Richard, please read the referrred-to sentence again: I'm talking about my own experience, not anyone else's.

I'd consider it a mark of honour to be described as any of those three, even if I inevitably have certain reservations about some of the beliefs commonly associated with those positions (but then we all have our individual points of dissension with whatever party line we choose to take).

I certainly don't think socialism looks like 'yesterday's thing' from the perspective of Latin America, where some of the world's most heartwarming social and political developments seem to take place these days. Having said that, they're not alone: Spain has just returned a socialist party to power with a secure majority, Greece and several other European countries have prominent socialist parties, and indeed the socialist alliance has the second-largest number of MEPs of any grouping in the European Parliament (not that I expect that means much to you).

Anyway, you replied to my initial comment by saying that a 'pseudo-Marxist' would be a bad thing from either side's perspective, which seemed to me a not unreasonable comment. But I was interested to see how long it would take you to drop the 'pseudo-' prefix: not long at all, I now see!

'Pompous' certainly, 'oaf' only at times (I hope).  But I recognise when I've trodden on a corn, so I won't aggravate the situation.
 I hope you'll try to understand, if not to sympathise, with my postion, Richard: if someone describes themselves as 'a feminist' to me, I tend to react the same way as I would to someone who described themselves as 'a racist.'  To my mind, both look at the world through a  distorted lens. 

I will say only a few words here. I find it strange that in the last, say 10 or so years, the word 'feminist' appears to have acquired a derogatory meaning. How one can equate it with the word 'racist' is, frankly, beyond my comprehension.

Well, that quotation's a lot of rubbish, but I suppose even the most honourable movements attract their crackpots (just look at the Tory Party ). I don't think you should judge feminism by it, and I think "feminism has acquired a derogatory meaning" perhaps needs re-phrasing as "there are certain statements by which feminism could be painted as unreasonable but we should probably try hard not to do so since the only result of doing so is likely to be further oppression and inequality".

Unless you have a non-feminist way of ensuring equality for women in mind, that is ...

What you describe as Germaine Greer's 'outpourings' have never struck me as particularly 'addled', but maybe she's trodden on a few of your corns (to adopt another of your charming locutions)?

Didn't you read Greer's piece on 'football as art' a few weeks back (Reiner had a thread about it)?  The piece was pure drivel.   

I thought it had nuggets of common sense, plus a few sweeping generalisations that would hardly be expected to help her cause on a messageboard full of classical music-lovers. It only seemed as out of place as it did because people are not used to reading strong opinions from feisty women, and still don't like to do so on the whole. If a man had written it people would have been much more sympathetic.