I have to ask...why publicize this garbage? You are only doing a service to those looking to air their truly ugly and low opinions.

I am a big Oscar fan. I never fail to cry at the inspired speeches even if they are few and far between (commericials and stupid banter). The whole dare-to-dream thing always gets me. This year, not so much. Almost every presenter was stilted and robotic. Stewart was beyond boring...the giving away a "baby" to the pregnant women didn't even make sense. Worse it was insulting. Pregnant women do not enjoy being singled out. And on TV? At the Oscars? Those beautiful women should have pelted him with their pre-natals. I just imagine him snickering backstage writing this drivel. Oh where has the real Jon Stewart gone?

The montages were so inane I actually thought the editors were on strike now.

The speeches were totally uninspired. The Coen brothers are my favorite modern directors but their speeches? Ethan actually beggged off speaking when he won best writer. How about thanking the wife and kids? How about a little dare-to-dream? I agree, America hates itself and I hated the Oscars. Just wait till I get up there...

What's really sad is that it's a woman we feel we can't root for. I always envisioned our first female president to be maternal, wise, witty, deeply instinctual and intelligent, peaceful, strong...not snarky, snot-nosed, insecure, inexperienced...

I want a woman I can root for.

That being said, and if you are still reading, I feel we must as women support all women. Before you think I'm putting flowers in my hair, read on.

For to be truly free is to be whoever you want to be. Blacks, women, gays...any person who feels un-heard, un-seen, mocked and ignore within the system. That person must be free to reinvent themselves, to be totally and uniquely themselves WITHIN the group. Even if they become someone that brings the group down. That shoves its face in the dirt.

Even if it is someone who brings shame. Even if it is someone who pretends to be something they are not. Even if it is someone who REJECTS THE GROUP.

To be shackled to the need to do what your group would want you to do is not freedom. It's not fairness. It's not liberty.

The right to be different, to be an individual, to write your own story, to make a mistake: they are all human rights. To not fit in. To not fit the bill. To fail.

Every woman has that right.

Every man.

Being a woman on the presidential ticket does not mean you have to be a feminist. Does not mean you have to support women's issues. You don't even have to have a clue.

Irony is that's the promise of the feminist revolution for every person: Self-empowerment. Self-expression. Self-realization. Self-reliance.

Now it's biting us in the ass.

No, we don't want to take her out for cocktails.

No, the suffragists wouldn't have invited her to lunch.

Yes, she makes me cringe. But that's beside the point.

When there is so much on the line, when the game gets this big, it's always this way.

Look at MLK. He had his Malcolm X.

Naomi Wolf has Camille Paglia.

George Bush had his John McCain. And look what they made McCain do.

Bend over and take it. Let's not do that to Palin.

Let her have her day. Take all the rope she needs.

Listen, someone is always there to tell ya you're doin' it wrong. But SP just be doing it her way. (Cue Frankie.) Her way.

Her fucked up, stinking way.

But that's her right.

And I applaud it.

Now let's get back to solving the real issues like real women do, shall we?

VOTE OBAMA!

So I was excited to check out the new zine based on your article. I know the material is not all up yet, but I was dismayed upon reading "How I Got Bored With Feminism" by Terry Castle. This quote here where she explains why it's been better to be a lesbian:

"I didn't have to hold down a miserable poorly-paid job while also caring for children. I'd never had some slob beating me up or threatening me with a knife" is the kind of smug attack on other women in the name of self-expression that just kills me. Is she trying to be weirdly sympathetic, or funny? I just don't know. As someone on the business end of both these problems, it's left a bad taste in my mouth.

My marriage was falling apart from year one but my husband and I kept at it. Got the house, the two kids, the hopes and dreams. About two months before we split for good, I encouraged him to quit his job, buy a new car, hike through Europe. I absolved him of his fatherly duties (and his husbandly ones too). He took a long vacation from work and kept his own hours. Came and went as he pleased. When I was almost hospitalized with spinal meningitis he didn't even know. He regularly came home after midnight with no explanation.

None needed. I could see this sabbatical wasn't helping. He didn't need to just be free. He needed free of me.

That hurt. Bad. And there is no reason I can imagine that would make me feel good about it. But what has made it manageable is to say to myself that it also had nothing to do with me. I had just become THE WIFE. And that was what he longer wanted. He couldn't see me and my trying so hard to see him, just didn't fix it. We signed divorce papers last week after nine years of marriage.