Alison wrote: <<I want to resist the diminutive, which is what men have imposed/projected on women.>> The mirror image of this process is what men project back onto themselves, reflecting their own illusions back from the female. And women participate in / resist this process in different ways & to greater or lesser extent, creating a situation that is far too complex for the simple binary of female / male. jd ====================== Joseph Duemer School of Liberal Arts, 5750 Clarkson University Potsdam NY 13699 315.268.3967 [log in to unmask] http://web.northnet.org/duemer http://www.grammarbitch.com/ppp/index.html ====================== Times are bad. Children no longer Obey their parents, and everyone Is writing a book. [Cicero]