In this day and age! A thread for unbelievably obvious examples of sexism.

it depends on the type of plait.

bog standard three tail plait, i wouldn't compliment anyone! but a french plait, yes, i would compliment it and ask them to do one on me

Iran appear to have cut degree places for women by 50% on certain university courses (eg mechanical engineering) and is expecting them to do things like art instead, or stay home and have babies. Doesn't get more sexist than that.

people compliment me when i put fish plait in my daughters hair....

I have also complimented other mums on their plaiting skills.

Wigeon your Fb friend might not be at the helm of feminist thinking or imaginative parenting, but it sounds as if she's doing her best and moving in the right direction. Why the need for a 'put down'?

DH is a sahd and I am sick to death of comments. 1) People assume he was made redundant and I had to go to work - people don't seem to be able to comprhend that this is a choice we both wanted and decided upon from our own free will (even my own family don't get it) 2) When DH does my daughters hair in plait and people get all amazed and comment about how well he is doing - would peple compliment a sahm on putting a plait in her daughters hair? 3) People are always amazed that he does the lions share of the housework saying stuff like "you have him well trained" - he is at home full time while I work of course he does the lions share as did I when I was a sahm. I could go on but I will start to bore people....

Also it annoys the hell out of me when we pay in restaurants I almost always pay as the sole earner, I leave my card on the bill, the card that has the name "MRS E A Dead" and yet everytie without fail they hand the terminal to DH for the PIN....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I would have to divorce him just for saying that.

I knew I really liked one of the school mums when she brought her 2 yo DS to a party in a princess dress, much to her husband's dismay. He's a lovely little boy and I thought it was delightful to see him want to copy his big sister and be in that gang, without any sense of it being unacceptable. Lessons were a) girls are copyable and cool and b) I can do and be who I want.

I have a friend who told me just this week that her husband would divorce her if she encouraged her son to do ballet.

Hmm I dunno Widgeon Princess Smartypants is often recommended on here as a feminist option so she might not have meant anything by it!

wigeon I think that's actually the last of the taboos. Letting boys see girls as normal. Letting them do what girls do. Letting them dress like girls if they want to.

When your acquaintance doesn't notice will be the moment it's all been done and dealt with. Sadly we are nowhere near. All we are dealing with is "women's issues" which leaves men the option of seeing them as belonging to that weird and slightly lesser sect of people who you definitely would not want to be mistaken for. Biggest humiliation in the world - a man behaving like or being taken for a woman.

Ok, wise women, help me come up with a pithy facebook comment for a (childless) facebook acquaintance who has just posted this:

"My 3 year old nephew is clearly a feminist. One of the bedtime stories he chose for me to read to him tonight was Princess Smarty Pants. Right on, dude"

Huh? Surely in this day and age no one should even raise an eyebrow at a little boy choosing a book in which the protagonist is a girl?!

All I have come up with is "Funny that. In my household when my DD chooses Thomas the Tank Engine, or Robinson Crusoe, or Oliver who was small but mighty, we just call that "reading". Any better gentle yet witty put downs?!

The Today programme and women

www.guardian.co.uk/media/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/sep/20/george-entwistle-women-today-programme?newsfeed=true

Also this is where the Today programme really is made worse by being so male. IMHO all things are worse by not having women in them but the Today programme is particularly noticeable because they are by and large the same age and style of man (though the introduction of Evan and Justin has helped). So stuffy and think they are being witty when they say one slightly off-script thing and then they all chortle together.

Whereas I have been known to laugh out loud at r5. They have a male and female anchor and the woman has carved out her own personality in the show. The men acknowledge and make space for her and vice versa. It's normal but nice.

drjohnsonscat - agree with you about Today programme. Only heard 1 woman being interviewed this morning. And she was an actress. The rest was all men being interviewed.

Not read the whole thread but at goatbong's card.

The Today Programme. All of it.

I listen to r5 breakfast instead. Surprisingly good.

Just thought of another one, a couple of weeks back DS's nursery school teachers (both women as it happens) come round for our home visit. DH was working, but I did mention that they would see him the next morning as he drops DS off for his first day.

I get told "the PTA are always looking for bright enthusiastic young things like you to get involved, perhaps you might consider joining"

The next morning DH gets told "we love to see the Dad's. Did you know they are looking for new (school) governors? Perhaps you might put yourself forward"

WTF?

ha meddie I've had the same - "don't be so bloody smart and capable, act helpless and dumb, that's the way to catch a man. "

Possibly, yes. But what the heck will I then do with a man who wants a fragile flower for a wife? He'll run like wind once I show my true colours.

Quietly said Oh well as a med student you will have this to look forward to
Relative or Nurse says to patient "well did you see the doctor?"
Answer "well I saw the lady doctor"

The fact that there are now more women in med. school than men has just made me have this fantasy...

Relative or nurse says to a patient "well did you see the doctor?"
Answer "Well I saw the gentleman doctor."

As I said, just a fantasy.

My mother. comments in the last week include

'you're his mum, dont let him go out looking scruffy, you should iron his clothes for him' (regarding my 23 year old son)

You know your problem (on being single by choice) you need to stop being so bloody clever, men don't like clever women, just because you can change a wheel doesn't mean you should, act a bit daft, smile a lot, before you know it you will get a new boyfriend.

I,ve took some of your washing as I had none to do, (my sons, not my daughters incidentally, though both of them are adults and they know how to use a machine).

'Lucy asked for a new mouse for her computer for her birthday, I got her one with only 2 buttons on so it wont be hard to use' (shes a graduate from a red brick uni, it drives her mental)

If we didn't laugh it would make us cry.

housework
housework housework housework

grrrrrrr

housework

that is all

Why is it loads of men seem to think they have the right to say something to you when you're walking by them on the street? A man yesterday was on the other side of the pavement and just said "Hello, love" as I was walking along minding my own business. I don't feel the need to say "Hello, darling" to every bloke I see. Do men do that to other men

(when i say officially, i mean inform the relevant bodies)

re: the doctorate - pleas e see my last post on the subject - i was wrong, you can change it, but you have to do it officially, not just start calling yourself Dr marriedname. :)