Hmm... good to see some feisty interaction :)

bring it on ! more more more.

"Holohoax" :) not bad Jack... we can all improve our writing skills here.

I alert you all to one of mine coming up "BD's short history of time" in response to Fractelles challenges... I think yous'll like it.
(On the 'common ground between Muslims and Christians' thread)

Steel, no problems at all - no personal offence taken. :)

There certainly is some feisty interaction on this forum at times.

Irony is we are all probably on the same page but coming at the problems from a different angle or perspective.

OK, Very late on this, but believe it or not I'd never noticed the general discussion blogs. I'm sure my appearance here will be disappointing to vanilla and pelican.

I've noticed a trend in all the gender politics blogs here. We're all so defensive.

1. A bunch of guys jack up to a typically one-sided (I believe) feminist article, and defend their gender by trying to highlight the bias or exageration, or omission of any responsibility placed on women for the social phenomena, and omission of any articles sypathising with men on... well... anything really.

2.The women posters then interperet this as an attack on the actual topic or denial of the plight of the women discussed, and defend the validity of the actual individual women who may be experiencing the discrimination/hatred/disrespect/general evil male behaviour.

3. The male posters then see this as a playing down of the plight of the men in the other side (usually undiscussed by the author) of the story they have highlighted as examples that men don't have it so rosy. To them it is further perpetuation of women being only capable of seeing women=victim, male=oppressor that I believe many males have been brought up with hearing and are just sick to death of it. Anger abounds.

4. The women posters then decide the men are turning it all around and attacking women, and sabataging the female sympathy fest the original article was intended to promote.

In reallity I think the women posters really do have SOME sympathy for mens plight in the world, but rather it didn't interupt the attention to womens issues. The men have always had sympathy for womens issues (how could they not when it's been banged into their head since childhood), but cant understand why in any social phenomena, they are constantly told men=bad, women=good. It's hard to show sympathy while at the same time feeling demonised.

"I'm sure my appearance here will be disappointing to vanilla and pelican."

What the? I thought we were mates. I'm thrilled you've found the general forum. It's way more fun here, you can bang on about whatever you want, and whenever you get bored, there's always Boazy's posts to unravel.

I agree with your assessment of the typical OLO argument, although that only holds true for the article threads. This thread began because Boazy thought it was sexist of a woman to ask a man a question about cars, threw in a bit of non sequiter racism (whoops! I used the word "racist"! I must be PC!), while Steel went off on a journey I found it difficult to follow, and CJ, Pelican and I remained the beacons of excellent sense we inevitably are. That's my assessment anyway.

I don't agree with your last paragraph though, and indeed, it contains an internal contradiction. I see no evidence to suggest levels of sympathy for the other sex on these boards aren't actually entirely personality-based. In this thread, for example, I think Pelican has more sympathy for men than Steel for women, and I'm willing to bet that Pelican is more sympathetic in general. Likewise I think I'm more sympathetic than, oh, say HRS, and that it comes across on these boards as it would in any other arena. Equally, I think you're more sympathetic to women than some of the lady posters are to men. So no, it's not my experience that there's a gender divide - I think it's a personality one.

I am sincere in saying I thought we were mates. You've changed my mind on a number of issues and I've used your story about the masturbating woman (which is going to sound awfully saucy to those not in the know) with my IRL friends. Having said that, I'm always up for a tussle if there's one in the offing.

Interesting perspective Whitty.. and by the way.. first time I noticed you here. *welcome* :)

My opening post was not that I thought the girl mentioning the car show to the boy for 'male confirmation' was sexist I rather loved it, but I noticed that that kind of thing.. would be "called" sexist by some more enthusiastic feminists of the militant kind.

I once committed a 'sexist' sin.. a girl parked her car at right angles to the flow of traffic in a servo.. i.e. she blocked everyone else from departing from the pumps.. when she came out I gave her a friendly dig "aah..women driver".. shocked.. then recovered..she called me a "sexist b*stard".... as I reflected on that.. I could have taken a different approach.. calling her what she really was "An inconsiderate retard who knows nothing about how to park a vehicle"

To which the only valid response would be 'ur right' :)

I think men are the 'crusaders' women are the 'carers'.

Women operate within the freedom and security which men guarantee by their protection of the society. One can argue till the cows come home about that, but it remains an absolute fact of life. I hope none of our female contributors argues with that.. cos if they do I'll be all over them like the worst rash they ever had.. with facts and history,
not to mention my secret weapon. "Discovery chanel" :)

Vanilla is right.. its way more fun in this general discussion area.
But.. like many sports, we have to take as well as give.

Boaz: "I hope none of our female contributors argues with that.. cos if they do I'll be all over them like the worst rash they ever had"

With that image in my head, Boazy, you can guarantee that this lady poster will never argue with you about anything ever again.