List matters

[Norma Mendoza-Denton]

Re: Discussion /lack thereof

I am an avid reader of the discussion on this list -- one who is often
busy or out of town altogether when votes are called (but plans to vote
tomorrow, Friday the 4th, on the issues outlined by Trechter). I will
say that sometimes I don't participate because I prefer to save/focus my
energies for certain issues which are later on in the agenda.

Nonetheless I want to *commend* the facilitators of this list for the
feminist-based democratic discussion that is being fostered, and at the
same time I will take a stand in saying that I wish it would continue,
despite the occasional lack of participation. We are a very new list,
and in order to participate regularly, people need to get used to each
other, to the style of the list, gauge its register, likelihood of
getting flamed, etc.  I predict that as we get to know each other a bit
better through our postings, there will be more participation. We need
to get comfortable with each other -- some things just can't be rushed.
Especially during the summer, when I know many of us have  plans to be
out of town, doing research, writing or away from our computers
altogether.

It's possible that eventually there will need to be some kind of
nondemocratic decision taken unilaterally by a panel if the membership
has no pulse. But let's not do it during the summer,  when a good part
of the list may be offline.


Now on to content:


1) I liked the structure proposals made by Shaw. In addition I think
that membership in the committees should be as democratically determined
as possible, possibly with people writing up statements about their
vision of the organization and what they want to do during their tenure.
Otherwise our voting will be based entirely on name recognition, or
worse, on being hand-picked by someone else. It would be nice when we do
vote for someone to be actually voting on issues that are going to
affect us in this organization.


2) Picking up on Freed's unresolved issue #4, where her stance is pasted
below:


>
>      4. What I would most like to see beyond the sorts of things
> outlined above is a journal that deals specifically with rigorous
> theoretical and/or data-based work on language, sex and gender.
> No such journal presently exists.
>

I agree that a journal that deals with these issues is long overdue, but
I wonder if this means we would exclude philosophical or postmodern or
critical theoretic work. I guess I wonder what is meant by rigorous
here..



Norma Mendoza-Denton
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Arizona




















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