You would be doing yourself or your GF no favours by staying, quite the opposite.

Regards your GF developing bruises from her self flagelation - thats a potential serious problem if you stay, maybe even if you leave right now. If her friends or co-workers see them they're going to assume it was you who did it and pressure her to tell the police. Given the shame attached to these things it would be very easy for her to blame it on you, and then your life is screwed.

Gilda - seek counseling, these are not things you should accept in yourself and even if they are self directed they hurt the people around you - its incrediably damaging to watch a loved one abuse themselves.

Perhaps some should ? there's certainley enough evidence for concern. Maybe someone who lives in the area should give them a buzz.

I had no clue as to who the Leroy person was or their background, nor do most people outside a extremely small circle it seems.

What is the matter with Salon's editors ? how did this article pass muster ?

Haven't liked the last few columns but this time I think you nailed it. There's way too much emphasis on college/university these days to the exclusion of trades, crafts etc - which is extraordinarily elitist and patronising when you get down to it.

Salon has a international readership, though I imagine thats slipping, but regardless - most of us (and we do read ...) could give a rats ass about the dribblings of self-appointed elites in San Francisco.

My god, what an amazing waste of ... well everything.

My god people - there's a whole *world* outside of New York and San Francisco, do I expect you to be familiar with well known authors in Wellington ? do you even know where Wellington is ?

This is a appalling display of cultural snobbery and blindness, people like you are the ones that keep the "Ugly American" mem alive.

Guess I'm just ignorant despite my knowledge of Australian & Kiwi literatature, probably my copy of the New Yorker failed to make my desk here in Brisbane AU.

Is the sneering directed at people who are unaware of and/or uninterested in JT Leroy. Those doing the sneering seem to be under the impression that everyone knows or cares what go's on in their little circle in SF when in realitly there is a very wide literary world out there where Leroy and Chabon are of no interest.

camilleRoy - something you seem to have missed, "How the world works" is about the *world*, not america.

Those of us outside the USA (we do exist) could care less about US yuppies having to suck it up, and globalisation has impacts outside of silcon valley.

Yah know - even though I don't live in China I am interested in what goes on there, you might try extending your horizons a little, it makes life more interesting.

Can be found here:

http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2006/01/slashfraud_the_.html

Well written by someone who actually knows alternate america, coherent and *not* up its own anus.

She makes one very interesting suggestion - that Emily Albert (the real Leroy) is actually writing slash, i.e. gay male fan fiction written by straight women. Fascinating stuff.

As most respondents have noted, there are a lot of great women SF and Fantasy writers out there, my favourite - Connie Mills. Closely followed by P.C. Hodgell. Actually they're my favourite authors in general, not just my favourite *female* authors.

And yes, *lots* of women appreciate SF in general and have for some time.

None o f this is a surprise to most people but it does serve to illustrate just who out of touch and paraochial salons writers have become. This whole broadsheet article really highlights the authors sterotypes.

Overall a reasonable article though when you get down to it pretty light on details.

Some Notes:

- You missed mentioning the guy who started it all - Veterinarian Ian Billinghurst (BARF) at http://www.drianbillinghurst.com He copped a lot of flake for his stand on raw diets

- Katie Merwick is a flake who pushes her agenda with a lot of dubious statistics and studies.

- The reason there is little data on raw feeding - because no formal studies has been done. However there are very few independant studies of Kibble either. We need proper studies on both.

- While there are few studies on raw/kibble feeding there are the stats showing a huge drop in the lifespans of pets and a huge increase in teeth/bone/skin problems in the past 60 years cooinciding with the uptake of commercial pet food.

- Why the weird focus on what people were wearing ? who cares ? Of what relevance to raw feeding is that ?

- You left the impression that raw feeding is expensive, it doesn't have to be. Raw Feeding my three dogs & four cats is cheaper than the kibble I used to feed them - they don't get Fillet Mignon :).

Actually for most of their domestic evolution dogs have been feed raw untreated meat and whatever else they could scavenge, they most certainly have *not* been fed mostly table scraps. You might want to reconsider your professors qualifications.

I also talked to my vet. She said she has had several dogs come in over the years who have been sick or hurt by eating raw meat

And how many has she seen choke or with lously teeth/gum problems due to kibble over the past few years ?

As I was remined off list "While choking episodes of raw dogs and cats are being carefully noted, there seem to be no stats at all on the number of animals who choke or bloat on kibble"

Animals have a number of kibble related problems which are usually ignored for comparison purposes.

Lemme see - your brother is very skilled in a extremely dangerous job but the reason he earns more than you is because he has a penis.

Yah ... right ...

cosmicmojo, matt - do you *really* think that women aren't part of the problem when it comes to socialising young boys - news flash, they're a major part of it.

Afraid to say that perpetuation of sterotypes and repression is a equal opportunity employer.