Ah, Maureen forgot one vitally important thing.. MONEY.

Fathers earn the bulk of a family's cash. ABS figures show Australian fathers work 23hrs a week longer than mothers - on average - five hours a day...

PartTimeParent@yahoo.com.au

I think Maureen's argument may be influenced by the type of guys she has dated. She has had previous relationships with Michael Douglas, who is a vain and unreconstructed chauvinist, and the West Wing's creator and writer, Aaron Sorkin - reformed cokehead. Hollywood is notorious for its misogyny. She has written this book, I believe, without statistical or anecdotal support beyond her own. That just translates into a long-winded whinge.
If the guys who have a Pulitzer Prize on their CV, their own op. ed. column in the New York Times and good looks want to be with a woman like Pamela Anderson, why on earth would Maureen Dowd want to be with a guy like that?

Scout, I think some comments on ID (Internet Dating) bear relevance to the topic.

ID is not my prefered way to meet people but I do think it attempts to fill a gap in the getting to meet other singles thing especially for older singles.

My experience has been that a significant proportion of people who I've talked to using ID find the bar, club scene is not something which they are comfortable in. It provides an easy way to find out about some of the values a person holds and what they think is important about themselves. It provides some safety for both parties in the initial stages. It can bring you into a contact with a much wider range of singles in a relevant age bracket than you are likely to find in a local interest group or club. I've been involved in some mid week activities for a while (for my own sanity rather than as a pick up mechanism) and have not met any singles in my age bracket where there has been any sign of interest either way.

I get the impression that not a lot of singles my age are getting out to interest groups. Not sure why, I suspect child care is a significant factor for many but also it may be a generational thing. If I was 10 to 15 years older there seem to be a lot of single women getting out there and pushing some boundaries. I'm also not keen to be the kind of person within such a group who gets a reputation for finding out the relationship status of new female members etc. Can get kind of creepy.

In my ideal world I'd meet a soulmate at a friends BBQ or on a hike with friends but that does not seem to be the way life is going and I suspect that it is not the case for a lot of others as well. ID provides some opportunities which are harder to find elsewhere.

Abreviated due to WC.

Cheers
R0bert

I read this in The Age - making the context a little easier to understand I suppose.

Overall, I enjoyed the review and got the impression that I'd probably agree with the reviewer - if I did the fairly unlikely thing and read the book (being a bloke and all).

Still... with a title like that, I'm sure the book will sell. Thinking about the business side of this a bit further, I suppose there's probably money to be made for any guy willing to write a book titled "(offensive...had second thoughts and cut it)".

The question I would rather pose - is Maureen Dowd really necessary?

Aren’t we all so over this type of crap already?

What’s next – let me guess – are women really necessary, and to whom?

Scout “and I don't need a husband - nyah nyah nyah”

My reward for being deliberately provocative :)

“But seriously Col & R0bert I believe that gold diggers and misogynists deserve each other and (although not religious) hope that there is a circle in hell reserved for these tragics.”

I am sure the gold diggers and misogynists are in a living hell already. No one, who is so bereft of soul and motivated only by material considerations or negative gender values will ever find happiness in any relationship, always the insecurity which drives them will be there.



Robert My current partner and I met through an internet dating site. That was 4 years ago and I am very lucky to have such a lovely lady in my life.

She was not the first person I met, just the last.

I must have had dates with 50 different ladies before I met her. So I can say the ID outcome was not an exercise in desperation but a better process of "mutual selection".

It does not matter where we find a partner, just that we find the right one. ID gave me a range of opportunities (same for anyone who uses the service). It is a better range and a better media than meeting through some dingy nightclub or party.


Cheers