Was the referencing of Australia. As far as I'm aware I'm one of very few Aussies that hang around here and I don't comment on the political threads except maybe to say that I find some of them interesting.

Antagonistic posting cuts both ways I guess. If you're really a US citizen living in NZ Morgaine I don't really get the Aus bashing. Australia's not perfect but it's all I've got.

I am very prone to yeast infections and my poor boyfriend always has to join in my treatment. Luckily he understands and doesn't complain too much.

Does anyone know of a natural way to prevent them? I only get them so often because of my body's makeup downstairs but I've yet to find a good preventative treatment.

However, this isn't the case here and look what happens? Just about every thread turns into a nasty spectacle. Perhaps people who were deleted from these other blogs come here and vent I don't know but I'm going to get a little 'homespun' and just say if you don't want to be labelled a hater don't be hateful. Not saying you are Penguin but others can be.

Disagree all you want but bring a game to the table that all can play. It'd be sooooo much better in the long run.

Rather than the message. If you're antagonistic far less people are going to give whatever you say any merit.

I've lost my temper in here a few times and I regret it because it doesn't serve my cause at all.

Again. I should have known better than to try and present a balanced view of things, it never makes any difference and it's too disheartening.

Every women's blog that I come across has this same problem with angry woman/feminism haters. I would love to be able to read about women's issues without this constant yapping from the sidelines but I guess it isn't going to happen. In fact, it seems in here now that the haters outnumber those who are genuinely interested and want to open up a dialogue. So depressing.

I'd be uncomfortable with a lot of these shows. Not only because of what sounds like a lot of awful male characters but that the females don't sound much better. I mean, walking in on someone in the toilet isn't a symbol of 'empowerment', it's just rude. And if my husband carried on like a pork chop just because I might earn more money than him there's no way he'd get anywhere near my goodies once it was all revealed to be a 'misunderstanding'. Geez, sack up son. If you're that insecure there's no way I want your genetic material anywhere near me.

It's stuff like this that makes feminism look bad because there never can be a middle ground, it's always overly submissive doormat or prickly, ball busting harridan.

Without quantifying them anonymous. Read my other letters if you like, I'm a feminist and I don't believe in blaming men for the wrongs of the world. Note I said 'men' - in other words I refuse to generalise and say it's *all* the awful man beasties that make things so hard for women. Some men do, some women do. To me it's just a matter of asserting myself for my rights and feminism is what enables me recognise those rights and go after them.

If I find it easy to avoid generalisations about men maybe all the anonymous', blackpaws, raiders, brightstars (who are probably one and the same) etc. out there can do so too?

Feminism is like any belief system. It takes faith and a certain tenacity to stick with it through the tough times. Like any belief system there's always going to be internal brawling over definitions, power struggles and the extremists who take it too far. I try so hard to show that feminism is accessible to all and that what it really means is that men and women *can* achieve true equality. It doesn't happen now and it probably won't happen in my lifetime, there's just too much flux over the changes that the first feminists wrought really only a blink of an eye ago.

I personally don't want a whipping boy, I just want a man to recognise my equality. But you lot can't see that can you?

Don't ever try and make yourself seem non-biased and then start talking about us breaking our nails while we tap away at Starbucks or whatever.

Simple little things like that show your agenda straight away. You talk about equality then put up or shut up! You've had a bad experience with feminists then I'm sorry but stop tarring us all with the same brush!

You complain about how everything here is so gynocentric but if you want a man's perpspective DON'T HANG AROUND A WOMEN'S BLOG! God, it's not hard.