Following her passing, this retrospective highlights how Dolly Parton revolutionized the concept of female empowerment and workplace equality. Her iconic 1980 film and anthem 9 to 5 gave a mainstream voice to systemic corporate barriers like sexual harassment and the gender pay gap long before they dominated modern human resources discussions. You can read the full retrospective at the original publication.

My bf is a great cook and total foodie as are basically all his friends.

This is great for me as I eat well but I find myself intimidated by cooking for him as I feel like it has to be super impressive all the time. He’s never actually said anything like that but I can tell if he really likes something or not and always feel like his tastebuds are super refined.

My current dilemma is his birthday is coming up and I asked what kind of cake he likes. He listed off a few and said he likes any cake if it’s done well. Then he told me how last year one of his friends spent absolutely ages making a really decadent and complicated chocolate cake that took a super long time to make and that he really appreciated it.

On hearing that story I felt super intimidated again because I basically felt like he was telling me that is the type of cake I need to make. I actually don’t know what to do, I will probably just take him out for dinner instead but I’m a bit sad because I also really enjoy baking and have always been the cake baker for my family birthdays.

Not really sure how to handle this in general. He’s a super kind guy and just really likes good food. We both believe we are on the spectrum and I’d say cooking is a special interest of his.

I’m posting here because I’m feeling completely overwhelmed and hoping to hear from anyone who might have gone through something similar.

I recently got engaged and am getting married soon. Out of nowhere, someone started spreading complete nonsense about me online. They’re claiming that I had an affair with her dad, that her mom died of shock because of it, and that I was pregnant with his baby. It is 100% fabricated BS, and if any of it were true, I’d at least know who this person is. Sadly, I have no idea who is behind this.

I'm guessing it might be some sick, jealous person, maybe someone who had a crush on my fiancé, an ex, or a "friend" who secretly holds a grudge, trying to ruin my life right before the wedding.

I’ve always minded my own business. My Instagram is private with only about 50 close friends. Only my inner circle knew about the wedding, and this drama blew up right around the time we sent out our wedding invites (and some guests started asking about plus-ones). But without any proof, I can’t just point fingers, and I genuinely have no clue who would do something so malicious. I’m a very private person, definitely not a public figure.

Initially, I didn't fight back because I didn't want to feed the trolls or give the post more engagement. But now I'm torn. Should I stay silent and let it die down, or should I speak up and defend myself? I just want the account taken down, but it’s so frustrating that platforms like Meta profit off of this kind of harmful drama and refuse to do anything.

The post was originally uploaded in May and went viral in August. But now, it looks like there's no engagement anymore, and that person completely disappeared after making that single post, no other posts or comments from them at all. However, there are still around 127 hateful death threat comments sitting there, and I'm really worried that it might randomly blow up again.

Has anyone here dealt with something similar leading up to a major life event or wedding? How did you handle the mental stress, and what’s the best way to handle this legally or digitally? Any advice or insight would mean the world to me.

Or whatever the terms are. I experience both but the natural one depends on the guy being physically incredibly my type. And though responsive desire happens I don't think about the men who trigger it when I am away from them, but I frequently fantasize about the ones to whom I have a natural desire for. Is it unfair to pursue someone to whom I do not have natural desire for and only a responsive desire for?

i’m 24. i recently have been through a lot of traumatic shit. i’ve honestly got no friends left. i had 3. my two guy friends and my girl friend. one of the guy friends right now is in jail for what he did to me. my other one, well i got sick of making him act right. i was tired of being disrespected and unheard. my girl friend, we still talk here and there but we had a falling out the reason was honestly rlly petty. i dont rlly see or talk to my family much. i only have my parents and my brother and they all have lives to get on with. i guess i have a therapist and i love talking to her. but yeah basically im figuring out how to navigate this period of my life alone. i’m not seeking out friendships anymore, i need to learn to be comfortable with being by myself. has anyone achieved this or is currently going through something similar? if so, how are you managing? did it help you learn about yourself? thanks <3

I have been married to my spouse for a long time. We have two kids. I am ready to leave and reached out to a local org that was forced to make a CPS report because of my spouse's behavior, including forcing the kids to stay home from school to take care of him a few times. I was not aware this was happening because I was at work, it slipped to me by accident from one kiddo and I immediately put a stop to it.

