The View is so fucking annoying. It’s like a satire of “a woman’s show.” Yammer yammer, yak yak, bring on the celebrity, shriek a little and act stupid. But, come to think of it, I guess it isn’t that different from “Hardball” or any male-dominated show on cable.

Still ... why oh why does the Biggest Dumbass always have to be the blonde?

I just love that anytime Hasselbeck opens her mouth these days Joy cannot contain her complete disdain for the bubblehead. It’s the only thing that makes this show good.
I love that she feeds into the sterotype that all men only go after younger women as if THEY don’t want someone one their intellectual and experience level as well. She clearly knows no older gay women who have come out after years & years of hiding who they are from themselves & others, IF she knows any gay ppl besides whoopi at all.Everytime she opens her mouth she makes me embarrassed as a woman that ppl listen to her & think that she represents any form of feminism or intelligence, because she’s so obviously willfully ignorant and uninformed. She’s as bad as Palin.

I’m just thankful that all the stupid people on Earth aren’t men. Imagine.

Lonnie:  While I’m the first to admit that sexuality is a fluid thing that in no capacity makes Hasselbeck any less vapid or clueless. 

If a woman—or anyone, really—has their first experience with same sex attraction when they’re older it has zero to do with men and whatever it is they’re doing with their penises.  Her entire framing is that women would universally prefer men, but since they can’t find any due to men being such skeezy horndogs, they opt for some snuggle time with someone in their bridge group. 

In reality, being a lesbian has absolutely nothing to do with men or who they’re fucking.  That’s kind of the point of it, really.  If a woman realizes she’s in love with (or turned on by) another woman at 8, 18, 28, or 108 it’s because of that woman, not because of penis or lack of penis or anything at all to do with penis.

Lonnie: no, that study (at least as reported) doesn’t agree with Hasselbeck at all, since it makes ABSOLUTELY NO REFERENCE to what men are or aren’t doing. But thanks for stopping by.

If it’s true older men date younger women, then there would be a lot of leftover younger men who have no one too.

Ha ha ha, what a freaking dolt. 

Well, only in America can a dumbass of such staggering proportions get a talk show by eating bugs and live to interview the President of the United States.  Which is coming to you tomorrow, so, you know, brace yourself.  You may think you’ve seen something, but I doubt you seen anything yet.

We truly are number one in some ways.

Let’s see if Lee can figure out how stupid he is:

Hasselbeck said lesbians come out later because they can’t get a man.
Lee posts a link to an article about married lesbians…i.e., women who got a man.

So, Lee, were you dropped? Did your mom do acid during pregnancy? Did you confuse lead paint chips with potato chips as a child?

Oops, lonnie, not lee. The “L” dipshits are getting thick.

Why does Elizabeth Hasselbeck think that she needs to come up with an explanation for this occurrence?

No, really. Why?

Oh, Lonnie, how does the existence of lesbians married to men probe Hasselhack’s point about lesbians being unable to find men?

I have to admit, Hasselbeck has provided me some quality entertainment over the years. It seemed like she quieted down after a while once even SNL was parodying her moonbat rantings, but maybe she figures enough time’s passed, or maybe the loonytunes PSIs are building up and she can’t contain them, or maybe she’s been just as far out of her tree as she’s always been and the media just got a little bored with her and left her alone for a little while. Who knows? All I know is, welcome back, Lizbet. If anyone needs me, I’ll be popping the popcorn.

Is Hasselbeck the one who isn’t sure whether the Earth is round or flat? I’m pretty sure that was someone on The View.

No, that was anti-evolution Shari Shepherd.

She must sincerely believe women have an expiry date; what a jerk!

Do I have news for her—I got more proposals in my 50s (and overweight and definitely looking my age) than I ever did when I was young, thin and conventionally pretty. My mom is in her 80s and after Dad died had plenty of opportunity to date (men) if she wanted to; she thinks they are way too much trouble. There are plenty of men for those that want them…but like Mom, a lot of single women my age and older think “they’re too much trouble”.

With all the emphasis on marrying young and all the stigma of being gay that women of my generation (or those older) got, it’s not surprising some women wait late in life to come out of the closet.

