And also her frustration in having no freedoms, when she herself is telling a stranger what they can’t do.

Ever notice that the people yelling at others to speak English never have that great a grasp on it themselves?

He’s not a fetus, they don’t care.

I am not a morning person at all, but waking up early and getting my day started is what I have to do. You just deal with it and drink lots of coffee.

So...we’ve got two male writers - one who works in environmental advocacy and one who is a science writer and illustrator - commenting on the fiction writing experiences of a woman. Thanks, guys. Helpful.

“It’s random, and I’m going to write you fucking War and Peace to explain why your personal experience/research/peer-reviewed study doesn’t prove anything!”

Just because the publishing industry is heavily female, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be deeply sexist when it comes to their impressions of male versus female writing, and what will sell.

“Certainly, structural sexism exists in ______, but you’re overstating it”

Yes. I never take my car for repairs. I know they will lie to me. For some reason they do not lie to my husband even though both of us are clueless about cars.

gizmodo is such a sexist hell I can’t stand it...I read the articles but NEVER the comments

I used a girl’s name on Gizmodo and asked a bunch of dumb tech questions. I couldn’t believe what assholes people were to me. Same questions and this name? No problem at all. So I kept the name, but I resent the fact that every clever thing I say with it counts as if a man is saying it. I’d like my cleverness to…

I write under male-sounding names online, and I have mixed feelings about it. Is it easier? Fuck yes. Does it make me angry how much easier it is? Fuck yes.

not clues, CUES. as in body language, facial expression, gestures. if you can’t read those things (as in to be able to tell when someone is uncomfortable, afraid, reticent, dishonest, etc) then you definitely should not be a therapist. if you only went by what your clients actually told you in words and ignored…

Exactly. Men are only "clueless" when it benefits them.

Exactly. Compare them with women in intelligence and make it relevant to this and all of a sudden men will all be ninjas at cues, as long as they are better at it than women. But make it an issue of how aggressive and impolite and unnerving men can be in relating to women and all of a sudden they are all "clueless"…

Yes. Somehow they are also assumed to be better negotiators, CEO’s, etc. All while being too stupid to read social cues. Not buying it dudes.

It’s no consolation. Really. I assure you. This reminds of the time my neighbor was having carpet installed in her master bedroom (on the other side of my bedroom) in the middle of the night. I asked her to stop because I couldn’t sleep and I had to get up early and take a family member in for surgery. She thought I…

yeah and like, if men are soooo bad at reading social clues as they claim, then logically they shouldn’t be allowed to work jobs which rely on interpreting social clues, like oh I don’t know, police officers, therapists, etc.

But I wonder how much of that is about being socialized to be the “pursuer” AND heteronormativity.

“If it’s some sort of consolation,” Why would this offer any consolation?