Passing Strange

Something I liked tonight was the fat woman having a little bit of a forum to talk about what it's like to be a fat woman. We really need to stop policing woman's bodies and I give the show credit for showing how casually that happens. It was great to see large, attractive women not hiding their bodies in shapeless clothes. I'm glad the swim suits are coming. I kind of loved Hunter, because he's right. I'm thinking Babs and Glen have each fallen on the stairs just once and Glen's fall happened because he was trying to balance some food. There's nothing in what we've seen to indicate that either of them has impaired judgement or even significant physical limitations. Whitney expresses concern for their safety, but she's really only wanting them to do something to make Whitney feel better.

Actually, good natured teasing is part of building a healthy relationship. Couples need to have fun with each other and teasing can be a sign of a strong relationship. Things like someone not noticing an effort happen all the time and it's better to laugh than to fume. This seemed like it was for fun, not malicious. If the trolling was one-sided there might be cause for concern, but we've seen Zack tease Tori, too. Until we find out from Zack that he has a negative reaction to things like this it seems fine.

Tori isn't bragging about having cleaned the kitchen; she's trolling Zack. I love that she used the kepi to do it. It's actually kind of funny.

For some folks, sure, especially if it's a milestone birthday. I'm guessing it mostly depends on what you learned growing up. I felt guilty about not throwing a huge party for my husband's fiftieth; he was ecstatic. Good point. About 80% of people with achondroplasia are born to parents of average height. They didn't need to be tested. Zach's achondroplasia means with each pregnancy there's a 50-50 chance of the child having achondroplasia.

Exactly. Despite what My 600 Pound Life wants us to believe, I think many, if not most, of us who are overweight know about portion size, reading labels, and healthy diet. We also knew, long before science confirmed it, that the problem wasn't losing weight, but keeping it off. Now that we understand more about things like the role of hormones like leptin and ghrelin in weight management, we need to get that information out. I think Whitney blaming her inability to maintain weight loss on PCOS is more about not understanding what her body is doing than making excuses.

I'm enjoying the inclusive designs. I don't think they'll catch on right away, but I hope it will happen over time. While we're waiting, maybe people can work on vocabulary and stop saying "I'm obsessed with" whatever it is. No, you're not. Obsessions aren't comfortable, fun or pleasant in any way. Prabal Gurung's comment about celebrating women of different sizes and making them look beautiful was sweet, I guess, but right now only one designer in this competition is able to do that. I'd love to see a show like this use only models who weren't the conventional type. While we're at it, maybe we could celebrate men of different sizes, too. Agree that Winnie Harlow is much, much better than Naomi Campbell. I'm just not sure why we need models on the judging panel. They don't design or construct clothes; they make them look good. It seems like the expertise equivalent of having food photographers judge Top Chef. Plus, I don't question Heidi's taste level. I know it's bad.

When talking about the paternity test, JL mentioned he'd tried to reach out to Dani's doctor, then added he hoped lawyers didn't need to get involved. WTF? You don't need either. All it takes is a genuine desire for the information and a few bucks. I'm not a fan of Andy Cohen, but he was spot on advising JL to tell his mother to stop fucking around on SM and help him get the test done. (My words, not Andy's.) See NYCFree's post for an educated guess about why it's likely that's not true. Just in general, with DNA tests being accessible and inexpensive, I doubt there's much lassoing going on these days, if there ever was. I wasn't paying strict attention, so this is just an impression. I think Dani did mention wanting to have a family more than once. I remember it being in the context of the relationship with JL, though, as an explanation about why she didn't think a long term relationship with him was in the cards.

It does seem like a set up. Last year Glen, Ciara and Paget were all the crew it took to get the boat from place to place when there were no guests. As much as I dislike Gary, he's good at his job, as is Colin. Take your two best deckies, who can feed themselves and will spend most of their time on outside, and get the job done with no drama.

Alli does what she thinks is the right thing in an effort to spare Sydney's feelings. Sydney's response is to be deliberately hurtful as "revenge." On Alli. For something Gary did. Gary response is to be deliberately hurtful for spite. On Alli. Because she wouldn't do what he wanted when he wanted. Sydney and Gary are horrible, horrible people.

