Why does it have to be about her womanhood? I look down on people who went to state school (unless they have advanced degrees).

Just the really hot ones.

What's gender got to do with it? -- Steve Loomis

The whole point of BS is to blame everything on gender so wackos can get lathered up.

Of course people laugh at male idiots too. But that's a rational argument, aimed at determining the truth, which is entirely beside the point of BS.

The insecure gal who can't get dates comes to BS to be "empowered" with some anti-male dogma. The overweight gal who would rather hear than men are misogynists than about type II diabetes comes to BS. The closeted lesbian with repressed fears of hetero sex as rape comes to BS to vent her neurosis with the like minded.

Then the male crazies with serious hostility towards all women, for ex-wives, paternity suits, etc, come to BS to battle them.

They insist all men are rapists, all women are evil, etc.

Salon harvests all that insanity, inanity, and general gutter culture as clicks and page views, so they can sell ads for TOTO bidet toilets and shaving razors with more blades. They put the craziness out there to encourage more. Crazy is an industry. It's a growth industry. The best way to generate customers is generate more crazy.

The staff at Salon does this so they can pay their bills, buy a car, mortgage a house, etc.

In the same way a Chinese toymaker making lead paint toys hopes to cash out before things collapse, so is the mindset of Salon contributors. Completely divorced from any moral responsibility for the garbage they pump put or the long term effects on journalism and the culture. The Jerry Springer model.

. . . what gender's got to do with it, I shot an angry e-mail off to CNN when their clownish daytime anchorwoman was whooping it up over this clip, asking whether had been courageous enough to laugh hysterically over equally inane Presidential statements,

or if they reserve the fearsome power of the press for eighteen- year-old schoolgirls.

I posted my earlier letter because I thought it contained information that might be of interest to Salon readers, and specifically because the racist and misogynous abuse of Rachel Smith is less well known and less defensible than that of Miss Teen South Carolina.

Give me a break. Show me one male pratfall on YouTube that draws the millions of views that Rachel Smith's did, not to mention the sexually-tinged comments, especially on the Spanish-language clips posted by Mexicans. When something draws such intensity of interest, enduring even after three months, it's a pretty good bet that sexuality is a covert motivation.

it's f***ing hilarious, such as.

Ah, such splendiferous PC fruit. Every answer is right and facts mere patriarchal constructs. All is relative and inbred and Deliverance-worthy. I can't wait to hear Ms. Third Runnerup after her cottage ejimication. I'm sure her valedictory speech will be worthy of Demosthenes. Or whatever.

Interestingly, folks who laughed their butts off when John Bobbitt had his penis amputated by a jealous vaginate make excuses for this blonde bonehead. Why? We are told she was "nervous and simply blurted out a bunch of nonsense." Then again, maybe she did a brain dump and that was all she wrote.

I hate being told to tolerate foibles based on gender, politics, or gender politics. Senator Bob Packwood, Republican, got drummed out the Senate for trying to kiss women when drunk. Bill Clinton, Democrat, got lauded for splooging on an intern's dress, facing sundry attempted rape accusations, cheating on his blowhard, bowling-pin legged wife, etc.

Consistency? Not! It's all about whose al is gored.

Now comes a pagenteer whose looks, I'm sure, compensate for any "power" feminists say she lacks. People who'd nail any male to the communications cross for flubbing even one word fall over backwards to "understand" this goober. Again, why?

If we are to forgive, tolerate, etc. all goddess' chillin' chillun, let's at least insist fembots put away the long knives when men are objects of ridicule. Which is early and often.

" I'll feel sorry for all of the girls who will never have the same opportunities as any of the contestants simply because nature has not gifted them with faces and bodies that are considered beautiful by society's standards."

Yes. And all the boys, too, who will never have the same opportunities as other males because nature did not gift them with brains, luck, or pluck to get money that societal standards decree women-bedding/mating/marrying men must have.

Coochie hoochies seek lucre'd lads. And vice versa.

Then again, maybe all a jamoke will have to say to win our heroine's heart is to say, "I personally have a map. And I believe my South African education, such as it was, will Iraq your iworld. Everywhere, including Likesuchas Land. I believe that over here in the U.S. we should help the South, the Iraq, the Asia, and the of America I Singh. Those countries will then be able to build up our future for our children. And save the whales. And stop AIDS. Amen. And awomen."

I personuhlie buhleeve, it's f***ing hilarious, such as, for the children.

Speaking at the sad state of US education and lazy minds, you've never met a logical fallacy you didn't like have you? You have no familiarity with the formal concept of reason, such as a properly constructed deductive argument, do you?

"Speaking at the sad state of US education and lazy minds, you've never met a logical fallacy you didn't like have you? You have no familiarity with the formal concept of reason, such as a properly constructed deductive argument, do you?"

Speaking of logical fallacy, we seem to have descended to the level of ad hominem discourse. If you can develop a properly constructed deductive argument from the case of Miss Teen South Carolina, let's have a look at it. In the mean time, you don't know me, and the logical fallacy is yours.