Feminist Pub 15: The Bluestocking hangs up its, err, stocking and hopes for a chatty Christmas and a Feminist New Year

[YonicSleighdriver]

Festive greetings!

This is the 15th incarnation of the Pub and is meant as a place to drop by with random thoughts and meandering chats, on feminist or other related themes. Anything you want to mull over but not necessarily start a thread about. Alternatively, get some booze and snacks and hang out! Lurkers, newbies and oldbies welcome.

We have a pub goat, a feminist cannon for firing at crazy sexists and we cheer each other up when patriarchy grinds us down...

Last pub drinkie linkie:

Pub 14

Yes that's the one

I haven't read it, I just know what she's working on. Any good?

Jeanne... Can random people off the street come and listen to lectures about Chaucer? I'd wear a big hat and not be any trouble.

Petula... come and study, we can help each other get over the stressful bits!

I have absolutely no idea.

I might as well admit now that I did sneak my then-boyfriend into a lecture when I was an undergraduate, and we felt very cloak-and-dagger. Me and teenage rebellion, eh?

My childhood rebellion was to sneak the radio into my bedroom and listen to the classic serial on R4 under the covers on Saturday night...

Jeanne, Have you ever eaten a medlar? I don't think I ever have, so I'm not sure how they actually taste. I am assuming better than how they actually look (it's cul de chien in French) - though I am always wary of food that needs to start rotting before it becomes edible.

We had a cousin who had a medlar tree, but we were never there at the right time of year (all two times I went there...)

I wasn't an Oxbridge, bur our lectures were mostly in the region of 200 people for the core areas. You could quite easily have attended a whole semester without anyone realising. Particularly since room allocations were up on a big noticeboard for the first couple of weeks. For all I know some of the people I saw regularly were doing just that.

I think this will probably be max 30 people, maybe as few as 10, because it is a niche optional course. None of my lectures has been a big as 200! Ouch! But we do get people who just come along for the ride - I had an awesome woman in one of mine last year, who was asking me about how to deconstruct misogynistic stereotypes in Chinese fairytales.

(Needless to say, I had no clue! But it was such a cool question.)

Yes, in law there are a number of core subjects you have to follow to have a qualifying degree (i.e one that lets you go on to further legal study). This means that core subjects have, at most universities, lectures roughly as big as the intake for the subject. Even the optional courses would probably have 30-50 people in the lectures. .

I liked it. You just got your head down and listened. Very unlikely to have audience participation (that was obviously seminars and tutorials) Mind you, it does highlight just how damn rule abiding I am that I only missed one lecture all degree.

YY, I think that sense of camraderie in obligatory lectures is quite helpful. Here, all lectures are optional, so even the core ones don't attract the whole intake, and they can (and do) self-teach.

I really wish MN had been around when I was an undergrad, though. I would have had a much better idea of what to read and what to ask. At the time I didn't know how to ask my tutors the questions I needed to ask, if that makes sense?

(I am feeling all introspective about MN at the moment because I was trying to find a half-remembered comment someone made ages ago, and came across a load of ancient threads in FWR.)

I've just ordered Universal pH test paper for DS's birthday. Is that weird? V. difficult to think up birthday presents so soon after Christmas. Any ideas? 10yo.

What's he into? Science stuff? Is there ay type of membership you could get him if 'stuff' has been done over Christmas?

My friend made a "science kit" for her DS with age-appropriate stuff for chemistry experiments, maths puzzles and geology bits etc

She put it in a black plastic box and put lots of "hazard" and "danger" stickers on it (not sure how wise that is!)

I really wish MN had been around when I was an undergrad, though. I would have had a much better idea of what to read and what to ask. At the time I didn't know how to ask my tutors the questions I needed to ask, if that makes sense?

I think I'd do much better at my degrees now, but I think part of that is because I've done two degrees and lived some life, and I'd be benefitting from that experience and what I'd learnt first time round.

Also, if MN had been around, I might not have got as good marks as I did, on account of having too many distractions...

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You could buy a load of acid and alkaline stuff for him to use the test paper in.

(I'm now wondering how universal indicator paper is made - i.e. what's in it that can change colour. I never wondered about this at school. Fortunately, these days I have google.)

We did the red cabbage indicator paper recently. It was fund and worked really well.

Damned if I can explain what acid and alkali actually are to a five year old, but she liked the colour change stuff.

DS not into anything especially but likes almost everything... And he has subscriptions to magazines and stuff. And we have too much lego already. And books...

We did the red cabbage thing but I thought strips of pH paper might be fun too.

EBear, yes, good points both about timewasting and about being more mature! Still, I do love this place and I do think it's educational.

I am sneaking in here to avoid the weird time warp which seems to have propelled MN into the 1950s this week. I shall pour myself a quick nightcap and shuffle off to bed. I'm so tired! Yawn! Night all....

I agree it's educational, and I have learnt a lot here. I just don't know that I'd have had the self-discipline to stick to educational posting.

Are you a member of the RI, LordC? A birthday trip to a seminar?

I'm going to come and hide in here for a bit too Annie. Male privilege writ large on the Relationships board is just depressing. And yes, Christmas seems to bring out the 1950s for some reason

See what you mean Annie!

Amazing article about privilege, dynamics and "loudness"

www.its-her-factory.com/2014/12/some-philosophical-implications-of-the-loudness-war-and-its-criticisms/

On the plus side that fascinating freemen of the land thread has popped up again. I reread it and it's so informative (need to check some bits with dp whose expertise is english national identity pre-Norman conquest)

Thanks for the link Eilis. Will read shortly

I need your DH's expertise.

I saw that thread pop up, but it looked as if it'd been bumped by someone advertising? Or did I read that wrongly?

ellis, I've started reading that article, but I don't think I understand it.