and she badgered me into taking the bus into Manhattan and poking around and doing stuff instead of sitting in Newark.

I guess I should note that poking around in Manhattan involved wandering around Port Authority and having my only instance of being solicited by a prostitute on the street.

Emma Watson bailed on Brown; rumor was that she couldn't stick the workload.

Last day in Madrid, woe! Last night we got a great tour of divey tapas bars and today we shop in the hip neighborhood and go to the Reina Sofia.

A propos of the feminism talk upthread, last night i actually heard a 23-year old announce "I'm not a feminist, but..."

I did not leap across the table and hit her with a copy of Title IX of the 1964Civil Rights Act. I consider that a moral victory.

Skipping (while tossing graded exams everywhere, because, you know, jumping around while holding piles of papers never ends in an orderly fashion) because, according to the Buffista Calendar, today is one of these lovely doubly Buffista events, with two birthdays: Raq's as well as Kathy Astrom's.

Happy birthday, Kathy! With lots of wishes for a great day and a wonderful year!

Happy birthday, Raq! With lots of wishes for Mal's birthday from 3 days ago (and apologies for missing the opportunity to post on this on time).

Happy birthday, Kathy and Raq!

Happy birthday, Raq! Happy birthday, Kathy!

Happy Birthday Raq! Happy Birthday Kathy!

I am so fucking wound up. Coming into the office today makes me want to cry again! And all I came into was all of the stuff I've been waiting for all week! Christ. I think tonight will be the better part of a bottle of wine, and tomorrow I'll only leave the house if I'm seeing the Hunger Games.

A propos of the feminism talk upthread, last night i actually heard a 23-year old announce "I'm not a feminist, but..."

I know I said that sort of thing when I was 23. Mostly it came from a high school environment where the administration of my all-girls school assumed that the best way to create strong young women who would be the world's future leaders was to pretend like feminism had already won, and therefore it wasn't worth educating us about it. The more I think back on that school the more I resent my choice (ha) to go there. Academically it was excellent, in almost every other way it was a total disaster.

Which sort of brings me to my main issue with so-called "choice feminism" - it's an ideal, not a reality. We live in a world where almost all choices are rewarded (or punished) differently based on gender, race, class, etc. A stay-at-home-mom has made different choices than a stay-at-home-dad. A woman in a three piece suit has made different choices than a man in the same outfit. It's disingenuous to assume that we like the things we like outside of any influence from the social consequences of our choices. The ability to not give a fuck about what people think is also a privilege.

tl;dr: What Flea Said.

The ability to not give a fuck about what people think is also a privilege.

hmm... I don't know. I'd also say it's a choice. I'm not super invested in what people say about me one way or another and it's not an issue of privilege. It's an issue of blind ignorance and not even really thinking about it. I mean, I should probably give a fuck about what people think, but then I forget to and I do what I do.

Jessica - did you post the link to the personhood for women petition? I can't remember where and I can't find the link now.

msbelle, I'm so sorry.

happy birthday Raq! (insent)