Re: community?

Thomas W. Rimkus (trimkus@COMP.UARK.EDU)
Thu, 16 Mar 1995 11:04:47 -0600

On Thu, 16 Mar 1995, Harriet Whitehead wrote:

> Oh brother! Sorry to have started yet another potential gender antagonism
> thread on the list - especially as I'm about to "set nomail" for spring
> break, but just for the record I'll repeat what I've sent to the
> concerned others in private posts: the dynamics of the deer herd that
> Thomas Rimkus was alluding to are gender dynamics. It's built into the
> analogy. Take the gender out and the analogy becomes senseless. I was
> responding according to the analogy. Now suddenly the analogy user seems
> to want to wash his hands of the gender implications. IMHO that won't work.
>
> Harriet Whitehead
> Anthropology WSU
>
Can you see nothing but gender issues and sexist rhetoric? I responded
to you adequately in private but for some unexplained reason must do it here
in public also.

Male deer, referred to as "bucks" are the actively aggressive members of
their specie. Do you argue this point? Nowhere in my postings have I
denied the right of female members of this community to be
active or aggressive. The mapping (you are familiar with fundamental
set-theoretic concepts I assume) of active (read aggressive) members of
the list community onto the active (aggressive) members of the deer
community which was inherent in the "bucks in the clearing" analogy has as
little relationship to the gender of the deer as it has
to the number of feet the animal puts on the ground. I am no more washing
my hands of gender issues than I am of four hoof issues. YOU have gender
on your hands and mind, NOT I. You mentioned "does", remember. That was
when "gender" raised its ugly head!!! If you cannot see the distinction
here, I suggest you stop, take a vacation and come back to it another time.
Let it go.

In the mean time, lets try to see if we can glean any valuable insights
about assumptions from this experience. Also, I hope I can avoid
mentioning anything that anyone with a predetermined agenda can hop on. I
dont have much faith in that, however, I can hear the thumping of four
footed criters out my window as I write these last few lines.

Tom Rimkus
Madison County
Arkansas

BTW, I feed the deer here in our valley, I dont shoot them. I hope they
herd that.