Letters posted here are associated with the following Salon Premium Member:
Published Letters: 72
Editor's Choice: 6
As a woman, I don't directly experience the "unfair" things that happen to men in life. But I can OBSERVE these things, and I can empathize with the men (in most cases). Furthermore, I don't feel that I'm somehow betraying "the women's cause" by admitting that some of my fellow females don't treat men well. I'd imagine that most of my fellow women are capable of seeing reason and that their POV is similar to my own.
Granted, some women are very spoiled. Some women behave as if they have what I call an "infinite sense of entitlement," and they'll continue with their self-serving ways until someone refuses to cater to them. These women probably are incapable of empathizing with any man's POV. But they're not the majority of women, not by a long shot. And I seriously doubt that you'd see ANY of "the princesses" hanging out at, for example, a "Men's Rights" Web site, grousing about every complaint the men there make about women-in-general, attempting to disparage and/or refute the men's gripes. Why? "The princesses" don't care what men think--they don't NEED to care what men think, because they're at a point in their lives where people are falling all over themselves to cater to them.
I've often thought about all of the men who apparently feel a deep-seated need to "virtually hang out" on Web sites where women share their points of view, ever-watchful for any statements that are something less than cheerleader-ish in tone when the subject is males, ever-ready to accuse the non-cheerleaders of unwarranted "male bashing," with no consideration as to whether any such points might possibly have any semblance of validity to them.
I like to say, "Nothing ever happens in a vacuum," which means that things don't just materialize out of thin air. The Web's "self-appointed guardians of male pride" seem to be unwilling to entertain the possibility that the typical woman goes through her everyday life enduring all sorts of undeserved crap from random males. I almost hate to say it, because it sounds so trite, but REALLY, if you're not a woman, and unless you are really keeping your eyes open and observing what's going on around you, you are not going to know what women experience.
So, as trite as, "You're not a woman, so you don't know," might sound, please trust me on this: When women grouse about men-in-general: 1-There is validity to it and 2-Unless you have actually done the things that women are grousing about, IT'S NOT ABOUT *YOU*.
Instead of wasting your time hanging out on "women's boards" as a self-appointed gadflies, how about trying to not be Part of the Problem? Keep your eyes open. When you see your fellow men behaving badly, how about given them a scowl instead of a "high five"? After all, this stuff that women are grousing about doesn't happen in a vacuum: There is a cause (expression and male support of "male privilege") for the effect (women's seeming "male bashing").
At least this ad campaign--as poorly-placed, as ineffective, and as big a waste of money as it may be (according to the other posters here--I haven't seen them, myself)--doesn't have a potential to cause traffic accidents.
And then there was the "Stop The Spread" billboard on Hwy. 237--also a long while back--that was blatantly anti-gay rights. I had more issues with that one than I did with the anti-abortion one, mostly because the one on 237 seemed to be advocating open hostility against individuals and their supporters, as well as a rollback of already-granted civil rights. (I was informed that this billboard--like those of the anti-abortion campaigns--was also church-sponsored.)
Both campaigns were saying, "We don't like the law, and we want to see it changed." But the at least the anti-abortion faction doesn't seem to be advocating violence against women (at least not YET)--it just wants to "guilt" women into making what they feel is a "better" choice.