"not a very ladylike manner"

What kind of fucking uptight world do we live in when a 22-year-old has to apologize for having fun with her friends?

Look, when I think about my daughters growing up, spreading eagle in a limo isn't the image that comes to mind. But thank God I hit 22 before digital cameras, camera-phones, and the internets. Otherwise, who knows what kind of pictures you'd see.

But I know I can't micro-manage their lives, so I'm hoping to just instill a few principles that I hope will keep them in good stead. One of those principles is for them to own their own shit (don't worry, I'll put in better Dr. Phil-ese for them). Whatever they do, I just want them to do it on their own terms, and not because their friends or peers or some collar-turned-up-striped-polo-shirt-wearing frat boys goads them into anything.

I don't want them to ever do (or not do) anything because of how they think it'll make someone else think about/act toward/treat them.

When people tell others (usually women and children) that they should "respect themselves", what they really mean is that they should live by whatever authoritarian-imposed standard they've had enforced on themselves and that they're now projecting onto everyone else.

And fuck you Matt Lauer for playing Torquemada. Asking "what would you think if you were in [the pageant officials'] shoes?" You know what I'd think if I was in the pageant officials' shoes? I'd re-examine my whole fucking existince and wonder what got me to the point of making a career out of exploiting teen and barely-legal young women and calling it a "scholarship contest".

And for all you "what will the children think" rightwingers, don't forget, this is our "first daughter":