There is a video of my sis and I, ages 8 and 10, on Christmas morning. My dad had unwrapped his gift of a video camera, read the manual, set the time and date stamp, and then filmed his children sleeping soundly. “Girls!” he says, “It’s ten a.m. Don’t you want to see what Santa brought you?” One of us mumbles,…

Has Trump acknowledged the death of Richard Collins III at all? (The young man from Bowie State who was killed by a racist when visiting UMD)

The other night I was at an annual awards ceremony for local historic preservation sites, and this year’s exciting news was about a man who had found dozens of freedom papers (dating from the 1780's to the 1850s) in an old family safe. Local historians haven’t yet figured out why his family would have had them, but…

It’s the “take it” part that is so weird to me. A pic of some object over a women’s body is incredibly boring because it’s only been done millions of times. But “take it” - well, I immediately hunched over at the thought of a a creepy, sweaty man reaching out to honk my boob. Like, with all the sexual assaults in…

YES

Or the beauty of a male rugby player’s thighs and bum.... mmm....

Thank you so much, that is super helpful!! I will definitely do that!

I bought my wedding dress for two reasons: empire waist, so I didn’t have to wear a girdle and could eat as much pie as I wanted that night, and pockets for my handkerchief and lipstick.

I understand why that happens - but I think that can be really hard later in life if you are a woman. My mom was in her mid-50's when my dad died, and it was SO DAMN HARD for her. She was an attractive, smart, and active woman, but when she was ready to date she found that most of the men approaching her were either…

I have a VERY difficult time with gory movies. I can handle psychological thrillers as long as there is a minimum of blood or mutilation, and violence happens mostly off screen. I only have to glimpse a zombie or maggots while flipping through channels and it will give me nightmares for weeks. (A few years ago I…

Living in a community of well-educated black folks, I’m also thinking about how, for the rest of her life, she’s going to be at places where folks are proudly talking about being a Howard grad. At every chamber of commerce gala, every local award ceremony, someone will mention their alma mater and then others will…

Okay, but what about an old-fashioned name that you share with an older woman in your family? Your family might start calling you the diminutive to distinguish you from grandma, and then it sticks. I think it’s kind of charming when a young woman is named Betty, Betsy, Meggy, etc.

Yup, that makes a lot of sense. Yet Trump cut the Violence Against Women funding that trains police departments across the country in how to properly investigate sexual assault.  

YES.

A third recommendation for eShakti here! I am tall and curvy, and over the years have gotten more and more frustrated with bad fitting clothes. At this point, I only shop at Talbots (during sales) for shirts and pants, at Kmart for cotton tees and jeans, and on eShakti for dresses and nice blouses.

As a tall lady, I finally made the switch to eShakti for dresses. You can order by your size & height, or you can pay 10 bucks extra and give them your full custom measurements. Even more exciting, they let you customize hem length, sleeves, and neckline on most garments. Most dresses are in the $45-$85 range - and…

Oh, and I should also mention one thing - I am kind of tall. I am 5'9" and hit my full height by the time I was 11. So I was used to feeling gigantic and looming over people, even though looking back I realize I was in great shape for my height (I’d be thrilled to be that slender nowadays!). I remember once when a…

I dunno, these Olympians are pretty darn diverse in body type:

Looking in the wrong places. I was a slender, pretty-ish, but shy and awkward woman for many years. I have always been into guys that have some meat on their bones, generally 2X and above. But they didn’t seem to notice me because it was much easier to notice the girls that were good at woman-ing - the ones who…

I can see why you would think that - if you are generally a polite and nice person, it’s hard to believe how cruel or rude others can actually be. I have been on both sides of the fence - I was slender for many years, and became plus size in my thirties for various reasons.