feminist intervention of the day

so i got an email this morning from a woman who runs a trendspotting firm asking me if i would like to attend a dinner to help brainstorm ideas to get girls to attend an all-women’s college. in return for this “labor of love” i was offered “a good time.” 

you’re kidding, right?

do not sign me up to support any women’s college that thinks that any woman should commit her time, for no pay, in the service of a for-profit company and one of its clients. the fact that i am an actual expert, and have been writing about teenagers and feminism for over a decade, makes this proposition particularly ludicrous. 

there was one moment when i almost put an “i’m sorry to be….” or “i hope this isn’t….” disclaimer into my reply email but, actually, i’m not the one who should be apologizing. 

(“i just think it’s really wrong” makes me sound a little bit too sassy magazine circa 1992 for my taste, but it’s the first thing i thought of, and spending too much time thinking of something a little bit less so there would sort of undermine the point of the whole exercise.)

i hope the college in question can figure it out. they gave me a scholarship when i was in high school—they must have money somewhere!—and i almost went there. i love women’s colleges.