“If a well-meaning Norwegian prince on his hobby-horse should feel the urge to save me from my terrible fate as an unmarried mother, he’d better gather his strength first. I’ve got a moat.”

/Jenny, Swedish, ex-translator

Although I agree with the concept of choice-for-men, I have to ask myself if men as a class deserve it if so many of them like Matt LaBlanc don’t wake up beforehand and observe the growing numbers of unwed mothers out there. I’m not blaming the victim, but men need to wake up and this is one of the first steps. Am I being too harsh?

Wow, who says these guys aren’t self-critical? Don’t be too harsh, dude, you don’t want to blame the victim.

Well, okay, there’s also this:

Before I start, I want you to know I’m not accusing or implying that you are cutting women a break

Catfight over whether he’s cutting the subhumans a break, get out the popcorn. First guy: “They went from dumb teenagers in constant need of guidance to equal partners in society” Second guy: WTF Dude, no they didn’t! “feminism and chivalry twisted women into something similar to a “handicapped” class as in your example of women getting off of busses above Handicapped people, however, are still recognized as such and it’s not discrimination to recognize that blind people cannot fly commercial airliners or the deaf aren’t entitled to equal treatment in working as radio talk show hosts.” First Guy: Dude, I’m talking about the law! They give them rights and stuff now, which sucks! Second Guy: Dude, they used to have way more rights. People think the 19th Century was all fair because there was no child support, but these bitches had it made! They got to sit home eating bonbons, PLUS most of these guys never got to be President, which shows how oppressed they were! Making all the decisions is hard, especially when she gets all whiny when you decide to make your nine year old go out to work to support the family. First Guy: Ummmm, if they used to have way more right then, then why aren’t we happy with the ways things are now? Second Guy: Shut up! First Guy: Sorry, we have GOT to stop fighting each other! Fight the power!

I know Denise doesn’t spend much time on her column, but she needs to wake up to the fact that she writes for Men’s News Daily. Make it easy on yourself and every week submit something under 300 words that uses “bitches,” “cunts,” and “cut them,” a lot, you’ll notice your paycheck getting a little fatter.

I’m the Norwegian who wrote the mysterious words, and yami was right about almost everything in his/her translation. What’s missing is the sarcasm that would make it obvious that I don’t feel the slightest in need of rescue.

The very first part wouldn’t be translatable by a translation programme found online. It’s my idea of what the classified ad would look like if there were actually women looking for this kind of rescue. It would have to be written by someone uneducated and terribly stupid, so most of the words are misspelled.

I think you can take as a given that people all over the world would find Noe’s idea rather ridiculous. But the fact that someone in Norway has picked up on the story and is writing about it isn’t as farfetched as you might think. I have several American blogs that I read on a regular basis, among them Feministing where I found this little morsel, and so do most other (feminist) Norwegian bloggers that I know about. It could be due to the fact that the Pro Life crowd and the Extreme Christianist Right in the US provide a seemingly inexhaustible source of horror and entertainment. Compared to us, American feminists lead pretty exiting lives.

“My day started a bit sour, with an empty coffee-box and no newspaper, but the humor steps quickly as I read this. Once again, I say, I was lucky in my birthplace. But a well-meaning Norwegian prince and his hobbyhorse would be delighted to rescue me from my terrible fate as an unmarried mother so it’s [mysterious idiom]. I’ve stocked my moat (???)”

A couple commenters are baffled at the unenlightenedness of sex ed in this country.

We have enough readers, and it seems like whatever obscure topic comes up, someone who reads either Pandagon or PAB is an actual expert on it. If I’m patient, I’m sure someone will come along who can read and understand it.