Frank - I hope you will reconsider. I agree with Maurine, you never crossed a line. And I don’t think this site should ONLY be for women. If one contributes in a respectful way, which you always have done, why shouldn’t you be welcomed ?

Please take some space and reconsider this, Frank. I may be mistaken, but though this website targets women over 40, there is not a clause that says “and be gone if you don’t have boobs or aren’t at least in perimenopause.” And if it did, I would not be a part of it because that perpetuates the crazy exclusivity and separatist attitudes that I think all the “isms” are fed by. You have done no wrong, Frank. No line that I am aware of has been crossed. Rather, you have brought a voice of respect, appreciation and an honoring of women in your commentary and that has meant a great deal to so many that are members of this community. I really think that sexism is alive and well, and Mugsy is right, women have become desensitized to it, true. I don’t think that conquering sexism is going to involve a “girls club” to retalliate against the “boys club” that has been responsible for the atrocities (selected that word carefully) against women that have gone on for what seems an eternity and is still going strong. Actually the opposite. I think that will be accomplished by a club for “people” that practice harmlessness toward one another, show mutual respect, and live unified in harmony. Independent of whether they don a bra or jock strap. I encourage you to return to what I consider your welcome seat at the table of wowowow discussion. That to me, despite the sensitivities and upsets that are being worked through at that table, would reinforce your support of women in a strong and solid way. Besides…I already miss ya…:)

Frank, I do not think you have crossed any line. If you want to participate, do. If you don’t want to participate, do not. Or if you just want to dial back a little, your choice. Do not move on because you think you are causing a problem. The trick is not to take it personally, any of it. Especially when one part of the discussion is that maybe the Wowowow management may be selecting topics and contributors in an unbalanced way. [I have had enough of Monica Crowley for all of 2008.] Since your featured comment was a response to me in another thread, I feel bad that this had to be the place for this discussion to take place. For the substance of your comment was right on the money. This is definitely an historic time and it is amazing to participate/vote/comment/watch, all of it. But this type of discussion was coming, and I am sorry that your comment had to be the place for it to come up. In some threads where Dr. Klein has hijacked the thread to talk about his own misogyny instead of what the thread was about, people have responded to Klein in such a way that the main purpose of the thread got lost. Here, I think your comment just became a platform for a discussion about people’s expectations of this web site. Clearly, your participation is welcome. But sexism is a curious beast; it lives within women as well as within men. It is a set of attitudes and it is not always obvious to us that we may have shards of it stuck in our psyche. Steinem’s Revolution from Within was a great revelation to me. I know that the founders of Wowowow never intended to discriminate against men in their site; legally they could not do so. Still, this is a vulnerable time for many women who have worked for political power; the first viable woman candidate for the presidency is about to concede. If this site is to serve primarily women over 40, perhaps that means that here, men should play a supporting role, not a starring role. And that does not mean you should go away. But it may mean that threads about rich pedophiles are in questionable taste.