Your challenge has merit, and it's hard to defend against. I can only offer my subjective point of view. I have a mental image of us all sitting in a room somewhere, probably at someone's very large house, and a party is going on, and people are coming and going. The people who like to argue have gathered in one room, and are having at it. Every so often, things get out of hand, and the cooler heads have to break it up.
The level of what it takes to be "out of hand" on Feelies is different than it is on the hockey threads. You hockey guys play too rough, this is more of a parlour.
Did you ever see the French movie, "Ridicule"? Set in the time of Louis XIV, it depicts people who are skilled at the art of very barbed arguments, where reputations can be made or destroyed by one's wit. It's a very different style of discourse than, say, trashtalk on a basketball court, and it is, I believe, more acceptable in polite society. You can cut your opponent to ribbons without calling him an asshole, and I think if you actually stoop to calling your opponent an asshole, you've lost the debate.
You can say that my tastes are what they are because I am female, and I wouldn't disagree. But Feelies is a place where a lot of women hang out, and I don't see anything wrong with that. |
