Feminist Pub IX. Newbies and regulars welcome - pop your cognitive dissonance down outside and have a gin.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Right, thought I'd better start a new pub. I warn you, my knowledge of Roman numerals conks out shortly after this one, so either buffy will have to start the next thread, or we'll have to go Arabic.

Everyone is welcome in - if you want to chat, or just jump in with a question/link/gin, please do. Especially if it's too small for a thread or you don't feel up to thread-starting.

The old thread has, at my count, about 9 posts to go, and it was here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2126791-Feminist-Pub-VIII-not-as-prolific-as-the-Swaggerers-but-there-are-cushions-and-consciousness?

We were just chatting about feministy light reading, and will doubtless meander onto other topics shortly.

So apparently night clubs expect women to wear heels these days or they don't let them in.

Words fail me.

Wha ... !?

The High-end London Clubs Who Have Made Sexism Mandatory

oh that's a friend of a friend!

bloody ridiculous

Piano being tuned. Have to hide upstairs. The dissonance drives me potty ...

Oooh, that would kill me too, LordCopper. Loud music via earphones would be required. Though it must be very satisfying once the tuner hits the right tone again.

God it's stressful. Don't know how he puts up with it.

will you start on the bach once tuner has finished?

I might. Though I'm supposed to be working ...

Done finally! I can breath again...

I agree Annie, it is depressing about the 'firsts'. There are three from the sporting world I'm really chuffed about: Clermont FC in France's Ligue2 have appointed a female head coach, Wisden's cricketer of the year is a woman, and the England Cricket team are on a central contract like their male counterparts.

Also, I love that England forward Eni Aluko is better known than her premier league playing brother Sam. :o

Petula, when explaining privilege to DS I told him to think about computer games, and that his setting for this thing called 'life' is the easiest one, seeing as he's a white male. That made him think about things a bit more. Also, he has sisters so sort of sees how they're treated differently. Not by their parents I hasten to add.

Just to add to the geographical examples, The Tetons (tits) are a national park. I'm going to the Utah national parks soon. Some of them have large stone columns. I shall report back any interesting names.

oh i've always wanted to go there kickass! sometimes when i'm avoiding doing whatever i'm supposed to be doing i drop the little google streetview chap somewhere random in the world and have a little look around, and the tetons are one of the places that really wowed me

will you be going to gobblers knob in utah kickass?

There isn't a Gobbler's Knob, is there? It's always a bad idea to have apostrophes in place names....

I do remember proofreading friend's English lit essays about landscapes and women's bodies. These people are obsessed. Anyone comparing my body with landscapes will be ... er ... excavated. Or something painful.

Turns out that Gobbler's Knob is near Seattle.

There's a Gobbler's Knob Family Fun Park.

there's also Nob Hill in San Fran.

In fact, knob/nob is not an unusual word within US place names, it is often used in the same way that 'Heights' would be, e.g. Nob Apartments, at a town near me.

Anyway, enough of American K/nobs

oh i thought there was one near salt lake city - i might be going to a conference there next year and a colleague and i were being very juvenile about it the other day. must have misremembered

lol at nob apartments

I can almost guarantee that you'll find at least one K/Nob around SLC.

In American terms, I think it mainly means 'hillock' or 'door knob' or 'stuck up person'. Never actually heard it used to mean dick, but then I socialize in polite circles. I may try to research this at camp this afternoon. Obviously I will ask an adult, not one of the 10 year olds I am instructing.

I have a 'sweary friend' that I teach British swear words to. For the last two years we've been working on 'wank' and all possible permutations. He is now aware of the phrase wank sock and we often have private jokes about socks, particularly when we take the kids away for residential camp for several days. Sadly he's on vacation atm, but he would be my go-to person for a complete run down on the use of nobs.

kickass You need to introduce your friend to MN and "wankbadger".

Small children at DC's school managed to learn new swear words by saying to TA "Miss miss we know the sh-word". TA: "What!? Shit!?". In fact small children meant "Shut up". But now they know "shit".

There is a Lord Hereford's Knob which I only know thanks to the Half Man Half Biscuit album CSI: Ambleside.

OMG! Doctor Two, YOU'RE the other HMHB fan! I knew I couldn't be completely alone in the world

So, according to my friend who is a Brit but has lived in the US for over 20 years, there isn't a meaning of dick assigned to the word knob. However, he will test our theory this evening by calling his American poker friends knobheads. All in the name of science of course. I suspect that British youth would find the word quaintly old fashioned.

It has been so long since I heard any half man half biscuit that I can barely remember them. Time for YouTube.

Mini rant

I went to get my Barclays hire bike today - as I do twice a day, or more often sometimes - and was just getting on with it, adjusting the seat, etc, not fumbling or anything, when a very tall man came up and sort of slightly inserted himself between me and the bike and said "Do you need some help?" I said "no thank you" and he said, not going away, as if I had misunderstood, "DO YOU NEED SOME HELP?" he had both sunglasses and earphones on which made me think (on some subconscious level) that he might be hard to get through to; also I was conscious that having put my fob and received the green light I was liable for the bike and needed to stay in possession of it (he seemed to be about to take it off me); also he was really very tall; these things all together made me say very loudly "NO THANK YOU. BYE!" he then did this very elaborate sort of "I only asked" withdrawal from the whole situation. ARGH!

wtf?

I know he was being weird but it still fucks me off that I feel so criticised by his body language that was all "calm down dear" and it meta-fucks-me-off that I am giving all this headspace when I do not need to justify myself to him or anyone else!

I think you would be justified in saying. No. Thank. You. Do. You. Und. ER. Stand? In future.

On a brighter note, just got a new passport. I have Ms as the title it was addressed to. No questions asked. There's no title at all on the actual passport. I am free to be me without declaring that ther is a Mr KickAss.

CaptChaos, oh yes. I am that HMHB fan. :o

kickass, your Brit friend is wrong, where I grew up the word knob has always been a synonym for dick. So knob or knobber = dick, knobhead = dickhead. Some omitted the k.

Sorry you had to deal with a knobber vezzie, some men refuse to believe that women can be practical.