"You're such a sweet guy..."

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A couple of you seem rather determined to stereotype, generalize, and malign entire groups of fellow human beings based on limited interactions with tiny sample portions, then attempting to pass your conclusions off as objective and universal social realities.

I like you fine, so don't take this personally... but that kind of assertion is neither reasonable nor edifying.

I might have been responsible of some of that last night. Now that my BAC has gone back to zero, I see that. Added the word many, and some other edits, to make it a bit less of a sweeping generalization.

As shadexiii was saying, I really think it would be helpful then to phrase things in terms of "some girls", "many women", "some single mothers", etc. That might seem nit-picky and spoil-sportish to some, but I'll explain where I'm coming from. I'm becoming increasigly aware that many young men (not specifically on WP, but in general) are veering toward misogyny based on a handful of bad experiences and a truckload of horror stories from fellow disappointed men. In most cases I've seen, these horror stories are highly emotional and make a lot of unkind assumptions about the "witchy" female star of the story.

As I've said in an earlier post (don't remember if it was in this thread or another), oftentimes the woman is described in very generous terms while the guy thinks she likes him, and then when he is betrayed/dumped/rejected/let down, she becomes "horrible". Obviously in a case like that, the impression that the guy has of the girl's personality is based less on her true character than on whatever neurotransmitters happen to be more active in his brain at the time of description.

Sure, it can be most helpful and cathartic to share painful stories. Yet it's clearly (in my opinion) not good for young men to face a constant barrage of negative generalizations about women during the most impressionable years of their lives (and vice versa of course). Our minds develop in certain ways based on the infomation we process, and if a young man is repeatedly told that women are evil, conniving, ho-bags... this will inevitably have some impact on the way he regards women. I am not pulling this out of the air--these are the fundamentals of neuropsychiatry.

In a forum where people are asking for advice and guidance regarding how to approach the opposite sex, I truly believe we should attempt to help each other grow in healthy directions, aiming for the sharing of hope rather than the perpetuation of a bleak outlook. Granted, not everybody is capable of giving that at every moment. But I think those who are able should do so.

Again, no insult intended whatsoever, so hopefully I have not offended.