Dear Elle Blue,
My family members are staunch Democrats and love to bad-mouth Republicans every time the conversation turns to politics. This is heartbreaking, because I myself am a secret Republican. My mom already knows that I'm in love with a Republican, and she won't stop condemning him behind his back for his beliefs, calling him names like "right-wing whack job" and "little lord Republiroy" (also making fun of his height). My brothers all say stuff like, "Republicans suck" and, "Those Republicans are dumb-***es." I am afraid to come out to them about my beliefs because of potential verbal abuse being heaped on me. Also, being a teenager, I do not have the advantage of moving out of the house and escaping said abuse. What should I do?
—Republican in the Closet
Dear Republican at a Cost,
Ms. Blue suggests you and Little Lord Republiroy should spend more time at his house. As far as your family is concerned, you could tell them, “you know, Republiroy despises Dems and your calling him Republiroy is not helping your cause. He’s only allowing you to live, because you’re my family, but just so you know, one day he could snap”. Then rent the film Natural Born Killers and have them watch it. They’ll think twice about picking on Republiroy.
—Elle
Dear Elle Blue,
One of the things I love most about the wonderful man I'm engaged to is his generosity and kindness to everyone he meets. However, there is one situation in which I feel his "friend" has overstepped her bounds. My fiance is a cancer survivor and has been a cancer coach to help others through this difficult time in their lives. He has a colleague who is terminally ill with cancer. They have met for drinks on a few occasions that I know about. She is married, and he says it is an unhappy marriage. One day I found text messages from her in his cell phone. They said things along the lines of, "I will be dreaming of you tonight." This made me furious. I know that my fiance has good intentions, but I have asked him not to correspond with her anymore. She knows that we are engaged and made these comments anyway. I feel that they are highly inappropriate. Am I wrong for feeling this way, and how should I deal with this situation?
—Jealous Fiancee
Dear Jealous,
She’s terminal you say? How long does she have? Your troubles may soon be over, my dear.
—Elle
Dear Elle Blue
I am a female college student halfway through her degree. I recently started a paid internship at a local company with one of my classmates. We have the same amount of experience, the same amount of coursework, and even sit beside each other and work on nearly identical projects. We recently compared hourly wages (not usually a topic of discussion, but hey, it's college and we're broke), and it turns out my nearly identical classmate is getting paid a dollar per hour more than I am. The difference? My classmate is male. Since I just started working, I don't want to ruin my chances of being asked back or cause any awkwardness, but I feel that I am possibly being discriminated against. I know that unequal pay in the workforce is a topic that women have been struggling with for years. Do you have any suggestions for how I should approach this issue? Do I have a right to want the same pay as my classmate?
—Women's Rights
Dear Womyn,
Ms. Blue suggests you have a chat with your supervisor. State you are well aware that you and your co worker have identical credentials, identical job description and identical assignments, but for some reason, your salaries are not identical. Tell them if they don't give you a raise, pay you the retro salary from the time you started with them and if they don’t hire you back, that’s discrimination.
—Elle
Dear Ms. Blue
I am graduating from college soon and moving to a foreign country with a much hotter climate in the fall, so I have a lot of clothes that I won't need anymore. Also, a lot of things no longer fit or I'm tired of them. I was planning on giving unwanted items to a second-hand store run by a women's shelter. However, my roommate and friend of four years wants to peruse my clothes first and pick out what she wants. In the past, we have traded clothes, but now I am irritated by her sense of entitlement. I have considered taking all of my stuff with me and sorting through it in my hometown, but I don't want to give my parents extra boxes to cart. Am I just being selfish or do I have a right to determine the future of my leftover turtlenecks? If so, how should I handle this clothing catastrophe?
—Almost an Alum
Dear Almost Friendless,
Wait, let me get this straight (my editors must have knocked off early again. I don’t know how this one slipped by). You are GIVING away clothing and you are miffed because your roomie wants to take them off your hands??? You’re GIVING them away! Why do you give a rat’s butt hair who gets the clothes?
—Elle
