On Mon, 28 Apr 1997, Redneck Gaijin wrote:

I'm going to post this and leave the subject, since -apparently- everyone
else on this list disagrees with me and doesn't see Shampoo as a stupid,
overagressive, violent woman and -does- see her as the ideal to get Ranma.

No, she's not the ideal woman for Ranma.  I never said this, others may
have but I didn't.  I'm amoung the first to say Akane is far better.  As
for Ukyo, well I'm unconvinced.  Is Shampoo violent, yes.  Is she stupid,
no.  Does her tactics leave something to be desired, oh yes.

On Sun, 20 Apr 1997, Redneck Gaijin wrote:

Oh? Explain Mousse.

 In a strict patriarchal society, women aren't allowed to

fight. By extension, if Amazon society is that strict, Mousse would never
have been taught the martial arts. 

We are given to understand that he studied on his own.

You just shot down your own argument.  He was therefore allowed to study
on his own or not is unimportant, he was allowed.

And?

And, to hammer it home since you don't seem to get it, this means Mousse
was allowed to study martial arts, under who is really unimportant.  He is
not punished for this, nor does it seem to be held against him.  Therefore
it is fairly logical and reasonable to assume it is acceptable for males
to train in martial arts meaning the Amazon society isn't strict.

I do recall this and what more infamous behavior?

Running Ranma down, glomping him at any opportunity, etc.

Okay, running Ranma down can be seen as female dominering.  Glomping him
at any opportunity is just excessive affection.  Since she rather
considently differs to his leadership, at least in the anime, that's a
show of her being more liberal.

That's untrue.  Mousse has shown all to often he doesn't obey
unconditionally.  So, what do we make of this?  Maybe men do have some
determination of their own and aren't pushed around.  If the society was
the men are slaves bit or near that Mousse would be in far worse condition
than he is.  He would have been thrown out of the tribe, executed,
detained or otherwise punished on a regular basis.

More like a male is expected to obey orders and not cause trouble, but is
otherwise allowed free will. Of course, this has gone so far into
speculation now (mea culpa) that anyone's guess has equal credence. Based on
the VERY little we have seen of Amazon culture in the manga, however, I
would describe the Amazon culture as a balance of power; the women are in
charge, but there are cases (the I-defeat-you-you-marry-me clause in
particular) in which they hold a check to the woman's power.

Okay, that seems like a perfectly legit interpretation to me.

Oh, by the way, two things.  One, do we really know Mousse is from the
tribe?  I know he's known Shampoo since they were 3 but is there anything
better than this?  Cologne did once say "Being from China yourself..."
which implies that Mousse comes from China but not the village.

Since Mousse abides by Amazon law, I'd say it's a good bet he's from the
village.

Since when?  What exact incident(s) are you referring to?

Two, what are these meneal tasks that Mousse is preforming, outside of
fanfics?  I don't even consider working for his stay a meneal task.

Let's see, as I recall Mousse does all the cleaning around the Nekohanten.
Don't get much more menial than cleaning.

I don't.  It's not the most pleasant job on the planet but it could be far
worse than that.

Wade