From: Jazzmin Belle Sommers <jazzmin@ou.edu>
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 22:46:09 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "the world is half women..."
Message-ID: <32be2aa4043b004@cliff.ou.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>Dale Thorn and Tim May mutually blundered:
>>Ya' know, guys, the world is half women, even though they're not on
>>the c-punks list.  Get in touch with them.  They're fun people.
>Ah, it's been a while since we had the "why aren't more women on the list?"
>discussion.  Frankly, women are of course welcome. If the list interests
them, they are
>welcome to subscribe. As it has always been.

Oh, THANK YOU SO MUCH for discussing us in the third person.  Guess what.
There ARE women on the list (myself being one of them).  (I thought that the
men/women ratio was more like 46/54.)

>That so few women are subscribers, or remain subscribers, or attend
>Cypherpunks physical meetings....well, that's a larger issue involving
>familiar issues:

(chop -- those issues being libertarianism and other political
nonsequiters.) (FYI:  I'm a political science major and the secretary of the
OU College Libertarians, neener neener.)

>(I've explained crypto anarchy to many men and women over the past 6-8
>years. I've seen the guy's get agitated, or bothered, but usually
>_interested_. I've seen eyes light up as they understand the likely
>implications of untraceable payments, anonymous communications, avoidance
>of Big Brother, etc. (CHOP CHOP) I think it's why we seem to have at most a
couple of active women subscribers at any given moment.)

This particular woman says that it's sooooo tiresome to wade through a lot
of posturing and (even worse) the "me-toos" wherein people quote the entire
post and then say, oh, yeah, I agree with that also.  It's soooo easy to
quit even reading the threads and just delete the whole thing.

SUBTLE HINT MODE ON
(Ah, so what do you propose, then, Miss Smartypants?) (AHEM!  It's my brain
that's smart, you lecher!)  I'm on other lists and I've noticed that when
they go to digest form much of the me-too-ness drops out.  Is it that
important to get 100 emails a day, if 80% of it is crap?

Now, this part might sound more "womanish" -- it's nice to get an idea of
the people posting, and have PRIVATE conversations.  Most people don't care
to see blanc and dale bash it out over fifteen posts.  It's junk mail
littering our in boxes!  It's TASTELESS!
...furthermore, it's not cool.  [Rabid soapboxing about what is and isn't
cool omitted.]

>So, Dale, feel free to recruit more women to this and other lists. But
>don't presume from the traffic you see here--or from comments about the
>utter stupidity of little Jessica Dubroff, her pilot, her parents, and the
>complicitous news media--that we need a lecture on getting in touch with
>women.

Oh, yes you do.  Consider yourself lectured.  Stick to the topics, or stray
on a RELATED subject.  Jess Dubroff ISN'T.  Complicitous news media IS.


ENOUGH!  No followup posts!  Take my advice and smoke it!  Er, wait.  That
doesn't sound right.  And for those of you who are just WAITING to flame me,
don't bother.  I'm not a feminazi, not an "uppity woman", just a chick
who'll {spontaneous hot-tempered threats deleted upon second thought}.
Email privately if you care to respond.


Jazz Sommers