On J.J. Pettman

Among the many interesting and new topics about which people have posted, Pettman also sheds light on certain concepts we have discussed thus far.
On page 8, she says "Women are then constructed as needing disciplining; for the female passions can ensnare or distract men, or set them up in competition with each other.....she needs to be under the protection/control of a man (to protect her-- or to protect the polis/the man from her?)". I found this to be similar to our discussion about the veil and how it is to protect the men from sinning and giving into their temptations.
Also, on page 10, she mentions, "...equality feminists seek to end state-directed or -sanctioned discrimination against women.......Feminist commentators remark upon the ironies of appealing to a masculinist state for protection against the violence of individual men." The leads us back to a concept introduced in The Second Sex in that women can only stop being the "other" when they stop depending on men.
Finally, Pettman introduces some very interesting questions: "How do women experience citizenship?"(pg 15) and one should ask, "what the citizen is a citizen of". (pg 23)

Lastly, I would like to hear how people responded to Pettman's remark on page 8. "TA failure to 'see' women makes possible the transformation of 'man' into a supposedly neutral and universal being. his repression that excludes female difference can only allow female inclusion at the cost of homologising them--of making women become or be seen as being like men."