I wonder if these women Woopy is referring to self-identified as lesbians, or it was just assumed that they were. If it’s the latter, we should really all make an effort to avoid bisexual erasure.

Among other things, Hasselbeck is confused about the difference between being a lesbian and being out.  There are now and certainly were much more in the past many personal and societal reasons to be “straight” when younger, among them that that is the easiest and for many the best way to have children.  But middle-age is often the time when women and men both start to realize that time is running out to live a life of compromises and often decide that the compromises they’ve made can’t or don’t need to be made any longer.  It’s also when people have the means to pursue their dreams whether it’s a sports car, a young mistress, a sex change, a relationship with a same-sex partner, or countless other pursuits large and small.

Lots of men come out in middle age, too, but it’s not because the women disappeared.  It’s because the social stigmas don’t have as much sting once some people have realized who they are.  I doubt it’s very different for women.  Those who are out now, and were out when young, sometimes have a hard time grasping how hard it is for some people to be true to themselves.  But when I think about how hard it was to answer the “Who am I?” question for many years, it’s easy to see why people even the tiniest bit out of the mainstream would wait a long time before revealing themselves.

In reality, being a lesbian has absolutely nothing to do with men or who they’re fucking.

Oh PLEASE.  Everything in the world has to do with teh Men and their fabulous peniseses.  How could a discussion even occur without paying some obeissance to the Mighty Peen?

It’s not like women are individuals with their own wants and needs.  They were created from ribs, after all.

Oh PLEASE.  Everything in the world has to do with teh Men and their fabulous peniseses.  How could a discussion even occur without paying some obeissance to the Mighty Peen?

And Hasselhack is a Boston College Catholic girl who got herself a pro football player. You just described her perfectly.

I don’t remember the last time I stared at the screen so long wondering if I’d read something right. How does this woman manage to dress herself everyday?

MAJeff, I’m really not sure if I posted anything dip-shitty on this blog.

I want to know when her husband is going to leave her and get an annulment so he can marry a younger woman content to stay home ad pop out babies.

The whole “cougar” thing, as stupid as it is, kind of completely disproves her theory.

I’m a firmly 40-something woman who is certainly looking like a 40-something woman. I define myself as heterosexual.

It’s been my experience when I was dating is that the attractive men (to me) were also considered attractive to a wide age range of women. These guys certainly dated the younger women. I had a long conversation with one of these men and he was quite forthright - “I am attracted to younger women, it’s just that simple. I can’t fake physical passion for a woman my own age.”

What a jerk.

I’m in my mid-40s and I get plenty of male attention, and most of it is congenial attention from somewhat younger mid-30s guys.  This tends to happen when I travel or am moving about the city, and is non-annoying to the point that I had to learn to recognize that I was being “courted”.  I’m married and not interested, but that doesn’t make it not exist, nor does it make me thin or young or cute either.  I’ve had similar attentions from women as well.

I think Hassleblabbermouth is simply projecting her own fears, no? (see “how long until ...” above)

MAJeff, I’m really not sure if I posted anything dip-shitty on this blog.

My apologies. It was my mistake.

She needs to invest in rent-a-lez or some such before opening her piehole.

Why would you inflict that on anyone in the LGBT community?

“I want to know when her husband is going to leave her and get an annulment so he can marry a younger woman content to stay home ad pop out babies.”

So the question is, if Mr. Hasslebeck dumps her in favor of a fresh Mrs. Hasselbeck, just how long is it gonna take before Elizabeth is driven out out of the closet by lack of peen, since apparently in her world all women are lesbians and ready access to lezbo-taming dick is the only thing keeping them from becoming dykes?...

Grasshopper: “If it’s true older men date younger women, then there would be a lot of leftover younger men who have no one too.”

No no no, the young men are all gay. They only turn straight when they get older, due to the availability of younger women.

What’s the Hasselbeck equivalent of mansplaining?  Hasselsplaining?  Hasselblabbering?

Still ... why oh why does the Biggest Dumbass always have to be the blonde?

Because The View can’t afford Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann still has a day job.

