Ms. Nancy, you’re assigning full-grown adult logic to a child. I don’t currently have the research to back up my supposition like Tom (although I suspect if I looked for it over the next few days I could find it) but I’m thinking the cycle of “girl says ignorant stuff to get guy to do someting ignorant to prove his love for her” or guy does something ignorant to prove his manhood” won’t be broken until BOTH the male and the female see their part in the cycle. That takes either experience or adult-level reasoning.

I posit that most of the children we’re talking about haven’t been taught that level of reasoning nor have they seen it modelled, i.e. they’re getting their ideas about what boys and girls should be doing from popular media instead of Cosby-esque families in their environment.

@Tom, from a cursory reading of your statements, it sounds like you’re parroting the “its-the-Girls-fault” line of thought with your talk of sex segregation being a female trait with the poor misunderstod boys being forced to compete for female attention. Although that may be part of the root cause, you can’t ignore Male beliefs – i.e. beliefs in what Manhood is.

You ever read Na’im Akbar’s Visions for Black Men? You may want to start there with a cogent definition of Manhood and then figure out how you can get Males to that point while also getting Females to realize their part in the cycle.

Teen boys need to take responsibility for their own actions and not blame others.

Teen girls need to take responsibility for their own actions – and ONLY their own actions.

As long as teen boys (and “grown” men) see violence as the epitome of manliness, there will be bloodshed over any handy pretext.

So tired, so lame, so old.

You also seem to be ignoring the conditions which perpetuate violence, which basically boils down to whether or not the men have FREE access to the native females for sex, or whether or not they have to fight/pay to get some. The degree to which females allow free association dictates the degree to which men can stop aggressing other men, and start living like as level 2 humans. Obviously, women cannot be expected to sleep with every man just to alleviate his destructive potential, but I think there is room for improvement when it comes to young (attractive) women holding court, managing their suitors in a more civil and less erratic way, without playing them off against each other (I’ve had more than one female suitor at a time, but I have never played them off against each other!) If you are a young attractive woman who has a lot of guys sniffing around, then you should have plenty of experience to develop the social skills to brush them off effectively, and politely, and without necessarily withdrawing yourself and your other female cohorts entirely from his company, but this behaviour is seen as women’s innate business which cannot be criticized (until now), although by the feminist standard of the personal being the political, there perhaps is room to step up the cultural war against these all too typically cruel rejections, marginalisations, and isolations seen as fair game by most non-feminist women up until this point. Men may not be so great at taking a very subtle non-commital hint that a woman is not interested in him sexually, but equally, many women could do with brushing up their skills to make a rejection MORE than a hint, so the man is left in NO doubt that more chivalry, nuptual gift offerings, and aggression against other suitors will not be required either.

Then there is the whoary old question of whoremongery. Perversely, many a young women today will disparage another young women who gives sex away for free, by calling her a whore – this gives a flavour of the backlash against feminism, by young women. It’s women who set the prices, and unfortunately, there is little evidence those prices are coming down, and despite recent economic prosperity, prostitution has remained constant (Bernstein, 2008), so the old argument about poverty leading to prostitution no longer washes.

Can you in all honesty, look yourself in your feminist face, and say you have done enough to eradicate the large residue of backward female traits listed here?

If you can, then please tell us how we can convince those less evolved non-feminist women to take up the same cause. Can they be trusted/challenged with the truth, or do they need more victim-feminist sidetracking?

Nobody is denying the existence of women who maneuver weak and irresponsible men into violence in order to satisfy the women’s ambition. It’s up to the men to show a little backbone in such cases, and refuse. Does anyone think that Macbeth was blameless?

On the other hand, FAR MORE women would prefer to have their men safe and whole, and wish that the men would STFU in men’s dominance games often ending in violence. A dead or imprisoned man is not much of a lover, husband, or friend. Lysistrata, anyone? Sadly, that strategy doesn’t work in real life, where many men will just backhand (or worse) women that ask them to stand down from fights and to ignore insults.

So far as I am concerned, the primary responsibility lies in the hands holding the actual weapon. Any projection that a man puts on a woman – “I am doing this for HER” – as a reason for initiating violence is just that – HIS projection. Don’t assume she wants her man to fight – and if she does make this demand, just leave her (assuming she isn’t being mauled at that moment) – she’s not worth it.

Teen boys need to take responsibility for their own actions and not blame others.

Teen girls need to take responsibility for their own actions – and ONLY their own actions.

As long as teen boys (and “grown” men) see violence as the epitome of manliness, there will be bloodshed over any handy pretext.

I just read today that the Vatican “thinks” women on the pill are responsible for male infertility due to peeing estrogen into the sewer system. No, it has nothing to do with all the chemicals being released into the environment from the plastic companies, etc.

I believe women are and have always been the scapegoats for “MAN”kind. If MEN have nothing else to blame it on, they will blame it on women no matter what. When do men take responsibility for their actions? Or do they? I’ve not seen it happen yet.

Oh, and for the record Tom is an absolute f’ing idiot who needs to crawl back under his rock!

One of the ways women have done this, is by sex segregation, which includes the formation of women-only special interest groups. It is so wonderful feministing.com is not one of those immature women-only places.

My main criticism of the Reverend Jessie Brown’s seminars, is that the audience appear to be all-female, as if these young women need to be separated from the men in order for them to be able to cope with the personal reflection, when I feel it would be more helpful to include young men in the classes, as representative of the inclusive free association required between the sexes for mature and peaceful evolutionary gains. I e-mailed the Rev asking him why he’s preaching to all girls, and will let you know if he gets back to me.