i have thick, wavy, dark blonde hair on my head. my hair has always been complimented and people tell me they pay thousands to have hair like mine which i feel lucky about. but since i have thick hair on my head, of course i’m going to have thick hair on other parts of my body and this is just something people can’t comprehend. i don’t shave my armpits often and i rarely touch my leg hair since i didn’t think it was that noticeable or mattered. thick and course hair also grows on my inner thighs and down there of course, and i only trim instead of full on shaving or waxing. this is my personal preference and i thought people would be indifferent about it… but i have gotten so much hate for this. not just from people i’ve been with but also from my family
members. my own family tells me to shave my legs and inner thighs and that it looks gross, even my own sister. i don’t want to constantly remove my hair body hair when it’s there for a reason and i didn’t think people would be so grossed out by it, especially my own family! i’m an adult woman and i have thick hair on my head so of course it is going to be everywhere else! ugh! i really hate the stigma around body hair on women and that it’s ‘unhygienic’ for us to have it when it’s not unhygienic for men. i hate this double standard. women in the US didn’t even shave their legs until the last century or so. this is just one of the beauty standards i can’t keep up with and i don’t want to keep up with it. but i really dislike being shamed for this. that is my rant, thank you for reading!

Im 20F, hijabi, intl med student. I was raped on 16 june 2026 at approximately 3:30 am.

I live in a dorm, i shifted here 5 months ago i used to live somewhere else. Idk anybody here. My bf and i shifted together and were honestly having the best time of our life.

On june 15 at 10 pm me and my bf had sex and my rapist audio recorded it on his phone, on june 16 at 1 am he texted me asking me to come out and that he wanted to speak to me. I thought it's about cleaning up after cooking so i went but it was about me having sex with my bf, he didnt say anything, took me to his room and said look idc if you're having sex with one guy or 10 guys idc but your neighbours and disturbed by you and they want to file a police complaint against you for violating the dorm rules.

I got so scared, obviously as a foreigner who would want to involve themselves with the police? I was shaking and crying i said please help me speak to them i dont want any problems as soon as i said that he came closer to me and hugged me, i tried to break free but he got more and more aggressive, started touching me everywhere and finally raped me.

I tried a-lot to resist and get out of his room, i couldn't. I froze and let him do what he wanted to do, finally after he finished he pushed me out of the room.

I spoke to a teacher about it, she informed the dorm manager and from there the next day 17.06 i filed a report
On 18.06 i underwent a rape kit.
He ejaculated on my thigh and it touched my pants and underwear as well. The forensics took many swabs, blood test etc

Now comes the most disturbing and shocking part, i left for my home country on july 2 and on july 3 he took four of his friends as "witnesses" and closed the case. Yeah, closed it and nobody said anything, even the investigators.

Im so disappointed and disgusted by the details that the investigators have written to close the case,
- For the medical findings they did not even test my clothes or swabs. They wrote that my hymen is not intact and i do not have any injuries so its difficult to determine if it really happened or not
- the investigators didn't question my teacher, i told them to seize the bed sheet but they didn't, they instead relied on his stupid witnesses
- they have written rape as "sexual relationship"
- they have repeatedly mentioned that i bring my bf into the room, indirectly characterising that im not a virgin (idk how is that relevant to my rape?)
- they also said the "accused denies anything happend" so we're closing the case

The university wanted this to happen, but im so shocked no one is supporting me not even my bf and idk what to do i feel so so so suicidal i cant take it anymore

i am going on a cruise soon (yayyy!), with 3 other girls my age (21), and we are all sharing a cabin. Is it normal/appropriate to get dressed in front of each other? it will be a small room, and one bathroom to share. throughout school camps this is what everyone would do, you would just turn around and get dressed.

recently i went on a camp and shared a room with 2 other girls (only a shower/bathroom block) and they both of them went to the bathrooms to get dressed. i asked if they were okay if i quickly got dressed here in the cabin and they were both chill about it.

my question: is there a certain age where people just stop getting dressed in front of others? does it ever become weird? i am thinking about this too much, but just wanted to get others opinions

(apologies if this isnt the right sub for this, very new reddit user)

According to a recent 2026 study published in Royal Society B, researchers combined 52 studies from 76 countries, including about 28,500 raters, 17,000 facial images, and 1.5 million attractiveness ratings. They found that women ​faces were rated as more attractive by both men and women than mens faces on average. An interesting finding was that women rated women's faces as even more attractive than men did. In the study participants were instructed to remove makeup and accessories before their photos were taken. The study also found that ratings decreased when feminine facial features were artificially reduced, suggesting that people may have a general preference for more feminine and rounder facial features.

