Mobile? My folks are there, but I was in Mississippi for Katrina. I wasn’t in the worst of it but I remember waiting for FEMA and realizing the only help coming was from church groups. I remember thinking, “how is this happening in America?”

I take my dog to sessions with clients. She’s especially great with teens — one of my best memories is seeing a big tough linebacker type kid gently cradling her. Dogs bring out the best in us. (And there’s actually quite a bit of evidence for their effectiveness in soothing anxiety, helping folks with PTSD get…

The fiercest fighters come from the shittiest states. All you can do is your piece and hope others join in doing theirs. And try not to burn out, because you're right — it sucks.

Ask to take the mic and get your voice out there. Or call a speak out where people take turns. The movement belongs to everyone.

I’m not super in-the-loop anymore but from what I can tell the movement is in kind of a lull in terms of street actions.

I helped organize nationwide coalition protests a couple of years ago and there are still frequent demonstrations about reproductive rights and other women’s issues. Jezebel and other mainstream sites don’t cover feminist organizing for some reason. But if you really do want to get involved, I'm sure you can find an…

It sounds like she made a general comment addressed to everyone present and this dude decided to attack her personally in response. That’s happened to me before. Some men get furious when a woman has the nerve to speak.

I was super excited and felt very grownup in 6th grade because we got to change classes and use lockers for the first time. No more cubbies! But because I had homework in every class every night, I still had to carry books and notebooks for all my classes in my backpack. I was an early bloomer and shy, so there was no…

In rural areas like where I grew up, often there’s no industry and no jobs close to home. The options are all difficult and dangerous. Driving a truck pays less than working offshore on the oil rigs but I can see the appeal of working toward getting your own truck.

Cunt is a gender slur. For when someone’s being so awful they are literally being a vagina. Cause there’s nothing worse than vaginas, right? I agree with everything you’ve said in this thread but I also understand why choosing that word (or any gender slur) as an insult makes it hard for people, especially feminists,…

My guess is that she doesn't fit cultural norms for women so people want to shame her into losing weight and putting on lipstick or whatever. We live in a sexist society and people hate women with opinions — but especially women they think are unattractive.

Oh wow, you’re right.

Reminds me of Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster); she also got a breast reduction as a young adult.

Bernie Sanders has done more for civil rights than Black Lives Matter because he showed up to a march 50 years ago and hasn’t bothered to show up since? You seem extremely ignorant wrt the civil rights movement.

I dated a guy for a few weeks because he looked like David Wain. Turns out that’s not a good reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This happened at the close of the Movement for Black Lives National Convening (a national conference of leaders in the #BlackLivesMatter movement). I don’t think it was a planned protest, there just happened to be a lot of fired-up people in one place who’d spent the weekend talking about organizing and tactics, so…

I appreciate your inclusion of mrs malaprop.

“And that’s all you need to know.”

UGGGGH

Yeah, I don’t think this is weird at all. I’m still FB friends with exes and I’d congratulate them if they got married — because they’re my friends and I’m nice. Anyone who’s threatened by a simple polite gesture like that likely has much bigger relationship probs to worry about.

Two of my neighbors have had their dogs stolen in the last few months, and flyers for a missing terrier went up all over the block a couple days ago. My dog is never out of my sight but I'm completely terrified someone will knock me down and take her (I read something like that recently, and my neighborhood is…not the…