Yesterday, I said I was done. Sorry, but this thread just cracked the list of the Ten Most Viewed RAS Discussions in the past 12 months. Unfortunately, it's also now at the top of my personal list of the most embarrassing and dispiriting discussions in the over 50 years I've been involved in soaring..

I feel like we're speaking two different languages. One post this morning attempts to compare Bob Youngblood's and Gregg Ballou's insulting and misogynistic invectives with Cindy Brickner's assertion that although not all men behave abominably, the few who do make the rest of the male gender look bad. Based on what I've seen in this thread, I actually think Cindy was being kind.

Almost as astonishing to me is that most offenders chose to double down rather than reconsider and "walk back" their earlier statements. The latest effort involves trying to justify the use of the term "Feminazi" and concludes with "she was the Feminazi that came to the office most every day with her very revealing tits exposing in a n extremely revealing top, I could not help just taking a look at those puppies from time to time."

No, Bob, IMO, looking discretely may not be sexist but talking about it this way DEFINITELY is. You're not far away from "but Your Honor, she was asking for it with the way she dressed!"

Take a look at the movie "The Accused", for which Jodie Foster won an Oscar.. It's about a horrific gang rape of a woman who dressed and behaved provocatively, which is obviously WAY beyond anything that has occurred here so don't start bleating that I'm out of control. There's an interesting bit of trivia:

"Following the test screenings, the film received the lowest scores in the history of Paramount. According to [producer Sherry] Lansing, "The audience thought that Jodie's character deserved the rape." The studio executives wanted to put the film on the shelf and were looking for ways to prevent it from being released. Lansing asked for another screening with just women, which was far more successful. Of the 20 women in the room, 18 had experience with rape — either they or someone they knew had been raped. When tested again months later, it was given one of the highest scores in studio's history."

The point is that men and women think about things differently. I don't pretend to be an expert. And it's frustrating as hell sometimes. But when a woman tells me she's offended or hurt because of something that I or someone else did, I try to understand. Sometimes, if we're lucky, I explain what I meant and she explains why she reacted the way she did and we move on, both wiser. But much of the time we just see things from different perspectives, partly because women are different but also because their lives are very different. Men make jokes about how they'd love it if women oggled them and made lewd comments about their bodies. They probably wouldn't appreciate it, however, if they were in a maximum security prison and big, burly convicts were making the same comments. Perspective and disparate power matter.

I'll close by focusing on something you said in your response to me.

"Making assertations of sexism had no place in soaring, that agenda went out a long time ago and that is what most are saying. Many continue to bloviate and cast many views of disparity, but actually we are all on the same page."

No, Bob, we're clearly NOT on the same page. Making assertions of sexism DOES have a place in soaring just as should assertions of racism or discrimination or injustice of any kind if they occur. That I haven't seen this before says less about soaring, I fear, than it does about the way I have naively believed most of us really do share common values.

The rules of civilized society aren't suspended just because we're involved in a wonderful sport. Using soaring as a platform for every imagined slight or to advance your own agenda at the expense of others? No, none of us wants that. But calling out offensive behavior? Yes. And from what started out as reasonable objections to an unfortunate ad, the most offensive behavior has come from some of the posters on this thread.

I like 9B's comment: you guys really picked the wrong hill to die on. And that's what's happening every time one of you tries to justify your behavior..

Chip Bearden
JB