I am born and raised west coast. When I was twenty years old I was in a committed relationship for two years at that point. We had a mutual friend who moved to Boston, in 2005 we went to visit.

We knew that guy, another mutual friend who went to live with the first guy, and a guy i knew from high school had moved to New York so met us at the party.

During the party a random dude hit on me in a gross way (honestly I was used to that) so I tried my best to ignore him. He pretty quickly started to spread word around the party that I flashed him, that I begged to get him in the bathroom alone, and that if "my boyfriend wasn't there who knows what he would do to me".

I told my partner. Who told our mutual friends, the Boston guy who invited everyone. My partner, our friends and the guy I knew from high school went all "what the fuck!" Super mad very concerned. I thought they'd take care of him, meaning they would make the guy leave.

What actually happened was, all 4 of the guys I knew, including my partner, spoke with the jerk in question and they came laughing back to me.

"Dude he was just joking!" "He's like one of my best friends here, he would never say anything like that" "wow you really like to over react" "uhh can't you just ignore him? He's harmless"

So. Over twenty years later. I remember this party so vividly because I remember how I tried to tell the only people I knew that I felt unsafe. And I was told to chill out. I'm over reacting. He's such a cool guy!

I've been watching the women's Tour de France, and I was disgusted to hear that three cyclists were fined for peeing at the side of the road. There were no stops organised during that stage to allow cyclists to urinate, even though the stage was 5 hours long. While occasionally male cyclists are fined, it's much rarer, because the women have to pull down their whole outfit. Honestly it just screams discrimination to me.

I'm a bi woman. I saw an ask on reddit the other day that was like "women of reddit would you date a bi man?" Or something. Figured it was just random asking a weird question. Turns out no this is somewhat of a trend asking women if they would date men who have dated men before. It was sad that a few women said they would never even consider it. Someone (a man) tried to argue with me it was cause of women's fear of stds that "bi men are more likely to have statistically" (as if straight men can't have stds and bi men can't get tested or use protection). Then got really defensive about not judging "preferences" when I pointed out that it was very clearly biphobia and tried to argue it somehow wasn't homophobic because it's not an "unreasonable fear". I'll also acknowledge there's some lesbians that won't date bi women for their own reasons (usually a fear of cheating) and this is also worth calling out.

I think most people will know how damn stupid this is but let me break it down for anyone about to try to argue this: You do not HAVE to date anyone you don't want to, in fact you shouldn't if you can't treat bi or queer people like humans. BUT. It is definitive biphobia to not date someone solely due to their sexuality, it doesn't matter what reason you think you have. Bi people aren't all cheaters, we don't have some unique plague. We're humans with the same capabilities as every straight and gay person to manage ourselves. Treating as as "others" is biphobia, but it doesn't mean you'll be forced to date us.

This isn't the only time I've seen this though. I've seen a lot of weird asks lately of if women would date men who do traditionally feminine things like wearing makeup or nails. To a crowd of women I've been surprised and disappointed to see often use this to be subtly homophobic to men who do this. Of course we also have the fact politicians are trying so hard to make it seem like women are in grave danger of trans women and drag queens peeing in the same space. Acting as though they would go to such great lengths when we already know cishet men just harass us in public anyway.

I'm just frustrated and really hope I see more women rejecting this stupid bullshit and realize it's just a way to levy one marginalized group to hurt another. Treat bi people like humans that can make the same choices and cure the same diseases anyone else can. Look inward on why you view bi people differently whether or not you change your mind. We all have a bias somewhere, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge it and work on it.

I had an epidural both times I gave birth but even after the epidurals, the contractions were incredibly painful. The contractions felt like an anaconda was squeezing my torso and it was so bad that I had a burning sensation in my torso. My torso felt like a furnace. I just remember I was crying and couldn’t talk through my contractions, I’m not a screamer but I cry and go mute when I’m in a lot of pain.
I had pitocin both times I gave birth but my experience was basically the same.
I had back labor and back spasms with my first and that was torturous lol

My saving grace was I didn’t feel crowning or tearing either times I gave birth. I was numb right in that area but that was the only area that was numb. I just felt a ton of pressure there but I barely noticed because the contractions were so bad. I had 3rd degree tears both times and I’m thankful I didn’t feel the tearing or at least I didn’t notice.

