Oh, dangit all to hell: I was doing my eyebrows and saw this thread, got sidetracked, and now I'm kinda lopsided. Anyhow, first of, I'd like to say congrats and thanks to all of you for keeping this thread civil. I've read far too many long long threads about many topics which I stand on one side or the other including feminism, gun control, abortion, and read through far too many threads which were nothing but thoughtless, rude screaming. As far as contributing: I don't have much to say though I would like to ask Dutch.Lover a question that's been bothering me lately.

I've been through my share of feminist classes as well, and I liked my Third Wave Feminism class the best, though my friend and I in it had an interesting discussion, which was never answered. She pointed out that since feminism is opening up so much that almost everyone's version of feminism is viable, what's to stop an antifeminist from calling themselves feminist? I didn't have an answer, but I left university calling myself a feminist. After graduation, I now work at a sawmill with a crew list of men except for one woman. Most of them treat me very equally and I couldn't ask for a better group. And when I use the term equally, I mean they treat me as a member of the group. They don't censor their language around me, they don't censor their topics, they treat me according to my experience level and strength. One guy, who calls himself a gentleman and often complains of the uncouth company he is 'forced' to work with, stood out and invited me to dinner one night, and, regretably, I accepted. (I swear, this is leading to something) Anyhow, during the course of the evening, he tried to ply me with lots of wine, repeatedly said things like "I'm old enough to be your father but I'm sexually attracted to me" (he's OLDER than my father) while staring at me hungrily, mentioned that one of the other guys on the crew must have done something to his daughter since she didn't marry until she was 30, and then to top it all off, when I mentioned I considered myself a feminist, he said he was one too. Ever since, I don't consider myself a feminist.

So Dutch.Lover, or anyone else, for that matter, do you have any comments? Because I'm for sure still struggling with that dilemma.