Four thoughts sprung to mind when I read this piece:

1. I really need to make a contribution to Girls, Inc. If the whole American Girls mess didn't convince me, this piece did--that strong, independent women need to be encouraged and supported virtually from the womb.

2. Remember that e-mail chain letter about the 1950s tips for housewives ("Greet him at the door wearing a martini and nothing else")? Goddess, help us, such Dark Ages mentality never went away, it just lived at an undisclosed location for a while.

3. Maureen Dowd's excellent response to a mother of a 23-year-old intelligent, independent woman, saying she shouldn't "settle for less" (a man who wouldn't love her for who she is) when seeking a life partner.

4. Thank goodness I'm a lesbian in a happy, monogamous marriage (we call it that even if legally it's just a "civil union") and don't have to directly put up with Adams & Co.'s "helpful", sexist/anti-women/anti-men hints!

"Never walk the dog without lip gloss."

I have to admit it. Putting lip gloss on the dog, especially if I do it outside, would attract a lot of male attention. Especially because the dog I walk really seems more like a matte burgundy type.

Into thinking they shouldn't be coy and feminine. Men respond to these things at the primitive level and they don't like uptight, masculine women who make them feel like losers. Male egos ARE rather fragile after all.

There is a reason women find it harder and harder to get married these days --- because of feminism and its relentless attack on anything resembling chivalrous impulses in men, all the guys think they are freed from their traditional responsibilities. Acting like a real woman can go a long way towards correcting that problem, and that is why this matchmaker can make money giving advice normal women used to take for granted.

You can be a top executive or a lawyer or a doctor with a sharp mind and your own opinions, but unless you package those traits into something men will like in ADDITION to classical feminine behavior, you're quite likely to end up bitter and alone.

"There is a reason women find it harder and harder to get married these days..."

It's only women like you who are struggling to get married, though. Women who don't feel the need to "package" themselves, don't need to be married to prove their womanliness.

I don't mind the women who sit around debating the merits of various lipgloss brands and competing for the most expensive engagement rings they can harangue a man into buying. But when *those* women start trying to make all *other* women feel like losers, they become as annoying as the Jesus freaks who pass out religious pamphlets at the office.

Tatyana, if you have it all figured out, why don't you just live off your fabulous husband and be happy? You should be glad that "the feminists" are too clueless to take him from you.

Or are you blaming us for the fact that all your "packaging" hasn't worked yet?

Isn't it interesting that Cindy Adams is providing such excellent advice to her readership while Maureen Dowd is being castigated for asking if perhaps things like this advice might indicate a problem in contemporary gender relations?

So a ladys first nest building ended in divorce,

there is no need to find fault. I believe most men shy away because they don't have the goods to keep a women

and they know what they are lacking. Women do a super job in attracting men, its like getting hit by a rubber mallet. What stops potential relationships is our (us men)

propensity to think of her Vagina. If we could go the first hour without that thought taking over,

we could eradicate lonliness.