Recently in another thread in this happy little
news group community, a woman was quoted
saying:

   "Most women have to work
    for economic reasons".

   How my child saved me from ego-driven mania
   Janine di Giovanni

   quoted by "Rob" 
   in Message-ID: 

Hmmm.  And most men have to work for
economic reasons too.  Yet one rarely hears
that said.  Why?  Because men don't have
other options, to say such a thing about
men is not terribly informative.  In contrast,
women _do_ enjoy other options so woman's
statement quoted is pregnant with the premise
that were it not for some misfortune unique
to women, she would _not_ "have to" lower
herself to acting on "economic reasons" but
instead could avoid doing whatever it is that
is so horrid and beneath her -- such as work.

Throughout the millennia of our HERitage, the
privileged class has avoided working and has
lived off the labor of others.  If a privileged
class is so large, say half the population, that
it cannot escape the ickiness of work completely
then the soft jobs are captured by the members
of the most privileged class in each social stratum
and the worst jobs shoved off onto the oppressed
class.

--
   Sociologists say that when a man buys
   a woman a meal, he has the power because
   "the one who pays controls." This ignores
   that because many men are raised believing
   women are intrinsically more valuable,
   men feel they _have_ to pay just to be
   valued equally.

   Rod van Mechelen, Things that make you go, "hmmm"
   http://www.backlash.com/content/gender/1995/3-mar95/page21a.html
   (italics in original)




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