Believe it or not, this is the inverse of a demented argument once made by George Gilder. He took off enough time from his usual gig (claiming women are meant to make babies and dinner) to claim that young men become homosexual because older men sweep up all the good-looking young women.

The danger of suddenly turning gay is well documented in our culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8U6aUPW48

Midlife does give you a sense of “It’s now or never.” The one transgendered guy I worked with was pushing 50 when he decided to start living as a woman, eventually getting the operation. Gays and lesbians I know were conventionally married before they came out. Why wear a shoe that doesn’t fit for so long? To avoid shocking one’s parents? To live up to societal expectations? Once having reproduced in the usual way, to avoid disrupting the children’s childhood?

So what Hasselbeck is really saying is that all women are bisexual horndogs?

Hassel gibberish;it’s like authentic frontier gibberish, but harder to understand.

Hasseljabber?

Paul@35, what she is effectively saying is that we can’t possibly know what we want and therefore need a man around to tell us.

Ms Kate:

Aha. I thought it was that they used men for sex until they ran out, and then they came to their senses.

“I am attracted to younger women, it’s just that simple. I can’t fake physical passion for a woman my own age.”

What a jerk.

@AuntieMay: people <u>say</u> they want the truth, and when they get it they are all pissy about it.  That is, you, AuntieMay, are pissy about it.

That guy told you the truth for him.  If he’d had some sort of fashionable kink, would you have been so peevish?

I want to know when her husband is going to leave her and get an annulment so he can marry a younger woman content to stay home ad pop out babies.

This reminds me of her weirdness once she decided she’d had enough babies.  Though where she gets the idea that she gets to decide anything is beyond me.

Apparently she intends to wear unflattering pajamas and otherwise repel her husband’s sexual advances as birth control.  Cause that’s what works a charm in happy marriages.

When her footballer leaves her for a younger, fertile, non-bug-eating version, she’ll just turn into Betsy Hart.  It will be 100% hubby’s fault, and her suffering will make her even more self-righteous.

AuntieMay: people say they want the truth, and when they get it they are all pissy about it.

The truth? AuntieMay, you can’t handle the truth!!

Eric and Bagelsan: I don’t know the context of the conversation Auntie had with Mr. Jerk. One thing I do know, however, is that part of being a grownup is repressing the urge to say every fucking thing that pops into your head, out of consideration for the feelings/dignity of the person who has to hear it.

Truth is a defense to libel, but it’s not a defense to boorishness.

There’s a difference between not being able to handle the truth, and finding it ugly, Eric_RoM.

Apparently she intends to wear unflattering pajamas and otherwise repel her husband’s sexual advances as birth control.  Cause that’s what works a charm in happy marriages.

I believe that even in the Catholic religion you can only do this for so long before it is your duty to have sex with your husband and if you get pregnant again, so damn what.

What I find funny is that she is probably on some sort of birth control (pill, tubes tied) but that after going several years without another child she’s going to have to answer the question of how she did it. She probably figured she’d plant the seed now so she can point back to that quote and say “Look, it worked!” I also suspect she’ll bring up that old chestnut the rhythm method.

As for late in life lesbians, I agree with the other commentors who pointed out that mid-life is usually when the crises happen (hence the name) and people start realizing they’re unhappy and have been living up to a patriarchal standard they never had the option to sign up for so for them it’s now or never. I know the article lonnie linked to says that it’s wrong to dismiss this as repressed lesbians coming out but then the reasoning is that because they’re coming out they’re leaving behind hetronormative “privilege.” But then if that’s the case why don’t most lesbians just date/marry men if it’s easier and comes with privilege?

Because they’d be fucking unhappy, that’s why. And for a lot of these women that’s been 20+ years of unhappiness. I think we’re seeing more and more women come out, as opposed to men, because society trends toward lesbians as “acceptable”, especially if they’re attractive because that’s not threatening (for the most part) to straight men. For every woman who comes out late in life there’s also the Ted Haggard or Larry Craig who we know are gay but they remain married to women. It’s like with autism. The rates of autism seem to be rising but only because we now have a better understanding of what it is and what to look for to diagnose it.

As time goes on it’s more and more acceptable to come out of the closet. I suspect that in another 20 years we won’t have late in life lesbians because most lesbians and bisexual women would already have been out for most of their lives and the lesbians wouldn’t have married men in the first place.

