I agree with you that abortion should remain a legal option for pregnant women, and I also agree that gay couples should be allowed to adopt.

I also think you are unfairly characterizing the arguments of crazy religious people. They don't want to ban abortion because doing so would oppress women, they want to ban abortion because they think that a fetus is an innocent human being that should not be intentionally killed.

While both of us disagree with them, you should at least fairly represent their position on the matter.

Also, do you think that being a political activist hinders your ability to fairly teach? Or, in your view, is teaching in a university itself a political activity?

That, CardMart, is an excellent question.

As hard as it seems to believe Dr, some people do attach a soul to a person from the day of conception.

As we've seen just today, the tide is shifting in America as to our views on abortion and pro-abortion advocates:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114668092648642849-WnBPlYUq4ZKlBsmICdPmZU3Kepw_20070504.html?mod=blogsshorter%20version%20of%20URL:

Well I am certainly fascinated by what MEN think about women's reproductive choices.

As I told you in our personal correspondence when I declined to reply to your attacks on me on your website because I am completely uninterested in debating with you, I am completely uninterested in debating with you.

My blog is for the 100s of USC students who have told me they wish they could have further exposure to my ideas once our class time together has ended. It is not here because I eagerly look forward to arguing with people like you. I don't, so I won't.

You, however, have brought to my site, the place for USC students who want these kinds of discussions to make their lives richer, people who are calling me a twit and insipid and stupid; people who attack my writing skills, who attack me personally; people who question my academic credentials; who have no capacity for hearing what I have to say and visit only to revile me. Do you think education is possible under such circumstances?

When my ancestors crafted the Declaration and fought in the Revolutionary War, I know they imagined a far more informed exchange of ideas than your readers seem interested in or capable of. But 'tis a free country, and I have put myself out on the internet, so fire away. Just don't be surprised when I ignore sophomoric insults or rudimentary queries clearly neither designed to further knowledge nor asked in good faith.

Anyway the personal attacks only remind me why I don't want to be anything like these angry unhappy people, so in a way I guess I owe you a thank you for making me only more certain that I am doing something worth doing.

Comedic sarcastic remarks aside, the criticisms of your post-modern feminist perspective are personal. Not everyone finds your arguments or opinions acceptable. We, the collective blogosphere folks, want you to stand by your worldview. That is totally independent of "personal attacks." Furthermore, we are not "angry" or "unhappy." Academic debate is not a product of emotions.

You didn't answer Cardinal Martini's question:

Do you think that being a political activist hinders your ability to fairly teach? Or is teaching in a university itself a political activity?

Correction: "the criticisms of your post-modern feminist perspective are NOT personal."

Dude, "chairman," whoever you are, who asked you to represent "collective blogosphere folks?" I don't think there's an ounce of this site Dr. Blaine doesn't stand by, worldview included.


Further, what's going on in this message board and the one on your site is hardly "academic debate."

Zel - reference to the "collective blogosphere" is the term I used for the writers of Cardinal Martini and the bloggers that have found Dr. Blaine's blog through it.

Dr. Di said: "Well I am certainly fascinated by what MEN think about women's reproductive choices."

^This is not academic debate.

While your definition of what classifies as academic might differ from mine, I think that it is by no means an unreasonable stretch to classify the material on Cardinal Martini as more professional. Cardinal Martini also uses wit and humor (a distinct societal sign of intelligence), which is something "The Adventures of Dr. Diana York Blaine" is clearly missing.

Dr. Di said: "Well I am certainly fascinated by what MEN think about women's reproductive choices."

Does being male automatically disqualify questions asked regarding abortions? That in itself is sexist - just reverse sexism to the kind that Dr. Di subscribes to.

Shouldn't people be allowed to ask questions regardless of their gender?

If the questions posed for Dr. Di are so uninformed and naive, then they should be easy to tear down, especially by a university professor.

re:Well I am certainly fascinated by what MEN think about women's reproductive choices.

This is a response I find to be very unfair to the thousands of women who are actively engaged in the pro-life movement. My ex-girlfriend was active in the movement and was subjected to much verbal harassment and written harassment as a result.

Ironically she was accused of being manipulated by the patriarchy even though I myself am avidly pro-choice.

While I recognize that your comments were made specifically to those first two male respondents, the fact that you dismissed their views as being those of men does a serious disservice to everyone who holds such views because they are not exclusively the opinions of men, but of many women as well.

Sinore Cardinale, while I don't speak for the professor, I'll answer you that university teaching is hands-down a political activity, as are all human actions. University teaching is a politics of working in the non-profit sector, which from there can be further classified (eg. teaching at Falwell U. vs. Cal State Fresno, teaching marketing vs. Swahili). Do you think your chosen profession, or any, escapes politics? And why would having a specific ideological perspective interfere with teaching at the university level? What do you think university teaching is?

And, Pretoria, please ask your ex-girlfriend if she can tell me where there is proof that the soul exists, such that it can be found in the fetus at the very instant of its conception? Or, is she saying that her (collective) belief in the soul is all that's needed to impose laws upon others who do not share those beliefs? Or simply, why should her faith impose itself upon my body? Because it is unequivocably right, or because she believes it to be right?

I agree with the professor, the time is now. The question is, what to do.

Dr. Diana,
Please let me apologize for all of the sophomoric, juvenile "men" who have been attacking you on your site. I would like to think that in the "enlightened age" that we live in, things such as hate and prejudice would disappear, but we all know that this will never happen. I have spent a fair amount of time reading your blogs, and I agree with you 100%. You are truly wise, and sure of who you are as a woman, which is something that I very rarely get to see, living on the east coast.

Actually, I think that simply being a man DOES give less credence to one's argument than being a woman. Becoming pregnant and having an abortion are specifically related to the female sex, and along with that come certain emotions and feelings that no man can really have, at least within the same context.

Having said that, I don't think men's ideas about abortion should be totally nullified; rather that any man shouldn't condemn or judge any action regarding a woman's pregnancy because one cannot know what it is like.

I'm pro-choice for the most part because the dialogue that people use as rationale's for their stances on abortion are subjective. Some believe each person has a God-given soul given at birth, and would never have an abortion, and so I'd say to them, don't ever have one. Others may say that a child that can't be raised and would be lost in the system shouldn't be brought into such a malice-filled system, and I'd say that they should have an abortion if that's the case. There are many other cases and these examples aren't meant to be wholly representative. That's the idea of CHOICE, that the subjective moral aspects inherent in this debate are up to the individual woman.