Dear Phil
Your comments are interesting.
You have a point but maybe Alexandra's comments may have resulted from her
state as *grown*.
As I am a rail commuter, I will attempt to find and *ungrown* woman on the
way to the Institute. However I will be missing all of those who *stay at
home*. But then, as you so rightly point out, those who stay at home may be
*staying* but not really *at home*. If I do my research or direct my staff
from my study where is fact am I? This confusion may arise from the fact
that I have been a Distance Education student since 1960 and *home* takes on
many hues, and *staying at* is the basis of success. On the other hand it
may arise from my lack of a liberal education as my undergraduate degrees
are in Accountancy, Industrial Engineering, and Banking & Finance. Retiring
to teaching after 30 years and 2 Masters may also be the cause....
However one thing does cause me to worry - Alexandra must be the first
woman, who by her own admission and description, would rather be regarded as
older than younger ... the explanation for that escapes me, and my growing
group of amused friends.
Peter French
Male, 56
Australia
----- Original Message -----
From: Carverhill, Phil SDH <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 6:00 AM
Subject: RE: VR, 'girls' and PC (not computers!)
> Alessandra . . .
>
> Similar to your critique of Peter's comments, could you not write things
> like this:
>
> Alessandra Iantaffi wrote:
>
> >(yes, some grown women do work rather than staying at home)
>
> Could be interpreted with equal lack of sensitivity (and stereotyping) to
> the fact that some women (and men btw) who 'stay at home' do so in order
to
> be primary caregivers to children (is this not work! and very important
> work), or operate a home-based business (e.g., writing, consulting, etc.)
or
> other types of 'work' activities. They may not all be acknowledged by pay
> (depending on the country), but nonetheless (unpaid) work. Being a
> discourse analyst I oriented to your particular choice of language which
> constructed a dichotomy between "work" ("rather than") and "staying at
> home". Some approaches to discourse analysis emphasize language as social
> action, and what we 'do' with our words. Case in point!
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Phil Carverhill
> Canada
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alessandra Iantaffi [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 7:11 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: VR, 'girls' and PC (not computers!)
>
>
>
> At the risk of sounding like a politically correct pain in the neck (which
I
> am,
> by the way :-), could you not write things like this:
>
> Peter French wrote:
>
> > I like the 7 pound/hour girls someone mentioned the other day - send
them,
> > to Australia when you are finished :-))
> >
> > Peter French
> > Melbourne, Australia
>
> Sorry, Peter, but it really gets me to see things like that. A) they might
> be
> 'boys' or even grown men and women (yes, some grown women do work rather
> than
> staying at home) B) I find it offensive, as a grown woman, to be referred
to
> as
> a 'girl' (and it does happen more often than I'd like, inspite of a very
> respectable doctorate, a research fellowship and the appearance of some
> white
> hair :). I am sure other do too.
> Again, please don't take it personally, but I just couldn't keep quiet.
>
> Alessandra
>
>
>
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