In Which I Am RADICALLY Skeeved Out...

Gentle readers, sometimes an experience comes along that’s just so WRONG and FUCKED UP that I have to share it with y’all. I just conveyed it to the Harpies, and they were unanimously shocked, appalled and dismayed, so now it’s your turn. Here’s the thing: I have an ad on a popular...

Too Much of a Good Thing…...

DO NOT WANT. Via bb_matt @ Flickr. Gentle readers, I’ve been meaning to bring this up for some time now, but wanted to find the right way to say it.  I know there are those of you who will disagree with me, and that’s fine. But I’m going to get it off my chest nonetheless. I prefer smaller penises. ...

I Am Not Mary Poppins: An Overshare...

The author in 2007 with one of her young charges (her nephew). I have always been maternal. It started with the cats. But they didn’t appreciate being carried by a hyperactive four-year-old, so I shifted my focus to my little sister. She didn’t really appreciate my attention either and...

Airbrushed Into Oblivion: A Rant/Oversha...

A completely un-airbrushed hospital bracelet. photo via sarah.of.a.lesser.god On Tuesday, I learned that French Elle is running an issue with multiple photographs of famous women (Monica Bellucci, Eva Herzigova) without any makeup or airbrushing. Over the next few days, I read several articles about...

Harpy Periodical: Cycle Three...

So true! Via smokeandmirrors @ Flickr. In which sarah.of.a.lesser.god and I discuss our special womantime and sharing it–or not–with our significant others. Sex and the menstruating woman!  A “hell yes!”  Or a “hell no!” ?  Or just a big “meh?”  We’ve...

His Other Woman, My Other Mother: An Ove...

Stepmother =/= Wicked. via cepatri55 @ flickr I was five years old when I realized everything was going wrong. I don’t remember the words that were hurled from Mom to Dad and back again, but I remember being scared and burying my nose in a book called Henrietta Operator. It was about a platypus...

HPV & Me: An Overshare...

Via TBDNYC @ Flickr. When I was 29, I found out I had HPV. My Pap smear tested abnormal and a follow-up test revealed the cause: the human papilloma virus. I’m hardly the first to get the news; at least 50% of sexually active people will get HPV at some point during their lives. It’s nearly always...

The Joy of (Consequence-Free) Sex...

It's a BCP cake! Nom nom nom. Via browntown @ Flickr. Welcome to Harpy Seminar, a regular feature we plan to have at regular intervals, unless we get too busy to have it at regular intervals, in which case it shall appear whenever we have time and inclination for it. Each Seminar begins with a question,...

Harpy Periodical...

Via SecretLentil @ flickr. Sarah.of.a.lesser.god and I want to give a special shout-out to Rachel Kauder Nalebuff and her recently published anthology My Little Red Book, a collection of personal testimonials by writerly ladies–including Gloria Steinem, Erica Jong, Megan McCafferty and Jill Bialosky–about...

The Matchmaker: An Overshare...

Via TJBNYC76 @ Flickr. I was in the mood for love.  A year after the breakup from hell, with a few obliging rebound men in the rearview mirror, I decided I needed a new boyfriend.  And I wasn’t the type who liked to sit around and wait for them to come to me. I launched myself back into the dating...

Faces Not Even a Mother Could Love?...

Mother and daughter, via Pomegranates @ Flickr. When I was nine or ten, I brought my class picture home to my mother and asked, “Who do you think is the prettiest?” “You!” she replied. “I think Maura’s the prettiest. She’s prettier than me.” Mom would...

On (Not) Becoming a Stepmom: An Overshar...

I’d been dating in New York for ten years.  I’d had my misadventures. I knew that into every dating life a little heartbreak must fall. But this time I hit the exacta:  I was not only dating an older man, I wound up breaking my heart over a six-year-old girl. Of course, I fell in love with...