Amazons International # 10
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Topics:           Thomas: Body lifting
                  'Dances with Biceps': Arm wrestling
                  Stormwind: Gender roles in dancing
                  Thomas: Terminator 2

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Welcome to a new issue of Amazons International!  I'm glad to see new
topics emerge and being explored and discussed.

Nevertheless, you are quite a few people out there who has never
posted anything to AI.  I'd like to encourage you, as well as previous
posters, to submit postings to Amazons International.  And here is how
you do it:
 
(1) Put a note in the beginning of the message (or in the subject
line) telling that it is a submission for AI (otherwise I'll take it
to be mail for me personally).  If you want to be anonymous, tell me
that too, and include a pseudonym.

(2) Mail the submission to thomasg@ulrik.uio.no.

(3) If for some reason you fail to get through to
thomasg@ulrik.uio.no, resubmit the message to this address:
sigar@ifi.uio.no (try them in that order).

That's all there is to it.

                     - Thomas

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From: Thomas
Subject: Body lifting

I'd like to introduce a new topic for discussion:  Lifting.
No, not iron lifting this time;  I mean body lifting.

Are there any Amazons here who like to lift or carry their lovers?
Are there any males here who like to be lifted and carried?
Why is the reverse pattern so prevalent in our culture?

What do you read into the act of lifting/carrying or being lifted?
That is, what psychological meaning, if any, do you think it has?
I can see quite a few interpretations of lifting one's lover:

  - act of protection/care-taking
  - act of respect; pushing your lover up and forward
  - act of taking into possession
  - celebrate own strength, challenge gravity

Are you a "lifter" or a "liftee"?  Or do you like to switch?
Are there particular ways or situations in which you like to
lift, or be lifted by, your lover?

Share your experience and thoughts about this!

                     - Thomas
                  ---------------
"You Tarzan.  Me Jane."  (favorite pick-up line, so to speak...)
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From: Dances with Biceps
Subject: Arm wrestling

Ooooooh yes!  Arm wrestling!!  One of my favorites.  I guess my views
on arm wrestling are somewhat unconventional.  I consider it a sexual
practice.  I arm wrestle women only, and only strong women.  That
special feeling of being broken down by raw female power while
watching her bulging bicep!  One of the best 'safe-sex' games in town!

There is a lot of valuable aspects to arm wrestling.  One is the power
play or competitive aspect.  Another is the value of building contact
and getting to know each other by doing something physical together
(break the ice or break the arms!).  Some might call it "foreplay", but
I think that's a wrong mind-set: anything worth doing as "foreplay"
is worth doing as a goal in itself, for its own pleasure.

Then there is the informational or psychologically revealing aspect
of arm wrestling.  A woman's reaction to a suggestion of arm wrestling
tell some important things about her:

If she likes me and still refuse to arm wrestle, one may conclude
that she is alienated from her physicality or physical self (given
that it is not a temporary refusal caused by shyness).  This bodes
ill for a relationship.

If she lose easily and doesn't care, I know that I will miss something
in a relationship with her.  The physical aspects can never be fully
what I want, there are simply some things that she'd be too weak to be
able to do.

If she wins and resent it, then I know that she and I have some
incompatible views about gender roles and personal preferences,
incompatibilities that probably will lead to unsolvable conflicts.

But if she win or almost win and takes pleasure in it, then
chances are good that something great is on the way!

He who Dances with Biceps
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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From: amazon@inferno.esd.sgi.com (Stormwind)
Subject: Gender roles in dancing

	From: Thomas
	Subject: Giantess Amazon -- A True Story (and more)
	
	I'd like to see the gender role discussion rolling on.  I plan to
	write more about it, but for now I will restrict myself to two issues,
	namely tallness and gender roles in dancing.  I like to dance, but
	every kind of structured dance that's got a name seems to stress
	male domination -- the male is supposed to initiate the dance,
	lead, control it.  Does anybody else find this tiresome, limited
	or even downright demented??  Does anyone know of dances that are
	either based on equality or even female domination/role reversal?
	
i don't know of any *specific* dances per se, but the "male first"
roles bother me as well.  most of the dancing you see in the movies
are "lambada" style, with the woman humping the guy's leg, or vice
versa.  clearly this kind of dancing takes two people of whatever
gender.

