there are times when using society's ingrained misogyny to my advantage is VERY HELPFUL.

I have used this against men as well. I used to get all kinds of useful attention from the butcher's department at the grocery store just by unbuttoning another button, fluffing the hair, and blinking big blue eyes at them. Meanwhile Hubby is in the next aisle trying not to laugh too loudly.

"Uh, I'm sorry, ma'am," the youngster would say, trying to raise his eyes, "we can't cut that particular meat for you."
"Oh," I blithered, blinking at him, "are you sure?"
And cue the department manager bustling over and smiling and saying "No, no, we'll be happy to take care of that for you."

Amazing what some men will do just so a relatively attractive female with big tits will burble at him cheerfully.

I've gotten out of traffic tickets, too. Annoyed the hell out of my sister, who just took it as another reason to resent my getting the red-curly-hair/blue-eyes/big-tits genes while she got the brown-straight-hair/brown-eyes/average-tits genes.

Stuff like that sometimes worked on me when I was younger, but now I just figure the women who try that with me would never go out with me so I don't cut them any slack.

eta: I've also been accused of not being a gentleman for not letting a woman cut in line in front of me.

Hello. Skimmed like hell. Again. I'm sorry. So first, much ~ma to all Buffistas' pets and peoples.

I'm exhausted, tired, and this work's week isn't all behind me (even though it's supposed to be). But mostly for good reasons. Such as, guess who is the youngest member of a new and awesome research group of TAU and HUJI social science scholars? (I'm the only BA student among mostly PhD students. PhD students who like me very much. Or at least enough to let me rule documentation and make information management suggestions. And bringing anthropology into everything and let me bring my not-so-new-media/fan-culture-inclined academic interests into group discussions).

It's something I miss very much in uni today. Social network of peers who get excited by being uber smart, geeks and right, and help each other in many other aspects of life (I got two job offers in the first meeting).

I've never understood the concept of "enjoying" being a girl. Mostly it's annoying, when you have to deal specifically girl-related things, like bras and periods and misogynism. What's to enjoy, exactly?

It took me a while. Growing up with the androcentric liberal thought that if I'll be "good" enough (read: smart enough) they won't see I'm a girl. Pffft. It took me a while to see the thought in itself was flawed, and a wonderful line of friends to "femalize" me. But now I enjoy experimenting: buying cloths to trying makeup. Cause I can be both smart and sexy, and if other people find it intimidating, 1. good, 2. they don't deserve to be my friends.

If I only had the moneyz, I'd buy so much of Anthropologie and sockdreams.

Oh, right. And remember how I said I'll come this summer to see y'all? It won't happen for mostly financial reasons. But also for a very practical reason. You see, I'm planning to apply here, but only for the next summer (2012): [link] . And since, when seeing it, I didn't think "oh wow, this will be very tough competition and I won't stand a chance don't even try" but "My. Ass. Belongs. There"... I hope to get there (I know, I know. Long time for now, and long shot. But really. There are any hardly places on earth which will understand and appreciate my sociological and philosophical interest in computer science and software architecture. Gotta try this shot).

A friend of mine in high school (cute, petite, blue-eyed blonde) got out of a ticket by pulling out the tears and batting those baby blues, which I half-admired and half-resented, because there was no way in hell I'd be able to get away with the same thing, and also because I was never willing to stoop to the tears act.

Congrats on inclusion in the research group, Shir!

Yay, Shir!

Or you call the good old boy maintenance supervisor and use some little ol' me on him to get his and his assistants' asses into your department to fix the frelling heat. It's worth the (apparent) loss of dignity and militant feminism to accomplish needs not only for you, but for the area of your responsibility. Short term. While you work long term to eliminate the need for such games.

Ryan is a lucky little guy--but then so's his family to have him. We haven't had pictures in a while, IJS.

I wanted to be a boy when I was a kid--pre-pubertal. I didn't care about the apparatus other than it was handy for peeing outside without partial undressing, but boys got to *do* things. Boys got to run around in a gang of other boys and get into stuff--get out from under constant parental oversight, or teacher or coach oversight. Girls, nsm. Here, dust this, mend that, help me wash the venetian blinds, that woodwork needs scrubbing, and come learn how to prepare greens for cooking. No way is any of that fun. I wanted to take my sandwich and an apple, a book, a magnifying glass, a pencil and a notebook and disappear for the day. And if I'd been a boy that would have been expected of me.

Now of course, parents don't dare let children of either gender out of their sight, kids have no unstructured free time or safe places to spend it, apparently.

Um. So no, never wanted to change gender, just have the same freedom and expectations/lack of responsibilities boys seemed to have.

And yay Shir!

When I was in first or second grade, I was envious that the girls would play house during recess. Once I bribed a girl with a stick of gum so I could play... but they didn't really involve me with it.

At that point there were about five boys and 14 girls in my class, so maybe that was part of it.

I've never been able to use beauty to get people to do things for me, but I have been able to use the poor little handicapped me, you must fix 'X' now.