On Sun, 24 Oct 1999, J B wrote:
> What about a "person makes them cute if it is not their body and bearing?
> It is hard to see personaltiy from across the room...(as someone said
> previously). Why is it sexist for a man to say that a woman has a nice body
> or a woman to say that a man has a nice butt? (or aby other variations of
> gender and sex saying basically the same thing)...
I don't think it's so much that it's "sexist" to discuss the quality of
body parts. What can be offensive or at least hurtful is the underlying
assumption that a person is of a certain worth (or not!) because of (and
only because of) the quality of those body parts. It seems like we are
summing up people as good or bad because they have nice boobs or a nice
butt. Boobs and butt don't really last all that long. A friendly smile,
sense of humor, intelligence, loyalty, and respect do, but when we hear
people judged on a purely physical basis, it's like nothing else matters.
"No boobs, no butt, no service. Next please."
Plus, we don't really have control over our bodies beyond a certain
point so seeing people judged on the basis of ONLY their physical beauty
or lack thereof makes people believe that they, as people, have worth
based solely on that beauty. If you *do* have that beauty, then it
seems like anything else you might have doesn't matter either, and that
can be hurtful too. Again, I don't know it's sexist, but it's certainly
short-sighted at the very least.
<going back to lurking>
Kristina
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
