P.S. You forgot one.

As a psychiatrist*, I'd say this "Charlotte Allen" is suffering from an acute case of hysteria complicated by a catatonia-inducing attack of the vapors. This op-ed is a tragic reminder that there simply will never be enough gin, Vicodin, Lorcet and Meprozine in this world. Oh, the humanity.

*not really, tee hee hee.

However, my experience of actual women (and, for the record, I am one) is that a great many of them are hysterical, superficial, and sentimental.

Which is why I choose to surround myself with gay men instead. Hysterical and superficial, yes, but much less sentimental. :D

@2 Diversity of opinion is fine - but outright ridiculous sexist bullshit is not! I find it surprising that anyone would tolerate this. You should not - just as you would not tolerate any article that was racist. Imagine if this article casted off all African Americans as stupid - you'd be justly outraged, just as you should be with this crap. Why are women allowed to be talked about as stupid and ineffective?! Women are 54% of the voting population - and now over 50% of law and medical school graduates. Stop the madness people! This sort of talk is intolerable - to ALL people, both men and women.

Keep in mind all of those people passing out? It's flu season.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022702217.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

The blogosphere is so bent on knee-jerk reactionism that it makes my head hurt.

Or just waiting for the sky to open up and the light shines through then celestrial chiors sing....

on that note i really don't believe men or women are Superior or inferior in relation to each other, rather we compliment one another...making up were we fall short
it's not even genitalia...it's hormone balance. of those with more estrogen or more testosterone

B) There's absolutely nothing wrong or over the top about Erica raising this topic and calling the article a piece of shit. Those folks who've said that comments go south expressly because Erica's made a post are being proved correct, here.

C) The article is indeed appalling and while my instinct is always to say that something can be absolutely horrific and still should be allowed to be published, it's true that no major newspaper would publish an article like this about an ethnic group. I want to know that people are making these arguments, and I want to know about the grains of truth in them and how they're being misused. I guess that means I want to see articles claiming that black people's brains are smaller in the WaPo? Now I'm ashamed of myself.

The article made me depressed. The reactions here? Even more so. At least there's some signs of sanity showing.

The good majority of people are frivolous and silly. (Even smart ones a lot of the time.) Men and women both. Just because you don't understand the frivolity of the other gender doesn't mean they're "the weaker sex."

GOD the commenters make me angry enough to become a hillary supporter.

But I guess that's just a result of my random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial.

Oh wait, that couldn't be it! Because I am male. Silly me.

So ... celebrate monoversity!!

I could also add that men vote Republican much more than women. If that isn't dumb I don't know what is. Of course that's too stupid even for me. But I eat standing up at the stove and still haven't figured out what's wrong with that.

My opinion is that anyone who thinks that men are never hysterical, superficial, sentimental, flighty, jealous, etc has probably never dated one. Besides stereotyping women, ideas like this also deny male emotions. Big boys don't cry and all that shit.

There is a sort of meta-irony to bringing this up in a comment thread for a blog post complaining about a "lifestyles" op-ed piece in a newspaper -- talk about superficial, pointless wasting of precious fleeting time on the planet; I may as well be inscribing my thoughts about an annoying cloud formation in wet sand at the tideline on the beach just before sunset...

YES, this is a current theory of merit, a book out soon based on this idea.

Great story and interview on this topic on NPR two weekws ago, late at night, hours long.

As a fag who has never been conflicted about it all, I have know this since childhood. I was always pleased by the many differences and did not want to be anybody else.

So much for standard oppression theory.

And just to make sure it is clearly stated, there is an abundance of sexist pig assholes on this blog. Same old shit from the same old shit heads.

Stand your ground Erica, leave them all in the dust. Some will slowly get it, others will die holding their dicks and acting smug and superior about male super prowess and intelligence, and, and and.... Cheers to you Erica.

You know who you are, get screwed. You are obsolete aside that drop of sperm needed twice during your life.

