I thought the 'silly' season ended at Christmas. Obviously I was wrong.

We have a two page article about whether some shelia will change her surname when she hooks up with a bloke. That is REALLY important.

Today Fred Nile wants to cover up a few bare boobs on beaches.

Why do we fund these idiots?

runner: "Man was created to be the spiritual head of the family...To go against the natural order of things always results in the further break down in society. To take on ones wife name is emasculating and unnatural."

Beware the person who uses magic words like 'natural order', 'man was created to...', 'woman was made to...'. They usually have no reasoning other than a blind faith in the existing order which suits their place in the hierarchy.

You know runner when my son-in-law took his wife's maiden name as his surname people thought it 'unnatural' and that he was being 'emasculated'. Now that they have both reached the international pinnacle of their profession and are raising a wonderful family together, all the early critics have come around to seeing another legitimate way of being a family.

And where they live society is showing no signs of breaking down.

OLO rule #87: if you have been unable to manage your intimate relationships and/or selected an unsuitable spouse who later hurt you emotionally, you must approach every debate about gender as though everyone of your ex-spouse's sex is equally bad, equally to blame, and as though nobody else can possibly be in a loving, growing relationship free from the turmoil and betrayal you have experienced.

Nina, the answers you've provided in relation to the rape crisis center are more than enough. In fact, the information is out there for people who are genuinely interested.

What you need to understand, is that many of the individuals posting here regard it as a side-issue to their own causes, which more often than not can very clearly be chalked up to a harrowing experience induced by the opposite gender.
Instead of accepting that both genders have ar*eholes who take advantage of whatever they can, they seem to form a grudge and can't move on.

My honest recommendation is to cease giving them fuel to their fire, particularly in relation to community organisations, which typically have little money and little power, but are targets for ideologues. Sadly, these organisations tend to have less power to defend themselves, so it pays to be careful.
Regardless of what you say, it will be a reason to hate feminists, in fact, the moment you use that term, regardless of what you say, they will attack.
Many can't accept any form of feminism, regardless of what is espoused. I can provide links where I've argued with individuals who refuse to accept that anyone who calls themselves feminist for any reason could possibly do any good, even if they were simply opposing the stoning of women in Saudi Arabia.
Illogical? Yes. But if the word 'feminist' is used, in many cases, rationality appears to vanish.

This phenomenon can clearly be evidenced by the harmless, lighthearted article which prompted this discussion.
Because 'feminism' was mentioned, they started foaming at the mouth. What seems really sad to me, is that they can't see that they're a mirror image of the aggressive feminists that they loathe so very much.
There are two extreme sides of the coin, and in opposing one, they become the other. As in most matters, the sensible ground lies somewhere in the middle, instead of launching vitriol at any particular cause.

'What seems really sad to me, is that they can't see that they're a mirror image of the aggressive feminists that they loathe so very much. '

Bingo:-)

Although the feminists they loathe get books published and are often respected in the community, while they are normally dismissed as misogynist pigs;-)

USuss,

I'm interested:- can you provide a list of the books written by "aggressive feminists" in say, the last twenty years? They seem to have slipped by me.

Also, who do you consider to be the "agressive feminists" who are respected by the community?