Kevin said.

"And getting back to my deductive logic, I don't feel uncomfortable with the idea. And the reason for this turns out to be that, in the context of the Mudcat, there's no power or oppression issue involved. Men don't have a louder voice in the forum, or post more. At least it certainly doen't feel that way to me. And if it did feel like that to me, I'd be against the idea."

It does not feel that way to me either and that is why it makes me uncomfortable. For if there is no power or oppression issue involved on The Mudcat, there is no NEED to exclude anyone to redress that oppression?

But how the hell would two white, institutionalised sexist males know if there were, or were not power or oppression issues involved on The Mudcat? For if only one person felt differently, we would have to accept that there were these issues, wouldn't we?

I take your 'deductive (Irish) logical' point about examining how something feels and then working back from that point. The problem with that to me is, given the nature of feelings, what feels to an individual like a nice idea today might very feel like injustice tomorrow?

That is why I think that it is so important to try have clear understood broad principles of equality, all stick to them and be aware of when and why we are departing from them.

It's a bit like trying to score the 'Golden Goal', when someone keeps moving the goal posts.