For me, this show hit its "holy shit, they went there!" high point with the death of Zabel. Everything after wasn't going to have the same punch. In the after show one of the creators was just delighted with the huge, surprise twist ending. Yeah, no. When you arrest the murderer at the beginning of the last episode we know he's not really the murderer. Since Mare had already arrested most of Easttown, there were few suspects left and all the bits that were included to help us believe Mare was correct to suspect Ryan also tipped us off. Some other headscratchers for me: In all the time Mare had known the Carrolls, it apparently never came up that Mr. Carroll had been on the Ridley force. When Mare is going after a grown man, who may have a gun, she's fine doing it by herself. When it's an unarmed 13-year-old, she needs multiple officers, none of whom wind up doing much to apprehend the kid. If you're not the parent of a child, you need some sort of legal standing to do things like consenting to medical care or enrolling the kid in school. Maybe Dylan's parents handed DJ over to Lori because she'd have easier access to John for consent. Really, though, they should have continued with their petition. Issues like this are decided based on the best interests of the child. As has been said, Dylan's name was on the birth certificate, which has legal weight, he and his family had an established relationship with DJ, and none of them had killed DJ's mother. They seem better suited than then the lying, blaming wife of a rapist and accessory to murder. Even with the sloppy bits I enjoyed the show. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have spent less time thinking wait, what?

Hannah: Paige and Ciara: Luke (and everyone else):

Sure. There are examples of both ideas right here in this discussion.

Great link, thank you. This illustrates what's so frustrating about this series for me. The writers did a huge amount of research and decided to ignore much of it. I'd rather know what Martha really did than watch things the writers made up, like her having influence on the Lend-Lease Act or being present when Missy collapsed. The truth about all of these people is interesting enough; there's no need to manufacture drama. The writers probably think they've covered themselves with the Fact or Fiction page for each episode. That only works if people actually read it. Many won't and will come away from this program with a distorted view of history. That's sad, because the fantasy really wasn't needed to make this a compelling narrative.

I think so. Then he modeled appropriate behavior for the situation by owning it and apologizing, without even having to have someone tell him to do it. My guess is everyone on that set had taken a similar "suggestion" and that's why there was no pearl clutching from anyone but Andy. News flash, Andy, viewers figured out producer driven shenanigans a long time ago. Kyle does act like he's the head of the household. I think he's trying to stick to the original story line, which was that Kyle organized the house and the group. Now that people are just kind of rolling in from wherever it doesn't make as much sense but, really, someone has to herd the cats. This has been a boring season, but it's been the same with other shows filmed during the pandemic. We're stuck with mostly the same cast in the same place. With this show, I miss the glimpses of their NYC lives and the multiple beach and event trips of previous seasons. Culture question because apparently I'm out of touch: Is asking a woman to be your girlfriend a thing? Stavy's birthday dinner for Lindsay celebrated the night he asked her to become his girlfriend, we saw Des ask Hannah, and Danielle announced she was officially Richard's girlfriend. This seems to be the modern equivalent of "going steady," except these people are way beyond high school.

I'm not sure she was upset. Both Ciara and Luke have said theirs was a rebound relationship. She was maybe irritated or confused by the ghosting, but not hurt. That's why she was open to hooking up with Luke after he explained (and offered a shot at "stardom") and why we didn't hear about the incident until she wanted to divert attention away from Hannah at the reunion. If it had really been a problem, the perfect time to bring it up would have been early in the season, when Hannah was airing her list of Horrors Against Women Committed by Luke. Then the list would have had the one dick move he actually pulled. Hannah and the thousands of other high school and college athletes are modeling accomplishment in sports, not good health. A much better role model for athletes would be someone like Michael Phelps, who misbehaved, righted himself and uses his platform to help others. Hannah uses hers to be a vindictive, manipulative liar in hopes of reaching Bravolebrity status. For a role model for the discipline it takes to eat right and exercise, a better choice would be an everyday person who lost weight and kept it off.

