Rather than lining retailers’ pockets on Valentine’s Day, why not just tell your partner what they mean to you more often? Ironically, the best Valentine’s week I ever spent was also the worst: I got married and jilted within the space of four days. Granted, I was only 9 years old at the time. On […]
This originally appeared on Alternet.org. Republished here with permission. Are you fighting more than having sex? When you’re in love, your heart feels like it’s windsurfing, and everything is magical and tinted whatever color is the opposite of regret (beige?). But that whole love-blindness business that helps you fall in the first place also makes […]
Loving an alpha male can make you vulnerable in a way you may not have been in a long while, says Samantha Eyler. In response to a piece last week by Kasey Edwards here on Role/Reboot about the dangers of being attracted to an alpha male, I have to admit something a bit unpleasant about […]
I’ve absorbed society’s harmful and false suggestion that “guys like that” only like a certain type, and “girls like me” aren’t it. So a few months ago, at rush hour in a downtown train station, this handsome guy starts chatting me up. He was cologne-model good looking, with weirdly perfect sandpaper stubble on a square […]
This originally appeared on Everyday Feminism. Republished here with permission. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like declaring and then explaining my sexual identity when it’s irrelevant to the conversation. I’m in love with my best friend. She’s a woman. So am I. Sometimes that information is required, but you’d be surprised […]
It may not come from the people we expected it to come from. It may not be found in the places we expected to find it. But it always comes, right when it should. Five years ago, I sat at my computer on a snowy winter evening and scrolled through the Craigslist personal ads, wondering […]
For some singles, the holidays can feel like a constant reminder of their relationship status. It’s that time of year again. Over the next couple weeks, you’ll be invited to parties or forced to socialize with people you work with. A lot of single folks feel trepidation about these gatherings. Their greatest concern? Having to […]
The “friend zone” myth reinforces that men and women can’t be friends, reeks of entitlement, and impedes the natural development of relationships. The “friend zone” is stupid, throw rocks at it. This is my perpetual gut reaction to these two words and their compound variant, whether the concept is coming from someone I know (“She […]
Stop freaking out about the dating habits of the Facebook generation, says Ashley Lauren Samsa. Teens aren’t losing the ability to communicate, they’ve just found new tools to rewrite an old story. “Do you like Josh? Circle yes or no.” I remember the first time I got a note like that one. It was written […]
This originally appeared on Everyday Feminism. Republished here with permission. No one wants to come across as “creepy,” especially not to the attractive person they’ve just approached. In the case of men who approach women, the word creepy doesn’t even need to be said. A cold shoulder, quick step, or plain old rejection from a […]
This originally appeared on The Daily Life. Republished here with permission. Dear Young Woman with the Shitty Boyfriend, Thank you for letting me share your table at Jellystone last week. We made quite a trio; a cliche of writers tapping away at their silver laptops on a corner bench while the wind whipped outside. Because […]
This originally appeared on The Frisky. Republished here with permission. I feel pretty good about my path toward a forever-partner. I dated a lot of guys, had numerous long- and longish-term relationships and a lot of premarital sex. I don’t believe that marriage is “the end” of your emotional or sexual growth as a woman, […]
