I've got a few questions about the oft quoted statistic that women make less then men do. I'm a cubicle monkey at a large computer corporation, and I've noticed in my 4 years here that most of the management in my department are women, and that (perhaps due to this) women are more likely to be promoted than their male counterparts. So, here are my questions...

-Are the moms and wives who chose to stay at home and earn nothing a part of this average that is quoted?

-What does this stat look like when you break it into levels of management. While our CEO and most of the bigwigs are men, a majoroty of the middle management employees are women here. And while our CEO's salary may be over 10 times my own, it doesn't seem fair to factor his wage into the mix and say, "SEE men are earning more" because for every CEO, there's ten thousand cubicle jerks like me.

Anybody know this stuff? Just curious.

You are a typical over-privileged, whining, American brat. It is no surprise that the remaining population of the planet is united in its hatred toward you people. As I said, you are much safer and much more privileged than the vast majority of the other humans alive on Earth today. Maybe if you pull yourself down off of that cross for a little while you will see it, and be thankful for once.

Intelligent response, by the way. More typical American idiocy

P.S. I'm a woman using my mate's login account. And, no, I don't live my life in constant fear of being raped. Life is too short and there is too much to be accomplished. I suppose I also don't naturally assume the worst from every male that I looks at me.

<<Every man poses a possible danger to every woman>>

OK. So at least we know where you are coming from. I get it now: I'm an evil rapist and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it.

I guess I'll begin every conversation I have with a woman with an apology for having a penis.

Thanks for clearing that up.

<<God, your hatred of women and your non-stop self-pity really do come through in every post, don't they? You need to believe that women insist on dating guys who threaten them because you can't possibly realize that women can smell your hatred for them a mile away and don't want to wind up in a dump site somewhere.>>

You accusations and libel is absurd and borderline criminal.

You would have me believe I have no right to an opinion about anything related to women, unless it is an opinion that matches something some feminist uttered somewhere at one time.

So I have a hard hitting style of discussion. How does this invalidate what I say? Would you judge negatively any woman who argued with a hard hitting style? I bet you wouldn't because you are prejudiced against men.

Guess what? There are a lot of frustrated angry men, I am one of the few with the guts (stupidity) to stand up and say I have a valid point of view too.

I love women. I want equality for women. I LOVE strong NON WHINING women. I want women to have choices and to work and produce and create.

I ALSO want MEN to have rights that women have and consistently shove under the rug in an attempt to prevent men from having them too.

I do not care if you or anyone thinks I hate women. I know myself.

What I detest is this culture of complaint and whining that feminists so adore. I challenge it by using the same whining voice, argument style, factual conceits and throwing them back at women in an attempt to make women see how they sound to men. Obviously it goes over your head.

You are proof women have no concern for men or men's problems but only for their own selfish needs. It is YOU that hates men.

<<Every man poses a possible danger to every woman.>>

Indeed.

Every automobile poses a possible danger to every woman as well. Obviously, for this sole reason, we must do away with all of them immediately.

But then again, I have (dear and beloved) female friends and family who pose a clear and present danger to their poor vehicles. Works both ways.

On topic, I enjoyed the review and wouldn't mind picking up this book.

I was very impressed by Andrew O'Hehir's review, and felt a sense of relief to see some fine writing from Salon. I do have to say that, as I've experienced it in the Midwest, Ned's experience with her bowling league is not unusual. I've met enough men out here that, on the surface may seem to be "good old boys," but are decent and don't seem to give much a damn about gender roles. Sure, they may say something rude, but our worlds in the Midwest are so small! Once they meet a gay person, or someone from another ethnicity, they tend to treat them as people. Or they don't, but I've also had my share of living in big cities and I think a**holes will exist in equal percentages whether in cities or small towns.

I also have to say that I've noticed in men my own age, in their 30s, a trend towards what I call "the whole man path". These are men who express their emotions, admit a voyeuristic desire for the female body, can cook up a storm and garden like anything, and who like gadgets. And cars. And loud cars. I believe that they have been integrating all of the lessons that they have learned throughout life, both the masculine and feminine ideals, and the men that I've met, or at least the ones that I like, do not seem to be torn up by an outrageous dichotomy as they attempt to search for what it means to be a man in today's Western society.

This is definetely one of the better reviews I have read on Salon, good job Andrew. It made me want to read the book, even though I hang around men all of the time and pretty much understand why they do the things they do and the problems they have.

Oh and Brightstar, I congratulate you for the first time in not sounding like a dumbass. For the first time you sound normal! Oh and you just need to get out there, I have plenty of beautiful female friends that date totally average and below average looking guys, who don't have a ton of money, just not great paying careers. They just like being treated well as opposed to dating the stud that treats you like crap.

Oh and every woman goes through the all men are evil, they are all a threat to you, time in their life, it happened to me after I had been in a situation where a man tried to rape me and his male friends did nothing to defend me, in fact they terrorized me in less violent ways themselves so that I would give their friend some action. Sometimes the idea that you could be gangraped unless you sucuum to one dick colors your idea of men. That gave me nightmares for years, not one of the fistfights I had been in dwells on my mind. Being raped and being beat up are two totally different feelings and being beat up may give you some trauma but it doesn't effect your sex life for years to come. There's hardly any shame involved with getting beat up, while the shame trail for being raped is long.

No one ever tells a victim of robbery they did something to be blamed for, no one askes you what you were wearing when you got into a fist fight, no one askes you if you gave the wrong signals when your purse gets snatched. Just think when someone says I was robbed, no one questions it, but when someone says, I was raped, people ask, are you sure?

For a while it really made me hate men, then I realized that the rapist ass and his jackass friends were in such a minority to all of the other men I had known and hung out with in my life.

But it takes a long time for logic to rid of you one of the most horrible experiences any human can endure. So be a little forgiving, it's not whining, women, men and children do get raped, and almost 100 percent of the time, the rapist is a man.