UltraMagus, I know folk in Idaho who swear up and down that Craig’s wife is a lesbian, and they are both hiding in the marriage closet.

Of course, being able to be an out lesbian, to marry who you wish, and live a man free life is why so many right wing scolds panic when single women buy houses and otherwise live independently.

I also wonder if part of the phenomenon of women coming out late in life is low expectations.

If you’ve been taught that sex isn’t going to be very good for you, and mainly you should just want someone to snuggle with because odds are, you won’t get orgasms, and really, you’re not even all that visually attracted to people, you’re just supposed to be attracted to personalities, and if you think women are beautiful, well, hell, who doesn’t? Everyone thinks women are beautiful!... how many years is it going to be before you realize you’ve been sold a bill of goods, that straight women *do* think men’s bodies are hot, that straight women *do* like sex with men, and if you have no interest in men’s bodies and you think women are hot, maybe the reason is that you’re a lesbian?

I didn’t actually pick up from the culture that women were capable of drooling over guys until I was in college (and specifically, in sf/media fandom, where women drooling over fictional guys is essentially one of the major parts of the subculture.) Now, as it happens, I’m bi, so I already knew I was attracted to both men and women… but if I had not been attracted to men, I don’t think I’d have realized I was *supposed* to be in order to consider myself oriented to men.

I think what happens to some of these women, at least, is that they do what they think is expected of them, and because women not particularly enjoying sex with men is actually considered perfectly acceptable and normal in our culture, they just drift along, thinking that the reason they like women is that women’s bodies are presented as the standard for what’s sexy and also women are their friends, and they aren’t so impressed with sex with their husbands because, well, sex isn’t supposed to be that important to women… and then they fall in love with a woman in their thirties, forties or fifties, and suddenly realize, wow, that’s what it was all about all along. And then they can’t mistake it anymore.

I don’t think men have the same experience, because men are under relentless pressure to find sex enjoyable and in fact be somewhat obsessed with it, and are constantly bombarded with the concept that women embody sexiness and men do not, and that wanting any level of physical contact with another man whatsoever makes you gay… so I think men probably *know* that they are gay from a much earlier age than women (or rather… some women figure out they’re lesbians when they’re 12, but I mean that the average age of a man figuring out he is gay is probably much younger than the average age of a woman figuring out she is gay, because women can be fooled into thinking their interest in female bodies and lack of interest in male ones is “normal”, ie, straight, but men are told flat out that if they are not interested in female bodies and they are interested in male ones, they are gay. Then they’re also told that if they’re gay, they’re bad, immoral, disgusting people, so they may choose to stay in the closet or even practice self-denial, but I think they’re much less likely to actually be totally unaware of the truth about what their feelings mean as far as their orientation is concerned.)

I know someone who fits exactly that profile ... and her husband was a lowlife as well.

In an earlier era, it was not unheard of for a gay man and a lesbian to team up and make and raise a kid, either.

Alara@48, you make some good points, but you’re assuming that people’s knowledge of their own sexual attraction is entirely determined by culture. It’s not like women as a whole are “fooled” by cultural expectations. I’m in college and I know lots of young women who talk about attractive guys and who are interested in sex. I know you’re looking at it from a feminist/sociological viewpoint, but the underlying assumption that women in general don’t know what they want unless society tells them irks me.

ArtOfMe, what is this college you speak of?  Oh, right - that lady I know didn’t go there - she got married to get out of the house, had three kids in four years, and then had to deal with an irresponsible husband and raising three kids on her own for a while before she figured out what she wanted.

p.s. What Alara describes is often not so much about “want” or “desire” as it is about “options”.  People in college, suffice it to say, very obviously have more of these options (which ARE determined by our society!) than trailer trash from small town rural America with/out a HS diploma and average to low grades.

MAJeff, #20:

Hey, I went to BC. There were plenty of women there who weren’t there for their MRS degree. Lizzie is just a bag o’ fail.

