As a happily married 55 year old woman, I sympathize with the 47-year old unmarried guy who wrote Dr. Helen, and I agree with “widowedguy” that women have become more harsh in their treatment of men over the last decades. Here’s my example:
A few years ago, our church hired an unmarried male (not gay) in his early 50′s as the pastor. I was subsequently appalled by the comments of women I knew, married and unmarried, mostly in their 30′s,40′s, and 50′s, who attended the monthly women’s group meeting. At the 2 meetings I attended, many of the women unashamedly bashed the minister’s appearance including his beard, his teeth, his hair, etc., as if they could only think of him in terms of his sexual appeal. And he was a really nice guy – very personable and intelligent. These same women thought of themselves as feminists, and would have been apopletic if their husbands had made similarly sexist comments about our previous unmarried female minister. I have never figured out why these women couldn’t just think of the minister as a person, instead of focusing on his physical characteristics. I don’t believe they would have made the same comments about a married minister. And the rest of the story? I stopped going to that church, and the minister eventually left also. They now have another female minister.
