JamesH. What on earth about any of my posts has led you to believe I m either female, misandrist or feminist?

Oh! I don't know? Romany. Just a good guess.

Sorry I'll have to buy another pack of marshmellows, I ate the other ones and today is a total fire ban, so we will have to save the roasting for another day.

When someone says something positive about women, it does not automatically mean that he or she is also implying something negative about men.
The extreme sensitivity some posters on this site display towards any article which is sympathetic to women or positive about their contribution reveals far more about the individual poster than it does about either the article or women.
I am a feminist, and I love men, women and children. That's why I'm a feminist, I believe that rigid gender roles and blanket assumptions about people based on their sex, their sexuality, their race, religion, class, accent, income, choice of dress or address, are almost always ignorant, foolish and damaging. Instead of rushing to judge people, often on the most superficial evidence, it is almost always better to wait and hear what they actually have to say. As to the poster who suggested that the drunk guy should expect to get rolled, I've never heard of such an excuse resulting in the thief getting a lesser sentence. As I pointed out on the previous thread, if women dressing or acting in certain ways means they provoke rape by tempting men, then surely the same argument must be true for the rich man who tempts the poor man to steal by flaunting his wealth? Yet no religion or court preaches that the thief is not to blame for his crime because he was tempted by someone elses wealth. That's another reason I'm a feminist, the good old double standard as evidenced by the awful Father Dave piece, as jocelyn points out, has not gone away yet.

The trouble is that nobody has much to say about men that is positive or if they do say something positive, they then add a negative comment.

We are bombarded with those terrible negative ads on TV.

Pick up any women's magazine and there is the constant protrayal of negativity, sure some of it is dressed up with sugar and spice.

almost 75% of our communication is suppose to be non verbal.

A simple phrase "Give me a call sometime" has at least 125 different meanings.

Sometimes people are responsible for what happens to them and other times they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no doubt that bad things can happen to good people and not all people are trustworthy.

Unfortunately we have not more than scratch the surface of human behaviour. Human behaviour is complex and is made complicated by overt and covert rules and regulations. Religion, politics and personal points of view and life experiences.

Sometimes we want to blame other people for the things that we bought on ourselves.

You mean that there is actually anything positive about men that doesn't involve them advancing their daughter's situation?

Men form 90% of the prison population, they are responsible for most of the crime, they are more likely to be violent (and to be the victims of violence), they don't seem to contribute anything worthwhile to the world.

(If they can put a man on the moon why can't they put them all? A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle?)

Men's sexual drives are so much more primitive and animalistic than women's. Even foreplay, to a woman can be something wonderful, to a man its like waiting in the queue for the rise at Luna Park. There must be something wrong with men for men to be like that.

After all, isn't the standard of comparison these days the feminine? Some women say that they love men, but my experience is that so many women want in their partners or male friends a man's body with a woman's brain and mind.

Women are the experts in relationships, and as Relationships Australia says, if married men want to be happy in their relationships they have to subjugate themselves to their women. They have to cease making decisions, except with 'consulation' - ie agree with the woman's opinion or try to think like a woman in their absence.

Where is the room for men, not imitation men, but men, in the modern world of interpersonal relationships, at home, socially and in the workplace?

Maybe all men should be locked up, and allowed leave on a limited basis, all put on a curfew, that would be the best way to protect and honour women.

What many of us seem to agree on is that men and women aren't particularly compatible. Sure, the odd couple seems to get on, but in general male and female characteristics seem to be quite incompatible.
From my (admittedly female) perspective, I would interpret the criticism of male characteristics that seems so all-pervading to many men to be the balancing out of many centuries of similar criticism of female characteristics. Women have always been expected to accommodate male preferences and tendencies, and now men are also expected to accommodate and compromise.
Personally, I think it's a shame that our society is so obsessed by the idea of men and women pairing up and living together in the same house (+ their offspring). It so rarely works. I'm sure some sort of compromise where we live separately and visit each other would work far better. The way society is structured though, that's not possible for most people. I suppose we can just hope for more options to open up in the future.