Amazons International # 36 ************************** Contents: Steve S.: Achilles' Choice Alexandra: Bio Mike: Real-life Amazon attitudes Mark: Bio & Amazon athletes Ender: Bio News: alt.feminism.individualism Date of Transmission: 30.12.93 ************************************************************** Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 23:46:37 -0800 (PST) From: Stephen Michael Schumacher Subject: Achilles' Choice A few days ago I finished an awfully good science fiction book that I'd like to recommend to this group. It's called _Achilles'_Choice_, was written by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, was published in 1991, and boasts a typically fine cover by Boris Vallejo, who also contributed about a dozen interior illustrations. The plot revolves around a woman's training and sacrifices going for the gold in late 21st century Olympics competition. When I picked up this slim volume from the library (214 pages of pretty big print, which includes 32 pages of illustrations and blank pages), I expected a mildly scientific sports story with a feminist and/or voyeurist slant -- Rocky meets the Bionic Woman. What I got instead was good sports, good science, and good psychology. The book has more pathos and paranoia than gung-ho goombah. The "achilles' choice" is to undergo deadly neurosurgery in exchange for a few years of radically enhanced athletic performance -- steroids squared. As the book progresses, sports recedes to unimportance as the gritty heroine struggles for the awful truth: she gradually understands that her complacent world is a big brother dystopia that would give a conspiracy theorist nightmares. By the end I was amazed how this short book had sketched in a very plausible social history for the future, along with even more interesting speculations on the ultimate prospects for human physical, mental, and cybernetic evolution. The book reads very easily, is intense but not depressing, excites with possibilities, and features an admirable and sympathetic Amazon protagonist. I'll remember this story for a while. Highly recommended! Steve (solmaker@pt.olympus.net) ************************************************************** Date: Sun, 3 Oct 93 3:33:01 EDT From: Alexandra Gerber Subject: Bio Hello, I am from Washington, DC. I am a 19 year old junior at Columbia University, majoring in History/Sociology. Currently I am on the staff of two literary magazine, am a counselor at our campus Rape Crisis Center, am a marshal for out campus Take Back The Night, am a tutor at PS 165, and am about to begin studying karate. My goals are to be a black belt in karate, be able to rebuild a motorcycle engine, one day have a successful productive garden, and to be a women's advocacy lawyer. I look forward to participating in your group. Thanks very much, Alexandra Gerber ************************************************************** Date: 4 Oct 1993 10:26:04 U From: Mike Steiner Subject: Real-life Amazon attitudes During the past four months, I have become involved with a group of women whom I feel embody the real-life Amazon attitude. To look at most of these women, you would not even think of the word "Amazon," though. They range from 4'10" 90-lbs, through the gamut of height and weight that exists in real life. However, they all posess the same "don't tread on me" attitude that I believe epitomizes the self-assured, independent woman that I am so enamored of. This group of women (and men, but predominantly women) is called BACORR (Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights). BACORR is the foremost organization in the San Francisco Bay area that defends womens' health clinics against the terrorist attacks of Operation Rescue and similar organizations. We provide escort services to clinic patients so that they can get into the clinics with a minimum of harrassment from the OR "sidewalk counselors" and conduct community outreach programs to alert the people in the area of the terrorism that Operation Rescue engages in on a continuing basis. To put things in perspective, about 80% of the anti-choice activists are men and about 80% of the pro-choice activists are women. When a reporter asked me why there was this disparity in percentages, I asked him how many men have the need for abortions. Last July, OR conducted a campaign of terror against clinics and the doctors who work in them, in seven cities throughout the United States. San Jose was one of those "seven cities of refuge." For seven days out of a ten-day campaign, OR was at clinics throughout the San Jose area, trying to harrass the patients, and was picketing at doctors' homes, disturbing the peace and quiet in the neighborhoods. On two of those days (July 14 and 17), they attempted to physically attack two clinics--one in Los Gatos, CA and the other in San Mateo, CA. In both cases, members of BACORR managed to hold them off--by physically interspersing our bodies between the attackers and the clinics, and by dragging them away from the clinics when the police just stood by, doing nothing. Seeing