An interesting point, since there seems to be a high incidence of  
domestic abuse among women who become prostitutes.  So, it might be  
interesting to find out if there are abused females in the class,  
then find out if among them there are prostitutes.  Obviously t am  
making generalizations, someone else must supply the figures.  Do we  
know of happy women who become prostitutes?

Andrea

On Dec 26, 2008, at 12:42 PM, Kearney Lykins wrote:


> Karen,

>

> Whether or not men are more violent as compared to women is not the  

> point. Indeed, I agree that they are. But Kate makes a  

> generalization based on fallacious reasoning.

>

> To illustrate my point, suppose I claimed that I know that in an  

> ordinary group of women, some will be prostitutes to a greater or  

> lesser extent.  Clearly such an outrageous remark would be  

> condemned (rightly) as sexist.

>

> But suppose my rationale is the following: While most women are not  

> prostitutes, and do not sell their bodies for sex, most prostitutes  

> are indeed women, and most acts of prostitution, particularly those  

> acts committed on men, are committed by women. Therefore, I am  

> being very careful with my language and not sexist whatsoever when  

> I say that in an ordinary group of women, surely some of them are  

> prostitutes.

>

> Sound familar?

>

>

>

> Regards,

>

> Kearney Lykins

>

>

> From: Karen Wyman <Karenw at nmcadv.org>

> To: The Diversity and Literacy Discussion List <diversity at nifl.gov>

> Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 12:08:40 PM

> Subject: [Diversity 302] Re: abusers in our classrooms

>

> Dear Kearney,

>

> I have to disagree that Kate’s comment is sexist. While most men  

> are not abusers and are not violent, most abusers are men, and most  

> acts of violence, particularly those acts against women, are  

> committed by men. It is not unreasonable, inaccurate, or sexist to  

> conclude that “in any ordinary group of men that some will be  

> violent to a greater or lesser extent.” I think Kate was being very  

> careful not to be sexist with her language and word choice.

>

>

> Also, I’d like to suggest that students are not in classes to  

> “handle” their classmates; they are there to learn. It is the  

> instructor’s responsibility to create an environment in which that  

> can occur, and that often includes being aware of potential  

> problems before they happen and intervening on behalf of the safety  

> and wellbeing of all students. I think it is an interesting  

> assumption to think that these hypothetical students are  

> necessarily “non-feminist.”

>

>

> I think that privilege is an important piece of this conversation  

> that is being left out. I believe that, in addition to confronting  

> racism and sexism, we also have a responsibility to interrupt male  

> and white (and other kinds, too) privilege when it rears its head.  

> I wonder if that might be an interesting discussion: what can we do  

> to confront the use of unwarranted privilege in our classrooms? How  

> can we interrupt those conditioned behaviors that come with that  

> privilege? Male privilege is one of the many tools that abusers  

> employ to exercise power and control over their victims, and there  

> are a number of ways in which we, as educators, have the  

> opportunity to either challenge or reinforce that privilege.

>

>

> Respectfully,

>

> Karen

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

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