"women set this, not men. Women demean each other over weight. Women run those magazines, women buy those magazines, gladly."

No, women do not run Madison avenue. The sleaze that comes out of advertising was started long before women were allowed to take office jobs in advertising firms. BS65 forgets that television, radio, movie theaters, printed press, and billboards were industries long before the 60s, and that sleazy advertising was spawned (set as BS65 put it) from the minds of men that ruled those industries, and those industries are still largely ruled by men.

"Again what men say any of this? Women tell this to each other. Are FEMALE teachers in school telling girls this? Are male administrators coming to classes telling girls they are nothing?"

BS65 here omits that girls and women learn more out of school than they do in school. True a lot of of public school teachers have made strides in combating the programing that girls are subjected to from religious sermons, patriarchal traditions and customs, and old norms that say that women are nothing if they don't have a husband, but teachers are under paid, and are fighting an up hill battle against stiff opposition.

"There is money to be made in reducing anyone's self esteem, man or woman. But many men eventually see through this and move on. Women seem incapable of such self aware intelligence."

BS65 shows how clueless he is on this one. Never in my life have I seen an advertisement designed to make men feel self conscious about their weight. But you can't watch television, a movie, or drive around for an hour and not see some advertisement designed to attack women on the issue where they feel most vulnerable; their weight.

Unfortunately a lot of men think like BS65 does, and assume that nothing is wrong, but men like me, who have a daughter or daughters, realize that the patriarchy is really f*cked up, and very damaging to our daughters.

I am brought to tears every time that I see the new batch of our best and brightest youngest patriots arriving at work, just a few months after they swore to defend the United States and the Constitution. I gave that same oath a few months before the Chinese looked ready to attack Taiwan back in 1996, and I haven't regretted that decision since. There is no pride greater than knowing that you are making a difference for your country, and it is staggering to see how young and innocent those are that step up to earn that pride. They come from every corner of the U.S. map, and often from pages of the world atlas that don't display our map. They come in every shade imaginable, from every background possible, from every faith of the spectrum, and with every belief fathomable, but they have one thing in common, they took it upon themselves to raise their right hand, swear, and join. And for most of them it took a lot of courage to join, as a lot of them hadn't spent one day away from home before raising their right hand. And they are all that stands in the way to protect civilization from chaotic oblivion. Without them we are at the mercy of tyranny and subjugation, and the fact that they joined, rather than being drafted, is proof that America is not a tyranny that subjugates its best and brightest. If we impose a draft, we are no better than our enemy. The innocences of those drafted will be twisted and corrupted, and the fight that will be demanded of them will be poisonous rather than a source of pride.

If we have to force our best and brightest to fight, then we should not fight at all.

"Will the women who will dominate academic institutions take steps and implement policies to preserve some sizable male presence? Since, of course, they so firmly believe in equality and diversity and all. Will we see affirmative action in reverse? Unofficial, unspoken quotas for men?"

Leftychris, you have a very beautiful knack for writing your letters so eloquently, which is why I consider you a friend, or at least I would like to be your friend.

To answer your question, in the battle of the sexes (which is something that I don't believe exist, but something you appear to have a passion for) men are going to have to get back into the scholastic race in the same way that women are winning the scholastic race, through personal initiative. If young boys put more focus into doing well at school, and give less effort towards getting laid, doing drugs, getting involved in crime, or praising their favorite professional sports teams, then I would expect that boys would eventually even the score on the numbers of students that graduate from college. Boys are losing out due to the priorities that the patriarchy has established for them.

Once again, my friends, it comes down to changing the status quo (the patriarchy affects both boys and girls negatively).

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but I have never heard of a college affirmative action program that favored females. I always thought affirmative action in schools addressed only ethnic differences and background, not gender, am I wrong?