a 300 lb man being carried off by four or five women against his will is an awesome thing to see. These are women who are committed to maintaining their rights to control their own bodies, and who have the strength of will, and collectively the physical strength, to fight for what is right. I do not want to start a discussion here on the morality of abortion; I just wanted to share with you the spirit of independent women who refuse to let themselves become chattel of anyone. Mike Steiner ************************************************************** Date: Sat, 11 Dec 93 17:32:03 MST From: Mark Subject: Bio & Amazon athletes Bio first: name -- Mark Hosselton home -- Albuquerque, NM USA age -- 42 interests -- running, photography, history, computers, films I'm new on this magazine. I haven't read the archives yet, but I haven't noticed any topic on women's athletics, track and field, that is. My favorite Amazons would have to be those incredible sprinters, throwers, jumpers, hurdlers, and runners in the ancient sport of t&f. True, only recently have women been allowed to participate and compete in t&f and road racing. They have made great strides in spite of the male dominated world of sport in general. We in the US don't get hardly any coverage of t&f, perhaps you Europeans would like to comment on this subject sometime. I've been going to the local university meets for years, and that is where I have really learned to appreciate the toughness and competitiveness of female athletes. Also in road racing, which I have been doing for over 12 years. I'm not one of those guys that can't stand being passed by a woman in a race. In fact I've seen many a good race between the top few women as they blow by me. Not to mention mountain running, where the superior endurance, relatively speaking, of women comes through. I could go on and name my favorite national and world ranked women runners and athletes, but they will be listed in the running and t&f mags in the annual AOY issues coming up in January and February. Ha! I forgot the ultimate Amazons, the heptathletes. Seven events in two days, awesome! Hello Germany, how about the WC hep between JJ Kersee and Sabine Braun. Our tube coverage just did not do the competiton justice. (I hope I got her name right!?) Looking forward to the spring meets... Mark ************************************************************** Date: 23 Dec 1993 10:17:44 -0500 From: Ender Subject: Bio Hi: I am going to give a quick bio, but I would like to be kept anonymous. My pseudonym will be Ender. I recently found out about this subscription quite by accident, and until then I kept my desires pretty secret. I am a 6-3 male who weighs about 225-235 pounds. I think I originally became interested in the Amazonic female form when I was quite young. I remember looking at a very old issue of _Life_ when I was about 8 years old (about 1973) and there was a story about female weight lifters. Something in my mind went click and I thought "hey, I like that". I joined a gym back in college ostensibly to get in shape, but I was also very interested in the muscular women that worked out there. I have always had a secret desire to be physically dominated by a really muscular woman, but the more that I went to the gym, the bigger and more muscular I got. Unfortunatly, I am at the point now where there are very few MEN who are physically dominant over me. I know that there are women in the world that could easily dominate me right now, but I never come across them. The only relationship I ever had with a physically dominating Amazon was in college. I went to a party and I met a woman who was on the crew team. She was boasting to her friends about how she could bench press 180 pounds and curl 100 pounds. I didn't believe her until I saw the size of her biceps! They were incredible -- easily 14 inches. I was so dumbfounded that I almost couldn't say anything. She beat me in arm-wrestling! She was short -- only about 5-3, but she was incredibly powerful. I saw her do weighted dips for sets of ten. Our relationship didn't last long, though, because at that time I was not able to match her physically, and she wasn't that interested (sigh :-)!!) I am currently in a relationship that I really believe will be the last one of my life. My fiancee is an Amazon mentally if not physically. She competes with men on ANY mental level and defeats them easily. In physical contests she will NEVER admit defeat without trying as hard as she can first. When I first met her, she looked at my arms and wanted to try to arm-wrestle me. When we started, she refused to yield, and it was a bit of a struggle to beat her! When I asked why she kept trying after it became really obvious that I was going to win she said, "I couldn't just give up, you're a boy!" I knew then that she was going to be mine for the rest of my life. One of the most erotic moments of our relationship was when she showed me how many *real* push-ups she could do. I have told her about the desires that I have and even though she will probably never