I started BARB for myriad reasons, and placing value upon a woman’s employabity is something I return to frequently, as I navigate this new terrain for myself, searching for my next gig thing, knowing I’m here to make a difference. I have in my past and I will in my now. Most people need to work, and in most of those cases, until they’re ready to retire, beginning at age 62, when we can collect a monthly social security stipend. Oh, how I do admire the women and men I meet who have retired at age 50. How did they do it, I often wonder. (Obviously, they made sound financial decisions.) I have a friend who, when she found herself on this dark side of neglect by an industry that she was instrumental in building, decided to live off the interest of her savings account. Now that woman? She should have been hired for savvy forecasting. To be unemployed at any age is frightening—rent has to be paid, after all. To be ignored by recruiters and employers is devastating, and even more so, when you have so much to offer. To be given a package at age 55, from a corporation, knowing you need to work for at least seven more years, because you have a kid in college, because you have plumbing issues, because you know that if you stop working, if you are forced to pause your lifetime’s routine, you will disintegrate. To be discounted because of an age, because because because? No. It’s unacceptable. We are out here. We are legions of people who can do the work. We have experience, we have careers, we have a roadmap of success. Women have for centuries carried the business of livelihood.  For those of you in hiring positions, bring us in. For those of us in search of a new role, hold strong, ladies. There’s a place for us. We may have to dig, but we’ll find it.

Angela Bassett: “There was a lot of comedy in the real-life situation of it, of searching for your autonomy.”

BARB is #76 on the Feedspot blog list.

Yesterday was National Orgasm Day. July 31. Jot it down, keep your finger on the pulse.

What’s happening in your sex life?

The anger of women belongs to us all.

I’m not a fan of yelling, so….

What are you doing to your skin? Particularly, your face.

On making friends with other parents. Having been there, I know, it’s a challenge.

And now have a laugh with Amber Ruffin.