@KATE!: I didn't even start calling myself a feminist until I left the magic Smith bubble for the misogynistic, right-wing hotbed of...New York City. Seriously, EVERYWHERE is stuffy and oppressive after Noho.

@Charlotte Beer: But seriously? People can actually SEE your legs, so it makes sense that you'd be self-conscious. Who benefits from a 10-year-old's wax job?

This makes me crabby, not because she's Sarah Palin, and ridiculous, and bad for our national discourse, but because: where are my ghost-writing riches? I know my way around an exclamation point! (<—-see?)

I think what's most interesting about the "Femm-Inism" piece is that the author doesn't make any mention of feeling beautiful upon sneaking the makeup—in fact she takes pains to point out how silly she probably looked. The function of the eyeliner is to make her feel adult, powerful, in a world that systematically…

"Taken away" by whom? Teachers are definitely not allowed to drive students off usually-closed-campus middle schools. The Planned Parenthood boogeymen child-stealers?

You know, when I'm viewing a sexy someone, it NEVER occurs to me to speculate on their biological sex. If that's such a consuming worry it's horning in on your strip club time, maybe there's some sort of personal insecurity at work? And not, you know, fodder for gross ad campaigns?

BRAIN EXPLOSION. This is why education policy drives me absolutely up the wall, and then punches me in the head: Because people willfully vote for crap that does. Not. Work. Because they want a million pregnant 13-year-olds whom they can prevent from having abortions, who will subsequently require enormous amounts of…

GUH. I don't understand why his "genius" needs to be protected from the consequences of his CRIMES. His work will remain, even if the man himself is in prison. Nobody's going to round up every copy of "Rosemary's Baby" in existence and throw a bonfire. So what's the deal?

Would SHE be the one who KNOWS where her vagina is? So wouldn't she be the least confused member of the party?

Okay, so what will they protest once abortions, emergency contraception, and condoms are illegal? I predict they'll move on to married couples who are engaging in any behavior, from anal to complete celibacy, that DOESN'T result in babies. Because every time a man fails to fertilize his wife's egg, it's abortion,…

@Tredwina: mrteenwordpower and I have the same deal, and I have over 92,000 indirect sexual partners! Apparently Lloyd's knows something I don't. "Honey, have you been sleeping with other people? Enough to populate a small state?"

Does it really matter if they know "for sure"? Shouldn't we respect other people's self-definitions (even if we don't really *believe* them) AND the fact that they may change? Even if a girl's ultimate long-term relationships ('cause these are the "valid" ones?) are with men, that hardly means an interest in women…

Honestly, parallel parking probably IS a "masculine strength"—one of the few consistent, significant differences between male and female cognitive abilities is mental rotation accuracy. Though this is probably due less to some sort of secret male genius and more to the greater (on average) time they spend moving and…

@ihateyourescalade: in high school, I didn't have money, but I DID have hair. And in the meantime (between now and a cancer-cure), there are still lots of sad, bald babies.

You know, I would really resent it if the government shoved "parenting my children" down my throat, too. As my father always said when asked why I had to do chores, "why do you think I had kids?"

Sometimes "advice on her essays" is JUST "advice on her essays". Which seemed to be how my many many male professors interpreted it. My senior thesis advisor was a married man, and we spent hours alone in his office...discussing my paper. And the Bush administration. Spicy, no?

Can we talk for a minute about how god-awful this poster is? Megan Fox, if nothing else (and, having seen "Transformers" but not yet "Jennifer's Body", I don't feel qualified to make a call on whether there's anything else), is one pretty lady (though I like Amanda Seyfried better), and this photoshop disaster renders…

I love this. I like that these women are clearly having fun together, and the message communicates that their behavior IS NOT FOR YOU, MALE VIEWER. This is not "girls gone wild", this is "ladies enjoying each others' company".

@HeatherNumber1: Seconded. I might also add that I do occasionally wear particular outfits to get attention—from MY DATE. My clothing is not ever an invitation for strangers to address me.

@redqueenmeg: Maybe you're a robot. You shouldn't be so damn full of yourself; all that steel is probably REALLY heavy.