Jesus Christ, wanton toddler…
The President of the United States is here? 
Nope, I gotta agree with Left Hand of Dorkness here in regards to you TriPolar.
For all those who say “Participation is voluntary” or “Just ignore it” what do you think is happening? Women here are doing exactly that. Female posters are leaving this board in droves. Do you really want this board to become a male only place? Do you want a message board that is hemorrhaging members to lose people even faster?
All that’s being asked is that people not be annoying. Or to stop defending creepy weirdos on grounds of “But their free speech!” (With a side of “Hurr hurr, guess I triggered you, hurr hurr” from Octopus and others.) Just don’t be an asshole. It isn’t hard. And if you occasionally act like an asshole and get called on it, apologize and move on. It will be forgotten in a week.
How easy it would have been for Skald to say “Gosh, there really is a lot of sexual abuse and humiliation in my stories. Sincere apologies and I’ll cut it out.” Everyone would have applauded him for it. But no, he has to get defensive and mock.
I get what you’re saying, but there’s also a desire among many of us to DNFTT. Shagnasty enjoys squicking people out with his misogyny. I’ll call someone out if they make a sexist joke, but crap like the pancake3 example isn’t worth calling any extra attention to.
No, it’s not the only example. You can do the search yourself.
Are there other example of boards that are as encompassing as this one, and has a majority of men, that are more progressive and female friendly?
Not snarking, I’m asking an honest question here.
Really? I don’t see any leaving. I see threats to leave if they can’t dictate terms to the whole board, I say go. I’d say that to any organized group that tried to employ tactics similar to the Heckler’s Veto in order to control what others post.
This thread belies the notion that not wanting to be surprised by misleading titles and gratuitous porn was the issue. The thread location itself is bait. Why do you think this was posted here and not ATMB? The pit is a better target to stir up drama.
It’s like how references to male experiences get treated like the default (imagine some humor site is talking about how some movie is so bad, it metaphorically “punches you in the dick”), but if girly-bits are involved, it tends to be prefaced with “for all you ladies out there”, or similar.
Do you think this is actually a discussion? It feels far more like a shaming to me. I’m not saying the latter isn’t actually more effective at creating change than the former, but let’s call a spade a spade.
Personally, this board feels far more classist than sexist to me. Is that because I’m a dude who has lived dirt poor and thus have experienced far more classism than sexism? Almost certainly. That said, it still created an environment where I found myself spending less and less time here, and I empathize with the women who feel that they are not welcome here.
It’s actually hamster powered. 
OK, this is yet another example of the male PoV.
The answer to “too many rate-a-woman threads” is NOT an equal number of “rate-a-man threads”. That’s a very common male assumption that “equality” or “fairness” in topics means an equal number of the type of topics men like, but gender-flipped.
I can not speak for all women, but frankly, I find ALL the “rate-this-type-of-people” threads to be tedious at best, and vaguely icky most of the time. That’s my opinion, which is why I am seldom seen in them. Saying “But you can come up with your own rate-X-things” type of threads! doesn’t work for me because it’s not an activity I’m interested in regardless of the gender(s) involved.
Personally, I’d be much more interested in “how to size and purchase bras” and “how to best shave your legs” and “how to deal with all the weird shit menopause has imposed on me” but I don’t dare start them because INVARIABLY the men show up and start taking over. Look, guys, you want to be supportive? Go ahead and read threads like that but don’t comment. Just don’t. Because those threads are not about you. (Unless you’re a guy with boobs substantial enough to need a bra and you need advice about sizing/purchasing. And I mean really have that problem, not just pretending/trolling.)
But I actually have some good ladyscaping tips! Fine I’ll keep them to myself.
Seriously though, these are publicly accessible forums. If you want private discriminatory discussion use PMs or a different type of social media. As long as people aren’t threadshitting and are following the sub-forum specific rules I don’t see the problem with a wide range of viewpoints. I’m all about that diversity. I think that’s the key to intellectual growth. Having your viewpoints challenged and being exposed to diverse ideas. Censoring, shaming, and screeching the opposition down is not the solution. IMHO.
