Feminist Pub XX - may the summer rains wash the patriarchy down the plughole

Buffy's analogy is a good one. I would add that sometimes the roads seem to be built purposely to converge. I spend a good portion of my working life where the sexism road and the ageism road come together. It is not a pretty place.

I'd better post something, you'd fallen off my threads I'm on list. I've been busy with back to school stuff.

I'm loving the conversation about books in here. I'm only reading books by women this year, I read loads, mostly fiction, and its quite refreshing to only be reading female authors. Some of the categories in a reading challenge I'm doing with a book club have been tricky to find by women but I'm managing (have you ever found a spy book or a westeen written by a woman? there aren't many around)

I'm back at school and it's quite startling to me this term how much more of my time is spent dealing with boys than girls. I've given out 15 detentions this week and only one of them was to a girl, all the rest were to boys. It's the constant interruptions and shouting out that boys seem to do more of than girls, but I don't know how to train them to be more considerate to the others in the class, the girls are mostly already quite good at thinking about being fair and letting the others learn/ waiting patiently to ask for help. If anyone has any ideas on the subject, I'd love to hear them.

Is it a left-to-right dusting motion or circular?

It's not so much painful as achey - like all you need is a stretch. But can't walk about stretching all the time. Can I!?

When I was pregnant the physio told us a magic trick that works for lower back pain - lean against the wall and press as hard as possible. That usually works, but not this time. I'm going to try the duster move. (Though I haven't held a duster for years, and I've never cleaned any clock ...)

The gp might be able to give you something for the pain. Hope you feel better soon, bad backs are shitty.

I have trouble with mine often and one of the physio excercise I was given a while ago is to pretend there's a duster in your bum cheeks and clean a clock with it!! I have a brilliant imagination but a duster sticking out of my arse is a step too far, cleaning a clock with said duster, impossible.

I have a brilliant osteo friend. Is that the same?

I am wallowing in self-pity because I have a bad back - not bad enough to go about daily life though... Should I see the doctor?

I'm not reading anything at the moment but plan to read DS1's copy of the last installment of the How to train your dragon series.

I am re-reading Blanche Wiesen Cook's two part biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. It is very compelling; she gives quite a bit of attention to Eleanor's intense friendships with other women. I highly recommend it.

Thank you for the suggestions and links.

I think it was you yonic who recently posted about someone reading only books by women for a year? That's what made me decide to read some History and the role women played. I used to really love reading and would get through two or three books a week, but it was always fiction.

The downside of now reading on my ipad is that it's too easy to just start a new book, wheras with an actual book I had to finish before starting another as I couldn't lug loads of books around with me.

I'm going to (hopefully) have the cyst in my breast drained or something today so will have plenty of reading time on the bus and while sat about.

I enjoyed Bluestockings, too. Also Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson.

Hello!

I'm doing nicely. I am enjoying being a literally hairy-legged lesbian feminist (well, I'm not, but I'm seeing this lovely woman which is nice ). So I am a bit quiet on here, but will be back properly soon.

I really liked 'Bluestockings' by Jane Robinson - about the first women in UK universities. Margaret Forster's 'Hidden Lives' about her own history (and reflecting on women's history in working class communities over the last three generations) is great too, as is her 'Significant Sisters'.

I'll come back and think of more, too.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club/2368298-History-books-post-when-you-spot-a-good-deal

A couple on there...

Alison Weir on Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I?

Let me find my history club thread..

Hello!

How is everyone doing?
It's quiet in here :)

I've recently started reading "If This Is A Woman" I'm only one chapter in, it's been interesting and sad so far.

I'm going to try and read one book a month about women in history, if anyone has any recommendations I'd be very greatful.

Thanks! Will check in.

For the feminist academics on here, I've started a new thread in our brand new Academics Corner! Come and chat so I don't feel lonely! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/academics_corner/2461928-Nice-new-corner-Come-and-chat

That mirror story... yuck. At least police response is improving in leaps and bounds though.

I'm inclined to believe, since it is as we all know so hard to get the police to take sexual harassment seriously, that the girl did not request the picture and it was indeed harassment. Not quite sure what you mean about the boy not deserving a public shaming tokyo - do you mean the girl sending the picture on? I agree with Yonic that that was the wrong thing to do on principle, because that just escalates problems, although I can't feel sorry for the lad if my interpretation of events is correct. I would like to see a society in which a girl getting harassment can report it through official channels in full confidence of it being taken seriously. If you mean via the media, it seems pretty obvious to me from the bias of the reports that it was the boy's mother contacting the press, expecting to get patriarchal sympathy (or just some sad attempt to get attention) - and that's worked thanks to the modern media's uncritical press release repeat system.

tokyo, I don't know who contacted the media but I'm sure it wasn't the police or the school...

I think the original boy would go on the list for sending the picture whether or not it was requested as the crime is disseminating indecent images of a minor. Of course, if it had been one requested image that wasn't sent further, the police would never have known.

Just - ugh

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/minecraft-pervert-harassed-teenager-older-6211563
"A teenage Minecraft expert with 350,000 online fans subjected a girl and an older woman to a campaign of sick abuse."