To The Editor:

am writing this letter to help you, a reasonably intelligent man, understand what a feminist is. From your letter, it is painfully obvious that you have no inderstanding why we (both men ana women) need movements like this to bring necessary change to

sc iety.

ihe quote you presented at the opexing of your edito- jal leads me to believe that you think women are jaive and therefore are looking at the world through ose - coloured glasses. Perhaps you would agree

ith me when tell you that we have serious prceb- -ms in our social system. Feminism offers some lternatives to this situation, though it recognizes that doesn’t have all the answers. Do you think any if

¢ following ideas could help our society?

) violence doesn’t solve problems

1) cooperation is more life enhancing than competi- Bi

i) Life and value of it are more important than the ur major considerations of patriarchy. (Property, wer, Prestige, and Profit).

hat you have just read are the three basic principles feminism. Of course, we must all earn a living, it it must we do this at the expense of others?

Mu u stated in your editorial that feminists blame men ‘all the problems in the world. Maybe this is due the fact that white, wealthy, men have typically is powers of decision making in our society. atis “‘bad’’ with this situation is that all those )are not male, white and wealthy become subject fomination by those who are, This dominated

jp, which includes all women and all minorities, kes up a greater percentage of the total population. By shouldn't we object to a lack of say in the direc-

pe that you have learned something from this

fs rand the many others | am sure you will receive. he very least itis my genuine concern that you, a son of considerable influence on this campus,

in to research some of the topics about which you

. tJ, Morrison m unlpe Who Cares About Men,”’

November 21.

Mr. Editor;

Iam writing this letter in response to your editorial in the Nov. 14 issue of the ‘‘X-PRESS’’. I have never been more dissatisfied with the quality of the editori- als in the school newspaper as I am this year.

Firstly, you open with the quote “‘The worldisa beautiful place where everyone is happy and gay..’’ However, you fail to give the source of the quote. Where did it come from? Who wrote it? Wasita feminist? Well, even if it was a feminist, we all know that this doesn’t describe the world that we live in today. I’m not happy and I’m sure that a large percentage ofthe werld’s pena oe isn’t happy either. Why? Niainly because the ‘‘powers that be”’ the men that run our country and lives, continue to build nuclear weapons, participate in the arms race and wage war between ourcountry and others. This scores me and I often wonder what kind of world we are leaving for the next generation.

There are three basic principles of feminism:

1) Violence doesn’t solve problems - it only post- pones them or makes them larger

2) Co-operation is more life enhancing than competi- tion and

3) Life and the quality of life are more important than profit, property, prestige, or power. It is clear that war and it’s promotion don’t fit into any of these principles. Many women (feminists or not), as well as men will feel compelled to agree with these princi- ples, as we have all been affected by misused power at some point in our lives.

We live in a patriarchal society. That is no secret. The rules of patriarchy don’t support women as leaders and they require that we internalize our ideas and feelings. If women we’re in charge of the world, our now silenced voices may be heard and possibly the world would be ‘‘ a beautiful place’. However, feminists are simply striving for equality: equality under the law, access to political leadership, an end to our exploitation as sex objects and humane use of skills and power, We don’t want to rule the world - we simply want an equal say in what happens. We may not be able to solve the world’s problems but perhaps many of them wouldn’texistifwe had the power we deserve. If we had equality, every person would be able to experience free choice, self-actuali- zation and the enjoyment of life as the individuals that we are, not the people we're expected to be.

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