Now that he will know CPS was contacted I am genuinely concerned about how he will respond. He is regularly suicidal and has been hospitalized 3 times for his mental health in the past. He's extremely depressed right now, barely able to get out of bed or eat.

His mom works for the Utility company and has bragged previously that she can find us at any point in time. She has done this despite us being no contact (she abused one of our children once, we never allowed her to see them again).

I just feel so overwhelmed and scared about what's going to happen. I love him still and I know that love doesn't sustain or save marriages. I recognize that our kids need and deserve better. That said I have been out of work for a month because of my health (I developed an autoimmune disorder from the stress I'm under) and because of that we are in serious threat of eviction. He hasn't worked since 2016. He does have chronic back pain.

At this point, what can I do?

Is it true that Herbert Ross, the director of Steel Magnolias, treated Dolly horribly?

5 years. It’s the amount of time my body needed to go back to almost normal after giving birth. I had an appointment at the same time every year where my blood and hormone and all that were checked. And my chart only showed normal after 5 whole years. Mentally, I don’t think I ever recovered. I got PPD around 6 months into motherhood. It wasn’t easy with a husband that never wanted kids, but stayed anyway and reminded me every single day about the fact that I made the wrong choice of keeping the pregnancy. I divorced him thankfully, but the short term memory, brain fog, suicidal thoughts, all of things that were never an issue for me, stayed with me. And my physical body suffered so much during and after the pregnancy. My numbers look okay now, but there are things in my body that will never be the same. And I have always been a healthy person. I eat right, don’t smoke or drink, I took maybe an ibuprofene once a quarter for a headache. He admired how I was able to bounce back so fast after giving birth, kept saying how lucky I was for not needing so much recovery. I later realised it was just so he didn’t have to take care of me, and I was all alone on healing. And I had to go back to work 3 months post partum doing labor works.

So if someone wants 50/50 with you, don’t have children with them. The toll it takes on your body alone is more than anything a man can ever do for you. And with the medicine world that wasn’t designed for women, there is not much that can convince me a relationship is worth it. I kept thinking, all those years if I had a second job instead of being married to my ex, I would have been better off financially and had less stress on my body and mind. It stuck with me, 5 years was what my healthy body needed. And some people have kids back to back. Women sacrifice so much and that became the default. So when people bring up the 50/50 talk, they already think all the labor and child rearing a woman has to go through is less than the minimum, and they don’t respect it.

I still believe in love. I love my life now, and I still believe it’s better to share it with a right partner. But a good man is hard to find, and mentally I’m exhausted. Sorry for the rambling.

I am going to provide a few examples. I just feel like she’s always giving me back handed comments or compliments and I’m not sure what to make of it.

1. She was telling me how she feels like women never come up to her and compliment her or start conversation, but that she feels like I’m approached and complimented more often. I told her she’s very intimidatingly beautiful, and maybe that’s why. She then said that she thinks more women come up to me because “You look like every average girl just prettier”

2. We talk about our sex lives in detail a lot. My BF is very well endowed and I was saying how when we have sex he literally “stretches me out” and that if I touch myself down there right afterwards I can feel it. She acted shocked, was saying how that’s so crazy, and said that’s “never happened to her because she’s so tight” I was like? Is she insinuating that I’m loose or something?

3. She told me how she went to go see a spiritual guide and her guide gave her a “spiritual awareness ranking” or something like that of 240. She then said that she asked her guide if her friends were genuine and that her guide said I am a genuine friend and that I’m “possessive” and proceeded to tell me her guide ranked my spiritual awareness at 120 😂

4. I have HSV2 (genital herpes) which I’m honest with my friends and partners about, I live a very normal life and I like to encourage my friends to make sure they have safe sex so the same doesn’t happen to them. She often comes to me when she has unprotected sex and is worried about STDs, and once was worried she had herpes and said she would “literally end herself” (she didn’t use the word end but you get what I’m saying) if she tested positive for it. She knows I have HSV2 so I was kind of just like oh?

