Yes! Give me all the craziest faces, Bey! Those are where the awesome lives.

Hahaha! Yeah, clearly I'm not getting invited to the tuxedoes-and-sparkly-gowns elbow-grabbing, force-kissing parties. Too bad, I've kind of always wanted an excuse to break an expensive glass full of booze against a wall, in a drunken fury. (These parties are in black and white, which makes the debauchery look…

Back when I thought clubs were a place I might like to be (because dancing!), my friends and I would always go with some guy friends to "defensive dance" with us in the inevitable event of the dick-first personal space invasion.

So gross! How do so many dudes apparently not know to NOT sneak-touch total strangers? Pubs Not Clubs!

You seem really well-adjusted and normal. I'm a lady who did not have good luck in the romance department for a really long time. I never had dates to parties or concerts, and I did a lot of the asking-to-dance myself. For me, it never led to making out or being asked on a date. Sadly, the guys I was asking were…

I agree. I think there's some telescoping going on with this impression of how women respond to confident jerks. I've had friends who had crushes on jerks before, and I've had a crush on a jerk or two in my time. Far more than that though, I've seen ignorant dicks with nice faces swagger up to my friends, acting…

THIS. I need that space behind me in which to be awesome. Dance time is not simulate-sex-with-a-stranger-in-public time. I take a warning step forward, and if dude doesn't immediately release me, he's getting a very unfriendly elbow.

I think it's a combination of hindsight being 20/20, previous dealings with rude dickheads (they are everywhere!) that didn't end in violence, and the fact that women get a lot of shit for setting strong boundaries. I absolutely agree, women should feel comfortable walking the fuck away the minute they get a bad…

I have a feeling he gets outright turned down a whoooole lot because he probably sends out thousands of basically the same message—casts a wide net, if you will. And of the women who do say yes to meeting him, it sounds like a pretty small proportion of them hang around long enough to have sex with him.

It's totally a marketing ploy, and I can only assume the research shows people buy more when they feel like shit. "You have all the wrong clothes! They are making you look FAT and WRONG! Here are the clothes you should have instead. Go buy them so people won't have to look upon you in horror as you walk down the…

I'll call my body type "couch shaped." Very cozy indeed.

I hear you. I think there's a tipping point where parents (maybe subconsciously?) cling to their authority, thereby creating the resentment that leads to irresponsible use of authority once the teen is 18+ and out of the house. I think a lot of parents' fears about the dangers their children might be exposed to in…

I agree. Maybe he genuinely wants to be friends with her/they're in the same social group, and he is bad at setting boundaries (which maybe contributed to their break-up if they're both bad at setting boundaries). Maybe he still feels responsible for her well-being when she calls for a shoulder to cry on or whatever…

I'm curious about the "insecure boundaries" part. And I agree with the posters who say stop trying. Either she's planning on breaking up with him and therefore has zero interest in his life, including you, or she's enjoying the power of watching you make the effort so she can reject you over and over again. Or both.

Don't forget that Bitchy New Girlfriend has probably heard at least a dozen sob stories/rants about the problems in the previous relationship and why it ended. Some of the judgment and/or avoidance coming off her might be there because ex-boyfriend is having one relationship with you to your face, and another one…

Seriously, have a chiropractor on stand-by because somebody's sacrum is bound to misalign from twisting and tilting over and over again.

THIS. And even if she was a stripper, why would that be the Worst Thing Ever if she is also the financially secure wife and mom that she is in her own life? I saw a facebook post about her being a bad example for young girls because of the smallness of her outfit, and the sexy-dancing. She's been in show business…

This is mostly how I see it. I'm really glad Taylor Swift HAS a vocally feminist friend. They're young enough that Emma Stone might not be able to articulate her feminism to someone who specifically disavows it yet. And she's so young I imagine she's still in that sort of introspective period of feminism, trying to…

Mine had a child-inclusive lunchtime picnic, and then a no-children dinner, after which we all took over this one bar and forced them to put Pandora on songs from our old dances. I enjoyed getting to see/meet people's kids, but part of the whole fun was kicking our heels up late into the night.

I'm sooo glad you were in a non-shitty environment, although that had to be seriously bewildering and stressful.