4!

Denise — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 05:41:18 -0500

So, I don't drink either. Except last year at BlogHer I had 2 glasses of red wine and my body hated me for it. So, no alcohol at all for me this year or ever again!

I'm very amused by your filter problem Suzanne, I know someone very much like that. In fact - I live with her! (And my filter is only slightly better, heh.)

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

We'll have a Diet Coke toast!

Suzanne Reisman — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:04:02 -0500

Yay! I can't wait to hang out with the three of you!

Catherine, sometimes I think people assume that I am drunk because I say almost anything that comes to mind, and thus I don't bother even holding a fake drink. And it's another reason why I don't drink. It scares me to think about what would happen if my almost non-existent filter dropped away...

Good (sober) times ahead!

Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

highly engaging

Nordette — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 23:03:17 -0500

Nina, you have good questions for the women you interview, and Suzanne's responses were highly engaging.

BTW, Suzanne. Due to a health issue, I can't drink; so, see you at Blogher.

"Love is liquid. Brew and be drunkards!" ~~Nordette. And here's a link to the blog.

Great Interview

A Elliot — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 22:07:42 -0500

Great interview!
A. Elliot

you better....

Catherine Morgan — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:50:24 -0500

Hi Laurie...you better chat with us! I have no problem hangin with the "drinkers" (don't tell anybody, but I'll even hang with the "smokers", although I don't smoke either)...and I especially want to meet you. I'm so excited about Chicago...you better chat with me! :)

By the way...great job with the debate.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and CatherineBlogs.com

I drink, but I have to hang out with you guys...

lauriewrites — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:31:20 -0500

Because you're great. So if I promise not to bother you on the off chance (haha...more likely it's likely!) that I have one too many Yahootinis (or whatever the drink of the moment happens to be this time around...) please say I can chat with you too. : )

I'll "hang" with you...

Catherine Morgan — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:34:42 -0500

Hi Suzanne...I'll "hang" with you.

I donâ€™t drink alcohol. (I hope that doesnâ€™t mean people wonâ€™t want to hang out with me at BlogHer!)

I don't drink either, for a lot of the same reasons as you. But in addition, I am kind of the "running joke" among my friends when it comes to drinking alcohol. It seems I can't really finish one drink without becoming obnoxiously gitty. I imagine it's because I very rarely have a drink, so the once or twice a year that I do it takes very little to affect me.

Many times I ask the bartender to give me a soda-water with a lime (that I drink very slowly...because I actually hate soda-water), just so people think I have a drink in my hand.

Anyway...I'll be one of the non-drinkers, and I would love to have your company at the BlogHer Conference.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and CatherineBlogs.com

Ten Money Questions for Suzanne Reisman

Nina Smith — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:55:05 -0500

In this weekâ€™s Ten Money Questions, we speak with Suzanne Reisman. She is the contributing editor for feminism and gender at BlogHer and also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants. Suzanne provides us with some sapient views on the almighty dollar flanked by a perspective on gender. Enjoy!

1. Do people assume roles in relationships based more on earnings or gender?
I think increasingly people assume roles in relationships based on personal strengths and interests versus gender or even who earns more. It seems like couples are finding that one person may be better at managing a checking account or retirement investments than the other, and so they run with it. Maybe this does have to do with women bringing home ever more significant portions of the family income, but itâ€™s nice.

2. What is your most significant memory about money?
I remember being at the grocery store with my mom when I was in early elementary school, and the total being more than she had. At that point, grocery stores didnâ€™t take credit cards (which seems hard to believe!), so we had to decide which items we would put back until we got to a number that we could cover. My mom was mortified, and I couldnâ€™t understand why. I thought it happened to everyone, but clearly this was not the norm in the middle to upper middle class community we lived in.

