DOES THE MILITARY GET IT ON ISSUES OF SEX, GENDER?
Many of the plays we have read this semester have delt with sex and gender issues. Jack R. Payton of the St. Peterburg Times (see Moscow-Pullman Daily New, July 19 &20, 1997) writes about an Air Force cheif petty officer, Scott Lanum, who was conducting an encounter group centered around sexual harrassment and discrimination. Lanum argues that: “Sexism is a lot more difficult to deal with than race. It’s much harder to get down to the real isses.” As a facilitator, he separates the men and women in each encounter group. He asks the men to draw up a list of eight ways they have practiced sexual discrimination in the recent past. The women are told to list eight kinds of sexual discrimination they have suffered. When the lists are finished about wo minutes later, the men and women get back together and compare their work. According to the article, that’s when the trouble starts. Typically, the men list such grave gender transgressions as opening a door for a woman, or insisting on paying
