To the No Name Given who isn't a troll: sexual bullying in public is NOT as pervasive in the US as it is in Latin America. Any woman who has travelled or lived in both Latin/ Anglo America knows this. Probably there is more street harrassment in NYC then elsewhere in the US, but most US American women grow up expecting and receiving respect (at least in this way) when we walk down the street. I have lived in big and small cities in the US and in S America, and I can tell you that in S America I felt under attack just about every minute I spent outdoors, which is one reason I'm raising my daughter here.

Mumbay's reputation is well known. Two years ago an American woman was reduced to tears on the Amazing Race tv show when she was groped repeatedly in froont of her boyfriend, who could do nothing to stop it on a very crowded train. This is abosolutely NOT universal behavior, and says much about a woman's status in India, L America and Japan.

I think the cars are both a respite and, paradoxically, the wrong way to look at the problem. These cultures are getting better at sticking up for women but they have a long way to go.

Sinanon is inadvertently proving my point about how US Americans respect women more out in public than Latin Americans, in this case Brazilians. Anyone who thinks that the groping problem in Brazil is only due to 1% of creeps on trains has obviously never been there. There are women in Brazil who report getting groped every single day. And it's not just the groping- it's vulgar comments, and blatant attempts to embarrass them sexually whenever they are out in public unaccompanied. It really is not a case of overcrowded trains and a few wierdos.

It really is not a gender thing, and I don't think this is really anything remarkable about young people today. All young people can be irritatingly cocky and overconfident to their elders. They are self conscious and self absorbed, swaggering and vulnerable all at the same time. If you catch yourself complaining about 20 somethings (or about children and teenagers), try to resist the temptation of believeing that things were better when you were young. They weren't, and you were annoying too. The idea that this is a catfight thing is absurd.

I watch a lot of nature/ hunting shows, and I can say that females mate all the time with males while "dominant" males are fighting each other.

They have overplayed their hand.

And is there a Mrs. Jospeh B. Stanford? How many kids do they have? Do they still have sex if she's past childbearing age? No interviewer should ever let people mouth off about other people's sexual morality without asking them about their own reproductive practices.

I don't think most people would screen for breast cancer. The suffering of cancer patients notwithstanding, there is a perception that cancer is not a death sentence, may be cured and sooner or later happens to many of us anyway.

Diseases like ALS, Huntingtons, Cystic Fibrosis and some mental illnesses are another story ( and being female or homosexual isn't a disease, btw). My husband's aunt is dying of ALS, and I'm positive the family would like to wipe out the disease from their family by hook or by crook. And if you put aside the romanticized ideas some people have of mental illness, you'll realize that severe disorders like paranoid schizophrenia can be as devastating and dangerous as any physical disease. Who would begrudge a couple for trying to keep these ailments out of their family

I never thought much about the door holding/ seat giving controversy until one day several years ago that I was with my husband and brothers in law and we were moving a pile of rocks. Backround: I was very proud of my good physical shape back then. All of a sudden they all started saying " on no, what are you doing, stop, you don't have to" and I flashed back to when my sibs and I said the EXACT same things to my grandmother when we were all raking leaves, and she was irritated and I didn't get it. Suddenly, I got it. As will every man who one day finds himself treated as old. That is, I knew there intentions were kind, but I felt a little like they were treating me like I was handicapped or hurt in some way, and I wasn't at all. I was an unpregnant, young strong woman and it was jarring to see how they saw me in a way I disn't see myself at all.

I hold open doors for everyone, and I don't really use public transportation but I do defer to the elderly, the pregnant, the handicapped and parents of very young children when I'm anywhere public.