Timesaver on a daily basis, absolutely. I would only need to re-trim it every 2-3 weeks, for a few bucks at my salon (though one could also see if a barber would do it). I wasn’t flat-razoring it bald, I was maintaining it with clippers. I could have also have done it myself, but I don’t have the range of motion to…

We need to fight on all fronts, agreed. Stigmatizing one service in an attempt to save others is not the way to do it.

This is what happens when the government funds anti-abortion facilities that blatantly disguise themselves as health centers. There are more of these “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” in the U.S. than abortion providers, and states in the Midwest and South are saturated with them. (Check out this mini documentary from Vice…

Please tell me where this mecca of childfree friends is. We recently relocated for work and everything is child-centric here. I’ve made some friends at work, but it’s more of a lunch during the workday kind of friendship. We hosted a holiday party and said “kids welcome” so the parents could come and not feel weird,…

Wow, she’s really leaning in, isn’t she?

That pisses me off like nothing else. Whenever I visit my sister (2 kids), her husband always acts like he’s doing us a favor by “watching” them when we spend time together. And usually that time is running errands that she would have to do anyway, but just the two of us so we can catch up. We only see each other…

I’m glad that we are now in an era where we can at least say out loud that we don’t have nor want kids and not be completely shunned. There is still the systematic (if unintentional) exclusion from certain activities. All of my close GFs from growing up have kids and they stopped inviting me to the 1st birthday…

Yep! I just went for a 40-minute swim at the Y. Figured it would be crazy with people considering the school cancellation, but perhaps everyone is home catching up on laundry while their kids destroy the playroom?

I spent 5 days around Xmas with my sister and her two kids, 5 and 7. I said aloud on day 2, “I’m realizing just how quiet my daily life is.” The TV was blasting to hear the movie above the kids screaming in the other room, the kids seemed to scream louder so we could be sure to hear them above the TV, every 13 seconds…

Lucky for me, people with kids get the credit for this one. The heat failed (and we are at -20 with windchill) at the local grade school where many of my colleagues’ kids go. So since 60%+ of my my employers’ staff have to either stay home with the kids or bring them to work. My boss is legit and is like “well if…

Yep, it’s 9 a.m. and I’m just getting around to putting on pants, considering the gym, but really this hot coffee in my silent loft apartment is quite nice. They made today a work-from-home day at work due to the sub-zero temps. Maybe I’ll finish my book since I have two more in the queue, but I should tidy up and get…

A reminder that small, independent clinics are the hardest hit by political attacks. Independent clinics provide the most abortions in the U.S., not Planned Parenthood. PP is a great resource, but the indie clinics need our help. The Abortion Care Network is the only network of these indie clinics, and they provide…

I am so sorry you are going through all of that, and at 17. My lord. I am 32, 15 years out of 17, and I can tell you that: It will be hell to keep her at a distance, but it is necessary for you. You did not ask to be born to this woman or into her shit, you do not owe her anything. She cannot be a “mother” to you…

I’m so sorry you have to live that family dynamic daily. My home life was fucked up, and I went one state over for college to “get away” while not seeming too far away to them (even though I paid for college myself, but whatever, that was my 17-year old rationalization). The summer after freshman year I moved back in…

That really sucks. I’m sorry you had that experience :(

I noticed invisibility when people thought I was a dude with my short hair. I could just move through the world with nobody hassling or bothering me. Did you find any freedom in the invisibility, or was it more like friends ditched you because they weren’t basking in your hair glory anymore?

Women’s hair is treated with such deliberate (and may I argue, insidious) attention that one can feel at a complete loss with how to be an appropriate haver of women’s hair. You and I have a lot in common — I too was bullied, because my hair was very thick and frizzy and childhood occurred before the days of straight…

That wasn’t my experience. I was 31 when I shaved it off, and after the philanthropic questions people would get very solemn like “oh no...is it...cancer?” I found it was a very difficult line to walk, because there are plenty of women who WANT their hair and have to deal with it falling out due to illness or…

Oddly, I actually felt more feminine when I did it. All you can see is face, nothing to hide behind. My confidence was at an all-time high.

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.