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The sexual tension that wasn’t: It’s the classic set-up. Brian’s wife, Esther, is out of town. He meets a woman named Alice. They connect intellectually, in a way he and Esther don’t. Brian and Alice are thrown together on a case. Brian’s friend Gerry picks up on all this and comments, “Esther’s just left town, and he’s at it already!” And Alice brings him soup one day at work because he mentioned Esther was out of town and he can’t cook – we all know ... READ MORE

You can live on $40k, as long as you have a wife-servant: CNN interviews this dude who’s written a book called “How to Survive (and Perhaps Thrive) on a Teacher’s Salary.” I’m sure he may have some good tips for living on $39,900 a year, as he claims, but that’s not what he’s doing. The interview begins by explaining that he’s a teacher with a wife who stays home with the kids. They pitch this as if it’s a luxury his wife gets to enjoy because they’re so smart with his income. But ... READ MORE

Get that dewy skin look!: Throughout my childhood and my mother’s childhood, we were advised to use makeup or blotting papers to give our faces a matte look. Shiny skin was bad! It meant oil, and oil was gross. In recent years, your fashion overlords have decided this was incorrect. Little girls without makeup often have some moist sheen to their skin, and that’s not oily. It’s the height of the youthful, fresh look. “Oh, thank goodness,” you may have thought when you first heard this. ... READ MORE

New ways to follow Hathor: (This “About This Site” post will be removed in a few days.) Just FYI, we have set up a couple of new ways you can follow Hathor and be informed every time there’s a new article. Follow us on Twitter. We’ve set it up so there’s a tweet with the title and link every time a new article gets posted. Follow us on Facebook. We’re set up as a Networked Blog, so you can get new posts on your newsfeed while you’re checking ... READ MORE

Don’t advise pregnant women unless you’re a doctor: Several women I know are pregnant right now. This should be a joyous experience, and mostly it has been despite the physical symptoms that are no picnic, but one thing that’s causing all these women some grief is: You. You, the friend, family member or random asshole in the grocery store who feels the need to advise them on what they should eat, do, wear, be around or name their offspring. You, the person who hassles them with all the horror stories ... READ MORE

Breathe through your belly: "She may never breathe again, but thank gawd she landed a man!" As you’ve probably heard, women suffer anxiety, or at least seek treatment for it, more often than men. Anecdotally, I think it is possible women experience anxiety more. After all, there are a number of psychiatric conditions men are more prone to. I think men are frequently stressed, but stress is the condition of knowing what you need to do, and having to nearly kill yourself to get it ... READ MORE

Tattle-tales, and the double standard: This is a true story, with names changed. There was a little girl named Jill. She had a little brother named Tim and several other sisters and brothers. Jill observed time and again that if she or any of the sisters hit Tim, as kids sometimes do, and Tim told on them, Mommy punished them for hitting him. But if Tim hit them, and they told on him, Mommy punished the girls for being tattle tales. And if Tim hit the ... READ MORE

Suspending your disbelief for a movie in which only white guys are interesting: In following references to this website to see what’s being said about us, I came across Joseph Childers’ article, How the Bechdel Test could save the Oscars. Here’s an excerpt, in which he’s referring to the Bechdel test and Deggan’s Rule: Now it would seem, as a white man, I’m not personally injured by the failure of most movies to pass either of these tests. Our stories are being told, our concerns are being addressed, our grievances are being aired; all ... READ MORE

“Find Your Strongest Life” actually makes sense: I hate self-help books. Most of them boil down to vague and often victim-blaming platitudes about how everything bad that’s ever gotten in your way was your own damn fault for not thinking positively enough. Even psychiatry books, which should be a grade above self-help, often come across as condescending “mansplaining” when they try to offer solutions to women that we know from experience don’t work. But I was at Borders recently, and I came across a book called Find Your ... READ MORE

Do men belong in the corridors of power, or zoos?: Here’s a neat bit of doublethink I’ve never been able to comprehend. I live in a culture which informs me: Men are natural leaders, and therefore should run countries, corporations and households. Women in charge would just do whatever their PMSing hormones made them want to do, and Men are ruled by their hormones, can’t help themselves, so it’s the job of women to avoid provoking men into raping us, cheating on us, or hitting us. How does that work? Let’s follow the ... READ MORE