Sir, - Ms O'Faolain's man bashing column (January 6th) seems to be very much the run of the mill for her, with another article blaming men for all the ills of the world, another article without a single reference to any data that might back up or contradict her point. In her mind it is men that are the evil that strides the world; men are the cause of all misery and heartbreak.
All I can say is that I admire her passion and deplore her bigotry. Similarly I can only bow my head in amazement at the logical hoops through which Ms O'Faolain can jump with quotes like this one: "Mass blame of men is useless as well as sexist, and deeply offensive to the majority of men who have nothing whatsoever to do with physical violence. However, the majority of men do probably consider women to be inferior to men, and therefore in their deepest hearts estimate women's lives as of lesser value."
Oh dear. What is one supposed to think after a line like that?
I would like to refer Ms O'Faolain to all sorts of data showing that wives also beat up and attack husbands, that men make up the vast majority of the rescuing professions and thus could be shown to save many more lives than women, data that shows that women may make up the majority of child abusers, etc., etc., etc., but I suspect she wouldn't be interested. I'm not a journalist so I could only refer her to published discussions of the original references, but perhaps it should be her job to check them out before shed rants again. - Yours, etc.,
Stevinstraat 97L
2587 EC Den Haag.