u/Fun-Advertising-9604

Hi! My name is Vee, and I’m looking for people who’d be interested in joining my women’s writing group. Feel free to shoot me a message (with a brief introduction) if you’re interested! My only real requirements are that you be a) a woman and b) over 18 years of age.

Genre/s: Open to any, but I primarily write literary fiction and poetry, and I feel most comfortable critiquing pieces in these genres.

Goals/expectations/commitment: While I anticipate this being a fairly casual group, I am looking for active participants; ideally, you’d be willing to contribute (be that in the form of providing critique/sharing a short piece/general encouragement) at least 2x-3x a week.

Writing/Experience Level: Amateur

Meeting Place: Discord and Zoom

Max Size: 10

Thanks!

reilly if you’re out there i’m really sorry

i’m doing an internship in a rural area so all of the fun -isms (racism, sexism, whatever) are unfortunately really baked into the culture out here. i can usually deal with it by reminding myself that the people are (mostly) kind and generous, and that they just weren’t immersed in the world of woke instagram infographics from an early age like i was.

but holy fuck whenever i have to do anything with my male coworkers it’s like i cease to exist in the same 100 mile radius as them. they will immediately pass any task—no matter how simple it is—to the other male intern: measuring something? let’s hand the tape to him. digging out a canal? we’ll teach him how to use the mini-excavator while you stand awkwardly in the corner. drive a backhoe 15 minutes down the road? it doesn’t matter that he’s never used heavy equipment in his life, we’ll just give him eight beers beforehand and he’ll be fine.

even when i try to be assertive and express that i’m interested in learning how to do something, it’s treated as cute/quaint and i’m monitored in a way that the male intern isn’t. like i don’t need you guys to sing the praises of valerie solanas or whatever the fuck, i just want you to teach me things!!!!

there’s just something about a guy in a dirty carhartt jacket with a pack of zyns visible in the front pocket of his wranglers that has me feeling like i need to go gnaw on barbed wire to calm down.

i’m a city girl and extremely mid so there’s not really any reciprocal interest but it’s honestly been impacting my work performance a little. the other day this old cowboy gave me shit for not being able to lift a bag of concrete by myself and it threw me off my game for the rest of the day.

somebody please send help.

signed,
boner in the boonies

occasionally, i (with a great deal of shame) get sucked into the youtube shorts rabbit hole. there’s this couple on there whose content is dedicated to backpacking, specifically the variety of backpacking where you peel off all of your skin so you don’t have to carry an extra 2.1lbs on your 11,000 mile thru hike.

there’s nothing wrong with backpacking—i like backpacking!! i’ve gone on a lot of backpacking trips myself. and there’s nothing wrong with thru-hiking either—i’d love to do the PCT/ACT someday. but it gets to a point where i feel like it becomes less about spending time in the natural world and more about dropping the price of a used car on a tent that weighs ever so slightly less than every other tent on the market. it’s commodity fetishism for people who have a membership at their local indoor bouldering gym