Yeah, but he missed his opportunity and Peggy wrote him off accordingly. You can't keep people on the back-burner forever and once they got over you, they tend to get over you for good.

I write what I wrote last week when someone came up with that precise scenario (only with a beach instead of a diner) and what I will probably write a few more times, since it seems such a popular scenario: Nah. You become what you pretend to be. At this point, Dick wouldn't be any more authentic Don.

Thanks; that actually means quite a bit to me, because I often feel bad about wasting so much time arguing on the internet. But I have a hard time letting certain things stand uncontested, and in this case, I didn't want to fuel the martyr complex with my usual drive-by-snark (guess that didn't work out. Well, I…

I think Betty is perfectly content with being desired; consumation would really only bring diminishing returns. Cheating may not be sacrosanct for her, but it probably wouldn't pass her cost-benefit analysis.

Nah. We become what we pretend to be - at this point Dick wouldn't be any more authentic than Don. As long as he doesn't develop a more refined notion of authenticity, there's really no forward momentum. (I also think it would be important for him to stop depending on the gaze of a lover to remake himself).

You have a point here, but so did Mathis. I don't think that soap line would have worked for him either. He's not wrong that Don, man or not, couldn't get away with half the things he gets away with if not for his conventional good looks. Not realizing that_before_he tried to emulate Don was certainly naive, but…

I would guess many people's need to defend that might stem from a self-evaluation of not being quite that conventionally attractive themselves, which has a certain logic to it, although you usually can't help it either way.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have asked either, especially if I already had a vague idea. Ultimately, the reasons don't matter all that much anyway (and no matter what she would have said, it's rarely ever one single thing in isolation). Just remember that whatever turned out to be the deal-breaker for her, wouldn't…

Sounds like good developments over all. Wishing you luck.

I'm a woman who's never noticed anyone getting public erections (except for that exhibitionist who flashed me on the beach in Cannes), but then again, I'm very absented-minded and generally don't pay attention to these things. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn't have noticed the exhibitionist either, if the other…

[Accidental double posting]

I came to this review after just watching a woman practically disolving into a swarm of flies, and I thought I couldn't be more disgusted. Alas, I hadn't read your comment then. Victim blaming bullshit. The depressing thing is that you even got an upvote. Well, one can't see downvotes here, but you certainly got one…

Yeah, I was a bit too curt here and I already apologized. Just trying to understand the emotional reality of his ex. I still think she had a point in being spiteful.

Also, I was being too glib, and I am sorry. It's a hard thing for everyone involved and I certainly can't be sure I would have handled it any better.

Fair enough. I still think it must have been hardest of all for her, but you're absolutely right that anonymous-internet-comment me won't win the hardship competition here. You're right to resent me, but I think she was also right to resent you. Sometimes a half-hearted effort is worse than no effort at all,…

Then again, how is that stigma ever going to go away if people who "love" transwomen so rarely seem to love them enough to fight with them for their recognition?

It won't work as a weapon, if he has been open with the new girl about the fact that they're not being exclusive yet.

I don't think that a traditionally straight girl who's kept on the down-low by a guy too spineless to acknowledge her in front of others would owe much loyality to him either, considering that this was going on for 4 years already, in which he showed zero loyality to her.

I can see it. Interesting how the ravages of age affected Leo and Vlad rather differently.

It's just a really, really good picture. The tousled hair, the way half his face lies in shadow, the intensity of his gaze, the crooked smile… if you look at other pictures of his younger years, he's fairly average, but in this moment…