http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jezebel.com.png http://jezebel.com/tag/focus group http://jezebel.com/tag/focus group

I dropped out of college. I hate that I dropped out of college, namely because it is invariably the subject of intense curiosity when it comes up with others, and being a devotee of curiosity myself, I would usually rather learn about them without resorting to an annoying Socratic exchange about what set of assumptions and societal norms led them to deem "exotic" a conversation partner upon the revelation that he or she lacks a dozen or so course credits. But if cutting short my college degree has taught me anything — and it sure as fuck didn't teach me how to stop drinking like a college student — it's that most people do still buy into the notion that college is a good idea. College is actually a stupid idea, as "Professor X," a smug/adept writing instructor at a third-tier college points out in the June Atlantic. I would even go so far as to say that American college is almost as stupid an idea as American high school is stupid in execution. Is there a sector of the economy in which the average American spends more to achieve less? Well yeah: War, health care…Why harp on the negative? I consulted some college veterans on my Buddy List in search of some answers to one of the worthwhile aspects of college: the rare professor you still think actually think about. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5010539&view=rss&microfeed=true

Why do kids get singled out for torment? The New York Times explores the topic today in its profile of Arkansas bully magnet Billy Wolfe. And It's really odd, because the kid looks so normal: no physical imperfections to speak of...clear skin...DC cap. "Maybe because he was so tall, or wore glasses then, or has a learning disability that affects his reading comprehension. Or maybe some kids were just bored. Or angry," the story's author speculates, but anyway, he gets bullied, beaten the shit out of really, over and over and over again and everyone — kids, parents, school officials — complies. (There's a Facebook group too, devoted to airing sentiments such as: "There is no reason anyone should like billy he's a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.") Now, I have always been pretty sure I know why I was bullied in school, and that's because I was basically asking for it. But that's maybe the wrong question. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=371524&view=rss&microfeed=true

We keep ignoring this story, which has topped or near-topped the New York Times "Most Emailed List" for days and days, mostly because, well just consider the headline, "An Enduring Measure of Fitness: The Simple Push-Up." Aaaaaaah! We can endure without measuring said "fitness", thanks very much! But today I finally read the story, and now have reason to warn you against following suit: it is BLATANTLY sexist. There is, for one, extensive discussion of 93-year-old push-up pioneer Jack Palance, who set numerous world push-up records, but there is not a single word addressing any record-holders in the arena of girl push-ups, or even really much mention of the girl push-up at all. No, it simply assumes women should be not only able to complete male push-ups, even though the push-up is an exercise invented by males and for males which, like its brother exercise the pull-up and all those spacial analysis questions, has served for generations solely to fuck women on elementary school achievement tests. But what's more: the story suggests that a woman of forty should be able to complete sixteen of these patriarchal exercises. Sixteen! Drop your MacBooks and give me sixteen, Jezebels! More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=367996&view=rss&microfeed=true

In two unrelated developments today, scientists have found that women not only eschew men with "macho" features, they gravitate towards men with similar allotments of body fat, which we believe is a clunky and excessively-scholarly way of arriving at the observation that women these days date men who look exactly like them. We believe this is borne out in pretty much every working couple we know, from the blog world to the celebreal world to the dudes we have fucked that we would consider fucking again versus the dudes we fucked who were entirely too skinny and pretty for us and only made it worse by repeating over and over again, "You're so pretty! You have such a nice body!" (Yeah, fuck all of you.) "It's because we're all so narcissistic, and so confused about what it means to have self-esteem," pointed out a thin, blue-eyed brunette BFF of ours who likes to date thin, blue-eyed brunette dudes. (Side note: can you call a dude brunette? Or is it just "brun," maybe with an umlaut? Anyhow.) More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=287276&view=rss&microfeed=true

In the Old Testament of the Bible, Jezebel is a truly vicious tyrant who makes all the Israelites join her own heathenous religion and kills a lot of people. She's finally thrown out a window and eaten by dogs, and by the New Testament, she is reincarnated as a second-rate slut who gets churchgoers to eat foods meant for sacrificial offering. A similar watering-down of "Jezebel" has occurred in its pop cultural evolution — now an Atlanta lifestyle magazine starring Christina Aguilera! — which explains why our friends weren't exactly supportive of the name when we emailed about it: More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=262096&view=rss&microfeed=true