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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Well, OK, I'll start with the broad stereotypes. Being American, it's hard for me to see us as others see us. And then I guess it depends on which others are doing the looking. But I would guess that judging this country by the image I THINK we project abroad Americans would be judged spoiled, entitled and ignorant. Throw in selfish and violent. Hmmmm ... a lot like little rappy.

Also, I work with a lot of 'foreigners'. They're extremely well educated foreigners so they're not the norm. But they're definitely not here with the starry-eyed notion that at least here they have the 'freedom' to 'make something of themselves'. Very pragmatically one mainland Chinese woman told me - if things are going to fall, at least this country being so big it will take a long time.

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Or when he suggested in parliament that Gillard should “make an honest woman of herself.” (That Gillard is unmarried and does not have children has long been a source of outrage for her opponents, one of whom described her as “barren.”)

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It’s not just Gillard who has faced Abbott’s demanding standards: in 2004 he described abortion as “the easy way out,” and as Australia debated the introduction of a carbon tax, Abbott directed his appeal against the proposal to “the housewives of Australia, as they do the ironing.”

Abbott has not denounced others who have called Gillard “a man’s bitch” and a “witch”—in fact, he’s been photographed standing next to them, outside of Parliament House in Canberra. Gillard, of course, has her own strategic interests here as well—to keep Slipper on her party’s side—but in the process she got everyone talking about something much more important.

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Or when he suggested in parliament that Gillard should “make an honest woman of herself.” (That Gillard is unmarried and does not have children has long been a source of outrage for her opponents, one of whom described her as “barren.”)

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Sounds like they're grasping at straws. With some "nudge nudge wink wink it's a woman in politics isn't that precious" attitude.

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Banyard regards the sex industry's male consumers as victims too. "I think their sexuality has been co-opted by a predatory sex industry, which distorts and exploits it for profit. A new generation of boys, the vast majority have watched hardcore pornography on the internet, so we have a generation of boys coming through whose first sexual experiences will be vicariously participating in prostitution. They are watching filmed prostitution and getting their ideas about sex from it. This is an industry dedicated to finding ways of getting men to come back and keep coming back for more, so it tends to be increasingly violent to keep upping that response."

Another way of looking at it would be less charitable. Offered limitless choice, it turns out that what men really want is the most violent, degrading, misogynist porn imaginable. Does that tell us something about men?

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