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From: nap@druxo.UUCP (Parsons)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: San Quentin strip searches -- a new twist
Message-ID: <802@druxo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 10:45:33 EST
Article-I.D.: druxo.802
Posted: Tue Feb 12 10:45:33 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 03:40:26 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
Lines: 29

~   I failed to save the original article.  It dealt with the humiliation
~   of female prisoners being searched by male guards.  Later, it was
~   revealed that the genders had been reversed (i.e., originally the
~   article concerned the humiliation of male prisoners searched by female
~   guards).  The question was asked, "Do you feel differently depending on
~   which way the story is told?"

First, I think that felons *should* lose many of their rights, including
the right of privacy, when it interferes with security.

I also think that one's gender should not be a consideration for task
assignment among prison guards.

However, it seems worth noting that female prisoners searched by male
guards are likely to experience a greater sense of being threatened than
when the roles are reversed.  Equal treatment does not mean equal
humiliation or fear.  So yes, I do feel differently about the story
depending on the genders assigned to the prisoners and guards.

Women experience different levels of anxiety and self-doubt than men do
when they receive promotions, get married or divorced, are searched by
members of the opposite sex, and any number of other situations where they
are being "treated equally".  Although such equality of treatment over an
extended period of time may eventually result in a narrowing of the
differences in these levels, they are undeniably wide right now, especially
where the potential of sexual violence exists.

Nancy Parsons
AT&T ISL