"party" style dancing (or, look out, (s)he's dancing with a beer in
one hand) tends to be less restrictive once one gets over one's OWN
notions about dancing.  most people will go to dances but not dance
because they have no date.  while it's acceptable (for the most part)
for guys to dance alone, it is generally not acceptable for women to
dance alone.  to a certain extent, i think this is formed during the
early high school years where you don't go out on the floor without a
partner.  a guy dancing alone is hunting for women; a woman dancing
alone is a sign that absolutely no one, not even the geeks, want to
dance with her for some reason.

at one memorable con i went to several people showed up with
inflatable pool toys.  i had just broken up with my boyfriend at the
con itself earlier that day, and was in a particularly nasty mood.
one particular guy was dancing with a giant inflatable orca whale, so
while dancing on my own, i manuevered over, asked, "mind if i break
in?", and immediately appropriated the orca.  the orca subsequently
went bobbing around the dance floor as people tried out "whale
dancing".

after this experience, i simply stopped bothering to find a partner to
dance with.  my current boyfriend has a rather erratic sense of beat
and generally won't dance to anything except the most rapid of
drumbeats.

as a side note, last year's halloween costume was another home-built
job based on Samurai Cat, consisting of cat-colored fur, black gloves,
full face mask, fur chest and neck piece, kimono and aikido pants
(called hakima).  with the costume on, not only was there no visible
human flesh, but my gender was indiscriminate.  at one party i was
even volunteered for "best male costume", and had to explain why i had
to refuse the award!  at another party, i observed all the males
hitting up on all the females, and began to wonder why people weren't
harassing me as well.  it was at this point that i realized that
unless i spoke, everyone thought i was male (one male eventually
figured out from body language that i was female, but he had a tough
fifteen minutes figuring it out).  it's always an eye-opener to
discover something like this under those circumstances.

s.

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From: Thomas
Subject: Terminator 2

I saw Terminator 2 yesterday!  She's great, isn't she?  I mean, isn't
she?!  Very tough, and yet capable of gentleness and vulnerability;
very defined and extremely well-proportioned -- and they say she got
that way in only three months, under the auspices of Arnold.  And that
she intends to stay that way.  There seems to be a trend -- at least
in science fiction movies -- of accepting and displaying tough and
strong Amazon women.  We can only hope that it will continue.

The hospital scenes!  The desert scenes!  I have one objection though;
I do think that Sarah Connors ought to have been the one to finish the
T-1000 off, rather than having to be saved by Arnold.  Of course, that
probably would have to mean that Arnold lost a fight, and I see all
the problems with such a concept.  And it's an interesting image, the
image of the near-indestructible sheer-willpower Terminator.  And yet
I think it could have been worked, Sarah Connors terminating the
T-1000.

Now, I've tried previously to get information about a T2 Linda
Hamilton poster, to no avail.

So I'll try again.

I'll send $ 100 to the first person who sends me such a poster or a
big photograph.  No kidding.

The poster or photograph must meet these criteria:

(1) LH must be the dominating (preferably the only) person in
    the picture (Arnold in the foreground and Linda somewhere
    behind won't do).

(2) Her arms and shoulders must be clearly visible;  preferably
    she should be dressed in the tank top and military outfit.
    Preferably she should be standing or walking, with one of
    those big guns in her hand.

If you think you can work this, contact me.

                     - Thomas

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*    Amazons International:                 thomasg@ulrik.uio.no    *
*    Thomas Gramstad, editor                                        *
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"A Hard Woman is Good to Find"  -- The Valkyries