JUST ADD WATER
I ASKED a male friend

recently what he thought

about the controversy over
female guards winning the

. Tight to frisk maie prisoners.
~ His reaction? .A big fat

waste of the Supreme Court
of Canada’s time. It’s on a
par with charging women
with rape.

My friend’s basic point is that

“. men and women are different, and

have had different experiences
with the opposite sex in their
personal and collective histories.
Certainly, this is what the
_, Supreme Court had in mind when
‘it rejected a male prisoner’s claim
that searches by female guards
“ amount to discrimination because
: female inmates cannot be frisked
or viewed in their cells by male
‘inmates. -:
“Given the historical, biological
‘and sociological differences be-
tween men and women, it is clear

that the effect of cross-gender
searching is different and more
threatening for women than for
men,”’ Mr. Justice Gerard la
Forest said in the court’s ruling.

He also said: ‘'The reality of
the relationship between the sexes
is such that the historical trend of
violence perpetrated by men
against women is not matched by
a comparable trend in which men
are the victims and women the ag-
gressors,’”

Men who oppose the decision
maintain a five-second frisk by a
female guard is a violation of their
privacy (you could ask wheth. .
someone who has committed a
crime has the right to demand
complete privacy).

The justices on the Supreme
Court can't say it, but i will: 1
very much doubt there are many
male inmates in this country lying
awake at night worrying over the
prospect of a female prison guard
frisking them.

Pm sure a large number are ly-
ing awake having fantasics about
just that!

On the other hand, I’d vet my
last loonie that a hefty number of
female prisoners would not want
to be frisked by a male guard.

They know that if male dectors,
clerics and teachers can physically
violate a female, there is the
potential for a male prison guard
to do the same.

This is not painting all men with
the same brush, this is just facing
reality.

I know some men will see this
as a double standard and will
come up with all the variations on
the If-you-want-to-play-with-
the-boys-you-gotta-play-by-
the-same-rules theme.

That’s the simplistic, knee-jerk
response to efforts for greater fe-
male accessibility to occupations

chitect keeping low profile? |

ear, Editor: ,

I heartily agree with the fetter
rom Lionel Lewis (Aug. 11
Mailbox)’about: the appearance of
the..West Vancouver Memorial
Library. 6

I. have . just. returned ftom
Overseas after a two-year absence
from West Vancouver and, upon

driving ‘past the library, was ute
terly amazed 1o see it still under
construction.

1 have -travelied ‘around the
world and have never seen a more
unsightly monstrosity. —

{ am presuming the “architect”
will be keeping a low profile.
Elizabeth Sheridan
North Vancouver

Golf centre overshadows everything

| Dear Editor:,

Until recently" T was ‘able to look
; out of my-North Shore windows
" and gaze up the inlet towards. In-

« dian Arm.

See the moon rising above Bur-

‘naby Mountain reflecting itself in

_the calm waters below.

Sunday night, Aug. 8, 1 found
myself. wondering if this was a
“new Steven Spielberg movie,
_ perhaps : Close Encounters of a
Very Strange Kind. -

The brightness below, perhaps a
landed alien spaceship {all the
- lights!) — it-. looked like il-
_ Wt window — but no, it

is the Seymour Creek Golf Centre
that has just opened, and every
night towards midnight it will be
covering our part of the world
with its dazzling lights overshad-
owing anything else that might be
worth looking at,

Only, 1 wonder, who are these
men and women who must be
leaving their houses late in the
evening in order to hit little balls
into the big vastness of the on-
coming night.

Who are they?

Bente Nielsen
North Vancouver

LONSDALE QUAY
NORTH VANCOUVER

988-6321

dominated by men.

If police forces put physical
strength as the main criterion for
employment, there would be very
few females in police forces.

Physical testing for prospective
recruits used 1o cniphasize upper
body strength (pushups and
chin-ups) which, because of biol-
ogy, clearly put women ata
disadvantage.

Now the physical testing em-
phasizes simulation of actual
police experiences -— pushing and
pulling weights to assess strength
for pushing through a door or lif-
ting a child.

Some female candidates still fail
the strength test, but at least this
adjustment to reality gives them a
better shot at the career.

Col. Valerie Harrison of the
Vancouver Police Department
(VPD) is doing media liaison for
the International Association of
Women Police’s October con-
ference in Vancouver (the associa-
tion was founded in 1915).

She says that until 1973, the
VPD allowed female officers to
work only inside buildings. They
weren't alowed to perform the
whole range of functions that one
needed to advance up the ranks.

(The RCMP only began hiring
women as police officers in 1974),

“Acone time women weren't
allowed on motorcycle squads
because they were afraid a woman
wouldn't be able to lift a motor-
cycle if it fell over," says Corp.
Harrison.

It’s now recognized that lifting
a motorcycle 15 as much technique
as brute strength.

Quite apart from ensuring
women have access to certain ca-
reers, organizations and institu-
tions are recognizing that the
often different ways in which
women operate can be of real
value,

Whether it’s genetic or en-
vironmental, competition and
confrontation still seem to domi-
nate male behavior; women seem

OKAY, NOW/TELL ME AGAIN

WHICH ONE ISTHE Sdod G we

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much more intent on cooperating
to resolve issucs.

I can’t imagine ever introducing
myself as one, but it’s clear that
the camp of ‘‘eco-feminists”’ (1
guess their opposite numbers are
“‘neo-carnivores"') at Clayoquot
Sound has a very different ap-
proach to environmental hot spots
from that of Robin-Hood-of-
the-Seas Paul Watson.

Watson wanted to teach the
eco-ferninisis how to spike trees;
the women want to climb them to
save them from death by saw.

It’s up for debate whether
guerrilla tactics or non-violent
blockades will win the day.
What’s important is recognizing
that men and women have dif-
ferent experiences.

I applaud the members of the
Supreme Court of Canada for
having the sensitivity and finesse
to recognize that it takes some
thought to post the direction Signs
along the road to gender equity.

a
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