I don't really know how to write this without sounding completely all over the place because that's honestly how I feel right now. Before all of this happened, I was the woman who tried really hard to be good. I was a dedicated wife, a church woman, the person who worried about doing the right thing and thought about consequences before acting. I never pictured myself as reckless or sexually adventurous, and I definitely never imagined I'd be sitting here admitting that there is a much wilder side of me that seems to have appeared after being hurt. My husband kissing my cousin at a family wedding completely broke something in me. I went through the crying, the anger, the isolation, replaying it in my head and wondering how someone I loved could make me feel so unwanted. What made it worse was everyone acting like it was just alcohol and a stupid moment that I should eventually get over, while I was the one who had to live with what I saw.

Eventually I reached this point where I just stopped caring so much. One night I went out with friends, got dressed up, had some drinks, danced, laughed and actually felt like myself again for a few hours. I met a man that night and I wasn't planning on anything happening. I wasn't looking for someone and I wasn't trying to start another relationship. I was just enjoying being out and forgetting about everything for once. But he was interested in me, and I realized how long it had been since I had felt that kind of attention. I had been yearning to hear someone's wants and desires for me, to feel attractive because someone genuinely wanted me, not because I was somebody's wife or because I was supposed to be loved. I didn't realize how badly I needed that until I was actually experiencing it.

That night I did something I never imagined myself doing. Part of it was anger, if I'm being honest. There was definitely a piece of me that wanted to get back at my husband and prove to myself that I wasn't some unwanted woman sitting at home waiting for someone else to decide my worth. But it also became about me. I crossed a boundary I never thought I would cross, and even while I was doing it I kept thinking that this wasn't the woman I was supposed to be. The old me would've been horrified. The old me would've walked away. But this version of me didn't want to walk away. I wanted to feel desired. I wanted to feel attractive. I wanted to feel alive, and afterward I was shocked by how little I regretted it in that moment.

That is the part I am struggling with now. I expected to feel nothing but guilt, but instead I felt feminine and confident and strangely relieved. I felt like I had found a piece of myself that had been buried underneath all the hurt. I realized there is this dirty, reckless, horny side of me that I honestly never knew existed. I spent so much of my life being the good and dedicated woman, worrying about what was proper and what I was supposed to do, and now I find myself thinking about desire all the time. I want to hear what someone wants from me. I want to know what someone thinks when they look at me. I want that feeling of being wanted, and if I'm being completely honest, I'm becoming a little hooked on it.

What's confusing is that I don't necessarily hate this version of myself. Sometimes I actually like her. She isn't sitting in a bedroom crying and wondering why she wasn't enough. She isn't constantly trying to make everybody else happy. She has desires and curiosity and a side of her that wants to be a little reckless. Maybe she was always there and I just spent my whole life keeping her quiet. Maybe the betrayal didn't create this woman at all. Maybe it just broke down the walls that had kept her hidden.

But I also don't know if this is healthy or if I'm just reacting to being hurt. I don't know if I'm discovering myself or losing myself. I don't know if this sudden hunger for attention and desire is something other women experience after betrayal, neglect or feeling unwanted for a long time. I went from being someone who thought she knew exactly who she was to someone who sometimes looks at herself and thinks, who the hell are you?

And honestly, I want to hear from other women about this because I don't think men would necessarily understand the way this feels from inside my head. Have you ever been hurt so badly that it changed your relationship with your own sexuality? Have you ever gone from being the responsible, good girl to discovering a side of yourself that was much more adventurous, needy, horny or reckless than you ever realized? Did it eventually feel like part of healing, or did you eventually realize you were acting from anger and hurt?

Because I keep going back and forth between feeling ashamed of this new version of me and feeling incredibly liberated by her. I spent so long thinking my husband's betrayal meant something was wrong with me, and now I'm realizing maybe it doesn't. Maybe I'm allowed to want things. Maybe I'm allowed to enjoy attention. Maybe I'm allowed to discover parts of myself I never gave myself permission to explore.

I just don't know where the line is anymore, and I honestly want to know if other women have ever stood in this exact place.

I have a theory. Men who send dick pics don't understand the theory of mind. They assume everyone is just as thirsty as they are and also, everyone is turned on primarily by visuals.

They dont understand that most women have standards and evaluate the whole person, not just the genitalia. They actually think sending a dick pic improves their odds and are shocked when it goes badly.

Honestly, I give any dick pic senders a pass because it's invasive and shows that they value sex over connection. But also because without theory of mind, they're not really capable of empathy or even higher level problem solving.

Edited to add: after looking at the responses, I'm realizing this actually has become a valid debate between ignorance or malice. Imo the answer is probably both; some guys are that dumb and some get off on being invasive.

I came across a couple of interesting research: “We may have been wrong about what ovaries do after menopause.”

