Great piece by academic Kathleen Stock (mentions MN)

Did damn not come back?

Oh I do love when TRAs try the advanced biology card when Bowl is around.

Shamelessly placemarking.

thebewilderness that meltdown is very telling!

I have long admired your calm, informed, civil contributions (often in the face of rather uncivil replies)

Indeed and your level of education has been transparent in your posts. Many congratulations on your pregnancy and thanks everyone for making me laugh more than I have in a long time.

Bowl i hope mini bowl gives you some peace before they get skin side

Bowlofbabelfish very good wishes and best hopes for a safe arrival.

Also thanks for all your posts in recent months, I've learned a lot from you (not just the sciency stuff!).

I have long admired your calm, informed, civil contributions (often in the face of rather uncivil replies)

Damn2 is having their narcissistic rage meltdown on the Reality thread.

Wow. That's great. Thank you. Is yours GCSE, or not that up to date? Because I'm getting a bit fedup with hearing from people who think the stuff they learned in the first year or two of secondary school trumps the expertise of serious research scientists and consultant-level specialist clinicians.

Anyone else been calculating the time taken to achieve all those amazing academic qualifications and professional life .... AND still be young and fertile enough to be “ a little bit pregnant “?? Very impressive.

God I'm cringing so much I think I might have performed some accidental genital surgery on myself

Oh, is Damnthat not coming back then? I can’t imagine why...

Bowl I don't "know" you on here but congrats from a stranger and best wishes for your final few weeks.

Blimey Bowl, there you are, flaunting your c*s privilege and your elitist female biology. ..

Congratulations

Have a lovely maternity leave, Bowl. If you get too hot a child's paddling pool in the garden is bliss.

I'd guess you'll have more time for Mumsnet rather than less. It's the sort of thing that easily fits round anything else you're doing.

Happy maternity leave

That would mean that the structural barriers women faced in their careers were rooted in female reproductive biology and we can't be referencing pesky awkward facts like that, now, can we?

Do not get me started on that one...

Cheers all! Will report back when successful delivery of infant has occurred (fingers crossed.)

Great news bowl. Have very happy maternity leave.

Still several weeks to go!! I’m clocking off early because I’ve been very unwell with HG and SPD and physically I need to rest (knackered old body I’m afraid...) on crutches and still spewing daily so rather shattered.

If this one is like the last one I will be having an awful lot of time in the wee small hours to muck around in MN

Thank you for all your good wishes, I’ll be lurking even if I’m too bug eyed with tiredness to post ;)

Dammit if Bowl is about to go on maternity leave then she’s likely to drop a sprog any day now and we all know how those pesky babies eat up our time. Bowl - I hope you’ll still find time to come here and educate/amuse us when you can.

Congratulations

Bowl, that is simple not enough, never mind having a baby (congratulations by the way) go back to school.

Another congrats from me, Bowl.

(Another late pregnancy from a female professional scientist - is definitely a thing in my workplace, myself included. Almost as though there's some sort of tension there between the workplace culture to publish, publish, publish while you establish your career, versus the old biological clock when it comes to beating the menopause... But no, surely not. That would mean that the structural barriers women faced in their careers were rooted in female reproductive biology and we can't be referencing pesky awkward facts like that, now, can we?)

And can a wizard identify as a witch if they want to? And have I drifted ridiculously far from the point of the thread?]

I bet there's a fan fic for that.

Also want to add my congratulations Bowl on your pregnancy and indeed, your efficiency - something I haven't quite mastered.

Enjoy maternity leave.

Bowl would definitely be in Ravenclaw.

[ponders why wizards and witches don't learn any biology at Hogwarts. Do they all leave without knowing how babies are made? And can a wizard identify as a witch if they want to? And have I drifted ridiculously far from the point of the thread?]

Oh thank you! That’s a lovely image :)

One more day to go then maternity leave... I cannot wait.

Well presumably Damnthat is not qualified to air any opinions on here anymore since they assume we should only hear from experts and I think that might be a relief to us all.

I like the article and my first degree is philosophy (I know ) so I happen to know that deconstructing how language is formed, defining what words mean and the importance of that meaning and how we go about debating a topic are very much in the wheelhouse of a philosopher (see also Kripke, Wittgenstein, Frege, Ayer et. al. - oh and any philosopher who has had to take on a point of view and rebut it - soooo ... that would be all of them).

As I said before ... very impressive.
Thank you for clarifying the timings.... there are people on the MN site who can be less than honest so a little bit of cynicism is to be expected I think.
Good luck with your pregnancy... I’m sure you’ll be just as “ efficient “ as a mum ! Unfortunately you won’t get any certificates for it... well , I didn’t.