So if the menfolk are invading a thread and posting off topic nonsense, report them. The moderators around here, for the most part, are good.
Please say you understand the difference between exclusively metaphorical imagery of being punched in the dick and generation after generation of women who comprise half the population on this planet that have been (and continues to be in many parts of the world) treated in a very real abusive fashion, and now are being not so subtly told to just get over/past all that already.
Is there any basis for the assertion that women are leaving the board in droves? There’s a lot of turnover on this board (as on other boards) and it would be trivial to find any number of women who have left the board, but you can also find any number of men who have left too.
And what’s odd about this assertion is that by every indication the board has become more sensitive to these types of concerns, not less sensitive. So it would be strange if women would be leaving in droves over this issue. If there were women who were fine with the board as it was, then there should be even more who happy with it now.
What I suspect that what’s happening is the opposite. That as the board membership has become more politically correct, and as the staff has shown increased sensitivity to such concerns, that the membership is now more demanding in this area, and expectations are raised in this regard. Which, in turn, has increased dissatisfaction about this very issue.
[I once saw a theory about how rising expectations are the cause of revolutions, and that most societal upheavals are the result of things improving, not of things getting worse.]
Not so simple. All these things you describe are about feelings, and feelings can be anything.
As noted earlier, simply discussing false rape accusations was called out in the OP as an example of male centrism (as was also done in those threads themselves). This was based on the OP deciding for herself that those threads were really about some hidden agenda that she herself had assigned to them, and which she objected to. There’s no limit to this sort of thing.
Bottom line is that if you promote an attitude that someone’s feelings - which only they alone get to determine - are of paramount importance as regards to other people, then it’s almost inevitable that this will be used to bully other people into submission.
Not to say that the issue being raised is not a legitimate issue, and - like most things in life - it’s part of a picture with competing concerns. But depict it as “Just don’t be an asshole. It isn’t hard” is not valid.
Actually, this has been a surprisingly good discussion so far. What’s not surprising at all, is that you remain a fucking imbecile with a pathetic fixation on pit content.
What’s wrong with you?
It seems to me the only thing about this board you enjoy, the only thing that really lights you up, is your “You liberals sure are stupid” act. Don’t you ever get tired of that? Don’t you ever feel the desire to act like a normal human being?
Thing is, this community, such as it is, means a lot to you. At least you spend a lot of time here. But to what end? What about it gives you so much enjoyment? Why can’t you just go comment on YouTube videos or something?
You offer nothing positive or substantial here, it’s just Argument Clinic for you. You’re not changing minds, you’re not performing for the lurkers. The only one who cares is you. So what’s wrong with you?
I slogged through five pages of this behemoth to make sure no one posted this already, so I’m not going back to find the exact quote.
But TriPolar, you asked why there isn’t a Great Debates thread on this topic. Because you haven’t started one.
Having had a trip through the poverty tunnel myself, I have to agree there is also classism on this board (but I’m not going to go into detail because really, that deserves its own thread).
But yeah, if you’ve experienced more classism than sexism you’ll probably be more sensitive to classism and see the bigotry others experience through that lens. That’s not right or wrong, it just is, it’s what you do with it that makes the difference. Do you use your experiences at being on the short end of the stick to empathize with the discrimination others feel? Then you’ve learned something. There are other people, though, who will shout others down because they feel THEIR hurts are more important than anyone else’s. Those people tend to be assholes. So… don’t be an asshole.
Look, I know “triggering” is what *you *call it when you picture sweaty horse-on-octopus action, but the rest of us don’t have that particular paraphilia so, maybe, stop bringing it up everywhere, yeah? Dragging posters into his fetish was Skald’s thing, get your own shtick
I explained why I didn’t (didn’t I?). I don’t want it to be a continuation of this nonsense. If nobody else will do it then maybe I will.