and then patted me on MY FUCKING HEAD.

I’m with you on that — we need to recognize all the soft sexism because it’s the same damn problem no matter who it’s aimed at. Guys assumed to understand sports, cars, finance and expected to carry heavy things and squash spiders is just as dumb as assuming women can’t do the same.

When I’m feeling brave, that’s when I break out the wide-eyed, fluttering ingenue “Oh, thank you sir!”. The hard boiled ones never hear the sarcasm, and the borderline ones actually think about what they’re doing.

I’ve had the woman-to-woman, it makes you happy so he’ll love it because he loves you sales pitch too. Usually from an older woman trying to sell me home decor or dishes, and it probably works on some people. Leveraging doubt about a relationship to make a sale is pretty squirm inducing.

My father taught me how to handshake properly when I first started job interviews. Firm (but not tight) hand, eye contact, lean forward, smile. We practiced. I’ve gotten a lot of startled looks, but it does seem to give me a momentary upper hand with floppy handshakers (male and female). Hurrah for unconscious body…

The really fun ones are the “who does she think she’s fooling with all that makeup?” followed immediately by “she doesn’t take any pride in her appearance, how could you trust such a slob?”.

Sounds like an excellent time for “My father died six months ago in a horrible pigeon feeding accident. Oh, god. I miss him so much. Sniffle.”

Vigilante Bachelorettes would be an awesome band name. Clearly they are already an awesome group of superheroes.

I'm not sure this is any different than if she said she doesn't want to have sex with the lights off, or in the missionary position or on a crappy twin mattress in a dorm room. There is no perfect parallel of sexual acts, wherein if you want X then you must do Y to make it fair. It's not a score board.

Usually it's an issue of eye contact. Cats (and pretty much every other species) finds it intimidating and threatening. Humans like it, it makes us feel loved, so we bred dogs that manage eye contact without necessarily meaning threats. (Sustained eye contact is a threat even with dogs and humans.) Pretty straight…

Add one bill that forces doctors to lie to their patients, then they can do it more.

Is there a point when we can stop blaming clothing for person's behavior?

Someday we'll learn how to lean in and ask for what we want without complaining or being bitchy.

Romance novels get a lot of flak, but then so have most 'genre' works. I remember when horror writing was 'pulp' and 'trash' and no one in their right mind would let their child read it. Then Steven King made more money than god and people starting admitting it was okay.

I think the problem is that if you are going to satirize something you need to understand it really well. These reporters clearly do not understand the genre and are mocking from a stance of ignorance. That's not satire, that's just mocking.

My sister (and her French husband) considered moving to the US (where her side of the family is) when her post-doc work expired in the Netherlands. They picked Sweden instead. I really don't understand why anyone actually planning for children doesn't get out of the US if they can.

The best way to get someone to smile is to smile at them, people reflexively smile back (look up reflexive social smile). It's kinda creepy but very effective if you are working retail and trying to get someone to work with you.

Yes, so perfect for each other they should be able to indulge that perfection without external interference. They will achieve the greatest degree of perfection for each other in splendid isolation — like on a deserted island, or perhaps a space pod. Maybe the surface of the sun.

Not that carefully selected. I'm sure there's got to be a nutjob article that hasn't yet been discredited. He should just ask his donors to find/fund it.

I don't think the sentiment has anything to do with hoping to avoid mourning your pet. I mean, I hope I kick first so that my dog suffers the loss of our relationship rather than me? That would be a pretty awful sentiment.