is australia a decent country or is it a haven for ignorance and prejudice? imho if one based an analysis of the country on the majority of the posts here one could not help but rate it ignorant and deeply prejudiced!

While reading this nonsense I had the image of two monkeys hurling their excreta randomly at a wall in the vain hope that if there was enough of it someone might mistake it for creative effort.

Sure makes a prospective employer wonder about employing social science graduates.

E Sykes got something out of it, but maybe that was just confirmation of his/her world outlook.

pontificator,

All you are proving is that you're ageist and fall for marketing furphy and generalisations. There is no such thing as generation X.

If you wish to fall for such pathetic generalisations, perhaps you are a 'baby boomer', the generation who by their own example left such a cynical example of how the world works for their children to observe, and penned the term generation X to slag off the very same generation they taught so well. The type that the advertisers seem to be aptly appealing to gleefully and almost spitefully spend the inheritance of their offspring (who no doubt wouldn't give a rats, and would be more than happy for them to do just that).

If you want to attack me because you are upset about my mocking of your candlelight suppers Hyacinth, just do so directly. Don't hide behind some sort of lazy generational generalisations. Don't blame people either, blame the latest gadgets, like your parents blamed Elvis' swaying hips. Everything was better in the good ol' days huh.

BTW: You sound like as much a larrikin as Kevin Rudd.

antiseptic,

Waah waah waah. Grow a spine if you don't want to buy new curtains. You're always going on about personal responsibility then have such a whinge about that kind of crap. With regards to the shonky 'happiness' surveys that's normally the kind of crap research you lament in the feminists you despise so. Regardless, I'd say it would have more to do with the support systems women and men choose to surround themselves with. ie. Women making a bigger effort with their friends and families, building deeper friendships etc

pelican,

You're a beacon of hope for feminism. Replace the general feminist author's male hating hyperbole with your reasoned pragmatic outlook and the men would all be jumping on board in no time. I think the authors here could learn a thing or two from you.

whistler,

What ever happened to 'absent'!

Yikes,

If it's so bad here perhaps you should move to a nicer country.

Houellebecq:"With regards to the shonky 'happiness' surveys that's normally the kind of crap research you lament in the feminists you despise so"

LOL. Actually, it's a 9 year (so far) longitudinal study of about 10,000 people who agreed to complete personal surveys regularly and to also provide some data as to events that were occurring in their lives at the time. My first reaction was similar to yours untill i read more about it. His conclusions may be way off the mark, I've not seen his number crunching, but the data is very extensive, unlike the typical advocacy "research" quoted by feminists. One other significant difference is that the professor is an economist and this was an econometrc analysis, rather than the sort of rubbery guff beloved of sociologists, especialy the pro-feminist variety.

Is there any aspect of his conclusions you take particular issue with?

The ladies write

'Today’s young women (like many young men) are free to actively embrace their sexuality, and to put their bodies on display without fear of sullying their reputation or experiencing sexual taunts and violence. They aim to determine their own reality and reject constructs imposed by society’s expectations.'

This might be a nice little myth to believe in but to deny the outcome of such philosophy is naive. Just ask the many women in the Western suburbs of Sydney whether this philosophy works. Its as silly as saying that being a stripper is not going to make a man think any different of you. Until these feminist face up to some facts in life they are going to add to the problem of rape rather than come up with some solutions. That is sad for everyone.

No Runner, what is sad is that there are still men like you in this modern world who still think that women who dress how you think is provocatively, ask for rape or sexual assault.

Apparently the weak men of the world , upon spying a scantily clad woman, cannot stop themselves from ravaging that woman? If we follow that line of thinking, why is it that some rapists attack copiously clothed elderly women or nuns, as they have before?

Rape has occurred throughout history, during times when the scantily clad woman was few and far between.
Rape is about power and violence, not sex.

The majority of men do not feel the same as you do Runner, thank God.