Name change/Massachusetts

[Julia Frugoli]

>Oh I would beg to differ with that assessment....Massachusetts is not a 
>very
>liberal state by any means...in fact in and around Boston are VERY 
>conservative
>and very segregated areas. It may have been a Democratic state until
>recently...but liberal it is not.
>
>Jen ...former Massachusetts resident.
>


As someone who grew up in Massachusetts and who lived there most of her 
life, raising children there as well-I just have to pipe 
in-Massachusetts is exceedingly liberal compared to the south!  What I 
called conservative in Massachusetts is considered left-leaning here in 
Texas.  What I called right wing fanatical is middle of the road.  And 
what's considered right wing here makes the Unibomber and Oklahoma City 
types feel right at home.  And racism?  Well, that's a different sort of 
thing.  In Massachusetts it's there, as much as here, but there it's 
cloaked in economic segragation and looked down upon as a bad thing we'd 
rather not talk about.  Here it's out in the open, which I thought would 
make it less formidible.  Not so-I've heard more blatent racist remarks 
and seen more racist attitudes than ever before in my life in the short 
year I've been here, and worst of all, it's accepted as status quo.  So, 
while I may have looked down my nose at Massachusetts when I lived 
there, absence has definitely made the heart grow fonder.  Feminism 
suffers likewise down here. 

A funny/sad aside on feminism to bring me back to the original topic of 
name changes.  A Southern gentleman explained to me when I asked why 
everyone was called "Miss" regardless of their maritial state that "Mrs" 
was a term of respect one earned later in life.  If you stayed with your 
husband long enough, the height of Southern compliment was to be called 
"Mrs".  I thought this was pretty funny, since I'm not Mrs anything, 
only Ms.  Was he pulling my leg, and would anyone like to comment on why 
a woman only gets respect in the South as the wife of a man???
Julia Frugoli
Dartmouth College

visiting grad student at
Texas A&M University
Department of Biological Sciences
College Station, TX 77843
409-845-0663
FAX 409-847-8805