Giving Tree; Time article

[Rachel Carlson <aixoise@NETCOM.COM>]

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I must comment on "The Giving Tree,"
which I have never really liked.  While it may show unconditional love (a
good thing) from a parent to a child, it also reinforces (to me) the
stereotype of a woman effacing herself completely in the service of a
child.  This bothers me because I recall the reaction of my daughter,
many years ago when she was in 2nd grade (she's 30 now), to a reading
workbook in which the boys were depicted as consonants, and the girls
were the vowels.  What made her angry was not that the girls were
outnumbered, but that the girls (vowels) were shown as marionettes being
manipulated on their strings by the boys (consonants).  Now the obvious
intent was to show how vowels change their sounds, etc; to my daughter,
however, the message was very clear: boys get to manipulate girls, who
have no say in the matter.  Yes, she was a bright 7 year-old, but how
many other kids pick up sexist messages (or racist) that are subtle or
not so subtle, and just accept them?

Enough time on soapbox.

As for the Time article, thanks for the analysis.  I, too, am really
tired of the constant harping/hysteria in the media about the dangers
lurking in cyberspace, and agree with the sig. line about fear mongers.
We are probably the strongest potential force in the fight against such
irrationality, though, and need to keep on educating people.

Cheers -- and a happy holiday to all our U.S. subscribers.

Rachel Carlson in sunny So.Cal.
aixoise@netcom.com

P.S. - Thanks, Peter, for the membership list.  Interesting to know where
we all are based.