cannot accept any more women's work." II The vision of a male dominated world is of course reflected in the sexual roles that we were taught. This brings us to our second myth that women are sexually passive and subordinate to men. Let's look at a few passages from Seventeenth Summer, a teenage novel which . nicely illustrates the myth. Angie, the heroine, is a sensitive, serious, acne faced girl who feels unappreciated and unnoticed. During her seventeenth summer Jack picks her as bis girl. With Jack she becomes legitimate as a person. She experiences this transformation. It's funny what a boy can do. One day you're nobody and the next day you're the girl that some fellow goes with and the other fellows look at you harder . . . and the girls say hello . . . Going with a boy gives you another identity. At another point innocent Angie notices couples parked in cars and expresses to Jack her bewilderment as to what is happening. "He says, 'You're a good kid, Angie', and looks at her tenderly." Lets look at some of the attitudes reflected in the above passage. One attitude is that man is active and women is passive. It is Jack who finds Angie. He wakes up the Sleeping Beauty. Jack is the actor and doer. Jack is the sexual initiator. Angie waits to be found. Angie is Sexually asleep and numb. Jack embodies energy and Angie receives of it. These are the sexual roles our culture teaches us. Men are taught at puberty that they'll begin to feel sexual, and to be hot for a woman. Overt sexual initiative and aggression is encouraged. Throughout childhood girls have no overt acknowledgement of sexual organs except in relation to urination and future childbearing. Rough physical play like tumbling, wrestling, and chasing is discouraged. Girls are taught that they need sex less than boys. Their role is to restrain men and also to respond to them. Girls tend to have little sense of their own sexuality since they are so preoccupied with how men are acting. If they have a sense of their own sexuality they devalue it - it doesn't count. Unfortunately the relationship that ensues when boy meets girl is somewhat impossible. In the myth the male has carte blanche to take the unwilling woman. Under his charisma she will yield and love it. The man sets the stage and takes full responsibility for the sexual act and the woman succumbs. What is missing is the notion that to have a sexual relationship both partners must be predisposed, actively participate and have some sense of what their sexual needs and desires are. But women have been taught to deny their sexuality throughout their childhood and adolescence. What is also implied in this notion of a sexually passive subordinate female is that what satisfies a woman is indistinguishable from what satisfies a man. This leaves no room tor women to define their own forms of sexuality. Recently this whole notion has been challenged by Masters and Johnson. Their study reached new conclusions about female orgasms. For the woman the orgasm is centered in the clitoris, whether resulting from manual pressure, or indirect pressure caused by the thrusting of the penis during intercourse. The dichotomy between the vaginal and clitoral orgasm is fiase. Since female satisfaction depends on some clitoral stimulation a woman must have some sense of her sexual self which is real and different from a man's for her to ask for or want this experience. Let's return to Seventeenth Summer, A second attitude is that a woman needs a man to feel real and socially acceptable. Through her relationship with Jack, Angie gains recognition by other men and women. A woman is affirmed if she's attractive and approved of by men. Her desireabilily as a person depends on male approval and not her own. This explains the poignant search girls embark on during adolescence. By locating themselves in strategic places in school and during summers, by befriending popular girls to "cash off of', by devoting much time and money to self-beautification of lace and figure, and by devoting all intellectual, emotional and physical energy lo manhandling. plus strive for their ultimate status, a man. The woman's need for a man becomes perverted in that she expects him to provide her with an identity and a sense of worth which of course she ultimately has to land herself. This myth has tragic implications tor the emotional development of women, for relationships amongst women, and relationships between the sexes. Women's Liberation is trying to break down these myths in order to find a more real way of being and relating. (See next issue for Part Two of "Some Myths A bout Women ' '. )