I’m actually sort of willing to give anyone who claims to be attracted to younger/older people a pass, assuming they’re not bullshitting themselves. Although it’s really only a problem when the object of affection is so young that consent is impossible (in which case certain special handling is required, like, say, restraining orders), I’ve always taken the position that you can’t really control who you’re attracted to.

Of course, bring money, easy sex, or other favors into it, it immediately becomes clear that one is, in fact, bullshitting themselves. Then it’s a post hoc rationalization by someone who deserves to be ignored because of skeeviness.

MAJeff, #20:
Hey, I went to BC. There were plenty of women there who weren’t there for their MRS degree. Lizzie is just a bag o’ fail.

So did I.

I think you have to be at least a little bisexual to consider being lesbian as a fallback plan.

Brian, bear in mind most of the women posting here know what it is like to be a typical young woman. We were brought up to Not Make Scenes, Be Polite, Put the Other Person’s Needs First, etc. As we got older, we learned it was a restraint put on us as young women that men and often older women restrain themselves with. And we learned the social costs of insisting on being treated like human beings wasn’t so bad after all. But it is a hard climb from being a people-pleasing naive 22 y.o. to an emotionally independent woman.

That’s one of the main reasons we distrust men who only like *much* younger women. Do they like the youthful optimism, or do they like the fact that their date is also acting like their subordinate?

The guy who doesn’t like women his own age might be simply responding to looks, but there are hot older women. So it seems like he either wants the prestige of scoring a young hottie, or the power of having a girlfriend who hasn’t learned how to stand up for herself.

You know, this doesn’t even make sense.

So let me get this straight (heh), according to Hasselback: When women are young, we all prefer to date older men but when we are older ALL OF SUDDEN we want to date men our own age. Hmmm… Wouldn’t it make more sense (according to her logic) that we’d just ontinue dating older men (and still be the younger woman in comparison to the man)?

Am I missing something here?

I believe that even in the Catholic religion you can only do this for so long before it is your duty to have sex with your husband and if you get pregnant again, so damn what.

Well, actually, married people are supposed to stop having sex.  They shouldn’t have it very often, even when they’re trying to have children.

Sexual pleasure is just a bad thing, and we should all get more spiritual and try to ignore that sinful body.

I’ve got my grandfather’s old catechism around somewhere.  It’s full of the most unbelievable bullshit.

Picking up on the “women aren’t really supposed to be sexual so they may not even notice they’re lesbians” vs “I know lots of women who talk about/enjoy sex!” - I have no data on this, but it does seem to me that for a lot of younger women who do present themselves as sexual, the sexuality they embrace is sort of performative, exterior - not about what they are feeling, but about embodying the role of hottie or slut or sexpot or whatever and acting in the way they think their partner expects.  I know I certainly did in my late teens/early twenties but didn’t [TMI alert] have real orgasms with a partner until a few years later. I can totally see how you might coast along in a heterosexual relationship, not really into the sex but having genuine affection for your husband, then suddenly discover that you’re really, really into ladies when you’re 45.

Also, Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s unfortunate rantings should clearly be referred to as “Hasselblech”.

MsKate@51, I realize that not everyone has those options. It depends on someone’s circumstance. I never said otherwise. I probably reacted a little too quickly to the idea that women are just fooled by society and we never know what we really want unless we’re told. Individual circumstances will all be different. I know that lots of women are in situations where they don’t have many choices. My mother married twice, and both times she didn’t realize that her husbands were bad people until after. My stepfather is an immature, moody alcoholic, yet she doesn’t want a divorce because it’s easier not to.

I’m sure there are lots of reasons why some women start to date women later in life.

KristinMH@60, it seems like women just can’t win. Conservative religion tells us to hide our bodies and submit to men, while mainstream culture tells us to be sexy and not be a prude, while engaging in behavior that we may not really want to. No wonder people might be confused by this dichotomy.

Wouldn’t it make more sense (according to her logic) that we’d just ontinue dating older men (and still be the younger woman in comparison to the man)?

Above a certain age, age in men ceases to be an asset and becomes a liability. You wouldn’t want to be the youngest wife in the old folks home, right? Being a caregiver to your kids can be fun; being a caregiver to your husband—not so much. After 40 or so, men tend to start dying off, too, reducing the dating pool.

