DrMunks, researching online hate must be fascinating and soul-destroying at the same time. How do you cope? Do you inure yourself? Practice PTSD techniques? (I'm being quite serious, and my reasons for asking are for my own curiosity, and the vague compassion and empathy I have toward a stranger on the internet. Feel…

So sad. People get so threatened. It's so not about them.

I'm a bit shocked at the preponderance of high-heels. These boys look 7 years to about 12?? None of the girls in my kid's peer group of 10-yr olds are allowed to wear heels. .... Maybe it's just because it's this camp, though. Or am I completely unaware of current acceptable pre-teen footwear?

Lovely, you've gone from "Hur hur, I'm an equalist" to blaming women for their own oppression. And symmetrically-gendered violence? I guess we can toss out the last 50 years of feminist scholarship, then!

No, your thinking is defective, if you think that your choice, select group represents the majority of opinion and society today. Which gender holds the most seats of power? which gender controls the most money? Which gender makes 20%-30% more than the other? Which gender is routinely the perpetrator of domestic…

There we have it. Sad, divorced, bitter. Every time you open your mouth it gets clearer and clearer.

Do you think they're mad because the girls uttered "dirty" words, or because they let the cat out of the bag about the mechanics of sex?

WOOOO MISANDRY. Now I know you're one serious fellow. BTW, you've hit a good many squares on the MRA bingo. This conversation is a classic (dare I say textbook?) example of typical floundering and bravado in order to completely understand another's POV.

WOOOO MISANDRY. Now I know you're one serious fellow. BTW, you've hit a good many squares on the MRA bingo. This conversation is a classic (dare I say textbook?) example of typical floundering and bravado in order to completely understand another's POV.

As a peri-menopausal woman, a parasol is essential on a hot day if I don't want to look like a sweat fountain.

Present day always has its roots in the past. Every country that participated in colonialism, economic or cultural, has a responsibility to remember its past actions... and every country who enjoyed the riches of European "age of discovery' is complicit.

And yet I have not said that everything is the fault of men. Patriarchy is an ingrained system, existing in different degrees in different cultures, that affects both men and women. Those who benefit most are a) most likely to perpetuate it and b) most likely to claim it doesn't exist. (Ahem.) You'd never say that…

Actually, it is the patriarchy. There are always those who will be complicit in oppression, to gain favour with the oppressor. Feminism 101.

They sound unrepentantly idealised, like Ms Temperance Perfect Brennan. I'm going to love them.

Thanks so much for answering. I (and I'm sure others) appreciate the advice.

Awesome. Are they mystery genre? They're definitely going on my must-read list.

Don't have your own biological child. You're already raising two (even if it's part time) and I don't think it will be any more or less fulfilling than parenting one that came out of your own body. And honestly, your forties are going to be a hell of a lot more fun with relatively minimal responsibilities.

Sorry for beating a dead horse, but what things qualify as verifiable skills? Computer facility and software, of course, but what else would constitute "skills" during a SAHM gap?

You don't do it, and nobody you know does it, and therefore it must be true.

On women and makeup: