What qualifies a man to talk about an issue like feminism?

She has an ermine coat, a foreign car,
A ten-room flat with a built-in bar.
And she does it all at thirty per,
Believe it, that's the truth, Dear Sir.
Yet five years back, some teacher hick,
Flunked this gal in arithmetic.

Why can't a woman be more like a man?
Men are so honest, so thoroughly square;
Eternally noble, historic'ly fair;
Who, when you win, will always give your back a pat.
Well, why can't a woman be like that?

Why does ev'ryone do what the others do?
Can't a woman learn to use her head?
Why do they do ev'rything their mothers do?
Why don't they grow up- well, like their father instead?
Why can't a woman take after a man?
Men are so pleasant, so easy to please;
Whenever you are with them, you're always at ease.

Would you be slighted if I didn't speak for hours?
<< Of course not!>>
Of course not!

Would you be livid if I had a drink or two?
<<Nonsense.>>

Would you be wounded if I never sent you flowers?
<<Never>>

Well, why can't a woman be like you?

I've always been interested to read something by a man who supported reproductive choice but was in a situation where he'd gotten a woman pregnant who had decided to terminate the pregnancy which would have resulted in the birth of his child, which he wanted.

As a woman, who has control over my own body and the power to decide to do what I wanted to do when I was pregnant, I always thought, when I'd read about men who either had to pay child support for a child they didn't want or watch a woman abort a child they did want - that it must be very, very difficult to be in such an emotionally vulnerable position and dependent upon someone else's decision-making during that whole process.

It'd be interesting to me to read what a man thinks and feels in a situation such as that.
And how his views in terms of 'choice' would or wouldn't be affected.

TK--are you contributing to this blog as a feminist friendly male searching for compliments or are you sticking up for us blokes? We have a bad enough hand to play as it is.

I've thought about both of these scenarios.

I think both of these topics are explorable, but would have to be mostly speculation. I've never found myself in either situation.

I've thought about both of these scenarios.

I got one in just being offered to write.

I bet a lot of guys have been in one or the other of those situations.

spendius wrote:


TK--are you contributing to this blog as a feminist friendly male searching for compliments or are you sticking up for us blokes? We have a bad enough hand to play as it is.


These are my options in your mind?

That I'm either fishing for complements I don't need or pleading for sympathy for a bad hand I don't think is all that bad..? If I wanted a complement, I got one in just being offered to write.

What is "a lot". I'm not one for a start.

I'm not one for a start.

And anybody who is has likely got his head in a shed and is thus unsuitable for a responsible discussion.

Spendius - you're asking me to believe that you don't understand what 'a lot' means?

I'm sincerely happy for you that that's not the case.

depending on how you viewed the pregnancy.

I disagree. I think it can happen to anyone - even responsible people.

It's a situation in which I was glad that I had control. I don't know what it would feel like to be a male who was just along for the ride - essentially in the passenger seat- while someone else drove.
I'd be interested to read about that.

You know... if you play this right, you might even score a hot feminist check.

It's talking about people who have something wrong with them.

It's pretending that pregnancy isn't chosen.

Like it's some accidental happening that could happen to anybody.

Oops... I guess that is spelled Czech (damn spell checker didn't catch that for some reason).

There are "a lot" of Americans living in England.

I met one once. I could tell she was an American because she referred to a soiled diaper rather than a nappy full of ****.

Devious phrases don't interest me.

That's grossly insulting Becks. You make it sound like I was lucky. Luck had nothing to do with it.

That's even worse. A pregnancy is a little mite struggling to live and totally helpless. There's only one way to view that in my opinion and I don't give two fucks about the USSC.

There are no mitigating circumstances. They are assholes.

Control of what?

You Yanks talk about things like that in the abstract.

You Yanks talk about things like that in the abstract. Meeting people for example. Meeting interesting people. Random slurs is another. Only teach science in science classes. No beef. No explanations.

Just labels. Self reassuring ones.

It can be used to make people think there's a hooded rapist in every shadow.