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I was in a so-called "women's consciousness-raising group" way back about 1971. I would have been 19 or 20. I was the youngest: most of the other participants were in their 30's or older, as I vaguely remember.

We had a different subject every week (work, school, dating, travel, housework, sports/games, music, religion) but no matter what the topic, the real discussion was always "He/They Done Me Wrong," the moral indictment of men.

I remember lying in bed after one such discussion thinking, "Are men like that? Is my father like that? Is my brother like that? Was my 8th grade boyfriend like that?"

My father, my brother, and my 8th grade boyfriend were normal decent male human beings ---NOT "like that". So I was troubled that these women were, for some reason, provoking their worst thoughts, "bidding up" each other's resentments and grievances, and constructing a huge contemptible cartoon picture of all men everywhere. I made a mental resolution that I would NEVER libel any man the way Jeanne K trash-talked about her ex.<

I have my father, my brother, and sweet Jimmy C. (St. Peter's Grade School class of 1965) to thank for my lifelong immunity to Male Defamation Campaigns. Because they were good boys, good men.

And now I thank my husband, who is a credit to his sex.

provoking their worst thoughts, "bidding up" each other's resentments and grievances, and constructing a huge contemptible cartoon picture of all men everywhere

Just like teenagers online do with their parents! It's a negative feedback loop echo chamber in which they get more and more disconnected from real people and more invested in their cartoons.