Yeah, and you did piss all over everything that was passed along to you and you did so with a G.W. Bush style smirk.

Perhaps rather than worry emotional issues to death like women you should just let them rest in peace and work themselves out like men tend to do. You did spit on an entire generation of fighters and sacrificers and laughed in their faces while you did so. Now you want to kiss and make up?

There comes a breaking point and you are going to discover that while you and your 'sisters' were having mocking giggle fests in your extraordinarily support for Obama that you reached that point of permanent disruption with the older generation. I both see it and hear it in talking to them. Angry does not even begin to describe their feelings towards their daughters and nieces and such. Rage, bitterness, humiliation and feeling both betrayed and mocked in that betrayal comes close.

There a closer analogy, however; one that might allow you younger 'feminists' to understand where the older generation is coming from. You've just taken the last fist in your face from your lousy abusive spouse that you ever intend to take in your life. On the morrow that relationship will never be the same again.

Congratulations ladies you are all grown up now. You have spat on your mothers and aunts and professional and emotional mentors and had a good laugh among yourselves while doing so, and there was the delight of sweet, sweet mockery in the air. That was your choice, your airy decision to make and most of you were arrogantly joyous in making that decision. Now live with all the consequences. You have earned them . . . every last one.

You know, I'm in my late forties. I definitely fall within the second-wave demographic. Tell me, how do you think we treated our mothers and aunts? It certainly wasn't anything like reverence.

Perhaps we are merely experiencing what my mother called the "chickens coming home to roost."

My mother served in the Navy as a WAVE before women were allowed to be called sailors and fought to stay in despite getting married. She was eventually forced out of the service due to pregnancy, much to her dismay.
While in the Navy myself I kept a picture of her with me as well as one of my father (who also served). I was the 8th woman assigned a berth on a combatant ship, having served 4 years previously on a ship designated as "unusually arduous sea duty" and having had proven myself as a master helmsman and rising from E-1 to E-5 (I was due for a shore tour and chose to return to the sea).
I know what it means to fight for equality, what it's like having to do things 150% better than the competition just to look equal, having to hike across the entire ship to one of the 2 female heads (bathrooms) I was allowed to use on the ship while on watch in the middle of the night (going up and down ladders while having to pee sucks, regardless of time of day).
I voted for Obama. I do not consider myself a traitor to my gender. I also don't feel as if I "peed on anyone's torch". My mother raised me to think independently, to evaluate my options and to make choices based on what I believe, what I think and what I feel. My mother has chosen to support McCain. Neither of us felt inclined to support Clinton just because she was a woman.

I apologize for the block of text above, forgot to edit the cut and paste to include spaces between paragraphs.

I think you are a perfect example of what happens when the generations treat each other with respect. You give me great hope that this noxious cycle can end.

I'll be honest, a lot of the hate is something I don't really understand. We all have a common goal and we all basically want the same thing, yet everyone is clamoring to have it their way and no way else.

I think the majority of the problem is perception and while I can see both points of view, I'm also somewhat saddened that we can't seem to talk about it without yelling. Frankly, it reminds me of the stereotype of the sitcom mom and her sitcom teenage daughter.

I see what you mean about the sitcom, but it just isn't a funny one. I think you're right about the my way is the only way for most of the participants in this battle - both the young and old. It's odd that so few of us seem to have reached the point where we can have respectful relationships with people who are not exactly like us.

As I said before, you give me hope. Maybe, thirty years from now, we won't hear the current generation of young women repeating this same fight with their daughters. The whole cycle has lost its amusement for me.