Well, Alex, I don't think there's an easy answer to your question.

To some men, the original post to this thread had the appearance of gender bashing. Several of them commented on it in their posts to this thread. I regard the original post as gender bashing. Guest, Andrea, has stated that she does not consider her original post to be about gender bashing.

Maybe the thing to do is to try to be sensitive to the consequences of the things we say, even in jest, and try to learn from the kinds of effects our words have on others. If they cause hurt, maybe we should reconsider them.

Carol