4 over THE EDGE-Friday November 4, 1994 by Stephanie Willett Do you know who Barney | is? Remember? "I love you, | you love me, we're a happy family." Barney is the big | Purple Dinosaur that all kids | love and most adults hate. As a | person who had to babysit and | was forced to watch the same | Barney specials three thousand | times, I have developed a deep ] animosity towards this big | stupid Dinosaur and the idiotic | brats that are part of the Barney | cast. Sure, I admit that kids love | Barney and that he is better than {the violent shows that kids | watch, but how innocent is this | purple guy? I think Barney has |a hidden agenda. I mean, have J you ever seen how crazy kids j get when they see this pansy | teptile? The kids go nuts, by Courtney Raines In the past few years some feminist groups have become more vocal. Some have changed history to herstory and woman to womyn in an attempt to change society's views of females. I don't know when the changing of names began; if it was before or after many other groups began to change their names and only certain names became acceptable or politically correct but that really isn't the issue. The issue has more to do with how we as a society define and perceive women, or womyn, than how we spell the gender. Anyone can use the word womyn and not mean it any differently than he or she would if the word woman was used instead. The problem is in our heads, not our spelling. Womyn would - like females to be perceived of as equal to males. This may not mean that there is nothing that a male can do that a female cannot, or vice versa, as WHO'S WHO Coeditors Karin Fennell Charles Hogg Manpreet Sidhu Staff Cicely Pritchard Angie Dale Tracy Gula Dana Kelley David Beck Sean Simmons Stephanie Willett Sonya-Janet Anand Aaron Cumming Angelique Goffinet Damien Joly Kelli McKendrick Hans Rosenlehner Peter Buxton Brad Ellis Joseph Hegel Laura Martin Courtenay Raines Marvin Vasquez graphics by Dana Kelly screeching, "T WANT BARNEY! LET'S WATCH BARNEY! NOWWWWI!!!" And if a parent, guardian or child worker is foolish enough to say "No'...LOOK OUT! The kid: starts wailing at the top of its lungs until the wasted adult has no choice but to give in to the red-faced banshee child. I personally think that Barney is part of a conspiracy to ruin the generation of children that love and adore him. In fifteen years when the children of the Barney Era have become young adults, there may be trouble. Has this innocent- looking purple = Dinosaur brainwashed the kids? Could be. I mean, look at the control he has over them now. Barney's evil powers may evolve with the children and, instead of the kids Mother Nature and good old human genetics have prevented biological equality. However, if a female is given a chance to do something that is generally defined as a "man's job" more often than not she will be perfectly capable of completing it every bit as well as he would have. In the cases. where a certain female cannot do a job as well as a certain male the difference is_ more likely due to the two individuals, not their gender. And yes, I realize the argument holds equally true if used the other way. Women would __like females to be perceived as equal to males. However, they may not be as vocal about this fact. Or they may be vocal but not in the same manner. Having girleotts and writing herstory may not be comfortable for some people. Many of these individuals will instead seek to change society's opinion of females by becoming the type of female Barney: Friend or Foe? screaming for the new Bamey doll, they may begin to break into homes to get money in order to pay for a hit of Barney LSD. The Barney teenagers may all start wearing purple "colours" and protecting their territory with Barney hand grenades or Barney shot guns. Is Barney and his happy gang of snot-nosed hoodlums collecting an army of naive. children to be the basis of some sadistic cult? I sure hope not, but keep your eyes open and don't give in to the wailing child. You may have to live with a headache and an unhappy child now, but in the end it may save your child's life. Yours too, perhaps. ® @® & w humpopluatia mak mein aire eevinin muy epeine curt ohlersmn, 6 Vora ag earch spine dg Tae ag ohare ly agg tere Por tabs He beg Womyn vs. Women - that they wish to be perceived as. Through their day to day actions these individuals will to change the opinions of the people around them as those people begin to see what, exactly, a female can do when given the opportunity. Though both womyn and women have similar goals, they do not necessarily agree on how to reach these goals. In the end I believe it will be a combination of the ever- present fighting womyn who refuse to give up, and the more subtly fighting women who change opinions through their daily actions, which will bring the perception of females, not only by males but by some females themselves to a level that equals the perception of males. OOO