Originally Posted by ddc:
If someone's ranting about their man troubles, there's gonna be man bashing in there.

It's funny, usually the OP in those sort of threads are referring to the actions of a specific male, not all males. That or, as I said before, there are emotional posts that are made without much thought. Venomous people, trying to project their own prejudices onto someone who is emotionally vulnerable, are the sort to make the sort of statements that I am referring to.

If someone came onto these forums and made the post: "Women are just emotionally flimsy and incapable of self-discipline - that's why you're all fat."...how would that generalization be met?

Something that's actually funny, at least to me, is that I am probably one of the hardest people in the world to offend. I can tread into any topic without fear of my delicate self wilting in the heated environment. Perhaps that's why I felt I should bring this up - I'm comfortable in my thoughts and, while I'm not trying to be a bully, I certainly won't tolerate anyone bullying me (or others). That's not what we're here for.

MariaMaria - this is from my earlier post.

Originally Posted by :
Had I not mentioned the other thread, you would not have assumed a specific catalyst and, therefore, would not be chiding me for attempting to "publicly humiliate" someone.

Originally Posted by ArcticFrogs:

Gender-bashing is no different than any other form of prejudice. When someone says (for example): "Men are incapable of x"...replace the word "men" with any other race or creed.

I've never thought of it that way! I'm not normally one to bash men, but I'm sure I've said things like "all men are..." on occasion without ever thinking about how hateful it is. Thank you for pointing this out!

I am a strong anti-censorship advocate. As such, I understand that there are no solid truths, and there are no perfect situations. An unpopular opinion is every bit as valid as a popular one - I have spent many, many hours of my life defending that smaller voice and it's right to be heard. I have been that voice more often than not.

The line between free speech and hate speech is difficult to define and shifts easily. My thoughts on the matter are that free speech turns to hate speech when a statement is made to provoke or encourage the propagation of that hate.

Hatefulness, of course, varies from person to person.

3FC tries to foster an environment of mutual respect between all members. Sometimes, people get heated, and say things that may cross a line or be offensive. That's why we have the "Report Post" button (the red exclamation point at the side of each post) - if you feel like something violates the 3FC rules, please use it to bring in the mod squad. But public discussion of these sorts of things, whether names are named or not, almost always results in argument, as it has definitely done here.

I'm going to go ahead and close this thread. In the meantime, please remember 3FC's forum rules, including this one..they're there to keep 3FC as supportive as possible:

Originally Posted by :
9. Respect toward fellow members is expected. You agree not to harass, flame, insult, taunt, or otherwise disrespect any member of this forum. In other words, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. This includes gossiping about another member. This requirement is meant to encourage the overall strength of our support system, and will benefit our community as a whole.