That lady's laugh made my whole day. Face it, we don't often get poetic justice dealt this broadly or this gracefully. This is schadenfreude writ on the cosmos itself. I'm happier than I have any right to be right now.

Because women aren't allowed to challenge men's prestige. Think about it:

That's what I love about that town. You can be there who knows how long and not even know about half the weird shit going on. Austin is one of my favorite places in the world.

To challenge someone's self-image as a good person is very difficult. We want to believe that our beloveds would never, ever be the guy who cheats on us, so when we find out that actually yes indeed he is the guy who cheats on us, we have to rationalize that. And finding some external cause to blame for the…

Kara, you're going to get a *lot* of shit for what you said, and I want you to know I really respect you for putting your honest self out here like you have. I think your perspective is valuable and completely valid, and I want you to know that it's appreciated. I think a lot of what we think about love and…

They're pretty much the one thing you CAN'T do a damned thing about. My sister thought her cankles were there because of her size (she was pushing 350 pounds), but when she got serious about losing weight and got down to, I kid you not, 130 over the next year or two, the cankles appeared to have made friends with her…

I don't think I've ever fucked a man who had a problem with the color or shape of my genitals. I don't think I could get interested in the type of men who'd have a problem with it. I doubt they'd be very interested in me, either, so really, we all win here, don't we?

I loved this. Just sayin'. And it's totally okay for you to have preferences about grooming. I sure do.

Oh noes! These awful men will never want to fuck you! I'm pale as mayonnaise—except for my nether regions, which are unacceptably not-palest-pink. I'm just heartbroken to discover that men who care about what color those parts of my body are will never, ever find me optimally appealing. Just destroys me. Really.

What's so weird? He's strong-willed, competent, loyal, sensitive, sweet, socially cooperative, and nurturing. Plus he looks crazy hot in a Nutcracker costume, for a rat I mean. What's not to like about Justin? I adored him.

I'm so glad I'm not the only Strongbow fangirl in here. Most of the elf guys are awesome, but he's the best.

I hear ya. I've seen that kind of thing too—sometimes people just are testing boundaries to begin with. Good on you for having very firm ones!

I'd have had mine four weeks in if I'd only been able to afford it. I caught it early. But it was expensive and I was just this side of homeless and crashing on people's couches, so it took some time (the babydaddy ended up paying for it and he was pretty cool about stuff, but he wasn't in much better of a situation…

Well, for herself maybe. She's allowed to decide who inserts anything into her body, when, for how long, and under what circumstances. But she's not going to tell me what I must tolerate or allow inside MY body.

If you think there's some point in time when your gauzy ideas about other women's bodies take precedence over those women's needs and rights, then no, you are not actually "all for freedom of choice." You think you let women control their bodies, but you don't. You take away their rights if exercising them happens for…

Somewhere along the way this tiresome weirdo decided that even negative attention is better than no attention at all. I was married to a guy like that—my preacher ex called this behavior "pulling people's chains" and thought it was HILARE to provoke reactions by saying stuff he knew was inflammatory and boorish. He…

I'm not condoning their behavior; it's not okay to snark someone's appearance. It's downright mean. But I think this story got legs like it did because it's about women snarking babies. The cult of motherhood doesn't allow women to be mean about babies. We can be mean about mothers—oh yes, we are very mean about…

That's how I evolved on the issue as well. At first I was all "WTF I don't care what they think" but then I began to hear from parents whose kids get called names like the r-word on a regular basis and hear how it's used to slur and marginalize people. I'm neurotypical and "normal" myself. I don't have kids at all,…

I'm just an internet stranger, but please know you have my condolences. It's very hard to lose a dear friend.

On the plus side, you've discovered a good motivator. I hope it lasts! My preacher ex did the same BS. When he cleaned up a little or "helped" around the house, it was all about getting laid. The tactic was simple: he was just hoping to reduce my blazing resentment at being taken advantage of to a mere simmer for long…