be able to match me physically, she is determined to try. When she can (alas, she works an awful lot) she will go to the gym with me, and even though she isn't very strong or very muscular, she gets better everytime she goes (even though she might not believe it), and I tell her so. I still like to look at other muscular women though. I can usually tell the level of muscularity that a women has through her clothes. Years of practice gives certain skills. My favorite part of a women's body is the bicep. Nothing is more exciting to me than a large, well toned and defined arm. I like a woman who will flex her arm proudly, encouraging you to feel the hardness. Such confidence! Muscular women who wear sleeveless shirts to show off their arms make me swoon. I also am a big fan of calves. When a women with awesome calves walks by, I want to just turn around and follow them down the street, watching their calves bulge and bunch up with each step. Once when I was in a gym, there was a woman who was showing her friends around the gym. She wasn't particularly muscular, but she had good calves. To prove to her friends how strong she was, she went to the calf raise machine, and calmly and EFFORTLESSLY pumped out 10 reps with 500 pounds! Her calves bulged incredibly with each pump. I stopped my workout and stared, slackjawed. I am sorry that I have waxed for so long, it is just good to talk about this with an understanding audience. Keep pumping, all you Amazons! Ender ************************************************************** From: Thomas Gramstad Subject: alt.feminism.individualism =====*******===== NEWSFLASH =====*******===== I'm in the process of creating a usenet newsgroup that may be of interest to Amazons and their friends. This group will be titled alt.feminism.individualism. I have written a charter for the group that I append below. I should also mention that I started a mailing list two months ago with the same charter, and that this list was such a success of exponentially exploding activity that it has reached a peak of more than 200 subscribers and 40-50 messages a day. In my mind with such a volume it has outgrown the mailing list format so I'm creating a usenet newsgroup for it instead. ---------=====*****======--------- Charter for alt.feminism.individualism: alt.feminism.individualism, the forum for individualist feminists; feminism based on an individual rights approach to feminist issues. The focus of a.f.i. is the classical liberty and individual rights perspective as applied to feminist issues, such as issues regarding ideology, politics, culture, gender, etc., in order to establish a network for information, discourse, cooperation, encouragement and consciousness raising. There has always been an element of individualism in the various women and feminist movements, although this element seems to have been somewhat neglected in recent movements. A contemporary example of individualist feminism may be found in Joan Kennedy Taylor's _Reclaiming the Mainstream: Individualist Feminism Rediscovered_. (She's also the national coordinator (in the US) of the Association of Libertarian Feminists). What is individualist feminism? The following provides, not a dogma check list, but a few points of reference that will help outlining the concept of individualist feminism. If you tend to: --think that you are an individual first, and only then wife mother, sister, lover (or husband, father, brother, lover); --think that you are a human first, and only then man or woman; --see no reason why women should not want to be and succeed at being e.g., fire fighters, mathematicians, carpenters, combat soldiers, construction workers, military leaders, and presidents; --think that prescribed gender roles and stereotypes are an unhealthy and unwelcome expression of arbitrary unthinking and collectivism; --think that inherent gender differences either are non-existent or, if such do exist, that their significance is much overrated, and often being used for purposes of psychological manipulation or political power-mongering; --see no contradiction between being autonomous and being a woman, nor between being self-reliant and being a woman, nor between being independent and being a woman, nor between being self-assertive and being a woman, nor between being physical/athletical and being a woman; --see no necessary connection between being a woman and being passive, submissive, conforming, nurturing, overly instinct-driven or emotional; --see no reason to have special labor protection laws for women; --think that reproductive rights and choice is your birthright and feel that being equated with or sacrificed to a fetus is an atrocity; ...then chances are that you are an individualist feminist. ********************************************************** * Amazons International * * Thomas Gramstad, editor: thomas@smaug.uio.no * * Administravia: amazons-request@math.uio.no * * Submissions: amazons@math.uio.no * ********************************************************** "A Hard Woman is Good to Find" -- The Valkyries