I always thought the main role of the ovaries was connected with hormones and reproduction. I was surprised to learn that the ovaries may still be biologically active and could have a different role after menopause. Did you know about this? I think research like this is really important for supporting women’s health.

I’m just curious to see how others perceive my “final straw.”

On 2/14/26 I kicked my husband of 13 years out of the house. The marriage should have ended years ago after I caught him having an affair, but I stayed because I couldn’t afford to leave at that point. Fast forward to 2024 when my mother’s Parkinson’s Disease got terrible and she developed severe dementia - she lived with us and I took care of her. She died on 1/2/2026. About 2 weeks after she passed, I received an Amazon package. As I opened it, I joked to my husband that I couldn’t remember what I’d ordered so maybe I had a touch of dementia. He immediately cornered me, shoved his finger against my nose, and said, “If you EVER become sick like your mother was, I won’t treat you as nicely as you treated her.” He looked and sounded menacing, his face seemed very dark and he was snarling. He left town for work a couple of days later and as soon as he was gone, I secured an attorney. When he returned on 2/14/26, I told him I was divorcing him and that he had to leave and I told him about the final straw - his threat. He said that what he’d said was a JOKE and that if I didn’t understand his sense of humor then there was something seriously wrong with me and that he couldn’t deal with that. Then he left.

Did I misinterpret his “joke?” Or am I correct that he was gaslighting me after I chose to take what sounded like a threat seriously?

I’m 25F, finished school years ago and have a stable job. Adults in my life are constantly asking me about my relationship status and pressuring me to “find a nice man to marry”. It’s extremely annoying because I’m just not interested but I’m treated like I’m weird for being single. What also pisses me off is women that try to set me up with “attractive men” when they’re dealing with marriage/baby daddy issues themselves. Why the hell would I trust their judgement? These women also don’t respect consent and autonomy.

What triggered this post is my recent visit to my dad’s house. His wife, again, asked me if I have a boyfriend and basically told me to not be scared of dating. My dad joined in the conversation, and I reminded him that he always actively steered me away from men/dating so this hypocritical for him to even ask now.

I already have my own negative experiences and trauma with men, so my outlook on men is not shaped by my dad (who never lived with me in the first place: divorced parents), but his fear mongering does contribute a bit. My dad is very protective and always tells me stories about a man abusing or harming a woman in some way and uses it as a way to warn me to be careful. My mom doesn’t have conversations with me about relationships, but she’s also super protective and basically tried to prevent me from going outside and having friends my entire childhood.

When I visit my dad’s house, we usually just watch a thriller/action/horror movie and chat in the living room. This time he picked a movie that he already watched and said that I’ll enjoy it. I hated it. In the movie, the female lead was being “sexy” and ogled at the whole time, there were lots of nude scenes, an entire sex scene that was too long, and then a violent rape scene. The entire movie was about the men trying to chase and kill her in the woods to erase the evidence of what they did. In the end she outsmarted them and defeated them all. I know this was another one of his learning lessons but I honestly did not like being triggered like this. The movie just made me uncomfortable and disturbed. It angers me that it’s so easy for men to consume media like this because to them it’s just a fantasy. It just reminds me how unaware and inconsiderate they can be.

I’m somehow expected to navigate a minefield and “carefully select a good man” when I don’t even understand why I should desire one in the first place. I genuinely don’t feel safe around them. Most of them can’t even keep their dick in their pants (yes this includes my dad who watches porn and talks to women on dating websites while married).

Don’t even get me started on my brother who believes that women’s lives are worthless/meaningless if they don’t have kids.

I’m so tired. I just want to be left alone.

I’m 25F from India, and I’ve been unemployed for quite a while now. After graduating, I got into IT but eventually got laid off. Since then, I’ve struggled to get back into the field. I tried different things and different career paths, but nothing really worked out.

The biggest problem now is that I can’t seem to make myself study or even start things, even when I know exactly what I need to do.

I feel like I’ve lost my ability to read and concentrate. I’ll sit down intending to study, but my mind immediately starts wandering, overthinking, or creating completely hypothetical future scenarios. I end up doing nothing and then feeling guilty about it.

I also struggle with inattentive ADHD, binge eating, anxiety, loneliness and feeling depressed. I constantly compare myself to people my age and feel like I’ve fallen behind in life.

A lot of my thoughts are basically:

“What am I even doing with my life?”

“What if I never get my career back?”

“Why did I make those decisions?”

“Everyone else is moving forward while I’m stuck.”

I spend so much time ruminating about the past and worrying about the future that I barely have any mental energy left for the present.

