At 01:02 PM 2/26/98 -0700, w. suika roberts wrote:

While the persona Ranma is adopting is fairly femme, it isn't so femme
as to cause him any _new_ problems.

Think about it for a moment, does Ranma enjoy talking about sports,
girls, cars, or any of the other standard `male' topics of conversation?
does he enjoy fighting other people to beat them, or because he's
associated that with most of his pleasant memories? (most of his
memories, admittedly, but )
does he really have anything that he can do as a guy that he can't do as
a girl with a guy's body (modula his desire to do it, of course)?

  Hmm...  I don't generally talk about sports or cars, or even that much
about girls (I prefer women to girls).  I don't beat people up, and I even
read Jane Austen before the recent burst of movie-induced popularity.  Yet
I have no desire to be a woman.  

The problem with this is that, at least in modern American culture, the
female role has expanded far enough to allow that without breaking role,
while the male role has stayed relatively static.

  The male role has stayed relatively static by comparison to the female
role in the US only because the female role was more limited so movement
towards equality would require more change.  I take offense at your
implication that men are primarily beer guzzling, football watching,
whistling at women, creatures.  Also, please remember that Ranma is
Japanese and that the female role has expanded far less in Japan.

                                                                  dml