I'm in Australia and used to get harassed in the street often when I was a teenager, but only occasionally now. I think some of that change is because of age, and my having learned to cultivate a good resting bitch face. But I'm pretty sure that most of the difference is just that I used to catch the train and walk…

I wonder if having cosmetic surgery will become an indicator of wealth in the same way that having perfect straight white teeth is. Look at the way Americans mock British teeth.

Didn't you hear? Boys don't read fiction, and girls don't like spaceships. How on earth has sci-fi survived so long?

I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone whose learning style and aptitudes go counter to the gender stereotypes. In a school designed to teach based on these stereotypes I would have always been taught in a way that was wrong for me. Going to a co-ed school, more than one teaching approach was used, so at…

The differences between individuals are bigger than the differences between the genders, so using an approach like this isn't really going to help. It is sexist to insist on teaching children according to their sex or gender (I'm not sure if it is gender or sex based segregation happening). Plus it could do a lot of…

The girls uniform at my high school was skirt only until my last couple of years, and it was awful in winter. We didn't have any inside areas to sit during lunch or morning tea, so it was rather chilly.

It should be too ridiculous to be true, but unfortunately it is indeed true.

Good on her friends for standing by her.

In a universe where girls are blamed anytime a man is aroused.

I'm glad I live too far north for funnel web spiders. We do have red-backs, but they are rarely deadly.

I wasn't aware of just how popular those conspiracy theories are, so to me this just read as a very bizarre thing for someone to do. I didn't address it before, because it wasn't the focus of this particular thread, but I agree that our sympathy should be focused on the families of the victims.

My comment was in response to someone who was suggesting violence as a response even if the person was delusional. As for whether or not they are actually are mentally ill, I don't have an opinion either way. There isn't enough information in this article to know that.

For someone who says they are normally against violence, you seem very keen on it.

If he doesn't believe she is a grieving mother and thinks she is an actor, then in his broken view of reality he isn't doing something wrong. That's not a failure to distinguish between right and wrong, it is a failure to distinguish between reality and delusion. Using violence as retaliation would just be making…

The point is that if it is a delusion (rather than him being a disgustingly horrible troll), he isn't knowingly causing harm to the family because he thinks they are actors. All the more reason to make sure he gets treatment, so that he doesn't continue to hurt people doing things like this.

Rape culture isn't a bunch of rapists coming together in a secret society. It refers to the fact that many people (otherwise good people) believe in myths about rape that either make it more prevalent, or make victims more vulnerable. Things like blaming people for their rapes, because of their clothing or behaviour,…

I'm talking about the many ways in which we soften or adapt our speech to indicate politeness or sociability. The argument made against uptalk is often that it isn't sufficiently direct or authoritative, but that is a double standard. I also disagree that authoritative speech is inherently more valuable.

What I mean is that asking if they "could please" do something is when you change your *orders* into questions. It is just type of softening your communication.

Would you consider using "could you please do ...." as a sign of insecurity when you are telling someone to do something? Or would you just consider it polite?

You are assuming that they are asking a question, because to you that is what the raised tone at the end of the sentence means. But to them it is a way to express other things, such as friendliness. As someone with an accent that includes uptalk, when it goes away it means I am angry or taking on a lecturing tone.