(I’ve just come from the grocery store, where a frustrated caregiver was trying to get his dementia patient—a man still in his sixties—to leave the store and come home. The idea of being the spouse of that man—the shell of a once vital person, no doubt—would not appeal to every woman, I’m thinking.)

After 40 or so, men tend to start dying off, too, reducing the dating pool.

Which is why women should date YOUNGER men.

I too have an unfashionable kink - I like men with lots of head hair. Which most men lose as they age.

I don’t go around telling balding men I think they’re unattractive. But I guess I’m not a brave hero of political incorrectness like Eric_RoM’s buddy.

I like men with lots of head hair. Which most men lose as they age.

If you prefer your men to have lots of vestigial hair—a mark of youth and immaturity—fine. Just as older men may prefer women with pointy boobs and jutting buttocks. But originally baldness was a desirable sign of age and thus wisdom. Premature baldness was a sign of men who were wise beyond their years.

But originally baldness was a desirable sign of age and thus wisdom. Premature baldness was a sign of men who were wise beyond their years.

I just love fairy tales of the Patriarchy.

But try this one on for size - since men have controlled human social systems for thousands of years and rigged it in their favor, women didn’t get to choose their husbands on the basis of appearance and youth - women were compelled to marry for economic reasons first. If women HAD been able to choose, the baldness gene would have died out since women were much more likely to prefer sex with men with marks of “youth and immaturity”

But come on Hector B. I’m waiting for you to lay some evolutionary psychology just-so story to explain why men are “naturally” attracted to youthfulness and women are “naturally” attracted to old bald men. That shit just never gets old.

Sure, Nancy, if you’re attracted to airheaded male bimbos with long flowing locks who am I to say you nay? But consider—when it’s time to save the Free World from the Fascist Axis, who do you want leading the effort?

Winston Churchill?
or Fabio?

I rest my case.

since men have controlled human social systems for thousands of years and rigged it in their favor, women didn’t get to choose their husbands on the basis of appearance and youth - women were compelled to marry for economic reasons first.

Ain’t that the fraking truth!

I’d like to add to the list: intelligence, sense of humor, kindness and empathy. Those were also qualities that women in the past had to give up for economic security.

Actually, I should amend my previous statement. There are still women who must give up those qualities for economic security - it’s not all in the past.

I actually think Nancy made a pretty significant point how economic security/independence is key to women being able to pick what kind of people they spend their lives with. A privilege that only men had for most of history.

“If women HAD been able to choose, the baldness gene would have died out”

Along with intelligence, sense of humor, kindness, good parenting skills, etc. Maybe there is a very good biological reason for females choosing who they reproduce with. It would be interesting to do a study to see which sex can determine genetic fitness/superiority better - I’m putting my money on the ladies.

HB @68:
Um, neither. 
That doesn’t mean I would or would not want to sleep with either one of them (if, you know, they had even available for such at the right and same point in time.  Which Churchhill, by the way?  You do realize he was young and did have hair for the usual minimum length of time?)

Baldness is only an issue if vanity leads the balding one to flights of folly.

My neighbor has a twin brother.  Twin brother has a young wife and silly looking hair plugs/weave/combed over whatever.  Neighbor just shaves it all off.  I think neighbor is sexier than his clone for manning up to it.

As for “younger men”, well, I married a 27 year old who needed heart surgery at 31 or he would have ended up with Bobby Darrin’s fate.  I have thus had to face the reality that any partnered person experiences but few want to face when young: my partner could die at any time.  No guarantees!

Um, no, baldness would not die out if women could choose because it often doesn’t manifest until mid-life AND it is maternally linked.  A women would have to kill herself and children when her dad became bald to make that work out.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

It’s hard to fathom that someone would actually believe that women coming out later in life are doing so because there aren’t enough men their age. I’m sorry, but could she really be that clueless?

Susan Gabriel
author of Seeking Sara Summers
(a novel about falling in love with your best friend)

But consider—when it’s time to save the Free World from the Fascist Axis, who do you want leading the effort?

Winston Churchill?
or Fabio?

I rest my case.

Wait, what? Is baldness linked to military strategems? to intelligence? to morality?