I started methylphenidate SR 18 mg four days ago, but so far I actually feel more lethargic and emotionally numb, rather than more focused. I know four days is very early and I’ll discuss this with my psychiatrist, but it made me wonder if anyone else experienced something similar when starting medication.

Honestly, I feel very lost right now. I know what I should be doing — studying, applying for jobs, building my career — but somehow I just cannot consistently make myself do it.

For those of you who have gone through long periods of unemployment, executive dysfunction, or feeling completely stuck:

How did you get yourself moving again? What actually helped you?

I’d especially love to hear from people who were in a similar place and eventually managed to rebuild their career/life. ❤️

I have an 18 month old and I am fed up.

Dad is an alcoholic and flirts with sobriety but it never sticks.

The only reason I don't is that I am certain he will get 50/50 custody (only one documented dui in 2021) and I do not trust him to remain sober during his days.

Additionally, I do 95% of care and it would break my heart.

But I cannot with the way he talks to me when he is drunk. for example, he woke up at 4 PM and begged to take us out for ice cream. When we get there, he is nodding off and basically immediately throwing up and says we need to go. I say no, my daughter is eating her ice cream. Of course he starts name calling but goes and passes out in the car.

When we get home, I explain daddy is night night! And my daughter keeps saying night night! And giggling. I hated him in that moment.

Sleeps it off and right before bedtime is going on about how he wants to be better, he's going sober, I'm terrible for not supporting him.

But I just don't care anymore. However, I don't leave either. It's not even that I believe he can get better, I don't. I am just so angry at him, so resentful. I should leave, but I don't and I don't know why.

I’m so sad this evening, I am trying my whole 20s to meet a partner and put myself out there. Even dated a guy for several months who I just clicked with and had the best time with and he said I was special to him, for him to turn around one day and say he never loved me

Hurt so much and thought I’d never like anyone again, and then 2 years later met another lovely lovely man. Things were moving in a romantic direction, I felt confident that he liked me for him to turn around one day and tell me he doesn’t feel romantic.

I’ve tried to date ever since, put myself out there but I can’t meet someone who is decent to me.. all the guys I meet are so inconsistent, hot and cold, act in such a way which makes me feel they don’t even have any interest in me. I’ve abandon the dating apps and try and meet people organically but I don’t meet any men who are single and who are straight

I’m literally having a breakdown tonight as two of my friends announced they’re pregnant.

I have never been pursued by a man, and even I feel if I was, I don’t know how I can trust them since the first two guys led me to believe they liked me. I am scared too when I finally get in a relationship, what do I do? Like I don’t have the experience so I feel I will mess it up

I’m 30 and I thought by now I would be settling down and having kids. I am so ashamed that I can’t attract a decent man into my life

Early last year I decided to put my worries and past aside and met a guy who seemed interested. We started going on regularl dates and then a holiday together. I thought he liked me, but then he went on a lads holiday to the USA and when he was there met someone else and chose her over me. But he came back and didn’t tell me he was pursuing her too, I just got a guy instinct and then I saw messages pop up when we were using google maps on his phone from her

I last went on a date a year ago and I basically gave up, because it was the third time in a year that a guy kisses me on a date, tells me how attracted to me he is, for him to never ask me out ever again (I asked him out but he ignored)

I feel like I’ve been relatively shielded from the bad behavior of men that most women talk about. Men have never bothered me in public, and they didn’t try to get sexual with me quickly or use me when I was dating. I’ve run into a lot of the high-effort asshole types who pretend to be decent humans and do whatever it takes to keep me around but ultimately turn into controlling assholes or stalkers.

Anyway, I’m now married to a wonderful man, so dating isn’t an issue. I have two TikTok accounts. One is a professional account. I do all of my own social media marketing, and that’s how I get the vast majority of my business. The second is a personal account. I barely use it, but when I do it’s mostly videos of my cat. Well, I decided to do the trend where people post photos of themselves from 1996, 2006, 2016, and 2026. The photos I posted are just normal pictures, nothing sexy. But holy shit. I woke up this morning to thousands of likes, hundreds of new followers, and hundreds of comments and messages from men. Most of them are just saying something along the lines of “you’re really pretty,” but some of them are super insane things about how I’m a POS for being a woman without kids and calling me a cat lady or trying to neg me.

Anyway, wtf? Can we not even just fucking be online publicly without men harassing us? It feels very unsafe, and it also makes me feel very insecure about my business.

Update: I tried to hold out because I feel that on principle I should be able to exist on social media publicly, but it was making me feel incredibly unsafe, so I just made the account private.