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

Jeanne Just sent you a pm. :)

Haven't read the sanpro thread. Not sure I want to. Why hasn't there been a good recipe thread recently?

LordC, it's not that bad - it's about girls who ask every month for the emergency sanpro and are their parents taking the piss etc - but various posters were talking about how embarrassing asking for sanpro was... And I thought if their parents never sent them in with tissues, say, no one would call that embarrassing. And I got rage.

I remember sitting on the loo at my parents', dripping blood steadily while begging my brother through the door to go to the corner shop and get me some tampons. His embarrassment meant he took a lot of persuading. I still can't work out why he was embarrassed though. He was fifteen, he knew about periods, it wasn't like anyone would think they were for him. I can only assume the embarrassment comes from the notion floating round society that periods are somehow dirty and shameful. And whenever a natural function of the female body is considered dirty and shameful, you can bet the patriarchy is behind it.

I see what you mean Yonic. There's no male equivalent so I can't apply my "would you say that to a man" test to figure out if something dodgy is going on from a patriarchy perspective but I completely agree it shouldn't be such a matter for shame, it's only bodies being normal after all, and I think some of the "eww embarrassment" response is definitely to do with women being seen as decorative rather than biologically messy.

I had some boyfriends in the past who found the whole idea of menstruation very very bothersome. I may have mentioned it A Lot to them on purpose... which I saw as a training exercise for them!

SoMuch, that's why I think loo roll or tissues or plasters are the closest - gender unspecific but deal with bodily fluids and can be mentioned freely not as "feminine hygeine" products (boak)

I wonder how it would be if boys did get periods. I suppose they might find it just as embarrassing - it's to do with genitals, which are embarrassing, and associated with the possibility of procreation, also embarrassing - at least in terms of having a conversation with your parents.

Toilet paper isn't embarrassing, but then you use that your whole life - it's not something you suddenly need when you enter puberty. And parents have always been aware that you need it - no need for a special request.

Disclaimer: I haven't had an actual conversation with a teenage boy since I was a teenager, a few decades years ago now.

I wonder how it would be if boys did get periods.

Well, to quote Gloria Steinem, they would brag about how long and how much.

www.mylittleredbook.net/imcm_orig.pdf

Menstruation taboo is a part of many cultures and is deeply misogynistic.

I wonder how it would be if boys did get periods. I suppose they might find it just as embarrassing

Or they'd be having competitions to see how quickly they could fill a mooncup or whatever.

(Which has already been pointed out. Should have read all the posts...)

We are watching for the Geminid meteor shower!

Ah curses upto it's cloudy where I am so no chance of seeing it.

Ah does everyone with small kids know that the international space station will be visible in the sky above the uk at teatime on 24th dec? Little children might be persuaded to believe it's santa going about his business. (It looks like a slow shooting star, for those who haven't seen it).

Just online to register for a BBC ID so I can vote for Jo Pavey as sports personality of the year tomorrow.

I'm off to bed with a takeaway lemsip from the bar now. Goodnight all

Ooo! International space station! Will note that.

Thanks for the reminder LordC! We just froze for a bit outside to watch it

Did you see many? I only saw about 7 or 8 over a few hours. But very exciting.

We saw 3 or 4 but then we got too cold. Big ones though, very exciting I love a meteor shower.

Ah brilliant glad you saw some!
If you google "NASA spot the station" you will find the website where you can put your country and town in and find out the exact time / direction / duration

Tonight, the Radio Station of the Patriarchy has just brought me an advert for the FHM calendar, which apparently features lots of lovely women to wank over, with the strapline "It's good to be a man".

Yes it is. Thanks so fucking much for rubbing my face in it.

This was followed by the playing of "Hey Joe", a lovely little ditty celebrating violence against women as Joe completely understandable shoots his wife for cheating on him.

Not sure if the pricking in my eyes currently is from the onions I was chopping as I enjoyed this aural feast, or impotent rage.

Phew, nearly Xmas!

Hello!

Nothing to report here. Which is probably A Good Thing. :)

Hope everyone with colds and other lurgies are getting better!

8 days on, stomach but still not gone

Had my 'girlfriends' group over tonight. Didn't make it out of bed til 2 pm. I blame the flu/patriarchy/wine.

I made lebkuchen and wrapped presents this weekend so that was some satisfying ticks in boxes

In other exciting news, I discovered this week that one of my male colleagues is an avid CIFer. He spends his lunchtimes on there and I can see his computer from my own desk so found this out through sheer nosiness. I'm not going to take it so far as to actually try to find out what he is posting (life is too short), but I so hope he's not the sort of CIFer I have come across so frequently in the past as he actually seems rather a decent chap in RL

We were meant to be going fit buying for each other today, but I didn't feel well enough. It will have to be next weekend then.

I do have mince pies and mulled wine to comfort me, however.

What's a CIFer?