Oh snap. I think you might be on to something there. The deceased Duggar fetus isn't technically a child, eh, Jimmy B.?

Your insistent denial of the ineffectiveness of dieting for most people...? I only ever encounter that attitude in dieting enthusiasts. And you seemed so attached to the idea that thinness is a respectable, feasible goal for most women. Sorry if I misunderstood.

Look, I get that a vast number of women are heavily invested in the thin mythos, but it's a culturally-imposed, self-maintaining delusion that keeps us distracted from the real issues of the day, keeps us in a state of perpetual anxiety about our appearance, lowers our self-worth, and impacts our relationships with…

When did I say, "IHateGoats has an eating disorder"? If you don't, fine, I wasn't talking about you ("significant proportion" =/= every defensive commenter).

Nope. Culture is a proven factor in the development of eating disorders, and the preponderance of imagery celebrating thin women as the ideal to strive for (even if not reached) is absolutely toxic. It's a mind fuck, like it or not, and I'm sorry that you have so little regard for the self-esteem and well-being of…

"99%" was something I threw out there, not as a statistical fact, but more of a "most women would be thin if it were only a matter of commitment" kind of deal. And, yes, it is unattainable for most women, or we wouldn't have studies demonstrating that dieters are unsuccessful at keeping the weight off 95% of the…

Maybe you don't have an ED, but a lot of the weight-obsessed/pro-skinny comments I see on Jez every single time a weight-related article is posted ring alarm bells for me. All of them sadden me and some of them outright scare me. I wish women would wake up to how oppressive and self-destructive this type of thinking…

Dark hair, dark heart. >:-)

I'm going to speculate that a significant proportion of the Maria defenders and people starring their comments have at least a mild ED but don't consider themselves sick because they look healthy. Obvs I don't actually know what's going on in their heads, but what I do know is what was going through my head, and the…

You said, "If you WANT that look, there are no excuses." You were the one who implied that willpower alone was sufficient for obtaining Maria's physique. I was using sarcasm to point out the ignorance and insensitivity in that statement.

You seem to have missed the part where I explicitly stated that I LOOKED LIKE A FITNESS MODEL, I had an athletic, healthy-looking physique, I exercised at least four hours a day, and I WAS STARVING MYSELF. I am one of countless women who will never, ever get down to Maria's weight, who will never, ever have a body…

Most missed the point entirely, if you WANT that look, there are no excuses.

Aw, no Torchwood love? My vote is for Gwen Cooper.

Another way to look at it: privileged young rapists grow up to crash the world economy or otherwise play a supporting role in the advancement of the plutocratic empire. Devoid of conscience, self-aggrandizing, sadistic, smart, connected, ambitious... Explain to me why we're supposed to feel bad that the (TV) world…

You're missing the flashing neon distinction: Zoe's intention was murder-as-revenge, and she killed him in the least conspicuous way possible. If you think for a second that she was power-tripping, or that she wasn't thoroughly disgusted by the method she was forced to employ to exact her revenge, you've clearly…

Let's put it this way. If Madison were a young man who'd murdered his director in a fit of rage, then later in the show became a victim of a violent gang rape, we'd still be giving Zoe a pass for the murder-rape of his (male Madison's) rapist. We'd still be empathizing with (male) Madison and Zoe.

"Madison deserved to be raped" isn't going to get you any friends since rape is premeditated psychological/physical torture and murder...as cold as this may sound, sometimes happens spontaneously as a byproduct of out-of-control emotion. And it's already been established that Madison isn't even remotely an…

Same. I thought the CR staff put too much effort into making it a hokey-jokey affair and would've done better going for straight-up sentimentality. It would have been nice to see the Colbert persona momentarily shelved, it would have been more real.

Well, it all depends on where you grow up. The lower your family falls on the socioeconomic scale, the more aggressive girls are, the less distinction there is between girls'/boys' behavior. (Excepting the "gangster", macho, anti-intellectual mentality among boys that's a byproduct of masculinism.) I grew up fairly…

Fists don't have to be involved if teachers and administrators have a comprehensive plan for handling instances of bullying. Ah, but maybe you're worried that a boy who "tattles" to the teacher instead of duking it out will be labeled a sissy. Well, that's a cultural problem, and the only way to alter…