Whatever about Jack McClellan's actions and legal situation, the troubling part (that inspired the BroadSheet story) was his on-line activity. It has been taken down, but similar stuff almost certainly exists. And I kinda suspect that that kind of thing has received an enormous boost because of all the ado his case has generated. How do, how can, we deal with that?

Similarly, here on BroadSheet Comments, we have behaviour that would earn a punch in the nose at a minimum were it demonstrated in a face to face gathering. But it isn't face to face and so just like with pedophile web-sites, the only recourse we have is to ignore it. Not promote it, not recognize it, not legitimize it in any way. And most certainly not engage with it.

(Besides which, it is rather amusing to listen to its squeals of outrage when no-one takes it seriously.)

Pedophiles should not be ignored. Pedophile websites should be.

Asshole bullies should not be ignored. On-line trolls should be.

You have been honest and open, and deserve a reply.

You have had very little luck with women, you are very lonely, and it has made you bitter and angry, and I can certainly see why.

But the bitterness and anger has lead you to draw some questionable conclusions. Yes, there are highly manipulative men who do whatever it takes to get laid. But these lotharios rarely form much in the way of ongoing, stable, loving relationships. And frankly, the kind of women they are usually lucky with are a fairly small subset, and frankly, usually not all that attractive in terms of long-term relationships. (And the sub-subset of women who "sport-fuck" as you delicately put it is a very small group indeed.) But if all you want to do is get laid, read the books and become a manipulative jerk. I rather doubt it will make you happy though.

I don't think being open and honest and being yourself is necessarily bad advice, but neither is it the key, really. True, depending on how you go about being open and honest and yourself can certainly screw things up: there is nothing more off-putting, for example, than someone who blares out all their opinions or bitterness or unhappiness right up front, and this has nothing to do with women or sex. I've known too many men who I couldn't stand being around because of their extreme rudeness and unpleasantness which they justified by "being honest."

But if you want to know what the secret to building a relationship with a woman is, it something quite different. 1) Pay attention to her. Not you, her. Be interested in her, what she says, what she thinks, what has happened to her. (This works with men too, but men tend not to be very good at it.) 2) Be nice. Supportive. Friendly. Cheerful. Someone pleasant to be around. And, uh, 4) don't teach, instruct, inform, enlighten, correct, or any of the other stuff. Most people don't want to have BroadSheet Comments type discussions, and the ones that do would rather have a pleasant discussion rather than an ideological battle. You may win, you may be right, you may conclusively prove that you are right, but nobody likes being proven wrong, and very few people indeed of any gender or orientation or cultural upbringing are going to nurse warm feelings towards a sentitious, angry, apparently patronizing person.

And then, I'm sorry to say, there are just people who are unlucky in love. Both men and women. Nothing really to do with them, or oppressive gender roles, etc., they just never ended up in the right place at the right time. And as you get older it gets harder and harder, for both sexes. The men become "long-term eccentric bachelors" and the women "cat-ladies."

My cousin is a pretty good example. He had a fiancee in his mid 20s, but it broke up (he wasn't dumped), and now he is in his late 50s, and as far as I know not had a girlfriend since (few dates over the years, but that's about it). He's pretty ordinary looking, rather pleasant and quite funny on occasion, perhaps slightly obsessive compulsive but not too bad, otherwise stable and successful, kind and caring, graduate degree holder, etc. But no dice. I don't think he's even bitter about it any more.

I've always had a soft spot for Germaine Greer. Not because I always agree with her, but because she doesn't give a damn and will say things like this. To be sure, she has always been a bit of a publicity hound, but she is also 100% willing to say what she thinks even if it pisses off even her presumed allies.

Reading Sex and Destiny was almost a life changing experience for me. It pissed off a lot of feminists, without making any antifeminists very happy at all. While a polemic, and thus rather over stating the cases she was making most of the time, it confirmed or illuminated a lot of my thinking.

But good for her on this one. I think the quote is both accurate and fair. I never understood all the weeping and wailing: a rather stupid woman married into a family, bringing some sorely needed better looks into their gene-pool, at the cost of lowering their already substandard IQ levels. Produced an heir and a spare, which was really 90% of the job-description, then proceeded to party it up like any other rich stupid pretty socialite. Then dies in an alcohol and drug fueled car-crash with a sleazy heir of a sleazy business magnate.

Boo Hoo.