The commenter @5 has posted here before. Based on his reasoning skills, or lack thereof, I'm assuming that he's somewhere between adolescence and college age. I bet he's never worked a real job in his life, let alone at a workplace he has to share with women.

Ugh.

Why should Erica not be incensed about this? I am. For those of you who criticize her for putting so much energy into getting herself pissed off, you also all spend equal or more energy personally attacking her on the slog. Anyone who thinks feminism has come oh so far needs to look no further than the slog comments to any of Erica's posts to see how much ignorance is still out there. They've become disheartening to read. I find it quite surpising since this is such a liberal, free spirited paper. Yes discussion is great, but why is the tendancy always to turn it into a personal attack on her? I don't know how she puts up with it. Given how much sexism has been dredged up by the presidential campaign, I think posts like this are absolutely called for.

In other words, it should not have been run. In other words, it isn't enough that I can just stop reading when I read something I disagree with; I don't think it should be in the WaPo at all, because I don't want you or anybody else to read it. Because even though I'm smart enough to see what nonsense it is, you're too dim and I have to protect you.

I guess if I were ECB I'd be taking that back too. But it's easy to believe that's what she meant; feminism today has a pretty long list of things the public isn't allowed to see.

I have gone to an all-girls high school, an all-women college and I have worked in an ALL women office. I can say that working in an all female environment is wonderful.

And somewhere, Obama is lurking, stealing your woman's breath.....

(And yet, while it seems that nearly everyone can understand that the racial disparity of the Supreme Court (and other high-profile or high-prestige positions) isn't due to the fact that people of color are inherently less intelligent than white people, but rather due to the centuries of racism and oppression in this country, not everyone is apparently able to understand the same for women and misogyny in the U.S.).

You try waking up at 5 so nervous, already on a diet, forgetting to bring water, you take the bus or carpool to the Obama event, you hope you can get in at 8:45 am for the 9:00 am start to get in to a Noon event - and from 9:00 am on no food, little water, you can't bring anything in, it's hot it's crowded you're excited OMG He's HERE! He's RIGHT NEXT TO ME!

(faints)

Quite frankly, ECB, I'm surprised you don't understand this ...

Many newspapers published editorials supporting The Bell Curve, a scientific racist text. Straight-faced defenses of intelligent design and creationism appear on op-ed pages as well.

Look. Many, many people have beliefs that you can't stand. You're better off understanding them, and you'll make yourself sick if you have a fit every time you're given the information you need in order to understand them.

Then we can not care what men think of women - and deal with our own issues.

"His parents, Richard and Carole Vickerman of Palisades, went to visit him at a veterans hospital after he suffered a mental breakdown; they were in disbelief. The funny and adventurous baby brother had become sullen, withdrawn and full of anxiety. Vickerman, who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, killed himself Feb. 19."

Carole Vickerman told the reporter: "We're still in shock. Our son was a proud Marine. He served his country honorably, and we don't know what happened to him."

The part I agree with

What, is watching movies silly? Reading books? Watching plays? Oh, video games are a lesser art form, enjoyed only by men? I forgot about that last part; you're right.

Fuck you you stupid cow.

Also, for the hater-haters:

"GET LAYED U DYK!!!111"

Also, how is "espn.com" a waste of time? Sports? Athletic endeavors? What the fuck is wrong with you? If I'm watching a tennis match, I'm usually thinking of ways to incorporate things I see into my games. Try eating meat like everyone else and see that exercise and sport is a good/fun way to stay fit; not a waste of time.

Or on second thought, don't exercise; get fat and die.

And you proved them right by using the "word" 'irregardless', you fucking dolt. Get a browser with a spell checker.

Fuck everyone. But especially Erica.

You know, sometimes people only print things to get a response; You do it all the fucking time (I imagine it's the only reason you're still employed, you get clickthroughs). Maybe the Op-Ed writer (and so many others you've feigned insult from) was doing the same.

Fuck you, idiot. As a sports fan myself, there is no way that most people are incorporating it into their games with any degree of seriousness. It's frivolous in the same way most entertainment pursuits are- just because some are considered masculine and some are feminine doesn't mean sports matter more than fashion. And most video games, like most books and movies, are dumb as hell no matter who plays them.

