Feminist Pub 16: where the Bluestockings develop armoured stockings to deal with the thousand paper cuts

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Carry on.

The point I always like to make in these discussions is this. I am an immunologist. My groups works in vaccine development (veterinary rather than human). I understand vaccines. My colleagues understand vaccines. Medical doctors understand vaccines. We also understand the risks.

Without fail, every single one of us vaccinates our children. Does that not tell you all you need to know?

Ooops, wrong thread! I always wondered how people managed to do that. Now I know!

at men can't see socks.

My dad insists on this one. My mum spent our entire childhood wearing stripy socks so that he could tell which were hers, and now she can't break the habit.

Dp's mother buys his socks (this is not quite as infantilising as it sounds, as he gets them in his stocking. Let's not dwell on this...). Anyway, a lifetime of pairing almost-exactly-the-same-but-not-quite socks she now buys him extremely brightly coloured and easily differentiated socks

My brothers' excuse is always that they are colourblind so can't possibly pair socks , though how this extends to black socks I don't know

DS2 has extremely colourful and clashing-coloured stripy socks. DS1 has slightly less colourful stripy socks. I have a mixture of socks and sometimes even wear DSs' socks. DP has big socks. We get the classification OK. What happens within class is every individual's business...

Article about the WI in the papers.

dd wears mismatched neon colored ankle socks. I wear plain black short socks. I have recently adopted the policy of buying DH brown socks. None of us pair them up - we just grab 2, and as we only have one style of sock that's OK. BUT women's socks do not last as long, and they fall down more.

DD said of socks "They make them stupid, then we're made to look stupid and it's not our fault, the socks are stupid."

Socks - Dp wears mens socks in whatever colours dd1 chooses when she buys them for him as a birthday or Christmas present (he's very hard to buy for, so socks it is ). Currently he has a drawerfull of mismatched neon garish socks that he wears randomly, frequently they clasy with each other. They do not last longer than mine, in fact he probably goes through a lot more socks than I do in a year because he doesn't cut his toenails regulalry enough and they wear holes in socks quite quickly . I wear random but fairly pretty socks, dd1 wears school uniform black socks or novelty socks, dd2 wears small white ankle socks with frills, knee length white socks when it's cold, and frozen or peppa pig socks as often as possible. None of us have ever had a problem with our socks falling down particularly, but then again I have fairly chunky calves and usually end up with a line around where my socks have been quite tight.

That article about the WI was really interesting. My grandma was a member of the WI for many, many years and was always talking about what they had done. I fully intend to join when I am a bit older and have a bit more time. I also intend to go back to running a guide or brownie pack.

I don't have a problem with sock elastic. Perhaps they are designed for overweight people. Today, I am wearing some bamboo socks I was given for Christmas. (If they are not expensive, I might look into getting some more at some point; they seem quite nice and soft.)

I'm quite surprised the WI is only 100 years old - for some reason, I thought it was a Victorian invention.

Short socks may or may not be designed for overweight people, but long ones aren't built with the chunky of calf in mind. Over-the-knee is how my Christmas socks were described, but all the available stretch was used up on sideways, leaving no length stretch. And they still fall down.

Since LordCopper was here earlier too, I promise to try not to sound like an utter arse on mumsnet again (re differences men v women thread). I probably will again soon, but will try not to. Honest.

Have to admit I haven't had over-the-knee socks since I was at school, so don't know what their current dimensions are like.

Getting tights which are proportioned for wider people can be challenging, too.

I like socks, but tights? Another issue entirely.

Tights suitable for anyone are challenging. Why can't we just use gravy colouring again, less tears. And rips.

Lightning Didn't think you sound like an arse. Honestly. Perhaps it was me who did. But it was an honest post. :)

I bought knee-high socks once, thinking they would be nice and warm. But they were just at the bend of the knee and were really uncomfortable. Surely over-the-knee must depend on how tall you are? Don't remember them specifying height...

I love my fleece-lined tights. An MN recommendation.

Talking about software bugs with the DC reminded me of Grace Hopper.

Grace Hopper was fab.

It's depressing how many early computer people were women, and they sort of got written out of history. Almost, anyway.

I wonder how long that "17 things only mothers of bald girls will understand" blog link will stay up. Because it gives me the rage every time I see it. Oh, goddess forbid that a) a child should display any kind of non-stereotypical characteristics so that its gender is not clearly and absolutely advertised at all times and b) anyone should ever get that gender wrong.

FFS.

I haven't seen it. Sounds suitably facile from the title.

Have you seen the one that has some British nanny saying the 5 things modern parents get wrong? Came around a few times on FB. Not especially a feminist issue (though "mum" does seem to make a lot of mistakes), but somehow gives me the rage.

I was going to post something interesting on the DLS thread but realise I've only picked up Strong Poison again just now and can't remember enough to compare with the TV series...

It was "blog of the day" on Friday but has stayed up for the weekend.

I did see the nanny one, but suspected it would enrage me so I didn't read it. If you read the opinions of any kind of "expert", I'm doing parenting all wrong. Don't care.