Kirsten, I echo what PoohBear and katlaughing have said above. I would go on to say that I don't think that any of the men on this forum (certainly very not many) are intimidated or scared by a woman who speaks her mind. If you do a spot-check of threads here, you'll note that there is no shortage of women who are intelligent, informed, have strong opinions, are quite outspoken, and don't take any crap off of anyone, male or female (and that most definitely includes Ebbie and CarolC just above, and WYSIWYG, whether or not someone perceives her as "conservative" or a "preacher's wife" or whatever; she's perfectly capable of speaking for herself). So you're not exactly a pioneer here.

As far as feminism is concerned, you're pretty much preaching to the choir. And that includes both men and women here. As far as militant feminism is concerned, nobody here has any problem with the feminism part of it. It's militancy—in any of its forms—that can be a turn-off to a lot of people. An underlying foundation of anger is readily perceivable and often begets anger in response, so if one wishes to put forth something for the serious consideration of others, being initially confrontational can be counterproductive.

In the political threads, the discussions can sometimes get pretty heated, but all in all, Mudcat tends to be a fairly friendly place. You will, of course, find a few smart-asses here, but they can generally be shrugged off. You will also find a few cranky people who don't like the way Mudcat is run (generally a hands-off policy) and can be highly critical. Browse a lot of threads, get the lay of the land, and make up your own mind.

I have written a a lot of stuff, some of it published, and I've been tempted to post chunks of it here, but noting the general length of posts that hold people's attention, I've learned that it's best to post, as Open Mike put it, the "Cliff's Notes" version. I can sympathize, because I tend to "write long" (THIS post is an example).

As a result of this particular thread, I googled you and found that you are a very active and articulate person with much to say that I am in perfect agreement with.

Welcome aboard.

Don Firth