This is very timely for me. I've been trying to convey to my partner for a long time why I'm occasionally so insecure about my appearance, and he sort of gets it but doesn't get it, as the saying goes. I don't know if it's really possible to convey to someone who hasn't experienced it how it feels to go around feeling…

It's a good trick, isn't it? They've got us coming and going...

I assume it's just a very visceral reaction. I have short hair, but I definitely feel unreasonably distraught for a bit when it gets cut "too short," though I doubt anyone else would see the difference. Even if you realize intellectually that the sexy woman= long hair thing is bullshit, it can operate on a…

I dunno man. I *did* own the perfect pair of jeans, and life was pretty sweet. Then they stopped making them. I'm not saying they made everything better, but it was pretty damn nice not having to worry about saggy knees, or accidentally showing the world my underwear when I sat down.

One of my bosses likened her staff to prostitutes during her Christmas speech.

Yep, and to make the big bucks you really have to diversify a lot beyond being just a regular model. Bundchen and Kate Moss are two examples of models who have used their success to craft a personal brand- Moss sells perfume and clothes at Topshop, and Bunchen has her own lingerie brand and has partnered with numerous…

I prefer the sentiment of "It's not just about you," because I think attracting men/one certain man is only one out of a panoply of reasons why women nowadays wear make-up. I do think that most of those reasons have their root in the make=better treatment by society at large dynamic, which sucks. But if it's possible…

Fuck I love cheese.

God, I am SUCH a Beta person. I've never been ambitious, beyond wanting a job that I'm good at and which allows me to live decently, and having good friends and being healthy. I mean, all that is difficult enough to manage these days, isn't it?

I'm with you. I remember when the average heel height was a respectable 3", and all this was fields. But seriously, I think super-high heels are starting to look a bit dated. I mean, lets by no means go to kitten heels (which I just find hugely unflattering), but a day-heel height should aim for classic in my mind.

That linked photo is amazing. It's like a visual metaphor for my entire late teens/early twenties. And my reaction now is the same as it was then: Nope. No. Not doing it. Do not want.

See, I've always really liked that about locker rooms. They're a great equalizer. My normal progression is something like this: feel self-conscious for the first minute, realize everyone's more interested in untangling their swimming goggles than scoring my thighs out of ten, start eavesdropping on the very loud…

Oh yeah, my initial reaction to the "the rabbit is..." anecdote was that she was trying to think of a nice-ish way to finish the sentence without saying "...stinking your house out."

Yeah, one of my students really took against me last semester, to the extent that she refused to hand me her final exam paper and gave it to another teaching assistant instead. Still don't really know why. I was bothered about it at first, but I figured I teach about 120 people a year- chances are some of them just…

Yeah, one of my students really took against me last semester, to the extent that she refused to hand me her final exam paper and gave it to another teaching assistant instead. Still don't really know why. I was bothered about it at first, but I figured I teach about 120 people a year- chances are some of them just…

Conversely, at my old workplace the front-of-house staff was overwhelmingly female. Not just female, but white and almost always under 30. The owner pretty much told us that she would only hire "a certain kind of girl" as a waitress- if you were a cute-looking guy under 30 you might be hired as a barista or as a…

Exactly my thought. Good grief, I teach Woolf to 19 year-olds every semester, and I am a reasonable teacher at best.

Honestly, if he thinks Virginia Woolf is "too sophisticated" for a third-year class he's probably not a very good teacher.

Oh yeah. Those sandwiches mostly taste of fear-tears right now.

I agree that she needs to be punished, but I disagree that shaming a woman for her sexuality is appropriate, no matter what her age. The problem is not her sexuality, and her mother is wrong to focus on it. The problem is that she disobeyed her mother and put herself in a risky situation. You can reprimand her for…