The first week is the worst, you're fresh meat. (Ugh. I hate that it feels that way, but it does.) My profile was probably a bit haughty intellectual, so it seemed to self police and mostly interest grad students. I put a bit in at the bottom after a few disastrous dates (and both guys and girls had something like it…

Not to the full extent, but I'm on a currently ravaged portion of the east coast. (Sandy + Nor'Easter = COME ON.) I don't hoard much, but when you know something might be coming, water is key. You can obviously buy bottled or filter your own and save, whatever. I started just running water through my home filter and…

My place is a little cutesy. They refer to the panty line as bikini, then brazilian and something they call the "betweeni" (augggggh) which is what you're describing. I say, just describe it. They'll figure it out.

Bikini wax only or brazilian? I've done the gamut, though mostly err on the side of brazilian. Hopefully you picked a place that has an esthetician do it (I am always tempted by cheaper joints, but I feel way better with someone trained in skincare.) Do not trim beforehand, hair has to be at least a quarter inch or…

Yep. I went for 2-3 years when I was 17 (a traumatic diagnosis of a chronic medical condition got me a referral in.) After that, I phased down so I saw her only as episodes became unmanageable (1 or 2 times per year) but left the state for grad school, ended up only marginally functional because of my depression and…

Yeah, out of drag she's a bit alarming. I'm no good at spotting specific work (e.g. "Totally had a nose job and cheek implants" or whatever) and what's hard with Detox is that she apparently (and I have little on specifics) had a bad motorcycle accident which required reconstruction. I'm not sure how much of her work…

I have a really bad habit of NOT courtesy laughing. I find so, so much amusing that it has never been an issue; I'm constantly laughing for real, so it never occurred to me to develop a response to bad jokes.

Detox for LIFE. Seriously. I rewound the bits on the kid's show challenge just to watch her play a chicken who yells about boxes. As chickens do.

It extends to sexual violence, insomuch that it is possible to ethically measure in a laboratory. We use a variety of measures to look at it: scales regarding hostile attitudes toward women (e.g., "women lie./I get a raw deal from women."), sexual harassment tendencies (e.g., "here is a scenario in which you have…

PhD students loooooove to talk about it. I'm a social psychologist, I mostly would describe my work as being about bodies; how we use them, negotiate them, form relationships with our own and how that downstream affects our interpersonal interactions, sexuality, intimacy. I do a lot with sexual…

So. So. Stupid. Everything is about penises. ALL THE TIME PENISES. I joke, but I'm literally working on a project about male body shame right now, and have come to the conclusion that my entire career is just gonna be: "YOUR PENIS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? BAD? That makes sense."

I really liked it and found it to be eye opening. It was really the start of the snowball into my PhD work (before I knew that's what I'd be doing.) So I definitely recommend it. But he was a close friend and colleague of Andrea Dworkin's. I (personally) think this is super awesome, but I understand not everyone is…

There's an interesting book, "Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity" by Robert Jensen, wherein he basically posits that the typical (female) porn star, 1) has a shelf life, usually 2 years or less, and 2) is more interesting for what she has not yet done, than what she does do. Some, maybe the bulk, of…

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

It's difficult, and I'd be a liar if I tried to give lots of advice about it, because as someone with major depression, it gets better...but it also gets worse. You do your best, and you ask for the help you feel you need and can accept. If that's not counseling or medication now, that's totally ok. But they are…

I'm a grad student, this is a way familiar feeling. I'm gonna start with the obvious here, but this sounds a bit like depression. It's, of course, totally your own business and I am not a psychologist (well, I am, but a different kind! Totally not the kind that can tell if you have depression!) But my own depression,…

Not yet. I have an offer in LA once I finish up the PhD, but I'm currently on the east. WHICH MAKES THIS WHOLE CONVERSATION CRAZY ILLEGAL. Tell no one. :P

So, I smoked a decent amount of weed in college, not a lot. At max I was maybe 2 bowls a week. I enjoyed it, but often had a hard time discerning the line between "high" and "not high" because it gave me no real strong feelings other than "eat a bunch of popsicles and watch Milo & Otis." I moved across country for…

Oh yes. Much much better. If you started at Eccleston (as opposed to early Who) it's also the show re-tooling and figuring some shit out. Personally, the first time through, I started with "What is this shit? I was told there would be tall, lanky David Tennant in suits and a duster!" and for a few episodes I…

Sponges, diaphragms and spermicidal lube are "older school" methods, but still viable, depending on your desire to spend time and your own sensitivity. (I personally, am sensitive to the chemical composition of most spermicide, so I avoid, but this isn't every lady). I do not think diaphragms are difficult,…