As rude and messy as she can be, I like Kenya. I agree she needs to learn when to shut up, but I laughed out loud at Drew trying to come for her and failing because Kenya just. wasn't. having. it. Kenya has some mental health issues and I won't drag her for them. Nor will I agree that she'll be competitive with her daughter. I hope she realizes the extent of Marc's abuse, leaves him, gets help and gets better, especially if that includes some kind of re-connection with her mother. So after getting a lot of blow back, Porsha looked up something she should have learned in middle school. Yay for her, I guess. I'll give her props for using her platform for good, I'm just not sure about all this growth she's getting credit for. Porsha reinvents herself regularly. She went from Stepford wife to Queen of THOTland to devoted mother in something like four seasons; it was time for something new. I doubt she'll ever be in Jane Fonda's league, but maybe she will cotinue with activism. We'll see. Someone needs to explain to Riley that child support is for the custodial parent to use for the child's needs; it's not money he owes the child. Maybe she could be encouraged to make some of her own, you know, like everyone else in her world does. I wanted to like Drew. I failed.

Exactly, they made him a skirt chasing buffoon. Worse, in the fourth episode they made it look like he designed the lend-lease program because of Martha's influence. In reality, it was part of a long term plan for the US to be ready in case of war, which Roosevelt believed was inevitable. We don't know a lot about Martha, so it makes sense that the writers need to extrapolate from what we do know, i.e., make stuff up. We know a lot about Roosevelt and I wish they'd try for a realistic representation of him. It doesn't help that Kyle MacLachan's characterization seems to depend mostly on broad gestures and waving a cigar around. Actually, this was an accurate representation, at least of the fact that Eleanor and Franklin were partners intellectually and emotionally, if not sexually. As a couple they were intriguing. Way ahead of their time, I think.

She has a BSN in critical care nursing from Chamberlain University.

Just speculation about the Ciara/Hannah friendship. I think Ciara came into the house planning to be Luke's friend/girlfriend. She'd have a built in ally while she got to know the others. Then she made the highly questionable decision to believe Hannah's hysterics about Luke (OMG, he was texting two girls last summer!) and dumped him, leaving her without a friend. The other women were cordial, but Hannah actively embraced her and Ciara went with the sure thing. I think her hope is to become a Bravolebrity. She's in a good position. Not only is she young and attractive, she's a nurse. The best part is she seems to be a travel nurse, which means she can pretty much choose when and where she works. So no matter what the filming schedule, she'd not only be able to work around it, she'd also always be able to be identified as a nurse.

S05.E5: Best Frenemies I don't think it's Carl is off limits as much as it is Carl has been less of an asshole than most everyone else. He fooled us. In the early episodes he looked and acted better because he'd stopped drinking and we loved him. Then came the fight with Luke, where Carl showed he was as much of a jerk as ever, it just took less alcohol for it to show. He got dragged for it here and rightly so. People have been kind and understanding about his grief, but I don't think he's been getting a complete pass for his behavior.

So Hannah admits that she was the one doing the leading on. She's not just a jerk, she's a stupid jerk. Des should feel some kind of way about this, but he's just as much of a jerk, so it's probably a good match. Nobody needs to know the specifics of your sex life, jerks. I may be naive, but I don't think Luke and Lindsay had sex. Hannah said on WWHL that she made that up and that I can believe because "I got a text from a psychic" is pretty lame. I think Luke was telling truth that he liked Stephen and I'd say he's bro enough not to mess with his friend's GF. Plus, last winter he was still hung up on the old GF, as he stopped at making out with Danielle because of it. Danielle and Robert are the antidote for insomnia. And now we find out Danielle has Daddy issues. So that's Danielle, Ciarra, Carl, Lindsay, Hannah and Luke with issues related to parents. It's like it was a question on the application form. Stephen didn't know they were going out for dinner so he showed up to plant candles planning to keep it secret how? I think the show is suffering from lack of seeing the cast members in NYC, traveling from NYC and being able to host or attend events. Still, these people are such messes I continue to love the show. We've seen it on this show before and on Below Deck, Big Brother and I'm sure there are others. On BB we even got to see a senior jerk off under the covers. It's tacky, but I prefer it to the scenes of Hannah and Des that made me shriek "Don't get off in the hot tub, you jerks!"

