Sidra's response

by Sidra Vitale

After receiving our first response to the 'quiche' page, and thinking about it, I've concluded that our page fills several roles, and that it does not pose a disservice - as has been alleged - to anyone to have it at our site.

As a matter of fact, the more I think about it, the more impressed I am by what this single page represents, what it has provoked, and what it can do.

1. It exaggerates and parodies the male and female stereotypes of "real" men and "real" women, particularly via a role reversal, of males as more submissive to females, instead of vice versa. As I do not want to spend time with a male who expects constant subservience from me, nor do I want to spend time with a male giving constant subservience to me. *discreet cough*: the key term here being "constant", I believe. I don't expect every woman and man to behave exactly the same way all the time, whether that behaviour is submissive, dominant, or in the middle of such a broad spectrum. We are individuals.

2. It is a compilation of attitudes reflecting the diverse desires of women about men. We are all people with different wants and opinions of what is most desirable in a mate. We are also all people with different ideas of humor, and our opinions about mates and our individual senses of humor are displayed here.

3. We are not academics pursuing a serious study of gender roles. Some of us have never taken a "women's studies" or "gender studies" course in college. Amongst our small group, we are frequently scientists, and writers, and artists of some form or another.

   "Don't call me 'ma'am', I work for a living."

   We're career women, aunts, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, gay, single, married, moms.

   We're people, and we're feminists, and this site is about our lives and the world we grew up in, the history we've had to scrounge to learn, and where we want to take our world. We are taking our feminism as far away from the ivory tower as we can manage, while fully retaining our individual training and abilities to analyze, discuss, and act on what we see around us.

4. Lastly, if this page motivated you, stirred you up, pissed you off, then it's doing its job. Made you look. Made you think. Made you write down ideas and share them with someone, just as we are writing down our ideas and sharing them with each other, and with you. So, please, if this page made you think, visit another page and apply your critical thinking to it as well.

   Disagree with us.

   Start a mailing list to discuss your views with your friends.

   Start reading a newsgroup and join in the development and discussion of new and exciting ideas.

   Add your views to the mix.