And that, pickledherring, is the microwave-ready psychoanalysis I usually receive when I put that argument! I think it's mostly a knee-jerk, ad hominem reaction to statements you find insulting.

No, my opinion is the result of gross disappointment in people who shrug off dignity like it's a burden.

I've known many capable, intelligent women - friends, sisters, work colleagues - and watched the majority of them become people who will tolerate violence, withdraw from friends and family, dive into crazy financial schemes...anything, just so long as someone will stick around to provide order and context in their lives (and not just blokes. Lesbians get the worst of both worlds).

This article backs my point up: feminism is now of value to only a fringe minority. Women have more opportunities and resources now than at any point in history, and what choices have they made? Paris Hilton as a rolemodel and the revival of good housekeeping guides.

It's tragic, and I can't respect it, but Western women are breathing a collective sigh of relief that they can finally get back to a role they're comfortable with. And surely feminism is about the right to choose.

So when was the last time men accurately assessed female sexuality?

Sancho,

I think unfortunatly you have a point, of course freedom is scary and some people may wish to find a way to escape it. But it just seems to me there is something missing from your argument: men.

For women to revert back to being "objects" there must be enough men ready to view them as such, and only as such, otherwise it would hardly be a winning tactic. So it's not just women who reveal vulnarebilities in these unequal relations, but also the men who choose these women.

They prove their lack of confidence and need for reasurance by prefering a relationship marred by a power relation of domination and submission to a relationship with an equal partner, which is obviously more challenging, more demanding.

So the question to me becomes how do we, as a society and as individuals, make sure that these dynamics get left in the past by both genders? how do we, men and women, finally find a way to grow and relate to one another as strong, free and equal? Let's stop this fnger pointing from one sex to the other and face our issues together.

"Beneath the facade of sexually empowered, career-ready alpha-grrls, women still want what they've always wanted: slavery"

Sancho, at first I thought you were joking. Then you repeated yourself. I have to say that as a young woman with an excellent education, high earning job and stable hetero relationship with a similarly qualified partner, I was utterly appalled by your statement.

I am sure that some women do wish to be nothing more than an old-style "little woman" at home (indeed, my cousin seems to be going down this road quite happily), but to assume that this is the way that most women wish to be?

The idea that the freedom feminism has given me and my friends to earn that education, work in an interesting job, vote, travel alone etc has made me wish for a return to my Grandmother's status as 'chatel' is utterly stupid.

I (and my friends) certainly do NOT want someone who will dominate us to be our partners. We want people who are our intellectual equals, who will SHARE our lives.

Indeed, Sancho, from all my discussions with young men around my age, they too do not wish for "little wifeys", they want young women who interest them, and who will be partners in life, not dependants.

The idea that women actually wish to be slaves is utterly appalling.

This article starts with three teenage girls apparently being blamed, because they allegedly attracted the attention of some perhaps oafish young men by the way in which they were dressed. This sounds a bit like the oft quoted fallacy that women who get raped "ask for it" by their dress and/or behaviour.

In 1950, when I was 16, I learned to dance when my mother told me that was the best way to meet girls. I found that the girls who danced generally wanted to look pretty and maybe wanted to look a bit cheeky and a bit sexy as well. They also tended to look attractively healthy, a bit like skaters, swimmers and tennis players do. This suited me fine and my preference was certainly for girls who "looked good".

If people dance well, they know they will attract attention, whether their style is Ballroom, Latin or Rock-n-Roll. This of course applies to the men as well. I still dance 4 or 5 times a week and nothing has changed.

But suggesting that looking attractive, at any age, is somehow letting womanhood down is ridiculous. And how do people look attractive? For many it's being fashionably dressed, particularly for young girls who are still developing their personal confidence and individuality.

Tight pants and bare midriffs haven't just been invented. My first wife looked great in such an outfit in 1960. She also had a good job, sang in a choir, was the soprano with a quartet and represented the area at netball. I suppose that could be regarded as a good set of achievements in her own right.

I saw inequalities in my parents' marriage. But my mother had to be tough to counter my father's irresponsible traits. And I wanted a partner who would be intelligent, capable, interesting, honest and definitely equal. But I also wanted a woman who dressed like a woman and not in a copy of a man's business suit, or some other sexually neutral way, like so many of them do nowadays.

'Struth! Not another "raunch culture" article. When will women stop obsessing about themselves?

And when will Hell freeze over?

The answer to both is, never.

Look, good people, there's nothing very unusual or new about this so-called raunch culture. It's simply a case of ye old, "mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

Every young girl, outside of women's studies courses, wants to be the prettiest, most desirable princess of them all. But there's a lot of competition out there, so what's a poor girl to do?

Simple - go raunch.

It's all about a girl simply using her wares to get her way in the modern world where the liberals have removed the moral barriers. Vagina power is the name of the game and it's what it's all about. Young women are pitting their wares against those of their competition. Nothing new about that. They've been doing it for millions of generations. It's just natural. But now there's no rules.

If girls want to look and behave like trash, let them. If they want to get tramp-stamps, primitive tribal adornments and powerful aftermarket accessories like big breast enlargements, why shouldn't they?

I just don't understand why so many women have to write about it and I wish they'd stop. Haven't they got anything better to do?