Close. It's because they believe that success, intelligence, beauty, etc. are finite items. If one woman gets promoted, that means the rest of the women are denied an opportunity. Whereas if a man gets promoted, that's fine because success is infinite for men.

This is kind of mean.

Yes. There is a portion of the population that does good things for the sake of doing them. But there is a far, far darker side to just doing favors for someone.

Interesting. This clip is what I thought of.

Clearly you never took Principles of Logic. Ever heard of syllogism?

I suggest you all read the book, "Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion." Great book. Should only take an hour. Easy read. It won't tell you anything you don't already know but it shines a light on the real reasons why people do favors for others.

Thanks for the reality check. I do feel better because I question if I was hostile or bitchy. Maybe.

My mom got mad at me when we went to my bro's for Thanksgiving one year and he had another couple over. Said couple was talking about their families Italian "traditions" that seemed to heavily favor the males in the family.

It's all part of the conflicting message. My parents raised us to be nice, courteous, and accommodating to people. "Be respectful." "Don't be rude." "Smile." "Talk to people even if you don't want to." "You need to be nice." "You're not being ladylike right now." "You talk too much." "You were arguing with…

I've noticed this trends with lots of the liberal dudes I hang with. They don't know why but they just abhor the concept of changing their own damn name and insist on a woman taking theirs. ("You're not as liberal as you'd like to think," I always say.) A man has to rectify that contradiction before I would ever…

I love it when white dudes pine for the days of yore. And it's so understandable, right?

And Skylar saw right through the "I'm doing it for yooooooooooooou" excuse. It most definitely was about ego.

Yeah but wasn't that the irony? He did all this stuff so his family wouldn't suffer but then he risked losing his family altogether when he did all that stuff.

I vaguely recall an article that shamed people like me for binge watching TV shows. All I could think was...are you seriously telling me there's a "wrong" way to watch TV, Slate?

When I was 28, I dropped into conversation that my friends and I were headed to NYC for NYE. My mother FLIPPED. She tried to "forbid" me from a trip we'd been planning since August. Why? Because muggers. In Times Square. With a million people. Maybe a rapist too?

I had to remind my mother that the number one cause of rape is rapists. Maybe drop that tidbit of knowledge?

This was me reading your first line.

My mother still thinks there's a direct correlation between walking alone at night and getting raped.

I don't understand this?

Or what a cervix is in the first place.