I read Metzger’s screed, I hear a man who is concerned that he or his friends may be accused of rape. Now why on earth would such a fine, upstanding citizen as Mr. Metzger be concerned about such a thing?

No one’s suggesting women athletes compete against male athletes. Semenya is either female or intersex, not male. As Ms Moskovitz said, all elite athletes are genetic anomalies. All of them. 99% of their success is hard work and dedication...the other 1% is a quirk in their physical makeup that makes them uniquely…

I’m going to guess you’re a linguist, which is very cool. Your explanation is interesting and informative, but very wide of the point. In modern English the word does retain its meaning of “human”, but in everyday life is used primarily to mean “male person”. That’s why titles such as “fireman” were changed. Technicall…

I fill out surveys for a marketing company and I can only agree with you. In a recent one about banks, I had to slide a little marker along a scale to indicate “how close you feel” to various banks. How close I feel? It’s a fucking bank. I want it to store my money and give it back when I want it, and let me buy…

ALL the Yeses to this. Only dressing thin women is such a creative cop-out - they woman would look great in a chaff bag tied around the waist with baling twine, where’s the skill and vision involved there? Sculpting around curves, flattering rolls, cutting to make sure that bodice fits like paint without being tight,…

I’m sorry, I’ve replied to you twice. I didn’t notice the two separate posts were by the same person. Ignore the cut and pasted sections.

I am so sorry you were assaulted, and so sorry you’re having to deal with such fuckery from people who are supposed to be on your side. My only hope is that they know the defense will try to make something your clothing, and they want to be prepared. Best thoughts to you and yours, may the bastard be found guilty and…

Hitler was so into Meistersinger that the Nazi party organised performances in munition factories as “morale boosters” during WWII. Meistersinger is the longest opera in the mainstream repertoire, with most performances coming in well over 5 hours. And Wagner opera is not everyone’s cup of tea. Either German factory…

I also agree with you that it’s not always black and white which group gets the final word on the changes. It’s reasonable to look at some issues on a case-by-case basis, and tradition may well play a role; I’m just not sure this is one of those times. I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this, but it’s nice to…

I would edit it to say “In Western countries it’s completely legal for a woman to go bareheaded but in some places illegal for her to go topless. So in that respect, as it’s practiced in Western countries, Western culture has a more oppressive double standard”.

I was referring to Western countries only. I thought I’d made that clear, but obviously I failed miserable. As I say, I wish I could edit that original post, because it seems to be a complete trainwreck of Expressing Myself Really Badly.

What kind of imbecile watches an Olympic athlete step off the performance floor, write in a notebook and think “diary” instead of “performance notes to aid with future improvement”?? I’m incredibly fortunate, I’m in Australia and we got radio commentary from the publicly-funded ABC. The commentators aren’t perfect,…

Why shouldn’t she?

Are you suggesting The Librarian would not be a better candidate than Trump??

As a fan of Richard Wagner’s music, I struggle with this as well. Wagner was an appalling person. Financially irresponsible, a serial adulterer, thin skinned as fuck, treated the people around him like dirt, an entitled whiny bitch with an ego the size of a planet and a case of anti-Semitism that was shocking even by…

A cult movie from my youth, that I love, is being remade in a way that appears to diverge from the source material. I have determined I would probably not enjoy said remake. I will therefore launch a vicious online campaign against its very existence. I will insult its stars, threaten its producers, sabotage its IMDB…

I warned my son that he would never be able to look at Nigel Thornberry or Long John Silver the same way again, and did he really want to do that to his childhood? His reaction when the elevator doors opened was quite spectacular.

My dad belongs to a club of woodworkers and handymen. They are all retired farmers in their 70s for whom waste of any kind is anathema, and they scrounge for “recycled” wood like mofos. The difference is, they don’t like the stuff they make to look like it’s made from recycled wood. They fill in the nail holes and…

Well, if someone grabs a woman she should say something! You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know about it!

Yep, I’ve been schooled on this and acknowledge it. Should have said there are some places in the Western world where it’s illegal for women to go topless. Unfortunately I can’t edit my original post to make the correction, would if I could.