Royal style & gossip: tiaras, tantrums and totty

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Sorry, just not my day and I dropped the ball again!

Link to previous thread

Meghan looked fantastic today! She's braver than me though... I would have had to be crane lifted out of that chair! There's no way I could done that gracefully in a short dress 😬 I wound love to see Sophie with her hair short again.

At panels for film promotion they sit behind long desks.

Or, radical thought, the standard setup for these kind of events could be something that enabled women to wear whatever perfectly acceptable clothing they felt like, so they wouldn't have to spend any more time considering the staging than the average man does.

Agreed. Smart clothing for women is complex enough without adding additional things to consider about how you'll be seated. Men have it so simple - suit, shirt, tie and black flat shoes - done. Women have so many grey areas to navigate on what will or won't be considered appropriate at each particular event. Women can even be deemed not smart enough if they wear flats, rather than heels. And will always be judged for showing too much or too little skin, whatever they wear.

Or, radical thought, the standard setup for these kind of events could be something that enabled women to wear whatever perfectly acceptable clothing they felt like, so they wouldn't have to spend any more time considering the staging than the average man does.

^ this 100%

That book is on my list @TyraAllen. I remember reading an article years ago about how buildings are designed for and by men, and a classic example was the stairs with gaps between the steps - an upskirter's dream

Queen there's a lot of debate about that kind of thing in the built environment at the moment. Things like even cubicle width in ladies' bathrooms not being big enough to fit the sanitary bin so you don't touch it when sat. I wish there were more women in design, and construction to help fade out such issues. /end rant/

I bet even Meghan and Kate have to manage their fluid intake around how long they'll be away from their own bathrooms. Dealing with tights on top of everything else? No thanks.

But are stairs designed so that men can look up women's skirts as they climb the stairs or is it a bad result of the design?

TyraAllen PREACH.

MakeItAmazing I think it is a result of men doing design and not thinking beyond their own experiences when they do it. Which is something we can all do, which is why having diversity is a good thing - many minds and many experiences make for better design, better policy and a generally better world! I don't think it is on purpose but the result is the same.

make it could well be lack of thought like the sanitary bin issue (although we'll never know what the person who first designed them thought) but the point I think pp's are trying to make is if there were more women in design roles these issues would be pointed out at the design stage and thus not be designed that way in the first place.

It's the same for disabled access (my brother is in a wheelchair), so many places say they have "full disabled access" but are in reality are extremely difficult to actually navigate in a wheelchair. If they had input from people using wheelchairs at the design stage then they would avoid the simple mistakes that make it so difficult for a wheelchair user.

No of course they're not @MakeItAmazing but they're designed by men, who don't consider the implications of climbing those stairs in a dress or skirt.

It is a seriously good book - I've got the audio and she's reading it herself and you can hear her frustration with some of it. I've also ordered the paperback for my kids to read.

It's absolutely the case that most of the time the flaws are unintentional, but so often it is because no-one considered that women's needs might be different, or that they would not just adapt to whatever they are given - there's at least two examples in the book so far where designers (men in both cases) have explicitly said that women need to change their perfectly normal behaviours to make something work - one is voice recognition software which doesn't recognise women's voices, and women were advised to learn to speak more like men

So no, the idea of open stairs was not likely intended to be an upskirters paradise, but no-one gave any thought to the fact that women might be walking up those stairs in skirts, so now a woman has to give mental space to considering what she wears in case she has to walk up an open staircase, while a man will never have think about it.

I'm aware my question was stupid. I have brain trauma and can't always express what I mean in my head in voice or words on a screen.

It wasn't a stupid question @MakeItAmazing. I do like how these threads occasionally divert to something else!

@makeitamazing it wasn’t a stupid question!
It’s a really interesting discussion though

Love Megs’ look today - she is so graceful and those heels this far along!!

video of Sophie’s speech
She sounds a lot like Kate. I actually think I haven’t heard her speak since her engagement/ wedding 20 years ago.

Definitely a man designed where I work.
The kitchen is teeny tiny and there aren't enough loos for the females.

Dysons were designed by a man which is why men love them and women hate them. Well, I do, as a short woman who doesn’t like to lug a heavy thing around a house.

It's not a stupid question, it's an interesting point for discussion!

Fascinating discussion on International Women’s Day.

@Rhubarbisevil my Dyson does a great job but bloody hell it's heavy compared to my old Vax!

Rhubarb you need a hand held one, they're fab!!

I’m waiting for it to break then I’ll get a GTech

Meghan wouldn't have exposed so much thigh if she hadn't crossed her legs. I have no problem with flashing a bit of leg though. It's not as if the existence of women's legs is a state secret, and I for one am all for pregnant women getting as comfortable as they possibly can.

I am a hater of tights and found even maternity tights rolled down around my hips in the later stages of pregnancy. I was pg in winter every time and had to wear them to work when I was working or risk freezing when outdoors or boiling to death indoors. Plus all the static indoors in a dry, heated environment meant that my dresses/smocks could ride up a long way and I might not be aware that I was basically parading around with my dress way up near my hips or my derriere thanks to the size of the bump. Bare legs were not an option. Maternity trousers were virtually non-existent back then too.

I would say that Sophie chooses her hairstyle (down/up) based on how windy it is. She seems to be the sort of down to earth and practical woman who would prefer not to step out of her car and be immediately transformed into a wild haystack. I suspect only Maxima could get away with that sort of look.

I have just bought a Shark cordless it’s amazing and puts Dyson cordless to shame! It practically goes along on its own dragging you behind. No effort required I love it!