Dear Antiseptic,

I don't have the time to scrawl through all
the sporting clubs in Australia to tell you
what gender their CEOs are.

Your point seems
to focus on the fact that a few women have been
appointed on the Board of the NRL - and you're
objecting because - you consider the NRL
male territory. I've tried to explain the possible
reasons for their decision. You then want to know
what women's clubs have male CEOs - in actual fact
I don't quite see the relevance of your question -
because each organisation makes its decisions on
what they consider to be beneficial to them - for
a variety of reasons - I'm not sure that gender
comes into the equation - but you can either - ask
them or - if you really want to know
the answers - you've got a computer - do your own
research.

As far as ZONTA International is concerned - ZONTA
is a global organisation of female executives -
who volunteer their time, talents, and money to
local and international service programs as well as
scholarship award programs aimed at furthering women's
education, leadership, and youth development.
If any male executive is interested in volunteering
his time, talent and money in helping ZONTA in the
pursuit of its goals - I'm sure he'd be most welcome.
Mr Sixten Nordstrom of Sweden was appointed as an honorary
member a few years ago, just to name one prominent male
in the organisation. I'm sure there are many others - but
as I said - google ZONTA - or even contact your local
branch (we have one here in Melbourne) - and they may be
able to help you further with your questions.

SJF: “Embittered personalities almost always have unhappy marriages that end in traumatic divorces.”

There were also claims that embittered women make a better class of feminist. Something to do with their “unique” victim status and experience, I guess. Not sure if any credible research was ever undertaken to prove or disprove, but if the numbers of victims are anything to go by, lots more unhappiness to look forward to, both in marriage and out. Good for business.

SJF: “With all due respect, this attitude is well-meaning but also self-defeating and unhelpful. Gender is still very important, and will continue to be so for a long time to come.”

Of course one would have to take personal responsibility for self-defeatism – much better to have someone else defeat you. Equity feminism is for wimps.

TPP: “Hey Seeker, Wish there was a man here right now, there is a spider, a great big Aussie one – these are the only times I miss NZ.”

Kia kaha, TPP.

Why assume these men’s divorce experience gave them their embittered attitude? It’s more likely the opposite. It’s these men’s embittered attitude that almost certainly created their particular kind of divorce experience. Embittered personalities almost always have unhappy marriages that end in traumatic divorces.

On what do you base this incredible statement? I am a survivor of that system, and while it worked well for me, ultimately, it was only because of the outrageous behaviour of my ex’, and her finally voluntarily giving me custody of the babies that I was happy. During my proceedings I was made aware of the machinations and outright lies that are accepted by the court as gospel, purely on a woman’s word, while males were required to provide proof of any claims or statements, preferably with six independent witnesses, only to have most dismissed as irrelevant, or as being “provoked”. The bias was incredible to witness, and even after achieving custody, I was a victim of it myself.
Your claims are entirely indefensible, positively ludicrous, and do you no benefit, they betray your bias clearly. Yes, there are many unpleasant men in the system, but most are not, and the women seem to be almost pushed into “using” the system by the feminists involved, as my ex’ was, plus the number and scope of the vindictiveness was almost entirely female.
I still don’t hold it against women in general, I’m sane enough to realise most are as appalled by it as I am. I certainly believe however that it IS changing, and will continue to do so. Comments like yours are an impediment, not an aid.
Feminism has only one rule: Women are right, no matter what they say or do.
Deny that

Ah come on, Anti, old son. 'Fess up.

You're bored, aren't you? There's been nothing on OLO recently but boring ole serious stuff like climate change and politics and population. Haven't had a good stouch for a while. So you came up with the most provocative theory you could think of, hoping to net conspiracy theorists, women, anti-women - anyone who you reckoned you could entice into another one of those 150+ post threads you so enjoy.

Naughty! But you got your nibbles.

Gonna go now and let you have your fun with anyone else who wants to play but first. (Yeah, there's always a "but wait - there's more" when someone says they're about to fade into the sunset, huh?). Sincerely: maybe you ought to click onto an on-line dictionary site, yeah?

I think you have the meaning of Dowager and Matron mixed up. Also, Dowager is a fairly nuanced word. I had to grin at the application of it to PNG. An image came into my mind of a pig fat coated little Chimbu improbably peering through a lorgnette and para-phrasing Oscar Wilde: "Lusim wanpela man, emi nogut. Lusim tupela man emi buggarup tru!"

Cheers.Enjoy your thread.

Foxy, I must admit to being wrong on the matter of Zonta. Having read further on the subject, you are dead right, there is no bar to male membership. That does raise the subject of why the perception of an exclusively female membership is so widespread. I asked several colleagues about it after reading your post and they all thought it was exclusively for women.

I must also confess that you're doing a good job of making the argument that there is a place for women in Rugby League management. Do you agree then that all exclusively female sports should have males running the show?

I still feel that the process has been orchestrated as an exercise in creating a public scandal that can be "fixed" by putting women in charge. I suspect that the NRL is regarded as a male bastion that must be brought to heel by many feminists, including Tracey Grimshaw and Sarah Ferguson and that they (mis)used their positions to create this scandal out of a 7 year-old incident that had already been dealt with by police, largely to create the right PR conditions for women to be brought in.

No one has addressed that yet.

Maximillion:"I still don’t hold it against women in general"

Nor do I, but I do hold it against those people who seek to profit from it, whether as beneficiaries of the corruption or as employees of organisations that promote it.

Romany, a dowager is a matriarch, beholden to no one. She is a very different cultural figure to the matron, who is a younger woman with family including a husband.

She is a very real figure in PNG, wielding immense influence. The oldest people in the village are most often women. I must admit to being impressed with your Pidgin, too. Mipela toktok liklik tasol. I left in 79 and haven't used it since.

You should know by now that I am sincere in my views and they're well-supported. I'm not after a "stoush", just a discussion

Maximillian

'Feminism has only one rule: Women are right, no matter what they say or do.
Deny that'

No problem. I deny it. Because it's untrue. It's a well-pedalled misrepresentation by anti-feminist mens groups who notoriously use the pain of the divorce system as one of its favoured weapons to get embittered men on side.

So-called 'mens support' groups have been getting away with outrageous lies about female bias in the divorce system for many years now. They've had a clear run in the media, and during the conservative war-on-women era of the Bush-Howard years ... and it's high time they were brought to account for their behaviour - and stopped.

How many times do we have to hear about this universal ex-wife from Hell who lied and lied and lied and the entire Family Court - all trained, experienced professionals - 'believed' her every single word?

And how many times are these ex-wives to be portrayed as having no feelings during separation and divorce - as if they don't experience any grief, any pain, any financial distress?

I have been at the coalface of two horrendous divorces of two close female friends, who got not a single ounce of bias from the Family Court, while having to fend off almost sociopathic gang behaviour from the local Mens Support Group.

One event that I directly witnessed involves members of this Group who 'mysteriously' turned up at the marital home when my friend was moving out. They stood guard at every doorway and gateway, supposedly in case she made off with all 'his' assets. After several beers were consumed, they started getting lewd and nasty - clapping and chanting stuff like: 'You're not getting a penny, bitch!', 'Tell the dykes to leave' over and over again.(Apparently the latter referred me and another friend who was helping her out.)

When I tried to intervene, I got the same treatment. After that ugly episode, no one is ever going to tell me that Mens Support Groups are just a benign counter balance to the women's movement. They have a VERY different agenda.