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

Yes it was greenmetropolis. Bought quite a few books from them. Books you can't seem to get from other places. :(

I once used a site called readitswapit, I only stopped as ended up having to make extra trips to the post office ( the next town) to pick up undelivered books, no matter how long I waited in, the postie would arrive the minute I'd left the house.
It was good for textbooks and finding a few titles that I hadn't been able to buy. Not sure what the site is like now though.

ON the off chance anyone here doesn't already have it, Delusions of Gender is £1 on Kindle today!

Such a good read!

Yes, but gives you the rage about everything you see afterwards ...

Brought it and three chapters in already! Thanks for the tip :)

Just making sure I don't drop off the pub.

Can I be mildly cross about the iplayer description of Up In The Air?

"A solitary business man... meets a pretty businesswoman..."

Aaargh, he likes her because she and he are alike - independent, Glamourous, shallow, slick, funny, sexy. Pretty? Not so much.

Ooh, we've nearly filled another pub!

drspouse

I didn't know Abe Books was affiliated with Amazon! It's sadly one of the few good marketplaces for old / out of print books I know of us - would gratefully hear of any others!

I was gutted when I discovered that the owner of Blackwell Books is a big UKIP donor.

R.e. hair - I have very long hair which hasn't seen a hairdresser's scissors for about 4 years and I sometimes get odd vibes about that. When I did last go to a hairdresser's they were very keen to cut it a lot shorter and style it when I just wanted the split ends cut off.

I wonder if the very long / very short styles are both seen as slightly odd because they don't need to be "looked after" in the same way middling-length, more styled hair does - so it's a sign that the women choosing those styles don't choose to buy into the idea that women have to spend ages over their appearance?

I agree about long/short hair, although I think men also have quite a high expectation of putting effort into their appearance, perhaps more so as they are meant to appear business-like in many industries where women can appear more casual. Still, I was chatting to someone about hair recently, and said I was thinking of going for a bob (I constantly cut/grow mine, always get bored and want it to look different) and they were very in favor of longer hair.

One woman I work with (who I suspect to be on the spectrum but it's never talked about) just looked at my hair and said, "your hair's got long. Do you like it like that?"

Far more sensible than the whole " oh no, it looks pretty, keep it long." guff.

Good interview with Meryl Streep about empathy and female protagonists.
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7126204

I love Ms Streep!

Can I rant a bit more about my job search? I have been approached by a household name tech company (no, not the big G ) and I am supposed to interview with them soon but so far they have been SO unprofessional about it all that I am very tempted to tell them what to do with themselves. People responding to my emails with curt one liners, interviews tentatively scheduled but not confirmed and then postponed when I chase, and the general sulkiness and arrogance of a kid straight out of University thinking that the world owes them for their brilliance.

Then again, I understand. Their average age seems to be 15

That sounds really annoying Fibonacci

I hate job hunting with a passion. However, one of our few remaining experienced/sensible senior managers just announced her retirement, so I may need to start considering other options.

Fib, it's like it doesn't occur to them you have a timetable too!

Wait, so they have approached you and they expect you to put up with this? Not that it would be ok if it were the other way round either.

Yup, they approached me. But they behave as if they were doing me a favour, because obviously everyone wants to work for them, right? Reminds me of the obnoxiousness of the y2k dotcom bubble.

@fibonacci, is it the same company who you have an interview with on Thursday? Are the people emailing you the same ones you'll be working with? I've no advice, sorry, just wondered if there's hope that the people you work with might not be so arsey.

I have a job hunt rant of my own, I had a call at the end of last week, from traipsing round town and going in all the businesses, Poundland rang to say they were recruiting and will be holding interviews at the jobcentre, and arranged one for me for today, long story short, the interviewer made me felt very patronised and made me feel stupid for applying when I've no experience, he asked why I wasn't applying for nursery nurse jobs as that's where I'm qualified, that it made no sense for me to want to work in a shop, I ended up fighting back tears when I left the room. Feel really stupid for letting him upset me. Tomorrow's a new day.

Sorry the guy upset you, Inicked. I guess you should try to think up your answer to that question as it might arise again (though hopefully not obnoxiously)

I was always rubbish at interviews so it's a good thing I've survived nearly 30 years without having to do one. DH on the other hand was always very good and has started teaching DD how to go about them.

INicked.. what a shitty interview technique that man had. Sorry he upset you, there's something better out there for you anyway, from what I've heard, that particular outlet is not known for being good to it's workforce.

INicked - what an arsehole of an interviewer! Sorry he upset you.

How totally dickish of him iNicked, I'm sorry you had to put up with that.

That's really crappy inickedaname, some people are real arseholes if they get a little power.

Has anyone watched the new Nick Broomfield documentary 'tales of the grim sleeper'? It's about a serial killer in South cenrral in LA that they think may have killed literally hundreds of black women since the 1980s. It's really disturbing, mainly because he interviews his friends whose casual misogyny is actually chilling, they basically don't sem to think that what he did was that bad, at one point they are actually laughing about it. There is also a suspicion that the lapd knew and either didn't care (marking missing wonen/murdered women nhi- no humans involved) or actually approved of what he was doing. It's really really grim but worth a watch. There's one scene where Broomfield does some really insensitive questioning of one of the only documented surviving victims and obviously it has the usual nick Broomfield doc vibe but it's a horrible insight into a misogynist pornsick culture and the affects of that, plus the horrendous racism in the US.

Sorry for typos on phone

There are some great women in it as well, the women who campaigned for something to be done about the killings (since the mid 80s) and a recovered crack addict/prostitute who helps Broomfield to find and talk to those who knew/encountered the killer.