Messages

1

Main / Where Have all the Men Gone?

Nov 11, 2005, 07:59 AM

You said that there was a time that being a teacher wasn't considered a female job. It is obvious that this was due to the fact that women "weren't allowed" to work outsides. You don't mention this. You even say:

You are correct I don't mention it as it's beside the point.

You'll note that for the first 337 years of operation, they didn't even have female students.

Well Duh. I think this holds for pretty much any University.

Boston Latin is a primary school.

Do you imagine that teaching was considered womens work even when only men performed it? Do you have anything to back that up?

I never said that it was considered women's work while men actually were occupied in this profession. I have NO idea where you get this from.

I got that from the post by Mater D. that I was objecting to. She said :

teaching has always been looked at as womens work except for college professors.

Which it now appears you agree with. What are you arguing about?

2

Main / Where Have all the Men Gone?

Nov 10, 2005, 08:02 AM

Don't you think this is because women simply weren't allowed to work outside the house? (except for certain exceptions, e.g. nurses, etc. ??) I am sure this also played an important role.

How is that contrary to what I said? Do you imagine that teaching was considered womens work even when only men performed it? Do you have anything to back that up?

3

Main / Where Have all the Men Gone?

Nov 09, 2005, 04:04 PM

True indeed there are not that many male teachers and teaching has always been looked at as womens work except for college professors.

Forgive me for being late to this discussion, but I had to correct this. Teaching has not always been considered womens work. For example here is a concise history of "the oldest public school in American with a continuous operation." You'll note that for the first 337 years of operation, they didn't even have female students. Every teacher and master listed on that page is male up to the first woman headmaster in 1998.

Women as teachers in schools didn't start until the early 19th Century in the US.

When my father was in grade school in England, most of his teachers were male. It's within his lifetime that elementary education became female-dominated there.

4

Main / British men own up about their secret lovers

Nov 09, 2005, 03:28 PM

Women on average have fewer accidents per year becuase they don't drive average as many miles behind the wheel as men. Men have fewer accidents by distance driven. (The usual measure is accidents per million miles driven.) Insurance companies set their rates on the former rather than the latter.

Women Drivers Crash More Than Men. The counter-statistic is that while men have fewer accidents by distance driven, they have more fatal accidents per distance driven. Perhaps because of an aversion to taking their chances: in the UK, 18% of female drivers won't drive on the motorways (the UK equivalent of interstates)

5

Main / Lung Cancer more aggressive in men

Nov 04, 2005, 12:48 PM

Women lived longer than men after controlling for age, race, disease stage at diagnosis, histology, median income, geographic area, access to care, and type of treatment, researchers found.

But not after controlling for exposure to toxins or carcinogens. Men in this country still do the vast majority of work with hazardous materials, whether it's factory work or shade-tree auto maintenance. Even controlling for known carcinogen exposure wouldn't be enough - noncarcinogens can impact lung function as well, weakening the patient before the cancer even gets started.

6

Main / Denver Nuggets' top draftee Julius Hodge accused of assault

Oct 28, 2005, 06:47 AM

She began drinking to self-medicate.

She can call it 'medicine' all she wants, I'm not going to believe it.

7

Main / Why do men get married?

Oct 28, 2005, 06:26 AM

I got married because I want to have kids. Married fathers may not have equality with married mothers after a breakup, but they have a big advantage over un-married fathers, aka 'sperm donors'.

8

Main / FYI...People for Equal Parenting

Oct 27, 2005, 12:16 PM

The similar group in Massachusetts is  Fathers and Families

9

Main / Re: Wedded to the State by Stephen Baskerville

Oct 27, 2005, 12:03 PM

Currently anyone who wants out of a marriage can unilaterally end it without penalty.

Assuming that by 'without penalty' excludes the costs of the divorce itself, almost always shouldered by the man. A couple of years ago one of my coworkers got divorced, which came as a surprise as he'd been a confirmed bachelor for ages. His wife split a decade ago, he'd sworn off women, but they never went to court. She finally decided to marry someone else, he got stuck with $3,000 in fees.

(2) Paternalistic "family" courts and new laws have seriously undermined fatherhood.

Wouldn't that make them Maternalistic?

10

Main / My Plans for Senator Biden

Oct 26, 2005, 02:15 PM

You two should consider voting for the Libertarians in 2008. Their 2004 candidate, Michael Badnarik, was the only candidate to support father's rights.

A buddy of mine runs for local office as a Libertarian. He and I agree on keeping the government out of bedrooms, out of doctors offices, out of leisure activites, basically everything to do with the right to privacy. We agree that the government shouldn't enforce any gods rules. After that we disagree on taxes (he sees them as theft, I see them as paying my fair share), public roads, public schools, FEMA, OSHA, the FDA, the EPA, and every other government agency that protects people or regulates industry.

The Libertarians have some ideas I like a lot, but I can't back the rest of their platform.

