[Jane Holland]

Originally Posted by Laura Heidy-Halberstein

Then the subject might be the common denominator, yes?

Anyhow, sorry if you thought I was lecturing or unpleasant - I was only offering some thoughts on what might best get your points across if that's what you were trying to do. Coming in and calling people unpleasant and lecturing and offensive and accusing them of " utter vitriol" in your first few posts just doesn't seem the best possible way to promote your cause.

You're right - no one needs it.

This is just an astonishingly unself-aware denouement to this thread. Thank goodness there are a few sane and courteous voices here, to counterbalance yours.

The common denominator, since you seem determined to find one, is the blind rage that drives so many members of online forums to gang up on individuals they dislike and to drive them away, although, in a face-to-face situation, they would behave in a more civilised manner. Or one would hope so, at any rate. Though that's not always the case, is it? Sometimes real stones are used.

The main question to my mind is why so many people are getting so wildly irate about the idea of a group of people discussing something they don't believe exists. If we were publicising a new forum for the discussion of fairies or little green men from Mars, who would care? Who would put vast amounts of energy and time into trying to drive them from the board?

But feminism ... gender equality ... these concepts would appear to be a serious threat, judging by the efforts made here to discredit them.