to think that feminism should have thought about the consequences and set some rules.

[TulisaLover]

I've been chatting with DP this evening and mentioned a post that's been doing the rounds on facebook. It's from a lady sending a message to This Morning about the cost of childcare - on the surface it's a powerful post.

To cut it down:

'I am looking to return to work next year and child care will cost 810 every 4wks - this is more than our mortage!!. The government should help with child care costs.'

DP and I agree with it's sentiment - that child care costs are crippling families, but not necessarily with helping for the costs - he said:

"This is why feminism should have laid down some rules. Both parents earning an income meant banks salivated and started lending for homes based on both. This has forced up prices to cover this as house prices are a function of the amount being lent. Society as a whole loses, bankers win. What should have happened is when you have kids, both parents should be encouraged to work part time so that childcare is shared - or failing that the higher earner whichever gender should have been the one to work. Problems like this wouldn't have happened."

It struck a chord with me - what do you ladies think?

Descartes walks into a bar, orders a beer, drinks it.
He orders another beer, drinks it.
He orders another beer, drinks it.
He's beginning to feel a bit worse for wear (Descartes doesn't have the best alcohol tolerance).
The barman says "Another?"
Descartes says "I think not" and promptly disappears.

I have been to pole dancing classes at a local gym. Not once wad there a discussion of feminist ideology there. We were far too busy making like Jessie Spano in her showgirls guise.

Tulsa as direct descendant of euripedes.

You are quite wonderful op

Three beers is enough for anyone, if we are talking pints. After that amount of liquid I feel like I'm going to be sick. Descartes showed excellent judgement.

if feminism cannot think, how can it be?

Feminism is the totality of it's individual parts, ie feminists. Feminists think, feminism doesn't.

Well I think, therefore I am. If feminism doesn't adhere to that basic principal, it clearly ceases to exist.

Also you say feminism is the totality of its parts, the individual feminists. Well each of them thinks. so you seem to be arguing that the sum of a sequence of thinkers is a non thinking entity. That is flying in the face of pure maths, which I am very adept at.

Just like Descartes in the pub.

Feminism is the philosophy, not the philosopher.

I am really rather loving your posts!

++ feminism exists because the collective voice of women goes unheard by policy makers. Thus, feminism "setting rules" would be oxymoronic.

Jesse - I take your point, and expressed mine very badly. Us little folks are forced to do what policy dictates, whether or not we foresee pitfalls, because we are living lives not sitting untouched in cloud castles.

What your DP says here:

"Both parents earning an income meant banks salivated and started lending for homes based on both. This has forced up prices to cover this as house prices are a function of the amount being lent."

is true, but not original. The point has been made many times, by many people. Hey, I've even made it myself.

But to say "feminism should have laid down some rules" is nonsensical. Feminism is a philosophy, like socialism or humanism or liberalism - it's quite incapable of setting down rules. And in any case, feminism is a very broad church, full of people with very different ideas about what it means. What exactly is your DP saying - that if married women wanted to work, they should insist on their husbands staying at home and doing the housework and childcare? I can't see many men falling over themselves to do that. Or perhaps he means, "If men refuse to stay at home, then women should carry on staying at home as they always have done." So, back to square one.

We all make decisions that work for us. Once married women and in particular mothers started to enter the workforce in large numbers, none of them was going to think, "Hang on, I'd better stay at home. If we both go out to work, that's going to push up house prices for other people."

xposts, hackmum :)

I can't work out who you are. You're good, so you must be someone. But the spelling's too good for Chaos.

Kim...the gold, the silver, the self sufficient lifestyle....I could go on but I don't want to be accused of stealth boasting. The money in the bank is electronic promises which I don't hold much stock in.

Hackmum - DP stated that under the best circumstances, everything should be shared. One parent staying at home is non ideal.

Could we get your DP in for a webchat? It would be amazing. I think it would be the epiphany I've been waiting for all my life.

To be frank garlic, I think the ruling classes don't listen to men OR women really. The agenda is set according to what will make them richer, and throw just enough crumbs such that the ferral hordes will not rise. DP said as much earlier - you just have to look at the iPad salivation to see that all the lumpenproletariat want is their Jobsian Kool-Aid.

DP and I have been buying up G4S shares like nobody's business in the recent price dips - it's all a smokescreen as we'll soon see gated compounds for the truly wealthy.

I'll ask DP later...perhaps I could start a thread

"Am I being unreasonable....to ask you to come and get the pearls of DP's wisdom?"

Oh do, please do. But not for 10 hours or so, I need to sleep.

DP and I have been buying up G4S shares like nobody's business in the recent price dips - Ha, so would I have been if I still had any money! It goes against all my principles to buy shares in entities I despise, but that one's going to profit hugely from human misery.

Mind you, I did buy a small block of shares in Canary Wharf when I worked there ... I was screamingly miserable in my job, so I labelled one of the polished granite paving stones "mine" and that cheered me up slightly as I came out of the DLR station each morning.

I can't work out who you are.

Xenia and Gabby on a boozy day out :)

Buying shares in entities you despise is a hedge against the non existence of heaven according to DP. He says that if God exists, he will understand your decision provided you can show your working in the form of a probability distribution. Luckily, we're both maths whizzes.

Is there an end to your talents?
Perhaps you can't sing? Or crochet?
(I can't do either, btw, and am shit at chess too.)

Why is god assumed to be male?

People have likened my voice to katherine Jenkins crossed with Aretha Franklin, with a soupçon of Kenny Rogers - so yes, I like to give the vocal chords a good work out once in a while with a refreshing rendition of Michael-row-the-boat-ashore.

Thinking about it, the only thing I cannot do is leave the house without checking it's locked at least three times. Oh and I never mastered the back flip either - damn that Bear Grylls.

God isn't necessarily male, don't be nit picky - I was merely saving time.

You are right OP I've been saying it for years.