Hey, you know, the sex work was just a small part of my sexual history. I was raped at 13, by a so-called date, who was 22 and out weighed me by 200 pounds. That little episode, in my tiny town, ruined my "reputation", which was all important in those days. Since I was already a whore, I just went along with the program. Had sex with any and all, or nearly. I didn't have an orgasm until I was 18 and got married, he liked oral and that seemed to work. Didn't have a vaginal orgasm until I was maybe 22 or so, not with him, divorced him at 20. I suppose that I am perhaps lazy, or just don't care about it, it just is sooo much work to even get to have one, that I gave up wanting to try ages ago. In between the sex work, back in the 70s, four husbands, some ok some not, 3 kids, and my numerous physical problems now, I guess that it is just about the last thing on my list of wants or needs. I only care at all because my DH is so sweet and patient, and would do anything I wanted or needed him to do to make me have one. The history of my body and its usage by men probably has a lot to do with the whole lack of response thing, but I also think it may be genetic, because my gram, mom, and sis all really disliked sexual contact as well. Perhaps we suffer from a hormonal imbalance that is genetic? Too late to find out from mom and gram, and sis and I are just too over it to care. I do wish I were not like this, but I have accepted it.

I'm soooo tempted to stop coming to the site so much; it just gets me riled up, but maybe I'll just have to do a bit of planned ignoral when topics like race and body politics come up. However, these are precisely the topics that interest me in the first place. Quite the conundrum, wrapped in a quagmire, hidden in a maze...

Like blaming her mistake on "a black dude?"

No, never.
Best retort I have seen in a long while. That was excellent!

this is for you
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and again, once again, for the third time, I was talking about BULIMIA in impoverished areas, NOTANOREXIA. These are different EDs. They are treated differently, even when they co-exist. Do not continue to belabor the point with me until you make this distinction. It is a waste of both our time. Anroexics ARE prevalent in Africa and other religious cultures. ANorexics DO exist in "ghettos" because it is a method of control over stress (including poverty and hunger). Bulimia is less a function of control as a loss of it-- bulimia is a struggle to eradicate excess. Bulimarexia is rarely repsent without one disorder overpowering the other, meaning, anorixics get it because they are forced to eat, bulimics get it because someone has discoverred their vomiting or because they can no longer maintain weight loss--the metabiolism has re-adjusted and bulimics eventually begin to gain weight--or begin to lose teeth and can no longer binge and purge.

Black women do get anorexia, actually. Wealthy black women. One of them I worked with at a fashion magazine.

My grandmother is half Black, half Native American (Cherokee, from Nebraska). Not sure what that makes me, I don't keep track. Add a little Italian and half Irish and you get the picture.

Yeah, I told you Mark said what he said because he said it, and I pointed out he was Black because you jumped all over my ass for making some kind of strange bizarre and untrue and ignorant tie between ghettos and Blacks (which were originally populated by Jews in the 16th century--that's where the word comes from).
My consciousness is fine. You'd be better served if your own consciousness were a little less hyper, a little less personally attuned, and a little more wordly-aware and realistic.
That's my humble opinion. I am not so arrogant as to think I have rocked your world in any way shape or form.

And to correct: I did not say (nor did mark) that there are no EDs in the Ghetto. He said and I said there is no bulimia in the ghetto. He was obviously being trite and making a larger point, that they don't have the money to waste on food they're going to throw up. I took the quote the way he meant it --that the fashion industry's glamourization of eating disorders is not something those who can't afford to eat (or are so hungry they eat whatever's available to them)can't really relate to. What he said was ok. Very O.K.
And finally, my father grew up in the ghettos of North Belfast. Take a walk through there and you'll see some serious poverty. Not all who live in ghettos --a term in every dictionary and encyclopedia--are black. The one thing they have in common is that they are all poor. And they generally don't make food choices. They eat what's available and what they can afford.
Fashion models and 1 of 5 college women are not anorexic because of a lack of food or even a lack of healthy food. They are anorexic because of a refusal to eat.

I agree with you, but it is important to differrentiate between the EDs that the wealthy suffer from, the body images of those attempting socially upward mobility, and the disordered eating of the poor , lower and lower middle class, as well as the disordered eating of third world countries and places like Appalachia.
These people eat poorly not as a way of gaining social mobility, but because they have no choice. They eat foods that are cheap, high in fat, processed. They cannot afford healthier produce or fresh food. Many are in homes where both parents work or there is only one working parent--there is no one with the time to do healthy cooking.
Studies demonstrate the difference I am talking about.
Health is a luxury in this country. When a person is able to "choose" not to be healthy, that is a different condition then someone who has poor health thrust upon he/she because of economic conditions. Treatments for one group will not work for the other.
I never said anyone from any country does or do or did ot have body issues. But body issues are not necessarily eating disorders.
Please do not assume I am wealthy. or white.

And fuck me, I totally forgot to click the private box. Hi internets!

I work downtown, across the street from the food carts on 5th, and I walk to work (from Naito Pkwy). I definitely think a meetup of the PDX jezzies is in order.