11

Main / Ending the Marriage Strike

Oct 26, 2005, 01:39 PM

Let's summarize the murder rate for the U.S., but we should leave out all cities with a population greater than 500,000, as that is skewing the figures of the murder rate.

This flaw is so glaringly obvious, that it requires almost no thought to notice, and again I cannot believe you would continue this line of reasoning.

It's not a flaw if the question you're asking is 'What is the likelihood that I'm going to get murdered, given that I live in Hustle, Virginia (Population 428)?

There are people who stay married for a lifetime. If I resemble those people more than the divorcees, what are my chances of being divorced?

12

Main / Re: Women's crying contributes to the glass ceiling

Oct 26, 2005, 01:03 PM

Just because things have changed and policies have been enacted for equal opportunities means that attitudes don't still persist.  Its hard to change mindsets that existed for thousands of years in 30 or 50 years but its a start.  I don't see that advertising is completely for women although we are the biggest consumers but when I see naked women in videos and adds thats not necesarily directed at women, thats for men and young people in general.  As for the court system being infavor of women, thats yall perspective because I see many women that look like me behind bars or getting $50 a week in child support knowing damn well it costs way more then that to raise a child if there getting anything at all. (this is why I bring up race alot because for blacks there are more single mothers compared to whites and they help they get from their men is not the same so i have to bring it up.

You can't legislate away attitude. Enacting thought-crimes into law is a very bad idea. That's why I won't advocate legal action against the 'Boys Are Stupid - Throw Rocks at Them' tshirts and the like. Boycott and public outrage are much more effective tools for that kind of change, as Feminism has proven very well. When was the last time a female comedian on TV could play the straight, being laughed at by a man?

I was thinking of the court bias against sending women to prison. It is a statistical fact that women are sentenced to less time for the same crimes as men. It's my opinion that women get charged and convicted at lower rates than men for the same illegal acts. As for child-custody, I'm of the opinion that if you got the kid, you've won what's important.

I also don't buy the idea that there are thousands of years of inequality to change. Money and financial power in the wider world? Yes, there have been changes there. Who makes the big decisions in marriage and family? Hasn't changed in human history.

13

Main / Girls engaging in boys' sports: This is called progress

Oct 26, 2005, 11:20 AM

Fezzik, I don't like to be judgemental but you sound kinda feministic in your replies. So could you perhaps be a male feminist or is this a coincidence?

About the article, I didn't like it one bit. It is first degree PC crap.

Russ can call me rude names all he wants to, but 'male feminist' isn't a label I'd choose for myself. Thankfully it's not up to him whether I'm a man or not.

My family is English and like a lot of Americans with ties to England I'm a bit of an Anglophile. I also have a strong dislike for American Football that dates to my experiences with the football team at my high school.

The women rugby players I spoke of are grad school friends of my wife from her time in Scotland. I met them a couple of years ago. They play in a pickup league with the local police and fire departments. As far as I could tell they are insane.

14

Main / Funny, witty, blunt, man's talk. Just love it.

Oct 26, 2005, 10:48 AM

Er, no.  The only women who get help from this program are pregnant or breastfeeding, right?  In other words, directly supplying nutrition to a child.  Perhaps it would make men better if they renamed the program "Pregnant or Lactating Women, Infants and Children, Because We're All About Supplying Good Nutrition to Very Young Human Beings and We Can't Feed Fetuses Any Other Way Than Feeding Their Mothers and We Can't Improve on Breastmilk Yet, If We Could We'd Dump The Women Part" ?

No, according to their website children as old as 5 can be eligible for the program. The program isn't a women-benefit, it's a child-benefit. Nothing on their website indicates that fathers cannot apply for aid for their children.

Your family automatically meets the income requirement if you're already receiving assistance from: Food Stamps, Medicaid, for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, formerly known as AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children).

Both TANF and AFDC have gender-neutral names. Federal and State goverments took 'Men' off of every possible program even when they remain almost-entirely male. We didn't start calling Firemen 'Firemen and a few far-end-of-the-bell-curve-freakishly-strong-butch-Firewomen', we just started calling them Firefighters. Policemen became Police Officers or just the Police. Why have two standards? Why not make WIC gender-neutral?

From the WIC website :

The WIC target population are low-income, nutritionally at risk:

   * Pregnant women (through pregnancy and up to 6 weeks after birth or after pregnancy ends).
   * Breastfeeding women (up to infant's 1st birthday)
   * Nonbreastfeeding postpartum women (up to 6 months after the birth of an infant or after pregnancy ends)
   * Infants (up to 1st birthday). WIC serves 45 percent of all infants born in the United States.
   * Children up to their 5th birthday.

15

Main / Surprise Package from N.O.W. !!! Glossy full-color Spreads!

Oct 26, 2005, 10:23 AM

Television provides few positive role models for girls, and teen and "fashion" magazines would rather discuss makeup than career choices. The message is always the same -- women and girls should be frail, weak, and sexy, and not appear to be seeking power.

Damn! I believe the correct term is 'dissed'. Has Oprah responded at all? Who knew she was that unpopular with NOW?