I am very glad that my campus had integrated NPC sororities. I have sisters of all different races & ethnicities and our chapter was stronger for it. There were also chapters of the historically black sororities on campus and I think that's fine as well. If your mom was an AKA or whatever, nothing wrong with wanting…

They probably are too scared of the backlash. If you want access to the "old girls' network", you aren't going to rock the boat even if you think that it's a travesty.

Mascara and eyeliner are a blonde girl's friends...

One of my early jobs out of college was as a buyer and I discovered very quickly that I was able to negotiate better deals when I switched from contacts to glasses and let my hair return to its natural boring dishwater blonde color from a lighter shade. I simply got taken more seriously when I resembled Barbie less.

Hmm, I didn't have an unplanned pregnancy when I was a virgin. I did have one when I was relying on doubling up on contraception. So abstinence does, in fact, work better.

Would you say that a woman who doubles up on contraception by using a hormonal method + a barrier method and thinks she is using both correctly is lying to herself about not wanting to get pregnant? Nothing is 100% and I've got an almost 11 y.o. to prove it.

Maybe women in their 20's and 30's are more ambivalent about getting pregnant than teens are. Maybe they're not out right trying to conceive, but they may very well be less motivated to avoid it as conscientiously as when they were younger.

I'm fairly conservative when it comes to sexual morality but I get creeped out by the whole "Purity Balls" thing as well. The daddy-daughter dynamic is icky (hello, it should be the MOM discussing sex with the daughter) and far too public a setting for such a sensitive topic.

If the girl is young enough to be attending her own prom (rather than being the date of a younger guy), then she's living under her parents' roof and being supported by them. My house, my rules. And that includes not leaving said house in a skanky-looking outfit.

My husband works in the financial services industry (not at BoA though) and the issue is not so much that the men think their female colleagues/subordinates are incompetent but rather that they are less willing than the men to put up with the insane workhours long-term. A lot of female hires only stick around long…

No contraceptive protects against STD's except for condoms, so if you and/or your partner aren't monogamous, then absolutely you need to use those. But the author was talking about withdrawal as an alternative to the pill or an IUD, so for women in monogamous relationships.

Except that barrier methods have a similar effectiveness rate. Now if you had said doubling up on hormonal contraceptives AND barrier contraceptives, I'd agree with you (though they're still not 100% and I have an almost 11 y.o. to prove it).

When done correctly, modern methods of Natural Family Planning have a similar effectiveness rate to the pill (96%).

I've got a patch + diaphragm baby, and know a pill + condom baby, a couple IUD babies, a couple post-vasectomy babies, a Depo baby (my friend didn't realize she was pregnant until the 2nd trimester when the baby started moving!), a whole bunch of pill babies, and so on.

It's in the same general effectiveness range as barrier methods, spermicides, and the old Today sponge. Nobody gets all "it's Russian Roulette!" on the users of THOSE methods.

I've done both, and there is a BIG difference between actively trying and "not trying but not preventing either".

{{{hugs}}} Most miscarriages/stillbirths are due to genetic abnormalities, so there is nothing anyone can do about them. The risk of abnormalities goes up with maternal & paternal age, which is why later pregnancies are more likely to end in a loss. My risk today at almost 37 would be way higher than when I got…

I have a moral issue with "birth control" that works not by suppressing ovulation (like the combo pills/patches do) or preventing the sperm from reaching the egg (like barrier methods do) but by preventing implantation of the embryo. To me, there is no moral difference between that and having an abortion. So the IUD…

People will ask, especially if they disapprove of you having a baby right then (or ever in the case of baby #3). They shouldn't because it's none of their business, but it happens.

Your argument is techno-snobbery. If the method to prevent pregnancy requires some artificial device or chemicals, then it's "birth control" according to you. But if it is low-tech, then it isn't. Even if the effectiveness is in the similar range as many commonly used artificial contraceptives (condoms, diaphragm,…