MBA programs videotape their students in mock-interviews to show them how they appear to others. It's painful and reveals a lot: does your voice do that annoying ending-on-a-question thing? do you play with your hair? fidget with your hands? tilt your head down and avoid eye contact?

@Understater: Oh, I agree with you on that point - it's definitely a comparison based on looks and not talent, and Natalie being younger and more acceptable.

I wonder if Winona Ryder feels weird about Natalie Portman, who was supposed to be the new Winona Ryder.

"Bizarre" implies wildly unconventional. In this industry, there's nothing more conventional than black/brown/yellowface, and actors of color getting screwed.

I used to work in retail and got the "maintenance supervisor" position, which was a real point of pride for me even though it was the probably the worst supervisor position: moving boxes of merch, walking the floor to check on repairs (and doing the smaller repairs), cleaning storage areas.

In the neighborhood that my ex lived in, there were routine beat-downs by white cops on young black (and occasionally latino) men. Ex's roommate was Latino, and was specifically used in these beatdowns to legitimize them. And we witnessed a beatdown on a black kid where the one black cop participated as…

@chunkypumpky: I was strategizing how I was going to go about this as well and this is very useful, thank you!

@RayBradbury's_ElephantMonastery: when did the TSA say that you're not supposed to go there? haven't they refused to say anything about the pat-down guidelines for "national security" (ahembullshitahem) reasons?

@belladonna seablue marshmallow eyes: It's back to the days of the menstruation hut!

What disturbs me as much as the TSA invasion of privacy and assault procedures, are many people's reaction to it: I have to fly anyway, so I may as well lie back and think of England.

No, not all travelers are subject to it: senators and congressional leaders don't have to deal with the new screenings at all. Which is why we won't see a change until people actually do something about it and protest - and I don't mean just calling your senators, who don't care because they get to skip it.

@messybessy: The Patriot Act barred TSA agents from forming a union, which means that they can't air grievances at all, really, without fear of getting fired.

@newyorkmuse: Although I agree with you about knowing your triggers, this isn't about that. This isn't asking people to not bump into you on the subway because that triggers flashbacks or panic attacks.

@mommy_dearest: same thing happens to my Latina friends; and I have biracial friends who grew up with parents of their schoolmates assuming their mom was a nanny and treating her like a servant at school pick-up times.

One of the reasons I shop because that's the only way my mother and I hung out when I was a kid, so it's become associated with fun and socializing. I go shopping with friends more than I go to restaurants or bars.

Suggestion: Dress Code about how to care for jewelry!

sort of off track but this is why in the thread about the body-scanners, when some commenters were saying "Suck it up the FDA says it's fine", I was rolling my eyes. Because the FDA *never* lets political agendas trump actual science.

I know exactly ONE person who really, really likes Free People and buys a ton of stuff from them every season.

@divinelioness: Exactly. This country has enough of a budget for unsafe, unnecessary body scans, but my friend the bike messenger couldn't get an x-ray for a potential concussion after getting hit by a car.

I'm guessing homophobia is treated as a valid opinion for the same reason that creationism is treated as a valid scientific hypothesis: because this country was founded by Protestant zealots seeking the religious freedom to be intolerant of others, and we can't seem to get away from that.