Question of the Day: Sex and the Workplace

When I worked at a newspaper I used to joke with some of my co-workers that without The Bakersfield Californian some of my cohorts would find a date. I knew plenty of people who dated, broke up and even married within the newsroom. I didn't date at work because, well, I like to keep things separated if at all possible. But with men and women being human and working together in close and sometimes horny confides relationships and couplings (and the occasional sexual harassment lawsuit) are bound to happen.

More after the jump.

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The Wet And Wavy Womanizer and the Long Hair Fetish

"Can I touch it?"

He could barely get the question out before his hands went right into my hair. He wanted to touch it. He wanted to pet it. He wanted to put it into a ponytail with a dirty rubber band he found on the marble top of the bar.

"I could fall in love with this," he said as he scratched my roots. By the time I freed myself from his hair molestation my blow out was frizzy and wild. Not that he cared. I gave him the look. The John McEnroe "Are You SERIOUS?" look and he tried to cover his painfully obvious fetish.

"I just love that your hair is real. I don't care what a woman's hair is like as long as it's real."

Yet he wasn't attacking the sister rocking the TWA two stools down even though she was incredibly fierce in her own right. No. It was me and the ten pounds of clothes I had on in the summertime. I believe that everyone is entitled to love who they want to love, but I think people should be honest with themselves.

Black men have just as many hair issues about black women's hair as black women do.

More after the jump.

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The Cynics's View of Marriage

As some of you know I was once married (and quickly divorced) and that union was a hard one for me to get over. I love hard and fall hard, and when I fell, I fell into a mess of depression and cynicism. Some of that cynicism permeated through my fiction and other writing during those immediate years after my marriage.

In my novel, "Darla Went Down" (don't ask where to get it, it's not published or finished), the main character has to deal with her boss' hostility towards her because her boss believes Darla thinks she is better than her simply because she is married. (But doesn't realize that Darla is in a largely passionless marriage.)

The boss is a black woman, over 40, and never married, but successful. In all the news surrounding successful, unmarried black women I decided I wanted to share the monologue of one angry (but with a few valid points), Ms. Janet Hendrix. Re-reading the monologue is amazing to me because at one point I was as angry as Hendrix after my divorce and obviously, as I wrote this, this was more about my own frustrations than anything else. The whole monologue is essentially post-divorce me yelling at married me for giving up my dreams in exchange for false promises of marital bliss.

Monologue after the jump.

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Are Black Women Being Punished For Being Successful?

Elayne Fluker recently penned a column for Essence.com opining if black women are being unfairly targeted and punished for daring to be successful.

Study after freakin' study—from CNN, to MSNBC, to ESSENCE—has told us, warned us, that as educated, accomplished Black women, we run the risk of being "punished." That we won't be able to find a suitable mate, nor get married, nor have children. Ever! I think I speak for us all when I say: WTF?

... Now that I'm "ready" (to settle down), I pay more attention to what "they" say about my options, and I'm reeling from the cruel statistics. "45% of Black women in America have never married; compared with 23% of White women," they say. The rate of childlessness among highly educated Black women born between 1961 and 1970 is 38% they say. "African-American females, even with lots of education, do not fetch as much ‘value' in the marriage market," they say. "Black women outnumber Black men almost 2 to 1 in higher education," they say. "The disparity is important because Americans have a strong tendency to marry those with equal levels of education."

Well, damn. How does an SSBF debunk the stats and find a man during this recession of romance?

More after the jump.

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Google Stalking Hill Harper: Harper Wants To Have A Conversation, But Is There Anything Left To Talk About?

In Hill Harper's new book "The Conversation" he takes a stab at the dating/marriage crisis in the black community. And why not? Everyone else is doing it from Steve Harvey to your grandmother. The Root gave the book a tepid review, arguing that while Harper tries to address both men and women in the book, it's still largely geared towards black women and doesn't offer much new.

But what more can be said about the black marriage crisis that hasn't been said 50 times over and hasn't been written about exhaustively in Essence Magazine? You have to applaud Harper for giving it the old college try because goodness knows, we need all the help.

More after the jump.

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When Love Is Black (Guest Post)

by Frenchie

When my boyfriend and I first made our relationship official almost a year ago, the most common question I was asked by my friends was, “...Is he black?” As an educated young black woman, the meaning and weight behind the question never ceased to surprise me and is continuously reflected in the dynamics of black relationships. While I've dated inter-racially before, dating an African American man in the U.S. brings an endless amount of joys and challenges like no other. Our relationship has functioned as a sounding board for many issues facing black people in America, and it is necessary to note that this has become an inescapable reality. To date a black man in America is to date the entire race and over 500 years of history.

More after the jump.

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The Incredible Angry Black Woman

Are you angry? Would we not like you when you're angry?

I got into a discussion with a friend about male/female relationships while I was in Washington, D.C. and we were discussing the Obamas. He saw Michelle Obama, the First Lady, as the dominating figure in the relationship due to the fact that the president sometimes defers to her in his speeches or references her, saying he discussed things with her or so on. After listening to him for a bit, I pointed out that often the Obamas are more of a marital Rorschach test that says more about us than them, that no one can actually know another person's marriage but the two people in it and that often we are taking our own experiences, wants, desires and fears and projecting them upon the First Family. But while he said he "liked" Michelle, he did see her as the quintessential "Angry Black Woman."

Oh. That heifer again.

More after the jump.

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Google Stalking TJ Holmes and Hill Harper: Together At Last

If your TV exploded Saturday morning it was because that dasterdly handsome Prince of West Memphis, Sir TJ Holmes of CNN Weekend, was interviewing the sexy scholar/actor Hill Harper about his new book on relationships and marriage in the black community. Yes. Both. Together. AT THE SAME TIME! Be still my little heart. TJ and Hill also briefly mention TJ's engagement where the Teege says "I'm not trying to be part of the problem. I'm trying to be the solution here," in regards to his own engagement. Awww. On Twitter yesterday, TJ asked why 70 percent of professional black women were unmarried and I wrote back, "Because you can't marry us all, Teege!" So true. Enjoy the video. Hopefully it won't cause your browser to melt. (Thanks, Mia for the link!)

And Maury Sez "John Edwards, You ARE the Father!"

Rumors, rumors, rumors abound that former presidential candidate John Edwards is ready to admit that the 18-month-old child of his mistress, Rielle Hunter, is ... yeah ... probably his kid n' stuff.

More after the jump.

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