r
Ifs the ’90s, right?
Give that boy a mop
According to a nationwide poll of teen-agers, conducted
by CBS News and the New York Timer, many boys still
think the woman's place is In the home. Although 86 per
cent of the girls polled said they expected to work wnen
they are married, only 58 percent of their male peers
agreed with them, while 19 percent expected their wives
to stay at home.
This 19 percent, while not a majority, is troubling. Fol
low-up telephone interviews turned up some interesting
examples of sexism among the boys. For example, a major
ity of the boys surveyed said that most of the boys they
knew considered themselves better than girls. Most of
the girls surveyed thought that boys were equals.
Furthermore, many of the boys who were interviewed
on the phone said they favor a I950s-style marriage, and
Breton Stout, 15, of Clovis, Calif., offered this particu
larly insightful quote: ‘i think girls should do the cook
ing and cleaning because they’re better at it. and boys
should do the yard work and the planting. I know a lot
of girls think it's real sexist to say they belong in the
kitchen...but I think they're wrong. It's not a boy's job."
Somebody give that boy a mop.
There is no evidence that women are better at rooking
and cleaning or that men are better at yard work. All that
young Mr. Stout can base that opinion on is socializa
tion. and. perhaps, the situation in his own family.
It is significant that theso young men, who were born
when the women's movement was in full swing, should
have this cave-man type of attitude. It says that although
strides have been made in societal attitudes toward the
place of women, many parents are actually defeating that
notion by attitudes in the home.
Though wo have not had the privilege to enter the Stout
residence, such an old-fashioned attitude coming from
such a young man is suspicious. It is possible that young
Breton has been influenced by a father that tells him that
women belong in the kitchen, and a mother who smil
ingly agrees with that notion, and does all the cooking
and cloaning to prove it.
It is highly probable that boys who think girls are bet
ter at cleaning have not been told to clean very much, or
are angry that thoy have to clean when their father nev
er does. These ideas can easily turn into a "women are
better at housework" attitude.
But there is hope for those boys. They need not harbor
such feelings of inadequacy in the realm of housekeep
ing. With a little practice, they too can become excellent
cooks and cleaners like their female counterparts. After
all, women have shown themselves to excel in many tra
ditionally male fields. After boing barred from those fields
for so long, these women had to work hard to catch up
to the skill level of the males who held those jobs, but in
many cases, the womon excelled beyond the men.
Rather than encouraging these young men to limit them
selves to aspiring for careers in traditionally male fields
like business and traditionally malo chores like mowing
lawns and drinking beer in hammocks, thoir parents
should do what many of them have already done for girls:
tell them they can do anything, then show them how.
Those boys will show skill and expertise in cooking and
dusting in no time at all, and they too can compete in the
highly lucrative field of homemaking.
With the right parental coaching, these boys may even
exceed the girls in the household arts, and earn them
selves the right to say, "a man's place is in the home."
Unencumbered by household chores, young women
could pursue careers while thoir husbands reach new
limits of equality and perfect the recipe for pound cake.
Oregon Daily
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Dangerous
Standardized tests favor rii.h.
white males (not necessarily in
tentionally) The new admission
standards in Oregon will be
based entirely on standardized
tests of one sort or another It is
an effective way to reduce the
numbers of minority, economi
cally disadvantaged and female
college students.
Grades will no longer be con
sidered, ostensibly becauae high
school teachers "shouldn't have
to" judge students. It's easy to
see why this decision was made
Teachers tend to give girls a fair
chance, and may discriminate
less on rac ial and economic
grounds than the standardized
tests.
Teachers are unionized and
are hired locally, not by the po
litical power structure There
fore, their judgments are dis
trusted and now they will be
disregarded.
Students will be required to
have "the skills industry
wants " This means that they
can perform computer tasks, not
that they will know anything In
fai t, knowledge is not consid
ered
It's easy to see why this new
system is being adopted. Since
Measure 5 passed, business has
given up the charade of paying
taxes As as result, they have
been able to buy the state legis
lature The legislature has
adopted the standards industry
wants, standards that creatu
trained monkeys who don't
know enough to stand up for
themselves, who don't know
who Franklin D. Roosevelt was.
who don’t know a Douglas Fir
from a stick of firewood.
Somehow, these new stan
dards have to be erased The old
standards weren’t perfect, but
they were reasonably dem
ocratic. and they emphasized
knowledge needed by citizens,
rather than skills needed by
slaves. Knowledge is dangerous.
Knowledge is power
Ann TattorMlI
Eugene
Take That
How sad it is that Caylo For
man is so ready to denounce the
media and its "stupid” reporting
of Gen X while she demon
strates virtually no trace of jour
nalistic competence in her own
writing on Eugene s '60s culture.
Not only did she forget to
mention the 'hippies'" direct
relation to environmental and
multicultural awareness, alter
native healing and "natural"
lifestyles, she also is unaware
that Eugene has more commu
nity service organizations per
capita than any other American
city.
She pontificates about our
community 's lack of "activism."
Such ignorance is excusable but
her pompous refusal to even vis
it the cultural events she is talk
ing about destroys the journalis
tic credibility of her opinion.
She may wonder how accept
ed a "preppie Republican boy"
would lie at a Dead show, but if
she were a serious journalist,
she'd don those pearls she is
pictured wearing, find a male
escort as uptight as she is about
drugs, and investigate what the
responses were Although she
apparently feels she knows ev
erything she needs to know
about “hippies." she might be
surprised
Norton Shaw
Eugene
No sanctuary
Those in the pro-family com
munity who believe that minor
ity status for homosexuality
won't come home to roost in
their bac kyard had better think
again. Church leaders tend to
trust the opposition to leave
r
their safe haven of "religious
freedom” intact. Some believe
the constitutionally guaranteed
freedom of religion will protect
their sanctuary of church from
the homosexual agenda to erad
icate public disapproval of ho
mosexuality.
Hidden in the pro-family's
false sense of security is the no
tion the homosexual communi
ty will simply pack up and go
home once they achieve minor
ity status. Look at Hawaii! Once
minority status was secured,
homosexuals pushed to legalize
same-sex marriages and the
North American Man/Boy Love
Association succeeded in low
ering the age of consent to 14
NAMBLA wants to eliminate all
age of consent laws.
Oregon's SB34 would have
granted minority status to ho
mosexuals. During the hearings,
two people testified against
SB:t4's religious exemption: 1)
"We believe it's a serious mis
take to exempt religion and per
mit them to discriminate," and
2) "There is a segment of our
population that uses the Bible as
a peg upon which to hang their
hatred and intolerance."
One might then suppose the
need fur thought police to patrol
the churches on Sunday to
ensure no one exercises freedom
of speech or religion against
homosexuality.
These testimonies should
make every Christian’s blood
run cold It's time for the pro
family community to wake up
and shako itself before it's sad
dled with layers of pro-homo
sexual legislation leaving no
safe sanctuary.
Loretta Neet
Communications Director
Oregon Citizens Alliance
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