When can I call myself a Southerner?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Boris.. it is good you are in NYC. You probably get much less discrimination on your sexual orientation there than you would other places.

It is just a shame that people are discriminated on things they were born with.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Boris.. it is good you are in NYC. You probably get much less discrimination on your sexual orientation there than you would other places.

It is just a shame that people are discriminated on things they were born with.

Yeah, I'm sick of not being hired because of my vestigial tail!

[boann]

Originally posted by Tuberski



You've got that right! You just described my Wife!

well alrighty then....guess you know what im talkin about

[boann]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

southern men are gentlemen to the core...
open doors and say yes mam.

Perpetuating the Patriarchy by the chivalric code .

and they do it so well , don't they.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


I really enjoyed hangin' with JohnT. He and family are good people. One of these days I'll even post the pics of our meet and eat at Chez Guevara's.

You'd better!

Yes, I'll come... but only when you learn how to spell, Imran.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Italian restaurant! Move to Atlanta then, please . My g/f keeps complaining about the lack of good Italian restaurants there. At least nothing even close to being as good as in Jersey .

Fact is Imran, the food in the North is better (overall) than the food in the south... and I'm not talking regional tastes, I'm just talking about preparation, spices, etc. Northerners care more about food than New-South southerners, who look upon dinner as something to do, not enjoy.

[DinoDoc]

Am I the only one that finds the word womyn irritating? It sounds like a pseudo-feminist crap, made up word.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Womyn are treated with great respect here. Just because there are more womyn partners up north doesn't mean they get more respect. It could be that they are attracted to the dirty politics up there.

BULL****! The reason there aren't as many womyn partners in the South is because the glass ceiling is lower. It is the worst kept secret is that the South treats womyn more like objects than any other part of the country does. Where are the best Womyn Studies Programs in universities? Yep the NorthEast (with Rutgers being #1... *inflates chest in show of pride*).

We allow womyn to be more equal up here, while the South is just learning how to do that. Why do you think more Northern womyn end up going to the major cities, like Atlanta, Dallas, Raleigh, etc, in the South (as opposed to the midsized or even small cities)?

You Southerners have a far, far way to go before you have womyn treated equally with men. The cities are, thankfully, very close to how things are in the North.

Imran, you talk with the air of one who has garnered all their facts from anecdotes and supposition, with little experience in the place. Given what you've said earlier on this board in other posts, you have not spent any real time here in the South, so your baseless accusations (founded on biased speculation) should be treated as such.

Have you spent any time in the rural north? And I don't mean someplace like Concord, MA, a small town but one within 30 minutes of a population center of 3,000,000... I mean places like Glens Falls, NY, Elmira, NY, Torrington, CT? People there are just as racist and as misogynist as... well, people everywhere.

Things I've learned up North*:

... Prostitution should be considered distasteful, but not so that the sight of streetwalkers should be jarring. You know, I was 20 years old before I saw my first whore. In Darien, CT... one of the "nicer" places in a very crappy state. Once I knew what to look for I noticed they were everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but every city up north had it's whore district. I once had some guy knock on my hotel door and offer me his sister for sex! Fact is Imran, I never had anything like that happen to me in Gunthersville, AL. Or Griffin, GA. Or Orangeburg, SC. Or, ... but you get the idea.

... It's easier to abandon old factories than it is to fight the government to allow you to do what's needed to improve them. Hence Bridgeport, CT.

... Property and school taxes in NY are so high it is very, very common for retirees to have to split their paid-for houses up into separate apartments in order to pay them. I consider this to be an abomination and you can imagine my relish in telling the natives so. But the little sheep... I bet the problem still exists. Is likely worse, even.

All these problem affect women, they are happening in your backyard, and all you care to concern yourself with is the plight of women law-partners in Clemson, SC? C'mon!

* This is not to imply that the listed items never occur in the South (except for maybe the house thing... I have yet to see something like that down here!), but I will wager that they are far more prevelant (sp!) up North.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Imran, Imran, Imran. Its just that Northern propaganda keeps infusing ideas into your head. There isn't enough TV shows based in the South to give people the correct idea.

I know the correct idea, Apoc. Stop trying to pull this Northern propaganda ****. The fact is that in the South, womyn aren't treated with the same respect in the workplace, you can't change facts.

And you can't change the experiences my g/f has had dealing with Southern womyn (and I don't think any of them were from Atlanta). I'm sorry but using 'Southern graciousness' to get a job doesn't speak volumes of your society.

Damn, Imran, you're just lighting my fuse today. Congratulations!

Given that your evidence is anecdotal, allow me to counter-argue in the same manner:

I run 4 departments in my company with a total of 35-65 people under me (depending upon volume of work). Every single manager under me is female, except for one guy who is a homosexual male. One department is entirely female (just three people, but still). 40% of our field managers are female (a sample of 25). The owner of the company is female and we are projected to do $15mil in revenues and $2 mil in profits in FY 2002, so we know our ****.

The after-hours vet in the same building as us is formed of a partnership of 2 female vets and 2 male vets.

The cellular phone store in the same building is owned and operated by a woman.

The founder of the company that manages our corporate 401(k) plan is a woman. http://www.thetrust.com/history.htm

Plus I bet they all know how to spell "women".

Note that this is all taking place in Knoxville, Tennessee, a state without an income tax. Note too that Knoxville is a southern city, one in which it is impossible to find a subdivided home due to a crippling tax burden.

Anyway, you are truly speaking out of your ass on this one: please stop, as you're fouling up the room.

[boann]

Originally posted by JohnT
Anyway, you are truly speaking out of your ass on this one: please stop, as you're fouling up the room.

preach on brother John

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov

The East and West coast companies we work for, however, tend to aggressively go after women and minorities (Though a couple of the big banks we do business for did recently hire white guys, so it's not like there's "reverse discrimination").

Now why would that be I wonder ?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by boann
if you like gravy and biscuits , chicken fried steak
and barbeque then you are on the right track...

Yum!

[boann]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Yum!

[Imran Siddiqui]

You are Knoxville, John, a major city. And it is funny how you totally disregared Boris' post.

I work for an executive recruiter, and can tell "y'all" from first-hand experience that Imran is pretty on-the-mark. We have a great deal of Southern clients, some pretty huge ones, and I can't think of one of them that hasn't hired a white male. Several women came back from interviews and complained they felt condescended to while there. One of the biggest of them (a really big one, everyone knows), rejected a candidate due to his sexual orientation (after which I demanded to be taken off the search).

Sorry, the South is known for keeping the glass ceiling lower on womyn. It's track record for hiring females to higher levels is abysmal. The Midwest isn't much better.

edit: Hell, look at some of your elected leaders. Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Newt Gingrich. And IIRC, Falwell, Robertson, and (Billy) Graham are all from down there.

Also the whole emphasis on chivalry. Chivalry also requires a certain way of acting for womyn, based on the Victorian model. Under a chivalric/victorian code, womyn that 'sleep around' are thought of as lesser than those who stay chaste. The whole idea of chivarly is an outdated, patriarical concept.

[JohnT]

God, Imran: get out of school before it ruins you. "Outdated, patriarical (sic) concept" indeed!

Given that Boris' post was also anecdotal, I figure my earlier replies address his point as well. So bringing it up is not exactly a winning rebuttal on your part.

Knoxville a major city? It is no larger than Binghamton, NY... do you call that a major city?

Imran, have you spent any amount of time in any small town, anywhere? The attitudes you are describing are universal and not limited to one region of the country. Have you more experience, you would realize this... but then, I was young and oh-so-sure of myself too.