If you really do play tennis, I hope you break your leg, it gets infected, and you have to have it amputated. But I doubt you've ever ran in your life.

"A study published in 1998 by the Johns Hopkins schools of medicine and public health revealed that women clocked 5.7 auto accidents per million miles driven, in contrast to men's 5.1, even though men drive about 74 percent more miles a year than women."

Catch that? "accidents per million miles driven"... its irrelevant that men drive 74% more miles. Math is hard indeed. Did an editor even read this?

"I've been rejected by so many women that I hate them now"

Did ECB touch a nerve by ragging on the video games that you play instead of getting laid?

They are all equally frivolous. I only take offense at Erica's taking offense at the article, then turning around and committing the same violence against men.

No, but you did by only being the 10,000 person incapable of spelling my name.

I don't hate women. I'm not going to defend myself against your argument of "playing videogames instead of getting laid" because it's clearly inane. When you eat breakfast, aren't you "eating breakfast instead of getting laid"?

I got laid this morning, I played videogames this afternoon. I have yet to try to merge the two activities, I will bring up this issue at the next convenient time. You'll be posted on the outcome.

Thanks for your concern.

Mark, apparently the woman who wrote the article was incapable of understanding the subtleties of the mathematics she tried to use to back up her claims. Fortunately for her, this very failing also backs up her claims.

However, her claims are false. I'm not sure why ECB gets worked up over this. It's clearly a poorly constructed argument that's poorly researched and even more poorly written. The Post often sucks, I'm not sure why this is news.

It's certainly not an excuse for misandry from ECB. At least the original author spelled out her argument over two pages. From Erica all we get is one line of man-hate.

My issue is not with what Erica said, it's with how she said it. That a supposedly professional writer believes that another supposedly professional writer's writings aren't sufficient argument can be countered with an insufficient argument itself is appalling. Sorry for the recursive embedding; I'm too lazy to fix it.

I'm going to go play video games now. I'll be doing it next to my girlfriend while she reads her erotica/romantic novel.

I guess two of this type of personality don't mix well.

Only Erica could garner nearly 80 comments on a Sunday.

But that's because ECB doesn't promote proper argument on SLOG.

ECB appeals to tribalism and promotes pigfighting.

ECB's column demands you instinctively take sides and dig in.

However, agreement always cuts the conversation short.

If we can't argue around the fundamental truth, how can we keep a thread going for 90 posts?

Thanks for posting this. It's so hard to get men to understand that women are still oppressed, even in the littlest ways, and even by our own. It reminds me of the beauty pagents in the 1950's where women were asked what they should do when they graduate college, and they all said "get married and have children". (not that it's a bad choice to do that mind you...)

We need to point out how much this thinking hurts not only women, but men too. And all women need to stand up and point out how men are the same, just in a different way.

For example when men say things like "oh women just care about celebrity gossip, it's so inane" I always say "oh really? because I bet you follow sports stars with the same intensity, if not worse! How many points did XXX player have last season?"

We are all the same. We are human. We care about different inane shit, we are all sentimental to some degree, we are all ridiculous to some degree. We have a frontal lobe, so yeah, we're like that. Look at all the art we have, created by men and women. All frivilous and silly. But we love it. Nuff said.

And where one can see her making her point through sarcasm, a whole bunch of people are going to see it as an attack, and that's what always gets us off and running.

At least it usually seems that way.

Ring the bell, set out the meat. Same response every time.

Similarly, I don't think she's offended by the suggestion that some things women do are frivolous as much as by the claim that women are stupid.

None of this has anything to do with hating men.

Now, some women are down with the P&M. This is why you see some women at the top of their professions. Meg Whitman, CEO of Ebay, cums seven times a day. Hillary has a bigger porn collection than the Vatican. Martha Stewart carefully handcrafts donkey sex tapes.

If women want to fill the holes in the ranks of women at the top, they need to pay more attention to the holes down under.