Well said. The fact you consistently understand gives me hope. :wink:
Unnfortunately, there are those who rationalize misogynistic comments. I find it interesting that some would actually expect nothing less from heterosexual males - and more interesting that people reading that would not disagree, especially the men themselves. It is an excellent point that women who love men should be with men who care for, love and respect women in general. It is occasionally difficult to be a woman in this forum, where many of the men do not speak out against some of the anti-female posts that are made. Some of the women who post on the site can be feisty - they need to be in this type of atmosphere.
Someone mentioned that because misogyny happens in RL, it should be expected in the boards. I find that to be poor logic - it simply doesn't make it right. As others have pointed out, if other hate type comments (substitute racist or homophobic for misogynistic) were made, reactions are much more harsh and would come from more readers. If the bar is set that low on standards of conduct in the message boards, then hateful commentary will continue.
Finally there are those who don't see any misogynistic comments or attitudes on the boards at all - even in their own writings. People like Dolfette are great because they would actually counter in a direct way. They share their thoughts freely and generously. I tend to respond only to posts that interest me. I will be the first to admit that unless a post spewing misogynistic/hateful/ignorant comments irritates me enough to respond, my personal thought is that a person who is so wilfully ignorant is not one who would ever pay attention to what I write.
So I can see why some women find the atmosphere difficult to tolerate at times to the point where they have to take breaks or leave the community. The bottom line that the men (majority of the members) need to decide : is there a real desire for diversity including women. And if the answer is yes, then what is the majority willing to do to create an atmosphere where diversity including women is encouraged.
