First, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a champion of the male sex. I am only too well aware of the unpleasant qualities possessed by many of the humans who share my anatomy, and am also well aware of the unfairness and humiliation that has often characterized their relationships with members of the female sex. I make no attempt to excuse or disguise this.

What I am is an opponent of racism in any shape or form, and it is this that I think the radical feminists have moved into. My reproach (or plea for compassion) is directed specifically and only at those women who consider themselves women first, and human beings second.

Racism is unfortunately one of the most basic (and loathsome) human tendencies. Humans like to discriminate against each other and have since the earliest recorded history, and it is something one should always be on one's guard against.

My plea is this--before one sets up a women's dance (no men allowed), or decides that, this year, one is going to read only women's fiction by women about women edited by women with a preface by a women, one should ask oneself why one is really doing this, and examine oneself for traces of racism and narcissism. Before one writes a letter or a paper viciously attacking an entire gender, or elects to make friends only from one sex, one should inspect ones motives pretty thoroughly.

One could easily ask why I am "picking on" women. It is just that, over the last two years, I have been exposed to what seems like an enormous volume of literature, activity, and so forth, by radical feminists and radical lesbians displaying an almost inhuman hatred of men, a feeling that men were worthless and uninteresting, and (most worrying of all) feeling that the aforementioned feelings were good, wholesome, noble, liberated feelings to have.

What pushed me over the edge, from merely being quietly resentful to actually writing a letter, is impossible to say. I may well be overreacting to what is only a tiny portion of the population, and I hope I am. I also sincerely hope that I have neither hurt nor offended anyone by expressing my discouragement and worry.

Nicholas B. Gunther is a graduate student at Harvard studying Mathematics.