Chat thread - come chat, rant, or celebrate, here!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

With thanks to the lovely timetosmile - here's the new and rejuvenated Chat Thread.

Space to yak on, rant, post any of the good and bad stuff ... just basically any chat that you don't feel fits into a specific post. With a side order of reclaiming the word 'gossip'.

I didn't know where else to go so went to waterstones online. Though for all I know they avoid tax too

Bigkids, Nickelbabe did some links somewhere to a site which routes the order to an independent... Hang on...

...here it is! Commissions go to your local bookseller or you can nominate one.
www.hive.co.uk/

Our local bookshop will order books if you phone them up. They usually promise a couple of days though usually it takes a bit longer. Then you go and pick the books up from them, instead of the bloody sorting office which is down a small lane with no parking and funny opening hours.

Bump

thanks for that link Doctrine :) living without amazon is very hard!

Can I have a little moan as well, please?!

On a hen do this weekend in a city I haven't visited before (maybe they're all the same but I haven't been out in a while!) and the night started with some drunk men shouting "slags" at us. I shouted back it was illegal to shout at someone like that and was treated to a string of obscenities.

Went to a club full of stag groups. One man picked up the groom's mum (physically rather than chatting up) and she was laughing so I didn't realise she was not enjoying herself until she told me to get him to put her down. I did in no uncertain terms and then he tried to pick me up. When I told him if he touched me I would ask the bouncer to throw him out he tried it again. I pushed him away and told him he didn't have permission to touch me in any way, shape or form and him and his friend laughed in my face and tried to touch my bum. The door staff were very good once I complained but weren't keen to step in with what was obvious harassing behaviour without being approached.

The night only picked up when I started chatting to a man (the only one who said hello and asked if we were on a hen do etc rather than groping us) about our children and we were then left alone. Even then though there was a downer as a young man asked to have a photo with me (I was dressed as a character from a film) and asked my new friend's permission then said thank you to him after. I was very .

Sorry, that was long, but not all my friends really understood why I was so upset by it all and I felt I was overreacting until I processed it all. I wanted to leave but the hen was enjoying herself and I felt like the important thing.

That's horrible. Especially about the groom's mum, poor woman, she must have been really embarrassed. It's awful she felt she had to pretend to enjoy it. I guess she was scared to scream or whatever.

(Btw, that wasn't long, and that's what the thread is for!)

It sounds like a really rotten weekend, I'm sorry you had to put up with that.

Thank you. It really shocked me. The rest of the weekend was perfect but it is ridiculous that it was seen as so normal to feel women up as almost a conversation starter.

It's really creepy.

Go for it Kim.

Happy, that sounds horrible. Well done for rescuing the groom's mum.

Happy, that is pretty bad. Have things changed in the last 20 years?

I remember when I was in my early 20's, my then boyfriend and I had an argument, and he got a bit hassly/angry. I was upset and the bouncer was right there instantly, and just kicked him out of the club. I told him it was fine, he was my bf, but bouncer just said they didn't tolerate anyone hassling girls in their club.

Oh, and don't get me started on the invasion here tonight...

bump

I see what everyone means by invasion now. >

I think the trolls have moved into my brain. I feel all wobbly. This is not a feminist moan.

On the positive side, I nearly cheered out loud today when a male schoolfriend of mine commented that what we need is affordable childcare for everyone. It's so nice when you realize you're hearing your mates having these arguments with other people.

Y'all right, LRD?

Yeah, just moaning. I have a cold but am tucked up in the warm. It's just that bizare feeling your brain isn't entirely your own, you know, and someone else is slowing down the gears.

Come the revolution, we can define colds as agents of the patriarchy, right?

Yep. And hangovers!

I just wanted to post a quote from Robert Crampton in today's Times:

"some men clearly stand in need of a little moral instruction on the issue of sexual violence against women.

Allow me to provide it. Rapists are the scum of the earth. Rape is an abomination. It is never a fit subject for humour. The very word is repulsive and should never be employed metaphorically. As and when you come across a man who deviates from these simple rules, your duty is to set him right, in as robust a way as is necessary.

Pretty straightforward, all told. "

That really cheered me up, seeing that in print.

Left DC happily slurping sherbet dibdab.

Had a chat yesterday with plumber about being called Mrs. He admitted it was fair enough to not want to be called that after it was pointed out that men don't seem to have to reveal their marital status.

But may be getting into a FB scape. Don't like it when people mock all women just because their wife or daughters are scared of rats. "Princesses can't slay dragons because my wife screams when she sees a rat."

BS to that. Courage is not the absence of fear. And anyone who isn't afraid of a dragon will shortly be a crispy fried idiot.

Besides, I can think of several princesses who have or could slay dragons.

have slain, oops