‘cause if not then I’m not getting what Hector B is selling there… that one person has a personal preference to hirsute gentlemen doesn’t affect politics one way or the other. Actually, this seems to fall into assuming that sexual attractiveness is necessary at all times and relevant in all situations. It isn’t. It’s relevant in pretty much just the one situation. The relative merits of political positions or military plans really shouldn’t be judged based on the physical attractiveness of the person proposing them.

So back to the original question, when it’s time to “save the free world” I’d prefer the person with the politicl and military connections that could make it happen with a minimum of bloodshed on all sides. I don’t care if that’s Churchill, Fabio, or Margaret Thatcher… the relative attractiveness of the individual to me doesn’t enter into the equation.

(also, I’m more than a little sad that the only world-leader-females that I could think of to make my point with were Thatcher and Indira Ghandi…)

Golda Meir?

Elizabeth I?

Oh wait; she was the imperialist taking over the world….

Golda Meir?

I’m probably showing my age (or lack thereof), but I hadn’t heard of her…

I can add Angela Merckle to the list (current Chancellor of Germany), but I think that Elizabeth the first would be an outlier due to only making the list due to the divine right of kings… (also Victoria, for the same reason). I’m not sure if Queen Liz the second should be on there or not…

Winston Churchill?
or Fabio?

I rest my case.

Your case is based on a ridiculous false dichotomy. That’s a hell of a case.

Try: Bill Clinton, Barak Obama, MLK, Al Gore, Al Franken. That’s just the first non-balding leaders off the top of my head.

Um, no, baldness would not die out if women could choose because it often doesn’t manifest until mid-life AND it is maternally linked.  A women would have to kill herself and children when her dad became bald to make that work out.

Let’s review the facts:

First: Approximately 25 percent of men begin balding by age 30; two-thirds begin balding by age 60. There is a 4 in 7 chance of getting the baldness gene.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldness

And some men start balding in high school.

Second, via The Straight Dope:

As you note, popular belief has long held that male baldness is inherited through the mother, and that any lad curious about what’s in store for him hairwise should check out his mom’s father and her paternal uncles. For just as long health care types have been patiently explaining that this belief was groundless—that instead, as one doctor’s Web site (still) puts it, “a single dominant autosomal gene controls male pattern baldness.” In other words, baldness isn’t a sex-linked characteristic, meaning it’s not transmitted via the X or Y chromosomes that determine whether you’re male or female. Rather it’s passed down via one of the non-sex-linked chromosomes, or autosomes, which are randomly contributed by both parents. So, according to the old theory, you were equally likely to get baldness from mom or dad.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2610/is-male-pattern-baldness-inherited-whos-to-blame

Baldness is not universal among men - although thinning hair probably is for both men and women.

But since male pattern baldness is NOT an automatic aspect of being male, it can be selected against.

I don’t know what percentage of women prefer nice head hair as much as I do - so it’s possible that it wouldn’t be selected against as much as maybe I would like. But I never claimed that my tastes are or should be some kind of universal standard.

And hair replacement is getting better all the time.

And it’s about time men started to care about pleasing women aesthetically as much as women strive to please men. I’m sick of the double-standards and the unquestioned assumption - even on the part of some commenters on progressive blogs like Pandagon - that a man who tries to be sexually appealing to women is vain or unmanly. That’s such tired old male dominance-based shit - time to move on to the 21st century people.

What’s the Hasselbeck equivalent of mansplaining?  Hasselsplaining?  Hasselblabbering?
Comment #31: St. Exuperantius on 07/28 at 10:48 AM

I believe that would be straightsplaining or heterosplaining.

Gay people are gay because blah blah domineering mothers blah blah Electra complexes blah…

@Nancy #83 - I’d prefer it if nobody had to jump through all the cosmetic hoops women are expected to jump through.

Above a certain age, age in men ceases to be an asset and becomes a liability. You wouldn’t want to be the youngest wife in the old folks home, right? Being a caregiver to your kids can be fun; being a caregiver to your husband—not so much. After 40 or so, men tend to start dying off, too, reducing the dating pool.
armband thomas sabo/links of london rings/true religion mens jeans/true religion jeans