What little acts of rebellion or activism do you do?

[Steelworks]

I’m not talking about going on marches, but minor things, that you know about.

Mine is I won’t play Michael Jackson songs, after all the alleged behaviour, which certainly wouldn’t be accepted by today’s standards.

The second is I won’t buy McCain products, after they put out an advert for Smileys, which referred to ‘knocker’s’ in them. I thought that language had died out in the seventies.

I refuse to fly in or out of Heathrow after a sales assistant in one of the shops was horrible to me and literally looked me up and down with a disgusted look on her face, After looking me up and down she said 'I don't think this is the kind of shop for you' I was in there picking something up for my boss who was stood behind me and saw what happened, He wasn't pleased at all.

Won't shop anywhere that supports the gender wang movement.
Thinking of wearing / buying a cross necklace after reading some posts here, though I'm an atheist
Buy coffee from Gails where I didn't before, because of the constant profoundly hypocritical bleating of others, and I want to show support to my Jewish friends.
If I'm watching tv and David Tennant or Emma Watson comes on, I switch it off.

What's the issue with Harry Potter?

I avoid businesses that use cartoons in their marketing because that is how they view their customers

I've thought of a fun one: about ten years ago, me and my friend realised that a local cyclepath needed greenery chopping back and leaves swept. We wondered about contacting the county council, but decided that we'd actually rather spend two hours doing it ourselves than two hours emailing back and forth. So we did! Then we turned it into an annual event. After the leaves have dropped, we get together a few local chums and clear the path up ourselves. Sometimes we'll have a spring/summer meet too, to trim back the grass that's growing over the path. A couple of years ago, I noticed that there was some low-level barbed wire where people clearly like to go off piste and walk in some scrubby woodland next to the path. So I brought my bolt croppers to the next path-clearing morning. We would be happier without picking up dog poo - but, by and large, path-clearing is good fun and gets the job done to a standard that we like. Recommended!

I believe sexual abuse and rape victims.

JK Rowling is a great advocate for women's rights. She believes women have the right to privacy, dignity and safety even when that means men don't get what they want. Radical.

I really try to do this. Caroline Criado Perez has a term for the assumption that everything is male unless stated otherwise, I can't remember what it is, but it really opened my eyes.

Always using terms like 'firefighter', 'police officers etc rather than...man

Very pleasing to hear my daughter use those terms as standard.

JK Rowling posted something on X which was misinterpreted as transphobia. And she gives money and campaigns for the rights of women and children.

On the plus side I have started reading the books as a result

I don't support companies that are directly/ indirectly linked to genocide, support genocidal governments or the illegal occupation of land.

I don't buy coke or Gail's products and I am reducing my Amazon purchases to almost nil.

Refuse to ask someone to move their bag on a train seat

I just look at the bag then look at them, then sit down

Who do you think you are

the amount of people who will studiously ignore this look of "shift your bag" is astounding.

I hate it when someone has chosen an aisle seat, leaving the window seat free... and then won't get up to let me sit, instead slightly angling their legs to give me a tiny bit of space.

If you asked me to move my bag I would move myself AND my bag out of the way and go and stand. However if you can’t be bothered to open your mouth then I won’t.

My bags often have knitting needles in though 🤣

Are you my deceased mother!? It's nice to know her spirit lives on!

I don't buy from M&S because of their unisex changing room policy.

I don't buy from The Body Shop because of their treatment of JK Rowling.

I never went back to my local greengrocer after the woman was rude to me during Covid when I was making real efforts to support local businesses. It closed last year.

I always add "men's" to the start of any sport where I'm specifically talking about the men's game. So "football" becomes "men's football" etc.

If I don't know the sex of a dog I meet on a walk, I always use female pronouns to avoid default male.

I have "Adult Human Female" stickers that I stick around here and there on my travels, especially if I'm in a wanky Guardian-reading-lentil-weaving type place.

I very much enjoy patriarchy chicken.

Good because I’ve been there and no amount of money fixes it.

I don’t move out of the way, if someone is walking blindly towards me with their eyes on their phone. Boy do they jump when they finally see you!

She also has set up several charities - Lumos to support orphans, Beiras place for women who have been sexual assaulted and helped set up the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at Edinburgh Uni (donated over 15£ million to that one, I believe).

I no longer listen to the lost prophets since the singer turned out to be a paedo 🤢

I put women's rights leaflets in women's toilets/on the bus/ random places.

People presumably have the ability to speak? Presumably not everyone knows the international sign for ‘move your bag because, whilst I think you are ignorant (even though you may not have noticed me) I am being even more ignorant and won’t actually ask you’?

Do you watch the news?

Why would you go and stand if someone asked you to move your bag off the seat?

I refer to sporting fixtures as either women's (game) and men's (game) or game and men's game. So the women's game as default.

Excellent now the six nations is on, I enjoyed watching the men's rugby but glad the better tournament has started again.

Also refuse to have pronouns anywhere. It is the least important thing about me or my job.

Also won't move automatically out the way of men walking on the pavement, they have as much opportunity to move as anyone. Quite enjoy just walking straight through a group of men if they won't give me space to walk past them.

And I take up space in the world. I no longer care what people may think of me or what I look like. It is none of my business. I am kind and empathetic to others, but no longer reduce myself to fit someone else's expectations. Fuck that shit.

There’s a different burden of proof in criminal and civil courts. Much easier to reach the burden of balance of probability in civil courts than beyond reasonable doubt in criminal court, especially for sexual offences. The US system allows civil prosecution for criminal offences whereby compensation is payable. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, just that he paid out rather than go to court.

This is lovely.

I think the problem is that you do so you’re getting a completely skewed and biased view of the conflict.