3. What is your worst habit around finances?
I am inexplicably and irrationally cheap, and often it ends up costing me more than if I had just not tried to save 13 cents or whatever in the first place! For example, when I was planning my wedding eight years ago, I was increasingly disgruntled at the mounting price tag. I thought that buying a wedding dress off eBay would save a lot of money. Unfortunately, I got completely caught up in a bidding war and spent a little more than I really planned to. That would have been fine had I not also grossly misjudged the size I wore. It was so big that alterations would have been absurdly expensive, so I relisted on eBay. Eventually I did sell it (to a 6 foot tall drag queen, which might give you a sense of how wrong the dress was for a 5'1" 135 lb. woman!), but at half the price. I did keep the veil, though, so at least it was not a total loss. Anyway, I am often penny wise and utterly pound foolish.

4. Do you think women are still conditioned (perhaps by mothers and society) that marrying a man is a financial plan?
I think that some women are conditioned to think that they need to marry, but increasingly that it not the case. Women are taking their financial security into their own hands. I just saw a report in â€œUSA Todayâ€ showing that college enrollment in the 1970s was something like 58% male, and today it is 50-50. The projections are that college enrollment will be 60% female in the near future. In a world that increasingly requires two incomes to make ends meet (and I am not talking about making ends meet in a luxurious lifestyle, but in a basic comfortable one), women are making plans to meet these challenges, which is important.

5. You wrote in one post, â€œDamn, I save a lot of money by not wearing make up.â€ How else do you save money?
I donâ€™t drink alcohol. (I hope that doesnâ€™t mean people wonâ€™t want to hang out with me at BlogHer!) I donâ€™t really like most alcoholic beverages very much, and they can be $10 a glass and more, so why bother? Also, I try and buy things like clothes only when they are on sale or off of eBay.

6. Has debt had any impact on your life?
I have been very lucky when it comes to debt. My parents are extremely debt averse, so I grew up with the attitude that you should never buy something unless you can pay for it at once, unless it is a house or a car. As a result, I never charge anything that I canâ€™t pay for when the bill arrives, and I always pay in full, or I donâ€™t buy it. I took out some loans when it came to college and grad school, but my parents and scholarships ensured that I didnâ€™t have an unreasonable burden for my undergraduate education, and my husband and I made a very good income combined (OK, even without my working, we are in good shape thanks to him), so we can handle my grad school loans, too. I am just extremely lucky to have fallen in love and married someone who loves his profession, which happens to pay well, or it would have closed a lot of doors to me in terms of where I went to school and what I did afterward.

My good fortune is that I have never had a life crisis, like a medical emergency or loss of a job, that made it necessary for me to go into debt to cover my basic expenses. I know a lot of people are not so lucky.

7. When women shop, do you think they are spending to satisfy a greater void?
Sometimes, and I think that is increasingly the case for men these days, too. We are so bombarded with messages that we can, in fact, buy happiness. If we have the right clothes, the right bodies, the right accessories, etc. we will live happily ever after. And since our world is increasingly less secure (jobs with no medical insurance, pensions, and ever lower wages and off-shoring), easy escapes from every day realities are completely understandable.

8. Do you and your husband see eye-to-eye on money?
We have the same priorities, although I am far more insecure about it than he is. I worry so much more.

9. Are there gender stereotypes based on finances? Where do these stem from?
There was a strong stereotype in the past that women donâ€™t understand money and arenâ€™t good at managing it, although like most stereotypes, that has never really been true. Women have managed households on budgets for years, but that never seems to count as official money management the same way that raising kids and keeping a house isnâ€™t considered â€œwork.â€ Obviously, neither sex has an innate financial gene, and I think that society is catching up to that truth.

10. If you could buy one thing right now what would it be?
Sanity! :)

More about Suzanne Reisman
Suzanne Reisman lives in Manhattan with her husband and a 13 lb. rabbit, Tycho Bunnae, but is unwilling to shake her Chicago upbringing and thus insists on calling soda â€œpopâ€ and sneakers â€œgym shoes.â€ Currently, sheâ€™s a contributing editor on Feminism & Gender at BlogHer, and writing a book about unusual attractions in New York City. Her other blog, Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants is about feminism, travel, things she finds funny, and lifeâ€™s various irritations.

-------------
Read other interviews in Ninaâ€™s Ten Money Questions series at Queercents.

BlogHer - Ten Money Questions for Suzanne Reisman - Comments