"Where in our culture is femininity presented as weak ? I must be living in my own private idaho. Everything I see on TV, movies, books, newspapers and magazines present femininity as strong, dominant and all knowing, and in my dog patch men are presented as weak, dumb and clueless."

Yeah, but on tv every judge is a black female, and I know that's not the case on the real bench. TV presents a fantasy on many fronts - the semi-employed 20-somethings on Friends have a huge apartment in Greenwich Village, and women always hold the cards in the relationships. Fiction don't make it so.

News, I suppose. I guess I can only read so many articles about how many women are killed each year by their husbands and boyfriends before I start to think that maybe all women aren't straight-talking, sassy sexpots married to loveable dumb shlubs. I don't disagree that there are many powerful, intelligent women out there - women who are loved and valued by the men in their lives. But I would say that, on the whole, in real life, women are more frequently praised for docility, and those powerful, intelligent women are often called "ballbusters" or "bitches".

They also make anal plugs where the part that goes in the anus is George W.'s head. I'd rather be a nutcracker than an anal plug any day.

And I have to say, given enough time, manufacturers do a great job with energy efficiency. I bought an A+ rated fridge (appliances are given grades, from G to A+++), which costs about a quarter of what a standard U.S. fridge costs to operate per year, and it's fantastic. My washing machine takes longer to wash clothes (about twice as long, depending on the water temperature), but everything comes out much cleaner, and the machine is much more gentle on everything. And toilets come with two flush types - one for #1, and one for #2. And the #2 level of flush takes care of things no problem. Point is, in the U.S., we may experience a downgrade in service while our manufacturers get up to speed, but eventually energy-efficient machines will probably work just as well, if not better, than their non-energy-efficient predecessors.

Also, if the end goal is reduced energy consumption, I see two means - regulating manufacturers or increasing the cost of energy and water (which is regulation too, if the market would dictate a lower cost for energy/water). I'd prefer the former.

It seems like a decent amount of the discussion here has revolved around definitions of class - what constitutes middle, working, etc. It seems as though the old class terminology isn't working very well anymore. Does anyone know of any decent updates on class theory/terminology since, say, 1995?

If you were actually a law student (Harvard, at that), you'd know you can't give ANY legal advice (outside of a clinic or other situation where your work product is being supervised by an admitted attorney) until you are admitted to the bar. If your bar of choice were to find out about it, your having given such advice would very likely keep you from being admitted (and then what would you do with your $180k education?).

If anyone watches Weeds, they know what I'm talking about (it's a fictional clothing line for large kids). Actually, in watching the show, I wondered why such a clothing line didn't exist - there is clearly a need. Looks like I'm not the only one who had that thought.

I wonder if the more women in management/reduced pay gap will be a self-perpetuating cycle, i.e., women who are paid equally will feel more confident about their value to the company, and by extension about themselves and their careers, and that will make them more likely to continue on in their careers, seek promotions to management, etc., which could lead to even less gender disparity in wages...

I work in an industry that has total transparency in compensation, and I know that I am paid exactly as much as the guy working next to me (if we are at a similar level of seniority). I imagine it would be seriously demoralizing to know that he made more (particularly if I felt I were better at the job than him) simply because he was a man. It seems to me that a demoralized worker has a much lower chance of success and advancement than one who is not demoralized.

If the LW's mother were kind, and caring, and could offer some of that inter-generational knowledge and caretaking that were once a hallmark of family life, then I don't know if there would be such an issue. But it sounds like that's not the case - she'd be a selfish, needy suck on the LW's time and energy. It's not the burden of her physical sickness that the LW and his young family need to avoid, it's the burden of her emotional disfunction.