Oh!!!! This is a revelation. I just relayed this conversation to a handy American, and he has revealed to me that a "costume party" to him is what a "fancy dress party" is to me. (Fancy dress is ALWAYS evening wear here, as far as I know.)

I can't figure out why fancy dress parties wouldn't attract kids — I would've thought they'd be *more* kid friendly; am I being crazy? (I don't see grown ups in costumes anywhere near as much as kids, at least in my social circle… although it seems as though my parents went to a million fancy dress parties in their…

Do people criticise women for having a bloke help carry something that'd obviously impossible to carry alone? YES! It seemed odd then and still seems odd now. I had something that was totally impossible for me to carry — it was about my height and probably weighed more than me, too — and every time I had to lug it…

I find all that very interesting and definitely like to think about it and discuss it — but what I'm talking about is strangers walking up to me and saying "Why do you put that make up on; it's pathetic" and screaming across a crowded room "Stop asking men for help carrying things!" when I literally couldn't carry…

Yes, I just realised why Jezebel hasn't sucked today!

I know it's REALLY annoying (at least, it was to me!) to hear all the "21 is sooooo young" stuff, but I remember thinking I was a loser for never having had a boyfriend at 16… and 17… and so on until 21… and then at 22… etc. I later started dating a friend (not someone I was expecting to date) and he was my boyfriend…

Not on the street, but at events and on the internet. It was bizarre. I was so disappointed, because I thought myself a feminist before that, but then when I actually got out into the world a bit I immediately had self-declared feminists telling me and other people that we were doing tons of things wrong.

I was going off the title, too, and thinking "nothing would ever convince me to do a marathon, not even doughnuts!!!!!" …but then I noticed that the story was actually about a 5k, and started to think "nothing would ever convince me to do even a 5k" when I realised that was untrue, and I would totally do a 5k if there…

My main concern with this story was that there were eight year olds running a marathon. Then I read it again and now my main concern is that no one is subbing these posts.

I don't think I'd run a marathon for doughnuts (or probably FOR ANYTHING), but I would totally run a 5k for doughnuts. I haven't had a doughnut for MONTHS.

Thank you. This confused me so much. I was worried for the little eight year old!

I totally agree with the bulk of what you said, definitely — the only thing is that perhaps I didn't express properly that though I absolutely know that we don't need anyone, when I was younger I think I felt that really, really, really liking someone was truly tantamount to needing someone (I probably heard too many…

PS — I didn't add anywhere that I actually thought myself a feminist before I met any feminists (that I knew of) so the whole thing was complicated by that. I thought a lot about it and decided I was a feminist almost in a vacuum — and then when I grew up a bit and got out into the "real world" (ie, started to escape…

The same sort of misinformation made me feel very anti-feminist as a girl. It took a long while to change that.

I don't know… I know that my family doesn't need me, literally, but I like the idea that I'm really, really, really, really, really important to them. If I'd been young and heard people saying that no one needs girls, I think I'd have felt similarly to Cew-smoke. (I think kids and young people, me included, often have…

I'm totally all right with yelling! They just kept yelling at my friends and me and other people I liked (and not in a "they're yelling at me and deep down I know they're right" way, which I totally get, just a "they're yelling at me because I have green eyeshadow?! They're yelling at my friend because he's helping me…

This is the first time I've ever heard of one!

YES. My first interactions with feminists (that I knew of) left me feeling VERY certain that I would never be one. (When I grew up more and looked back on it, I suspected I'd probably known quite a few feminists before then but not realised it because no one ever mentioned the word specifically.)

If my only exposure to humans as a young girl was people whom I really didn't like, I would've tried to!

You're totally right. The first several people I met who talked about being feminists were all people I didn't like — I was very young and didn't think much about it beyond "I don't like them, I don't want to be like them… therefore if they're feminists, I don't want to be a feminist".