This is a great article and I'm delighted that someone I know linked to it on facebook. But I have this weirdass question: Is "riding a griffin" a reference to my feminist adventure fantasy for young adults, "A Tale of a Hero and the Song of her Sword?" I'm not kidding about this question. I'm absolutely serious. And hopeful. And happy to have the opportunity to add this link in a spirit of self-promotion: http://www.rfwp.com/book/a-tale-of-a-hero-…

It is because those guys are not catty, they are dicks.

I heart Barbara Holm. Great read!

"The idea that women can't befriend other women is a notion concocted by straight men in a lab of dark sciences."

You sound increasingly like you just have a problem with men.
That sketch that accompanies your words - annoying. At best.

If you are a woman who has a lot more male friends than female friends, and you're attractive, ask yourself (long and hard, soul searchingly) if the following scenario might apply:

1. other women don't like you because you're a bitch
2. your male friends don't like you either (because your a bitch) but they pretend to because they think it'll help them get in your pants (yes this is just as pathetic as it sounds, happens all the time, and almost never works for the guys).

No doubt that this is a sexist viewpoint, but I've heard it from women at least as often as men.

And it doesn't fucking matter who is perpetuating it because it's total gibberish horseshit. Anyone saying otherwise is a dark scientist in a lab, and their sexual orientation or gender is immaterial. Suggesting it is a story told by straight men just brings out the mansplainers, and we need them even less than we need potentially ill-conceived jokes in an article about a real issue of misogyny.

(This message proofread by my wife, to make sure I'm not being mansplainey myself. Heavens forbid.)

What I find odd is the notion that the idea of women befriending other women isn't liked by men. Or especially that men are responsible and desire this.
I have never - ever - heard this from another man. Seriously.
Now, you can have some obsessive boyfriend who is threatened by his girlfriends friendships, but that is a different topic.

Is this new column being set up for a weekly analization of misogyny in our culture? If so, then I would hope for some better examples, for they are out there.