[at-l] serious "women's" issues

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

>      Don't take this personally but some women
> have been abused and need the
> private support of other women to gain the courage
> to hike in the wilderness
> alone.  I know you could make good
> comments/suggestions but all in all
> sometimes it takes a woman's support for some
> issues.

I cannot disagree with you.  I would like to point out,
though, that men get abused too - often more than is
reported for the obvious reason.

> Being a psych nurse I
> often find that men get skittish when their
> gender are being described as
> abusive.  Yes some do know how to listen but many
> do damage in telling the
> person to clam up for they just don't know how to hear it.

I don't have a psychology degree, but my wife is a BCSW
(which is now a LSW in Louisiana), and we talk about this
subject a lot.  I've also had lots of NLP training, but no
clinical experience.  That said, it is my experience that
ALL men - every last one of them (me too!) - are complete
savages.  While I freely admit this, I think it's a little
unfair to describe all men as abusive.  There are some women
savages out there too, and some abusive women.

> The anatomical/ physical needs are pretty much an
> open subject these days
> which is good for all but there is still a gap in
> emotional understanding
> sometimes that perhaps for some would be better
> served by women.

Or by men who are mature enough.

I'm not sure where this goes, but let me try:  We live in an
unenlightened society.  Women suffer from this
unenlightenment more than men do on a measurable level, but
I feel that men suffer more in ways that cannot be measured.
I'll leave that as it is, because the next thing I want to
say sounds crazy even to me...

I don't think it's possible for real hikers to be abusive
people.  Once you have a certain level of contact with the
natural world, you gain a level of real humanity that is not
possible to achieve living in a city in our culture.

This has all come out rather poorly...

Let me just say this:  If women need a women's group, then
by all means they should have it, and I support it.
Eventually, however, we should be able to meet in a way that
unify us as humans, and not in a way that divides us by any
arbitrary rule.

Shane