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Dear Alison, Although I only caught the last fragment of this conversation, I must say I agree with your comments below. I've found that, in poetry as elsewhere, a man's appearance is the occassional subject of humourous banter at the very worst- for women, beauty is almost a prerequisite to being taken seriously; and even that attention is fraught, because our appearance then becomes some sort of reference point for our work- bizarre, that this should still happen. Ultimately, who cares what Sappho looked like, and who's to say that our aesthetic standards are remotely similar to those of her time, anyhow? To my mind, anyone whose poetry can survive so eloquently for so long is sexy in far more vital ways. Best, Cassie Lewis On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 15:59:27 +0100 (BST), [log in to unmask] wrote: > I stand corrected, Robin. > > Nevertheless, perhaps I can be permitted a certain justice in my hastily > sensitive response - women are judged on their looks in ways that men > seldom have been. The only sign of change I can see is that it is > spreading to men, which is hardly progress. > > So much more to this argument, and no time. > > Best > > Alison > > _______________________________________________________ Get 100% FREE Internet Access powered by Excite Visit http://freelane.excite.com/freeisp %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%