You don't have to be misandrist to call someone a misogynist. You merely have to read the text of their post and draw the obvious conclusion.

If A, then B. If a person uses sarcasm, condescension and cowardice in not giving a name in essentially justifying gang rape, chances are, he's a misogynist.

If A, then not B. If someone reads the posts of such a person and calls a spade a spade and a misogynist a misogynist (explaining away of gang rape is sufficient evidence to me), that does not make the person drawing that conclusion a misandrist. It makes that person a good reader. And it makes the anonymous misognyist guilty of trying to shift ground.

Have you ever seen an alpha male get away with it so that you're trying it yourself? It's not going to work.

Because I am NotaMom, does this mean I get to pollute and litter? Does this mean, if I do go Green, it doesn't count?

Or does it mean that these people simply have a bigger ecological footprint?

The Mommy Wars turn self-righteous on yet another front.

You know, it -is- possible to be politically conscious without having reproduced. You -do- know this, don't you? It doesn't seem evident from your stories.

Ever read any Philip Wylie? Or wonder why these women are not called Mothers, rather than Moms?

Lord, I hate the screaming cutes.

You think the cat gods OWE you?

Cat gods owe a mere human? The very idea.

Is Bastet ever going to get YOU!

Meanwhile, I suspect the goddamncats will do do what they will do, and there's no doing anything about it.

I sometimes wonder why the likes of Brightstar wants a kid. I suspect he wants a son or sons. God forbid he have a girlchild for various reasons, most of them the effect on the girlchild.

Now, he wants to break women's monopoly on pregnancy and childbirth?

Oh goody. Unless he creates an artificial exterior uterus (and think how bad that would be For The Chil-Dren), he's going to have to gestate the little precious himself. Which means a womb or the equivalent thereof and a lot of estrogen.

Enough and he might grow breasts. In between pregnancies, who knows?

I think it's a damn shame that men don't have 50% of the menstrual periods and 50% of the cramps, followed by 50% of the hot flashes later on.

I also think that if I go any more tongue-in-cheek I'm going to dislodge a molar.

Okay, you've completed a B.A., a master's degree and a novel, so you don't lack for ability or work ethic. You're repatriating, which means you're coping with a certain amount of reentry/culture shock, and you're concerned about your and your husband's financial well-being.

This doesn't sound like a flake to me. It sounds as if you have had it good in your first 30 years and that you know it, and that now you're worried about how to make good.

No, you don't want to do scutwork, and you freak out at it. Some of that is reentry and some of that, I'd suggest, is freakout: is that all there is? I put all this effort into all this work, and I'm stuck picking up phones and filing files?

That may be what there is at first. Cary's right: get back in touch with job 1 and start applying for more. It's not a constructive thing to get too invested in one prospect. There are the sorts of jobs one would love to do and the sorts of jobs one -has- to do if one is to be fiscally responsible. The very senior managers who fantasize about doing what you've done are charming over cocktails: in the office, they expect you to adhere to the chain of command. That's no fun for "brilliant" types, but it's very true. You may be able to evade corporate employment by working as a contract professional (through a third party that provides health care and vacation, though it's nothing to what you're used to). The advantage is that you'll get exposure to many different environments.

Meanwhile, -as- a novelist, you have this other realm of the imagination. You can compartmentalize: creativity in one bucket; bill-paying in the other. And if you're lucky, the two will flow together.

What I'm most concerned with is the family reputation. Timbuktom is right to tell you to forget it. That sort of "lovable, brilliant flake" reputation can trip you up in later life because of the expectations with which it surrounds you. Get OVER it however you can. If that means Xanax on the job, see a psychopharmacologist and do it right. If that means long walks at noon, that's better than Xanax. If it means meeting family's loving "heh heh eh, you're such a flake, darling" with "please don't say that; it's not helpful, and I'm trying to be more responsible," DO it.

You're at the beginning of the next phase. You weren't always a gifted graduate student. Once you were a freshman. Before that, you were in high school. Just another damn ladder to climb.

You've got the essential stuff, the desire, and you're not alone. What are you waiting for, what are you working on next, and how are you coming on trying to get your novel published?

Since when did the CIA get so feminist?

I suppose feminists own Alcoa, too, the better for the making of tin-foil beanies or pyramids.

Wheeee. Try for some hard data, not "common knowledge."

The truth is out there somewhere.

It got her published in a prestigious venue.

If she's that stupid, what's she doing inflicting her drivel on the rest of the world?

What's stupider: The IWF shill or the guys who believe every word she wrote?

Probably, the guy who said that if it weren't for the sex, women would be hunted for sport. I hope he's as inept with a rifle or bow as he is indiscreet.