A letter from an alum about feminism, prompted by On the Campus, March 26, 2003

April 14, 2003

May I present a 78-year-old-male's opinion of feminism?

First and above all, women hold the world together. They are the cement of the family unit. Through them all life passes.This is their power. Combine this with education, discreteness, spirituality, and politeness and one has a winner. The birth control pill introduced in 1958 has gradually released woman from the fear of pregnancy which has permitted her to seek sexual pleasure just the way males do. For OWL and CAKE to sponsor such workshops on sexual fantasy, orgasm, and pleasure debases women and brings them to the level of the male predator.

I hope the department for the Study of Women and Gender at Princeton educates its students to the horrors of sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) such as herpes, venereal warts, syphilis, chancroid, chlamydia, Hepatitis B and C, and AIDS and to the fact that 5-15% of ovulating women are sterile because of an STD.

Women must control the sexuality of our society as they do in many mamallian species and keep the male predator at bay. She should carry condoms with at all times to protect against STD. Guard your sexuality and don't throw it away just for temporary pleasure.

In discussing this letter with some young young females, the question was asked "why can't men control their sexuality?" Because of testosterone! Pathologic male rapist can be controlled many times only by surgical or chemical castration. When some physicians want to increase a woman's libido, they may use testosterone. That is just the way nature works.

Incidentally, my female consultants did not think the play The Vagina Monologues was pornographic.

Herman F Froeb MD '46
La Jolla, Calif.

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