actually i think she's got a point. if you're a lady and you *have* decided that hetero pair-bonding is the only way to get the help and support you need, then damn right you'd better lower those expectations if you don't want to be alone. i think women do still expect too much of their men, and i think these expectations are leftovers from an era when we *could* expect men to be more educated, richer, stronger and braver than women were allowed or encouraged to be. i think women have become all the things that men once were (as Gloria Steinham said, 'we're becoming the men our mothers wanted us to marry'), without changing their expectations of the male role accordingly. so we look to men to be even stronger, even cleverer, even braver - and then we're disappointed when they're not? that's not fair on either ourselves or on men. so in a way i'm with gottleib - demand less, expect less, don't dare to dream - and you might just leave satisfied.
Editor: "We need you to write an article - something attention grabbing and controversial".
Gottleib: "OK. Now I just have to pretend to endorse a tired old conservative stance that goes against the principles of modern, progressive, open-minded and/or feminist thinking, and it'll stir everyone into a hubbub of righteous blogging and commenting! Hurrah for tedious, attention-grabbing articles!"
Me: "ARGH! Can we please MOVE FORWARD instead of just going in endlessly decreasing circles, PLEASE!"
Point: What right-thinking person actually thinks this? The arguments against it are so neon-bright and obvious, it's not even worth trying to argue with. Leave Gottleib et al to their ironic little play-pen.
Commenting by HaloScan
