Woman savior syndrome? Careful, else you will be taken to the cleaners by a Rusky or Ukrainian lady one day. In all seriousness, don't you slightly overshoot with your agitation towards all other posts here? We are dealing with a self declared grown up gal here. I get you have a daughter of your own but .. .
That would be a befitting statement on a website that was overall "clean" and sober and did not house racists and extremists on its politics forums and otherwise a majority of the broke and desperate. What's the outcry all of a sudden, because it is a woman? All other beginners and newbies, a group I generally defend and encourage if they show effort and self initiative, are not treated with white gloves after all by most at ET.
No, sadly it's nothing out of the ordinary and I have spoken about this before more than once. We seem to usually avoid the filth outside of the politics section with this time being an unpleasant exception.
Well, I personally could have been slightly kinder though in my own defense I suggested a number venues where OP can find collaboration partners. I am against delivering everything on a silver platter. To help I first demand a level of self initiative to see how invested the person is. But thanks for the call for civility, never hurts to be reminded.
It serves no purpose for a woman to post her pic to a message board that consists of over 90% males. Further, she jokes about sex in the "hook up" thread. She/he doesn't attend Stern. Nobody calls is "Sterns" and certainly nobody who attends Columbia's B-School. So she's either a fake and female or a 300lb dude trolling on a weekend. Regardless, all you've done is feed it.
%% I like a female perspective, also because they are part of most any market ; but good warning, anyway.
If this is your experience I think it would be worthwhile to pursue mentorship in a more professional format: an internship. The desk I work on is close to 50% female and obviously the level of professionalism is higher than that of an impromptu meetup.