From: zeborah@gmail.com   
      
   James A. Donald  wrote:   
      
   > (Zeborah) wrote:   
   > > "Is sexist" (which is more or less kind of my initial   
   > > claim) doesn't mean "is particularly sexist" doesn't   
   > > mean "is more sexist than everywhere else in the   
   > > world".   
   >   
   > Then what is the point of the qualification "Western   
   > society"?  Why is it there?  It is a comparative.   
      
   Er, no:  it's a noun phrase, consisting of an adjective ("western")   
   modifying a "noun" ("society"), in the subject position of the sentence   
   I wrote, signifying that it, rather than other societies, was the topic   
   of my sentence and of my post.   
      
   > And why won't you retract it when challenged on it?   
      
   Why won't you give a simple yes/no answer when I ask if you've stopped   
   beating your wife?   
      
   >You   
   > are trying to have your cake and eat it to - supposedly   
   > you are not saying it, but supposedly it is true.   
      
   No:  I'm not saying it; but I know just enough and not enough that I   
   don't wish to go on record as saying to what extent or in what ways it   
   may or may not be true, because the topic is way more complicated than   
   "My society's better than those other societies".   
      
   > Try saying that.  Concede that the west is the least   
   > sexist of all well known societies, and very likely the   
   > least sexist of them all.   
      
   I shall, if you like, rephrase my original sentence thus:   
      
   Regardless of what other societies are like -- which, for the purposes   
   of this thread, I care not -- Western society is f*cked in the head   
   about sex and gender.   
      
   Zeborah   
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