For the same reason I think it's icky to make fun of the side effects of people's bulimia or anorexia, I'm not a fan of making fun of people with (probable) body dismorphic issues because of unsuccessful plastic surgery. They really seem like different manifestations of the same thing. That may not be what Alysssa is…

If you're looking for possible alternatives to Sophia, Phaedra to me has a very similar sound. The name means "light" or "bright" and comes to us from Greek mythology. Other than I think a current reality TV star, I've rarely heard the name used (although a classmate of mine in the 80s had it).

I apologize to those of you who love it, but there isn't a name in recent memory that for me brings to mind as much negativity as Jayden. For me it's the name equivalent of a Whole Foods in a mid 2000's upscale strip mall located in Tallahassee or Little Rock. "These aren't corn flakes, they're kyorn flakes." Jayden…

You're right. Actually,* the truth is* that most words that mean "in reality" have always been capable of taking on the figurative sense. Actually, really, indeed, genuinely, in fact, decidedly, assuredly, and so on have always given leeway for sarcasm and metaphor. In fact, he's a stallion in bed is figurative. The…

More self hating than if he had been left in the adoption system?

Drugs.

??

If winning a comment fight in the grays of a gossip site makes you feel better about your day then I say go for it.

In fairness, if those trailers are anything to go by, the show isn't doing anything to challenge Glenn Beck's perception of what gays are all about.

No, because a Nazi concentration camp and a plantation home are not the same thing. The plantation home was a building in which the slave owners lived. They lived in the lap of (relative to the time) luxury. Yes, the owners employed slaves. So did most people with money in that time period, including lots of urban…

So what exactly do you propose should happen to what remains of old southern mansions? Should we burn them to the ground so a piece of real estate can feel how righteous we are?

The point when I became seriously wary of it was when it started flashing up your likes and posts on friend's walls. Like, seriously. That feature seems designed specifically just to get you in trouble and causes ridiculous amounts of tension between friends of different political affiliations and so on.

Camille Paglia is like a madperson. Most of what she says is drivel, but due to her crazed perspective every now and then she describes, say, a chicken sandwich in some way that only a person five steps off from reality can. Unfortunately, like most mad people she lacks consistency, so one day that chicken sandwich is…

What would be hilarious is if they put him back on the air but then pulled a Guidice on him—made him the villain on his own reality show. If there's one medium you really don't want to bite the hand that feeds you, it's reality TV. Just ask every other "star" who's been outted on their own show.

Also, not for a second…

Which is why you will feel no shame about sewing a pattern on to it or doing something else with it that is crazy... ;)

Do you own a Bejewler? Another option: buy a stuffed animal, like at the thrift or dollar store, gut it, and stitch the purse inside the hole. If you don't care too much to make it hyper-presentable,…

That is either creepy or cool depending on your relationship to your uncle and whether you had to open it in front of everyone else.

I agree with your assessment. The Little Mermaid as presented by the Disney film is a story that with the barest bit of tweaking actually parallels closely to LGBT struggles. It's unclear how much this is accidental. The lyrics to the score were written by Howard Ashman, a gay man who passed away of complications from…

Aladdin is a bit of a stand out, I think, because he is actually the main character, while Jasmine is the support. He's given a lot more depth than a typical Disney prince, and Jasmine in turn is given a lot less, more or less on par with Naveen or the Beast in terms of what we learn about her. The Lion King has a…

It's true that the racial component is forefront in the rape accusation. But that is the merely the mechanism that makes the rape lie in the story believable. Mayella is still a woman and Tom is still a man (and in the story it is made clear that Mayella was flirting with Tom). Rape Culture is no doubt a "thing." But…

I agree that it is a brilliant novel because of its intricacies. I don't know that many mainstream feminists account for the complexities though when they include it in their list of favorite novels. I often hear it referred to as "one of the greatest American novels" (a sentiment I'd agree with). But the message…