Feminist Pub XVIII, in which the Bluestocking greets the first signs of spring with a glass of something soothing

[PuffinsAreFictitious]

Just starting this one as the last is nearly full

Good morning. I spent the night coughing.

A blog about wearing clothes.

Sorry to hear about the couvhing, Lord Copper!

That's a great blog post. I remember a cartoon doing the rounds a while ago with faces, arms, and legs drawn onto apples, and pears etc with the caption "I am not a piece of fruit". Summed it up for me!

The thread about men calling themselves feminist isn't dispiriting - mostly it contains a lot of really thoughtful discussions. I spent most of my time reading it thinking how smart and articulate all the posters on FWR are! It went a bit strange around the page 6 mark though.

*coughing

There was also one about who can wear a bikini, I think.

I've never managed to figure out what type I am! But then I may perhaps have not devoted my full and not inconsiderable intellectual prowess to it.

I cannot wear a bikini.

I never go anywhere warm enough.

Yes, I think the weather in the UK is the greatest deterrent to bikini-wearing.

I can't wear a bikini either. Celtic heritage again. When you can get sunburn sitting in a darkened room in winter, the less skin on display the better.

I sometimes think I should get a bikini - it might work better under a wetsuit than a one-piece.

I wear a 2-piece (but not bikini) swimming costume for swimming. But I'm noticing that it flaps at my stomach level when I kick off. Hmm. But I'm not wearing a 1-piece again. What to do?

Probably nothing. Hey ho.

Braces outside the boobs, and not uncomfortable at all.

Wore them when pregnant because I couldn't find any maternity jeans that stayed up, so just wore my normal jeans unbuttoned with a belly band and braces.

I seem to remember Cher wearing braces in some 80s video, and she wore them backwards. I didn't think I'd get away with that though.

I made a pair of trousers which were baggy at top and then pleated in at the bottom, with braces. The waist was elastic, with a little frill above the elastic.

I loved those trousers - wore them so much. I used to call them my clown trousers, but they were very classy! (honest)

I may have had a pair of braces in the 1980s. They haven't exactly been in style for men since then either so I don't have a problem with the phrase, it is an equal opportunities outdated fashion phrase.

Been listening to far too much news today.

Fucking male violence. Every fucking-where. Pilots crashing planes. TV presenters hitting people because they can't produce a steak.

I find it so, so depressing.

It is.

Though, I did think yesterday it sounded as if they were hinting that the pilot must have crashed the plane, and while it is utterly horrible, I'd rather we know what's happened. I couldn't help thinking how awful you would feel if you were part of that plane's ground crew, or an engineer, or a pilot on the same sort of plane - you'd be constantly wondering if something you were doing was going to kill more people. So, horrible as it is, I would rather know.

There is a beyond-depressing account of how some deeply sick MRAs are already interpreting it, though. wehuntedthemammoth.com/2015/03/26/vox-day-could-andreas-lubitzs-murdersuicide-by-plane-been-prevented-if-the-sluts-of-the-world-were-a-little-more-equitable-in-their-distribution-of-blowjobs/?fb_action_ids=10206302695317278&fb_action_types=news.publishes&fb_ref=pub-standard

Oubelite - I started my MN lurking career on Aibu and only ever heard awful things about the Fem boards.

Happy to say it appears to be BS.

Unless of course you lot are being incredibly rude and hostile and mean but in such a witty and intelligent way that I haven't noticed

BR, the first link describes the offensive article, it isn't the article.

Oh, yes, sorry. It's a link to someone discussing and quoting the very offensive piece. But it isn't nice anyway.

vamp -

this is what has pissed me off today

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/11483433/Why-do-we-believe-such-terrible-things-about-men-that-cant-be-true.html

complete misunderstanding of statistics, silence around male violence against women, and his argument boils down to "none of the women i know have told me that they have suffered any abuse, ergo the stats are wrong"

it's basically trolling paid for by a mainstream newspaper

So, in my new job, which is going very well, by the way, the staff are overwhelmingly women. At all levels. It's awesome!

But you know what else? It's the most relaxed place I've ever worked. Short hours (35 hour week), an absolute insistence that no-one work overtime regularly and to discuss workload with your manager if you find you can't manage in those 35 hours. Complete flexibility of hours. Supportive, helpful managers. No expectation of rushing about to meet deadlines, no pressure, just chilled out dealing with the work in hand in a relaxed manner.

I can't help but wonder if the two points are correlated. I suspect so.

oh i'm so pleased it's going well! are you absolutely shattered from information overload during the first week?

VQ we are indeed incredibly witty and intelligent. We may well be insulting each other but we're each so erudite that we don't even one when we're doing it ourselves.

I couldn't believe that article either. For once, quite a few of the btl comments called him on his complete and utter arsery.