The Feminist Pub is Open - Chat, Rant, or pull up a chair here!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

This thread started when we all decided to imagine what the perfect local for feminists would be like. So far, it has taps with plenty of good real ale, and some decent non-alcoholic alternatives too. There are comfy chairs and there's a feminist film night, as well as lots of nice feminist-friendly books on the shelves and space to curl up and read. The open-mic nights are attracting feminist singers and comedians, and we're just sorting out the feminist creche.

Please come along, draw up a stool, and have a good chat about whatever you fancy - as serious or as trivial as you like.

For starters, I have a half-pint of lemonade. What can I get anyone?

Friends, doctrine. His, not mine!

It is annoying, but the sort of thing I just want to have a quick moan about here, so thank you!

If it was friends, I'd forward the email to him, copying them with "DH, answer your emails, your friends think you've gone AWOL" plus a comment to them apologising for his shitness.

Annoying!

Since this is virtual, can I have an enormous glass of white burgundy by the fire please. I can't in real life, both because I am pregnant and because I have a horrid tummy bug and was up half the night with cramps. But this pub is virtual, so I'm indulging.

An enormous glass of white burgundy coming up.

I'm so sorry to hear about your tummy bug. Yuck.

When you feel better, and if you're in the market for fake wine, Waitrose does one called 'Natureo' by Torres, and it's actually quite pleasant.

I do nag DH about answering - but, why do they do it in the first place? It should be up to them to nag him!

Thanks. Probably far TMI, but I get no sympathy from the children and DH was away with work so no one has felt sorry for me

Not TMI at all. Sorry, lovely.

And yes, it's definitely drinkable IMO. I'm not keen on sweet wine or grape juice, but this is quite dry. I don't think if you knew you'd mistake it for wine, but it is dry enough that it's good to drink anyway.

Dry enough to drink would be fine. Maybe good as a spritzer too? Or so cold it's almost frozen?

God I miss wine. You see all those threads where women calmly say "Oh no, I went off it". That has happened to me this time with coffee, but not in a 'don't miss it' way, just in a 'Whaaaaaa, what happened to my coffee' way. And I have not gone off wine at all.

Sorry about that.

But yes, certainly good cold or as a spritzer. Some of it is revolting, isn't it?

I suppose there has to be something you miss, maybe?

Yeah, got to suffer a bit or you'd forget you were pregnant and do lots of irresponsible things like riding on fairground rides or sky diving

Alcohol free drinks (as in alcohol free versions of normally alcoholic drinks) are generally vile aren't they. Last time I mostly drank large quantities of tonic and copious ice when I fancied something.

Anyway, enough about me. How are you doing LRD (other than annoying emails)?

This is coming disturbingly close to a tampax commercial, with the sky diving.

But yes, I don't really 'get' alcohol free stuff - it is usually so sweet. I like a lot of chilled mint tea when I can't drink.

Ha ha. I though periods would be so exciting. What with all that roller blading with dogs pulling me along and the aforementioned sky diving. Really sold a dummy on that one.

Mint tea sounds good. If I could plan ahead...

I drink Big Tom when I don't drink. So lovely and spicy and warm, even with ice in.

I blame Judy Bloom, too.

Ah, Judy Bloom (Bloome? Blume?). What was the 'fruity' one of hers? Forever? Are you there God, it's me Margaret? Or was that the one about periods.

Forever is the one with the penis called Ralph. Are you there, God, it's me, Margaret? is the periods one. Happy days!

Wasn't there a Judy Bloom book about puberty with some rhyme about increasing boob size? Vaguely recall groups of girls wandering around the playground doing "chest exercises" while chanting it, much to the amusement/consternation of the boys. I'm sure that stuff was marketed as being great for developing girls, but mostly just made them paranoid.

Yes, that's the Margaret one. "I must, I must, improve my bust" as I recall

That's the one!

If you like beer and need a low alcohol option that actually tastes like beer give Nanny State a whirl.

I'm on the tonight, it's a school night and the last episode of The Big C is on. It's quite moving.

mmmm amarillo that's the beast for me,

After the hairy legs thread, I found myself admiring one of the students in my lecture this morning. She is very heavy and carries most of the weight on her hips/thighs. I admired her because she was wearing bright colourful trousers that just screamed 'I don't give a crap what you think about my figure'.

It was just so nice to see after all the hand wringing over the best way to remove leg hair from a seven year old so she could achieve the nivarna of 'fitting in'.

We have beanbags, yes??

Oh, personal 'grooming' is a real bugbear of mine.
Yes, I defuzz for summer skirts etc, but really don't bother during the winter (it IS winter here, north of the Hadrian's Wall ).

When I was about 13 or so I was so desperate to 'fit in' that I used a naked razor blade (pilchered from my dad) to cut my leg hair off . The scars have now faded, but I still have kind of fibrous 'lumps' under the skin from that event.

And every time some celebrity or other shows the smallest amount of well-trimmed axillary hair in public, it's a news-worthy story??
FFS.

I dislike the term grooming. Always brings to my mind pet grooming.

Personally I hate it when people talk about "making an effort" when you go out, meaning dressing up and putting on uncomfortable shoes. Luckily I got rid of all my uncomfortable shoes and all my makeup so now I simply can't "make an effort".

Can I just have a mini rant? A rant-ette if you will.

The PIL visited this weekend. We have one car. I am a SAHM currently. (You will see in a second why this is relevant).

On arriving, there was an extra car on our drive. My friends had parked their car on our drive (we live close to the centre of town so it was handy for them to walk in).

MIL walks in and says "Oooh, I thought DH had bought you a little car."

Never mind that it is family money. Never mind that if it was going to be my car I would choose it (though admittedly cars aren't my thing so I just retain veto power on the family car). Never mind that actually I would always be the one driving the big car because I'm the one that ferries the kids around. Never mind that DH uses pubic transport for work. He bought me a little car.

Aaaaaaargh.

God, that would piss me the heck off.