I thought Barrie's boyfriend was going to say no. OK, I was hoping he would. 😈 If a dish is very good, and apparently Leon's beef cheeks were, I think it's smart to serve it to different groups of guests. It's repeating something during one charter that shows lack of creativity to me. Natasha doesn't seem all that flexible, but I loved that she got away with serving food family style. It seems to me that on other iterations of the show the deck crew hasn't had any problem helping out the interior when needed. Maybe it's different on a sail boat? Regardless, Gary is unpleasant in both looks and personality and Colin seems to want to follow Byron's lead and be the shit stirring engineer. To me, Captain Lee was pretty much all hat, no cattle. He'd huff and puff to the camera, but he never really read anyone for bad behavior. Glen's style is very different, so I'm interested in seeing if there are any repercussions from the drunken swimming.

Perfect description of both Carl and Kyle, unless giant refers to size. 😉 It makes me really stabby when a man refers to women as "females." And the term "fuck boy" doesn't even come close to describing the toxic masculinity and male chauvinism we've seen from both Kyle and Carl. They can miss me with their pious proclamations of wokeness. Paige nailed it, Kyle chose hypocrisy. Even though I think he's a hipster doofus, I'm Team Luke. Really, how did he lead Hannah on? According to her they spent time together, went out for dinner and texted daily. No mention of any real dates, special occasions spent together or romantic gestures like, you know, flowers. Plus when a guy's pet name for you is "Berndog" it likely means he doesn't consider you girlfriend material. What Carl did to Lauren Wirkus was leading on. Luke's behavior didn't even come close. But most of these people aren't exactly critical thinkers, so all Hannah had to do was proclaim loudly that she'd been led on and Luke was an outcast, leaving her as his only "friend". The Big Fight and the kumbaya moments afterward seem to have changed all that. There may have been sardonic laughter in my house after that. I'm on Team Luke when it comes to Ciara, too. His crimes there? Sending her flowers and, after she'd made clear she was friend zoning him, texting to ask his friend if she'd like to watch a movie. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No. Affiliate links lead to sites where people buy the product from whatever company sells it. The company delivers to the buyer and sends the affiliate her commission. Kind of like buying a house. The realtor doesn't own the house, she sells it on behalf of the owner and receives a commission for doing so. You're right, it's unlikely that Whitney would have paid partnerships, because she doesn't have enough followers. For instance Olivia Jade, Lori Loughlin's daughter, had more than a million followers on each of two platforms. She also had a popular market, beauty. Nothing against Whitney here. For people like Olivia Jade, being an influencer is a career. For people like Whitney it's only an alternate income stream.

I don't follow Whitney's SM, so what follows is based only on what people have posted in this forum. So, about shilling products. What Whitney seems to be doing is affiliate marketing. People may say they've partnered with, or are sponsored by, a brand but someone offering a coupon is usually just an affiliate. All you have to do is sign up and you'll get a unique link. Wherever someone uses your link to buy, you get a small commission. Affiliates don't get free products. It's usually best to find affiliates that you can incorporate seamlessly into your content. A fashion blogger would want different affiliates than a recipe site, for instance. If, like Whitney, your SM is personality driven, it makes sense to try multiple affiliates and eventually concentrate on the ones that give you the best return. In the early aughts I had maybe 10 affiliate links on my site. I did nothing more than list the links on the site and do a little minor promotion of the site itself. It was a niche site, so 250-300 visitors a day was good. With that I made $50 a month for doing very little. Today someone with a million followers and multiple platforms could do much better. In a genuine partnership/sponsorship a brand pays the influencer directly for endorsements. It may also provide free products to use in, say, a demonstration. Unlike affiliate programs, where anyone can sign up, brands usually contact the influencer to offer a partnership.