Gender & Free Speech (was Re: LM, Louis, and Free Speech)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Fri Mar 17 21:12:21 PST 2000


Carrol:


>Incidentally, I think there is one freedom which any communist organization
>must deny its members -- the freedom of silence. The fact that the vast
>majority of subscribers to any maillist not only have but exercise this
>freedom (the right to remain silent) is one feature of maillists which I
>have >never been able to interpret. What difference does or should this
>fact make to >what one posts or how one responds to the posts of others?

Recently, you asked why there is a dearth of regular women posters on left e-lists like Lou's Marxism list, PEN-L, LBO, etc. (I end up always one of the few women -- sometimes only woman -- who post regularly on these lists). Is it because women are subscribed to left e-lists but do not post regularly? Or is it the case that men really dominate these cyber fora? Or do both of us happen to be on the left e-lists where women are scarce? What makes women's contribution scarce in leftist fora? Women's double shift? List cultures?

I think that "free" speech, in the sense of not physically preventing anyone from speaking, doesn't & can't redress gendered silence. What is to be done?

Yoshie



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