Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Gender roles

[Racheli&John (jnpalme]

** Reply to note from WOLF1GDSFM [at] aol.com Sat, 30 Dec 2000 09:22:23 -0600
>From Racheli

The key way to allow people to cross gender-imposed
(or other) lines is by providing an accepting and
"safe" environment in which to do so.  (This is not
always so easy to do, since attempts to keep "deviants" in line
are often not necessarily conscious ones.  They include jokes, 
facial expressions and body language, etc.)
>From my point of view ( as someone who often holds opinions
which are ways away from the main-stream),
 it's often very hard for the more middle of
the road people among us to not be threatened by the
mere presence of "lunatic fringe" views.  One of the
problems is that mainstream views are often accepted
as what's "normal" and self-evident (and as such - are
not seen as having a political dimension, or as requiring 
justification), while when someone offers opinions based on 
truly different assumptions, they are often seen as if they are 
practically attempting a coup...

R.