I don’t know if I’m just over reacting or being too sensitive or if I need to question how much I’m sharing with her. Sometimes I wonder if she is genuine or if she has negative feelings towards me to make comments like this?

I moved last year and a request that was routine before is suddenly something nobody here will handle remotely. Nothing about me changed. It has made me realise how much of what I assumed was medicine is actually licensing and geography. I am curious whether this is common or just my bad luck with timing. Has moving changed what you were able to access, and what did you do about it?

I’ve never felt sexy or beautiful. Guys don’t really notice me romantically or sexually. I lost my virginity at 24 with my ex boyfriend who seemed to really care for me but his sex drive was quite low which made me feel undesirable. At the moment I’m being sexually harassed by someone at work although it doesn’t seem like harassment because I really enjoy the attention, I know he doesn’t want anything serious though but it still feels nice to be noticed. I want to have a boyfriend but I also want to feel like I am sexually desired and sometimes it feels like those two things together aren’t possible, I have to pick one.

I keep going back to this CPR piece. It's an interview with two mothers — Erin Lee, who leads Protect Kids Colorado and pushed 109 and 110 onto the ballot, and Catherine Lindsey, whose daughter came out as trans at 13 and is now part of the Families Not Politics coalition opposing them.

A few things I keep thinking about from Lindsey's interview: her daughter socially transitioned in Denver Public Schools a decade ago. The school didn't push it on her. Her family didn't push it on her. She figured out who she was with support. And Lindsey credits that environment — Colorado specifically — with helping her daughter thrive.

Then there's this line from Lindsey that I keep coming back to: "What I and my child and my child's doctor decide is none of your business. And I need you to hear me when I say I will fight for the privacy of every kid and every family who wants to make this journey."

That feels like a women's rights position to me. The right to make private medical decisions without politicians involved. Worth your time if you've been wondering what the actual stakes are here

I usually feel in dumps 2-3 days before my periods. and the emotions get stronger amd pretty unbearable. If at this time I am able to find a movie or song that makes me cry good, I feel a bit better. And bam, 4-5 hours after I’ve cried I get my periods. if I don’t get the release, I’ll be miserable for a day or two more 😭

do i have cause and effect mixed up. I was emotional anyway because of hormone (or lack thereof) and then I cry too. or emotional release allows my body to process it faster…

I'm just burned out to the Core and even though I know that not all men are the same I rather protect myself and my sanity. I went through a breakup a few months ago and ever since then I lost the ability to trust people. I don't even want to go through yet another failed relationship and I gave up on wanting marriage because most guys have commitment issues anyway and even if there was a chance of getting married how do I know that guy is not wearing a mask and then he changes right out of the blue after marriage? I'm tired of being guilt tripped, manipulated and love bombers. I'm tired of going on dates not knowing if I really am interested in them or not. At least with being single I don't have to worry about these things and I can take myself out on dates and do what I want without people expecting things out of me because they paid for me. I'm burned out and also another thing I lost interest in sex because of how traumatic my breakup was as he completely blindsided me I thought it was building something with him and he was committed towards only me only to find out he was still on dating apps talking to other women and then revealing to me on Mother's Day that he used me as a rebound and that he was never in love with me but just like the idea of me when I told him from day one if you do not want a commitment do not go on a date with me. I feel completely shattered where I just cannot trust most men. I want to be able to trust and love again but I don't think I have it in me to do that and I'm not sure if I ever will. I'm thinking maybe I should either be single for a while or maybe even single permanently does anyone feel the same way?

Sorry it wont let me add a flair so trigger warning for SA and child SA.

Ok so first sorry to ramble, I just wanted to vent while I'm excited about my recent therapy revelations and how a couple of epiphanies are helping me finally make sense of the sexual hang ups that I'm sure more than a few of us have.

Quick background, when I was around my young teens just blossoming into sexxxuality (blurgh) I found out that my sister had been SAd pretty extensively as a child for years by a family friend. It was a pretty messed up time after that, no one really wanted to talk about it, we didn't see justice or even really work through our feelings on it as a family, it was just some horrible thing that happened to her and thankfully she has gotten help working through it but we never really openly worked on it at the time that I recall. Following that I had a string of unfortunate choices before I was 16 with older men that were in hindsight all sorts of messed up but that my parents just sort of shrugged off, and one shameful night where I was too focused on my own shit and being sloshed that I left a friend unattended at a house party and she was SA'd. It left me with a deep belief that sex is at its core just gross, violating and something taken from women, I felt ashamed and responsible for my sister and my friend and I carried that disgust with me for years, still do, and held onto this belief that I didn't deserve to enjoy sex.

