Good morning or afternoon,

It’s fem Friday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all my March baby subscribers.

As it’s the spring, or at least has been intermittently here, I am wearing a light jacket and no tights to celebrate. If you’re in London, it’s far too cold to do that. Please wear a proper coat if you are going to leave your home or workplace.

The Pill! It is the fifty seventh anniversary of the Pill this year. Look at this excellent tagline before you read the article:

the fastest way to create awkward silence, where even the cricket chokes, is by stating with the most serious face that I can muster, “Yes, I’m cataloging birth control pills at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.” […] On one occasion, while I was meticulously documenting the oral contraceptives exhibited in the museum onto a clipboard, a visitor laughed and took a photo of me—probably supposing that I was eagerly jotting down some pointers.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2010/02/50th-anniversary-of-the-pill.html

You guys know how much I love problem pages, and here is a really great example of the genre. I don’t want to spoil the question that elicited the below response. It seems quite obvious when she puts it like this but I guess we all have our journey:

There is no healthy, sustainable love story that includes “I knew he was cheating, but he wouldn’t admit it, so after going through his phone, I falsified medical information to get him to confess and now everything’s great.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2017/03/dear_prudence_i_lied_about_herpes_so_my_boyfriend_would_admit_he_cheated.html

I’ve searched and searched and it looks like I never sent around the fake boyfriend article in a previous fem Friday. Firstly, my apologies for that – I enjoy reading it and have done so several times – and secondly, here’s a piece about fake girlfriend apps, some of which appear to be shoddily written in a quite entertaining way.

I’m not sure that I can refer to this investigative journalism project as a joke given how many hours I’ve legitimately squandered talking to robot women. Like, downloading one virtual girlfriend app is a funny bit, and then downloading 23 virtual girlfriend apps is another thing entirely.

https://thehairpin.com/the-girlfriend-experiences-5f69305f31e9#.j1tb6kmvr

Have a great weekend,

Alex.