Unappreciated by whom, Joanna? By you and the rest of the media? Because unlike you elitists, honest, hardworking Americans have been appreciating the hell out of that table for years.

Yeah I’ve never really experienced that either.

I thought by now (47) I would be there. I so admire the people who can live their lives without giving a fuck what other people think. I guess I’ll re-read Shrill again.

I was behind a car the other day with a bumper sticker that said something like “Fat chicks welcome, they’re grateful” of something like that. I really wanted to rear end the dude. Or at least follow him to where he was going and shame the shit out of him. But common sense prevailed and I went to work instead.

You sound awfully dogmatic. I’m not so sure what is “absolutely true.” I suspect a lot of your opinion is bogus and aesthetic judgement rather than health evidence.

Give yourself 20 years. Then you can be healthy and fit and invisible. Hitting 50 in a couple of months and feel and look great. But still invisible. It feels really, really good.

Same age as you. I went through a brief period of sadness over losing the automatic attention given to younger women. Then, I noticed that I was not invisible to all people, only to those who use others to fulfill selfish needs. I was invisible to men with poor self-esteen, men who only wanted to get laid, women who…

I never started because I am just too damn lazy.

Well I’m old too. So I’m in a whole other category.

I’m older and fat! The double whammy!

(Most) men are so easily offended by the mere sight of a pad or tampon, it’s ridiculous. Where else should you have put them? In you purse? They only like to acknowledge vaginas when it’s convenient for them, so when they’re horny. But I can understand your reaction, I used to be like that until a couple of years ago…

Couple years ago I was at an oyster shucking competition in Boston he was hanging around at (pretty sure he’s involved in the oyster business somehow) - the quarters were tight and I’d occasionally have to squeeze by him in those ridiculous tightey-whiteys and it was just so ewww

If he’s not mature enough to handle his roommate talking about his sex life, then he’s not mature enough for sex.

Go you. I shaved my head last summer and everyone kept trying to philanthropize it: “Oh, did you do St. Baldrick’s? Or donate it to charity?” “No,I just wanted it gone so I could stop wasting time preening myself.” As if a woman’s appearance/shaved head has to be an act of generosity or sacrifice.

And Michael, too. My college boyfriend reprimanded me for putting pantyliner wrappers in the garbage in his bathroom because his roommate would tease him for it. I was so humiliated. I didn’t occur to me then to be pissed at him and his stupid roommate. I feel sad for my younger self, and I’ll never stop being pissed…

Can we start with The Donald and his friends? That’d be great.

You just don’t do that to a guy. Ever.

Vanity keeps me from throwing away my makeup and sanity keeps me from, as I often feel the repugnant urge, breaking the mirror with the surface of my own face and leaving us both cracked open. But I also can’t deny my current impulse to become as ugly and unlikeable as I can, merely to serve as constant reminder of…

Fuck Tom and all the Toms of the world.

“And if not bangable, who is the Naked Cowboy? ”