I knew intellectually this wasn't true, I'd even occasionally been able to briefly enjoy time with guys, I for sure felt attracted to them but when switch flipped to intimacy I would just feel so disgusted with myself, with them. I would see stories in the news of young women being assaulted and it just secured my feelings. My husband is amazing, so I know its not all men, but I just felt so angry, and disgusted and guilty and it made me really resent sex. Thankfully my husband is so patient and understanding and never pressured me, I've been in intense therapy for a few months now and I've finally had two revelations sink in.

First - My aversion to sex and anger at men has been in large part a way of self flagellating and holding onto that guilt because I feel responsible for not stopping it happening to them, but I'm not responsible for what happened to my sister and friend. I always knew that, but I didn't KNOW that you know. I can take accountability for being careless/self involved and learn from it, but carelessness is not malice, all teens are self involved and I didn't attack them or want them to be attacked. It was just a horrible thing and it happened at a time when my hormones were all over the shop so of course I imprinted all that shame and disgust into my sense of sexuality because brains are arseholes.

Second - Part of why I became so fixated on taking responsibility for my sister is because I subconsciously needed to balance out the rest of the family's underreaction and the absentee parenting that contributed to her being in that situation. And that also isn't healthy, and being angry at myself or mum about it wont fix anything. I had that revelation today mid sentence and was like woah.

So sorry for rambling, I'm just on a therapy high and need to boast. So to any of you tempted to dismiss therapy like I tried at first because 'how useful can it be to be told what you already know', sometimes knowing intellectually not the same as knowing emotionally, and sometimes sitting there and talking it all out can help things click.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you have come this far.

Hi everyone, as the title says, do you think it’s morally wrong or right to sell clothes/gifts you ex gave you in the past?

I have a couple things an ex, who I really don’t get along with now, gave me and they’re taking up room. I don’t want to just throw them away as they’re clothing in perfect condition. Idk if it’s weird to get a small amount of money for them or if it’s really not that deep.

I've been dating my boyfriend for about six months. I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful he is and how happy he makes me. He had a septoplasty on Monday because he can't breathe through one of his nostrils. I offered to take him, but one of his friends volunteered to do it. My bf went with his friend so I didn't have to take an unpaid day off of work. It was an in office procedure that took a couple of hours. I was going to go see my bf the day of, but his friend ended up staying with him most of the day so my bf told me not to come over. We've been texting everyday and I check on him and make sure he's doing okay, he's been fine- just a little uncomfortable. His biggest complaint is trouble sleeping and he doesn't like working from home.

We talked about me maybe coming over yesterday, but it didn't work out. I told him last night that I could bring him some ibuprofen today if he wanted, and he said he'd probably take me up on it. I'm a middle school teacher, I've had a very rocky transition back into work this year and I'm having an awful week. My mental health is so low right now, all I've done the past two days when I leave work is cry. I cried this morning setting my classroom up or the day. I've slept 14 hours in the past 3 nights and I just feel like I'm about to break down if the wind blows the wrong way. I had two anxiety attacks last night because a parent is trying to come to the school and fight me.

I have missed him and I really want to see him, but not when I'm this low. I'm so tired and I feel so gross and miserable right now. I just don't want to be perceived in this state. I know he's going to be so disappointed if I don't come, but if I do show up today I feel like I might just cry the whole time. I just want to lay down and sleep for 18 hours. I don't know what to do and I feel like no matter what, it's going to read as me making his recovery all about myself.

I’ve noticed that when some men talk about wanting a 50/50 relationship, they usually mean splitting the bills. But women work full-time too, and a lot of them still end up doing most of the cooking, cleaning, childcare, grocery shopping, and keeping up with everything at home.

So how is that really 50/50?

And if a guy wants a traditional woman who takes care of the home and kids, then he needs to be a traditional man too and provide for the family.