Relatively to my observations about "Christian" hospitals, I don't care if there are alleged Christians who agree with this ruling. I'm sure there are and I admire them for it, but that has nothing to do with my questioning alleged belief and actual action. When I believed, I posed the same questions. Finding no rationale and seeing so many run to docs rather than be whooshed to Jesus's lap, I concluded that I'm surrounded by nonbelievers. The only difference between them and me is that I'm frank: I admit to not believing.

Say, if you prick me, do I not bleed?

Nah. I'm female.

When you prick me, I laugh.

Thanks. I've done my best to live a social justice life.

@ kufir77: Sorry, but I can't talk to you. No feeding the trolls, you know.

And I knew you knew. ;-)

"Passive aggression, the last refuge of the powerless. I feel sad for these women whose actions make them look like caricatures and their exes look like they were lucky to escape."

What will these women have for their epitaphs? Perhaps:

My history: histrionics.

I second that "Amen!"

Ms. Clark-Flory wrote, "But when I wrote a personal essay for Salon about my experience with casual sex, some readers suggested that I was exploiting myself or being exploited by my editors, and that could not be further from the reality of my experience writing and publishing the piece."

Man, Ms. Clark-Flory, it must be nice to be impervious to your readers' suggestions. That must make for a tidy mind. Sparkling!

So, you think it's happenstance that pretty, young Ms. Clark-Flory did the public crotch confession?

Hmmm.

Well, if that's so, then we expect a crotchly update in 50 years, right?

Right?

And fellas, Ms. Hepola is wanting you to submit tales of your crotches! Just be honest. And incisive. And it might help to be hot. And young. And end your tale with happily ever after and just never you mind that such a conclusion at twenty-something is anything other than incisive.

Watch a female talking head and note how much more affect plays across her face. You'll see the same phenomenon in your female friends, saleswomen, and female service workers. Women are expected to emote! You know!

My concern is less with Ms. Clark-Flory than with the two systems that chose one of the younger women and perhaps the youngest woman at Salon for its sexual confessional essay. There is Salon as a system and there is our culture as a system. Both selected Ms. Clark-Flory, whatever Ms. Hepola might counter-assert. Now, I'm not suggesting that Ms. Hepola is disingenuous. There was likely no meeting where Ms. Clark-Flory was selected as the freshest fish. However, there were forces at play, such as capitalism (Salon expands its readership more with Ms. Clark-Flory's tell all than Ms. Walsh's.) and ageism (Again, Salon expands its readership more with Ms. Clark-Flory's tell all than Ms. Walsh's.) that make Ms. Clark-Flory much more than the random choice. I am suggesting that Ms. Hepola and Ms. Clark-Flory are carried by cultural currents and that both would benefit from assuming so, rather than believing that their intellect or being hip Salon writers makes them immune to the very things that they consider in Broadsheet. There are no chance happenings in systems. It is no chance happening that Salon's comely Ms. Clark-Flory confessed.

As far as courage, you're evaluating her moxie through your lens. Remember that Ms. Clark-Flory is a member of the tell-all generation. Salon has noted this in at least one article. In telling all, she is conforming. Conforming doesn't usually require courage. For a 60-something to tell all, having been marinated differently, that would take courage.

I like your posts.

Some believe that when you tell a story, the individuals hearing that story project into the story's characters to decode the story. The result is that the group hearing the story, with all that projecting taking place, will act out their version of the story. Thus, in this story, "Like a woman scorned," a psycho woman will appear and take a pickax to the hood of some guy's vehicle. Sorry, Mr. Smurf, about your hood.

Are you aware of the images chosen in Ms. Marcotte's book? If not, they're racist images in a progressive book. The first image is right on the cover. The blundering seems hard to miss, but it was missed by Ms. Marcotte and other progressives, pre-publication.

I think a similar blundering takes place at Broadsheet. If you were to classify a typical day of Broadsheet articles/essays, it would look like this:

porn

tits

prostitution

underwear

gays/trans

I know that the Broadsheet women are supposed to be ironic and counter-cultural, but in its choice of subjects, it mostly matches Maxim.

Like Maxim, Broadsheet wants readers.

"The impression I got from the "confessional" article was that this was something she felt strongly about and wanted to write about, so took the opportunity."

Maybe, but I doubt we'll see Ms. Walsh write something similar and I still think there's more at play than Ms. Clark-Flory feeling strongly about sex.

...making way for the new way.

I applaud that.

Now, so that the trolls won't have to soil this thread with their shitty sentiments, I'll just post what they typically post, thus obviating their need to poop-post: "I'd like to take a flamerthrower to the faces of those queers!"

"1) Writer proposes piece, 2) Prospective audience is receptive."

Yep, that's the way it works, which is why on topic basis, Broadstreet mimics Maxim, for they pander to similar desires, however base. Now, it might seem like I have no sympathy for such editorial decisions or such writing, but I do.

I do.

I'd just like a little more frankness and not the crotch confessional sort of frankness, but ideological honesty. I know that Salon has to make some money and hookers get hits. Just admit that they're not composing on lily-white screens. Those screens are green.