This is exactly what I was thinking. I have never lived in Egypt but spent some time in and around Cairo a couple of years ago. I realize that Cairo might be different from the rest of Egypt, but I don't remember seeing even a single woman in a veil. Headscarfs yes, but no veils. This is not just Jezebel, I saw almost…

In large parts of the world (most of Asia, Africa, Southern and Eastern Europe) it is not only common, but expected that children will live with their parents (and grown up siblings) unless there is some reason not to...usually because of a job somewhere else or to live with a spouse. I don't think the rest of the…

Wow, that is hard-hitting (sorry for the unintended pun). I always found her insufferable but you might have changed my mind a little. I still think she is over-rated but now I respect her as a person.

You are totally doing the right thing. I have been in a similar situation (sort of) and know exactly how it feels. In my case, my friend wasn't married but I knew we would never end up together because of his hangups about our differences in race, religion etc. He never really made any advances but we would often end…

Brandeis might be good to its employees but no such benefit is given to its graduate students and post docs. I know for sure that post docs (and also graduate students) are completely at the mercy of their bosses because they are not technically considered employees. Forget paid paternity leave, they don't even get…

I have a Paragard copper IUD for almost six months now and I have no complaints. I suggest you take a look at the IUD divas forum on livejournal. You will find plenty of posts about everybody's experience with the IUD.

I was the one who gave you the whole explanation on body snarking and its history on Jezebel. I understand what you meant and I thought it was body snarking (though admittedly of a mostly harmless form) only because of reading Jezebel for a few years now. Hope I didn't make you feel bad, usually I agree with most of…

I thought of your earlier comment when I read the caveman description of Kris Humphries. I was one of the people who said that your comment was body snarking (though I did not mark it with the body snark hashtag). Though to be fair, your comment was much more explicitly making fun of his looks while the phrase "played…

Elizabeth Warren makes me wish I was a US citizen so that I could vote for her. Maybe I should start the naturalization process now in case she runs for President. I really hope she does.

My family is from North India. This system of naming is pretty common in the state I come from though other parts of India have their own conventions and not all of them follow the given name, family name system of American names.

Some relevant but unrelated thoughts on the topic:

I know that languages change but it is annoying when people use that excuse to justify their ignorance. I recently used the word "awesome" to describe someone and then was corrected by people because according to them the person being described was not exactly awesome, he was a scary and made them nervous. What made…

I am scared that soon we will have people saying that the meaning of "peruse" has changed because languages evolve and all that usual logic that is given to justify the misuse of words like "literally" or "ironically".

Bodysnarking refers to making snide and rude comments about somebody's body. On Jezebel, people are very sensitive about this because of the intense criticism that women (both celebrities and non celebrities) have to endure based on something as superficial as their appearance. This is a bigger issue for women than…

What about a black person from say France or UK? Also, somebody from Nigeria does not technically fall under African American because even though they are African, they are not American. In that case, it is a lot more insulting to call them African American and deny their ties to whatever country they belong to.

Last night, I had the tv on with this episode running while working on a presentation for today. As soon as I saw Russell, I had such a strong reaction that I almost hit my boyfriend while trying to get to the remote quickly.

Yes, but condoms are not the most effective protection available. Even with perfect use 2% women who only use condoms get pregnant every year. For typical use, the numbers are 15% women getting pregnant every year. For the pill or IUDs, those numbers are closer to 0.5%. Besides, for people in a long term relationship,…

I am perfectly fine with borrowing from another culture as long as you are being respectful about it. If you really want to wear a saree, do some research, find a famous Indian woman (politician, movie star, businesswoman) and go as her or just say that you wore a saree because it looks pretty. It pisses me off when…

Like Seoul Sister, I am also curious. I have read multiple scientific papers about co-morbidities with obesity and wonder if this is just a case of me internalizing institutionalized sizeism (for lack of a better term). For example, here are papers showing significant co-morbidity of diabetes, heart risks etc with…

I know exactly what you mean by it not being offensive but rather annoying and disheartening. I know someone who went as a personification of "Karma is a bitch" a few years ago. As a Hindu (maybe not in the religious sense but definitely in the cultural sense), I find that term itself very annoying. She was basically…