Letters: Most men are like Lucy

LUCY Ellmann says that men are vicious when roused: may I take peaceable issue?

Most rapists and most murderers are men, that's true. But it's also true that most men, the overwhelming majority of them, are neither of these things; and further, that they've no secret desire to attack children, to rape women, nor to shoot them. What are they like, most men? They're human beings - and in that they have almost everything in common with, well, with most women. So, yes, they find violence repugnant, in all its forms.

Human beings are often tempted to blame their troubles on seemingly alien groups. Some whites hate blacks, some Serbs hate Muslims, some women hate men. Ms Ellmann should take heart, however. Most of us are just like her.

Philip Liddell

Earlston, Borders