General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There is nothing that causes outrage among men like female sexual autonomy. [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Come on, people, this is an internet forum, not an academic research paper. DUers should feel free to post without spelling out common-sense qualifications.
It's not a valid cause for outrage if I write something like "Men are taller than women." I could instead give a completely accurate statement -- mean heights, median heights, standard deviation, range, passing reference to WNBA players, limitation of the statements to adults because I think there's an age at which the average female is taller than the average male, etc. -- but, for many purposes, the generalization is good enough.
Most of the OP's critics are criticizing something they read into the post. Because the author didn't take care to say "some", they choose to respond to an imaginary post that says, "What I'm writing here is true of every man now alive, absolutely without exception." The author didn't say that, either.
My reaction isn't limited to the gender issues addressed in the OP. It seems to me that, regardless of the subject area, DU threads often feature too many people who seem to be looking for something to get outraged about.
BTW, I for one have had feelings similar to those described in the OP. I don't think it's an extraordinarily rare reaction, or Joe Jackson wouldn't have had a hit with "Is She Really Going Out With Him". It's a feeling of -- oh, wait, let me clarify, In my particular case it's a feeling of -- "I would be a much better boyfriend for her than that lout she's actually seeing, but, dammit, he's the one she's actually seeing."