I read the "cute" little joke by the 12-year-old girl in your August issue and I was impressed at how quickly this child had learned that males are the out-group whom it is correct to demean and ridicule in Santa Cruz today. Presumably, if this cute child had lived in Germany in the 1930's, she would have learned just as quickly to quote anti-Jewish "jokes"; and if she had lived in the South only 30 years ago she would have learned to repeat a lot of hilariously funny, Rastus-and-Mandy jokes, showing how dim-witted black people are (according to her elders). Ah, it's truly amazing how quickly children learn -- in whatever time or place they happen to grow up -- which groups to loathe and despise, and which to treat as human. I think Oscar Hammerstein even wrote a song once about how easily little children can be taught group prejudice. The song ("You have to be carefully taught... it needs to be dunned in your dear little ears...") even became popular once, back before group prejudice was discovered to be politically correct.
Robert Anton Wilson Santa Cruz
I was vastly amused to see in the Sept. 22 issue that Robert Anton Wilson was all of aflutter because young girls were telling disparaging jokes about white males. {insert -- did R.A.W. mention ethnicity? } Goodness! What is the world coming to? This is a year in which all five winners of the San Francisco comedy competition made it to the top by telling misogynist jokes. I guess women just have thicker skins. Gosh! Who says men aren't sensitive? If you prick them, even with an accupuncture needle, do they not bleed? All over the place! The term "male bashing" has been in vogue for thousands of years -- a staple in literature from classical Greece right down to the present, but did we hear about "female bashing?" Male literature professors share a sly titter with the class over the misogynist barbs of some dyspeptic Greek, Roman or English writer. Yet, the women in those classes managed to smile politely or shrug it off, as they do today when mediocre comedians tell their tired jokes about makeup and toilet paper. But gracious! Let a woman joke back, and all of a sudden white males have become an oppressed minority and are compared with Jews in Nazi Germany! Give me a break, guys. There's a huge difference between making a joke about the boss and making one about the janitor. White males are not an oppressed minority: They hold most of the power in the world today. Are you saying that cartoonists should be forbidden to make fun of the president? As one white male, I must say I feel a little ashamed of all the whining and moaning about how hard it is to be a man. At the risk of being a traitor to my gender, I'll let you in on a little secret, women of Santa Cruz: Being a man is the easiest thing in the world. It's being a decent, mature human being with a sense of humor that seems to be a tough hurdle for many of my gender to get over.
Philip Slater Santa Cruz
I'm sure I'm not the only woman in Santa Cruz who wants to know where she can meet Philip Slater! Frustrated as I am with conversations about gender with men who claim they're open-minded, but can't (or won't) see their own positions of male privilege and power, it would be refreshing to meet a "decent mature (male) human being with a sense of humor." Thanks, Philip, you've restored my shredded hopes about men and women.
Linda Eucalyptus Corralitas