@quillfire

>Fiona, I love the way you write. You could write a chapter about tying your shoes and I'd undoubtedly be engrossed throughout.

Thank you. Again.  Now there's a challenge.....

>When a word becomes bastardized to this extent ... it loses its original meaning. "Feminism" has lost its ability to articulate what it once did: A belief in the legal, cultural and social equality of men and women, despite their differences. In a word ... it got "hi-jacked."

Which is exactly why I rarely enter into these debates now and I chose my words carefully:  I <strong><em>consider</em></strong> rather than <strong><em>claim</em></strong> to be a feminist.

Raising the issue of abortion and being pro-life - now there's another issue on which, of course, I have a strong opinion.  For another time.

>If you used that story as a plot for a novel, people would throw it in the garbage bin. Yes, fiction requires "suspension of belief" ... but the plot still has to feel plausible given the context. No one in their right mind would believe that such a plot was plausible.

The thought I had, was that at least one of the protagonists is a stalker...a psychological thriller...  However, that thought makes  mockery of it all.

>just as men with mustaches are not evil because Hitler and Stalin had mustaches, women are not evil because a few of the more ideologically obsessed have jumped off the deep end.

True.  As is so often the case, it's the 80:20 principle and where the 20 taint the 80.

Good day!
Fiona

PS  Somers' philosophy resonates for me.  Thank you for that reference.  

You may be interested that in early childhood education circles in South Africa, there is increasing increase in the boy child after the skewed focus on the girl child.  A move that began as much as 10 years ago.  Interestingly, my friend and colleague who was using this as a basis for her Ph D, is now living and teaching in Hong Kong.