While I don't find this mother's reaction to her daughter's pain "admirable," let's not forget that this is a mother reacting to her daughter's pain. I don't think this is historically-specific, except for the availability and anonymity of the Internet.

There is no reason to assume that this woman was planning for the child she approached online to commit suicide: while unfortunate, it's clearly an extreme reaction. While she may have wanted to cause this bully some pain, I seriously doubt she saw this as potentially murderous. Who would? Even in person?

Considering the amount of minor subterfuge we all engage in - not just online, even in our real lives - it seems profoundly hypocritical to judge this woman on the alleged effects of her actions, rather than those actions themselves.

Before I got on a combination of Prozac and Klonopin, I was violent toward myself and others, destructive of property, and weighed less than I had at 10 years old due to severe anorexia. Despite many years of talk therapy, combined with various herbal remedies and exercise, I continued to be abusive to others and unable to maintain healthy relationships. My problems did not just impact me, they impacted my spouse, parents, and the rest of my family. I lost literally all my friends.

I believe that people with severe mental health issues that are not entirely treatable with therapy have a RESPONSIBILITY to their loved ones to become and remain medicated, as long as these issues persist. Everyday I refused medication was another day I mistreated my wonderful spouse and family - I have been told they were afraid to go to sleep with me in the house that they might wake up to me harming them. Everyday I refused medication was another day that these people suffered, for my selfishness (I didn't want to "lose who I was" or "become numb".)

I'd also like to add that I am an artist and I became more productive and, according to critics (and myself), a much better artist after going on medication. My petty juvenile narcissism no longer takes over my work.

This article was so poorly written that it turned my stomach. Why do we invoke the opening of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina when it doesn't fit? Not to mention the smarmy 'Perils of Pauline' reference. Just . . . ew.

"chirpy"?

"The irony, of course, is that it is Dowd -- with her hoary visions of feminist succubi, coming to crack your nuts and drain your sex life of its mystery -- who seems unable to find joy, or even simple pleasure, in womanhood, the unfortunate condition from which she is so eager to retreat."

Exactly. I get the feeling that all this complaining about other women is a way of complaining that she herself is a heterosexual woman.