They were designed to bring about parity. Part of the formula to bring about parity was to give several historically oppressed groups temporary advantages to allow them to catch up. Once parity is achieved (or a reasonable approximation thereof), what should these laws then do? Maintain parity, I say.
I have taken the liberty of taking your quote, and substituting the opposite gender. Tell me it doesn’t sound damn silly. Then ponder this for a minute. Get it?
I get it, but do you?
Your quote is ancient history.
I am well aware of the history of the womens movement, and we broke thru nearly every barrier that we wanted to. Your changing of the gender was true at one time, but now we have surpassed the male in what we can do.
We can join the army(and worry about being drafted), be a cop, vote, hold office, get credit cards, mortgages, drive cars, trucks and busses , carry a gun, smoke, go into saloons, ride horses astride, work or stay at home, go to college(there are more women in college now than males) , get the house, alimony and custody of the children, we have the final say on having sex or not, children or not, we can wear pants or skirts, pretty dresses or hunting clothes, play with dolls or toy trucks, wear any color we want, have short hair or long, and any color, drive any color car or truck that we want, we can hunt, fish, play ice hockey, soccer, or sew, join almost any club or organization that we want, and no one questions our femininity.
Get it? It is not silly. Times have changed. Live with it.
I cant edit this thing.
I meant : We can join the army(and yet NOT worry about being drafted),
It’s your quote, actually. And I really don’t think you do “get it”.
Assuming, arguendo, that this statement is correct, would you support affirmative action for American males?
**suranyi[/], I have no doubt they exist. This simply means no one has yet done what the OP postulated.
However, in light of the decisions of the California Supreme Court interpreting the Unruh act, I have no doubt of the outcome of such litigation, should it ever occur.
I once thought of filing such a suit on my own behalf (there was a women’s only gym club in Salinas when I was working there). But a healthy dose of common sense took over, as I realized that, just because a thing can be doesn’t mean it should be. 
Why?
The american male gave women affirmative action status, even though women outnumber men.
Oh yeah, how did I forget this one, women can also laugh or cry.
Dont get me wrong, I would like men to be equal , but they dont want it, and they will never do anything that might be construed by others as being “feminine”. We, on the other hand, have no problem doing everything and anything that is considered either masculine or feminine.
I would NEVER support affirmative action for males, unless they sincerely wanted to be equal, and believed that men and women are equal human beings.
I laugh, and even cry now and then. And I’m a man. How…scandalous.
Bolding mine
Remind me to hire you next time I need my house painted. With that big brush you use it won’t take any time at all.
The way I see it, both sexes sometimes prefer to be with only members of the same sex. This is understandable, since the other sex can be such a bunch of dipshits. And sometimes you just don’t want to have to put on your social face or whatever.
But I think what the OP is getting at is that there’s a double standard here. A woman’s need to exercise with only other women is legitimate, and a man’s need to be able to golf with other men is not. He’s choosing to approach the problem by forcing women to open their clubs. I’d rather just say why not let the sexes have some occasional privacy from each other?
Just a FYI, I believe that you can be banned from the boards for doing that, so you probably shouldn’t do it again. There may be a sticky somewhere about it still.
I doubt you intend to come off sounding this way, but this part of your response sounds like you’re at least partially motivated to try to join to make the women feel uncomfortable.
[Moderator Hat ON]
DrDeth, do not quote a poster and alter the quote so that it looks as if the poster said somehting s/he did not say. Please read the posting rules here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?&threadid=106617
[Moderator Hat OFF]
**
I’m sorry, but I simply can’t follow what it is you’re trying to say. Do you mean that men are already equal or that men want to be inferior or that, perhaps, men are inherently inferior but think they are superior or do you mean something else entirely?
I wonder if Mandelstam does vanity searches. I think she’d be really interested to meet you.
One of my motivations for this little thought experiment (for that all this is at the moment) was to see how the front desk staff would react.
But I guess there’s a small part of me who would also want to see how the clientele would react.
As I stated in a previous post, I really am a sissy boy. Not overly tall or bulked up by any means. Pleasant, friendly demeaner (no creepy vibes), so I don’t think I’d be threatening to the “Curves” clients.
But maybe not.
**
Spiff, As a practical experiment in gender politics, why don’t you walk over there on your lunch break and ask for a brochure? You might even go so far as to mention that you (as opposed to a wife/girlfriend) are thinking of joining. This won’t bother the clientele, but it will let us all know how the management of this club views the situation. I’d bet there is even something about male membership in the brochure.
A tough call all around. Women’s-only space is perfectly legitimate, as is men’s-only space (the GLBT community has been working out these issue for years).
The two concerns I see here are the matter of “public accommodations” (in which case all people should have access to it, but, as pointed out, can be hotly contested as to what actually makes it public); and the matter of allowing a traditionally repressed minority (for lack of a better term) to carve out space for themselves without their oppressors (again, for lack of a better term) once again getting control; i.e., in a male-dominated society where women may feel like second class citizens, in an effort to strengthen their social position, do they have a right to maintain space solely for themselves outside what that society accepts as normative?
I see reflections of this in the gay community as well. Whether it’s right or wrong is the debate at hand.
Esprix
I dont mind at all, and I am not complaining. I thought he was pretty clear what he did in switching male to female. No problem here with what he did.
Thanks for pointing that out though(changing a quote), I did not know you are prohibited from doing that.
All he did was change a current day quote, to a true hundred year old quote. Women used to be banned from everything, and not allowed to do everything, now it is the mens turn , and since it is the mans choice in most cases to be less free, it will never change .
Thank you- I thought I had made it quite clear I had modified their words, thus in no way was I making it look like she said something she did not say. How would I do something like this “legally”? Remove the “quotes”? However, I do apologize for this inadvertant violation.
And Susanann- thanks for your support. It is nice to see someone who is adult enough to realize that just becuase someone disagrees with you, they are not nessesarily a bad person.
You have my full support if any moderator complains.
It doesn’t matter if you mind or not. People have been banned in the past for doing that, even though the person whose quotes had been changed also didn’t mind. I thought it would be better to point it out before he did it again and was banned over something silly.