The Bluestocking is open for business

[PricklyBall]

I've scrolled back a few pages and I can't even find the last pub thread.

So I've taken the beer towels off the pumps, tapped a new barrel, polished the glasses, fed the goat and applied brasso to the patriarchy busting canon.

Come and join me - all tastes catered for - beer, gin, wine, cocktails, coffee and a nice cup of tea.

Following on from that I dislike how women's "lines" are erased if that makes sense, women being expected to give up their identities for so long and even now when increasing numbers of women keep surnames if they marry almost always any children get given the father's surname almost as default. Slightly different topic I suppose but the name issue is something which I think about a lot and have regularly lamented to my mum regarding her doing so...

Pop did you see the Ruby Wax one recently? I happened to catch the second half but it was very much about her female ancestors and also how their mental illness was treated so radically differently to how she has been supported. It was a good program.

No, didn't see that one Serendipity.

I had kind of given up on it really. Might seek that one out.

I had a bit of an argument with someone over the "trans" issue yesterday. Not a close friend but still a bit of a shame and so I'm slightly deflated about it, far from the end of the world of course but just thought I'd post here nonetheless! Hope all are well.

I liked this Twitter pic from Eni Aluko, the football player who gave evidence to the Commons Committee this week, regarding racism at the FA.

Afterwards, she got a takeaway coffee from her local coffee shop and found that one of the staff there had written a message on it.

Just a lovely small gesture of support from someone. Sometimes that can make all the difference.

I've just read about her in the papers. What a woman!

Eni Aluko is one of my heroes! Fabulous woman, brilliantly intelligent and articulate, and an absolutely beautiful player to watch.

I kow what you mean, NoLove, about feeling deflated if the trans issue is touched on. In a way it's easier to cope with frothing transactivists than with people who just vaguely go along with it. Worse when you normally respect and agree with their views - the brainwashing element is distressing.

I had a minor disagreement (all fairly civilised) with a couple of french hippies recently when the subject came up - naturally they were very into the idea of an internal male/female essence. What struck me though was that they were homophobic at the same time... the man claimed to have gay friends and said he didn't have a problem with people being gay, but that it had gone "too far", that now "they have more rights than normal people", and that being gay shouldn't be "promoted" because it set a bad example. Yet trans - fine and dandy. ??!!

I've been refelcting on it because the whole manner of conversation seemed a perfect example of... something. The man was putting his opinion across forcefully, his female partner agreeing but much more softy and sort of in a discussion type way. I joked we were having an intense conversation and she pointed out it's necessary to discuss things to reach a consensus and change the world for the better.

It just really set me thinking.

:)

That must have been frustrating though glad the discussion remained civilised Sepia! The homophobia they were spouting must have been rather frustrating to hear as well to say the least.

It's exasperating when some won't even engage with the arguments on the trans issue I find. For some it seems to have become so set in stone that to oppose the TRA agenda in any way is "transphobic" and goes against what's "progressive" that reasonable debate is shut down.

Just latching on to the history discussion. I teach at a girls' school where most students are black. And yet we did nothing related to Black History Month, nothing related to International Day of the Girl. Our English curriculum is almost entirely male and entirely white. Not sure of topics in History but suspect similar. I've been thinking I'd like to do some kind of audit but suspect it wouldn't be appreciated. I need to get better at sticking my neck out and expressing my views.

I'll have a mug of mulled wine (with extra brandy), a veggie burger with melted stilton, and a nice seat by the fire please!

Yep, my all-girls school, very little about women in history, and a bloody lot about the chartists! Or womens history seemed to start (and end) with the suffragettes..............

Whereas now, we have the great New Scientist 'single cave woman combing her hair' debacle from 2015:
www.newscientist.com/letter/mg22730310-700-enough-with-the-cliched-cavemen/
and I'm desperately reading anything I can find about what women supposedly actually did in prehistory, apart from sitting around having babies and waiting for the hairy cavemenz to hurry up and invent stuff................

Here is the illustration BTW:
www.newscientist.com/article/mg22730282-900-the-three-ancestral-tribes-that-founded-western-civilisation.
Now you can all play 'spot the woman'.................

In the kichen doing the cooking and burping babies, somedyke? I prefer to think the women are the ones on horseback in the background making good their escape from that sausage-fest of a camp.

Evening wimmin

I just watched “Abortion on Trial” on BBC iPlayer. It was really good, I felt like I learned stuff even from a strong pro-choice stance to start with. They did include the obligatory short-sighted closed-minded man wanting to control women’s bodies, and a woman whose main argument was “it’s a sin”, but apart from them, some very interesting contributions from various viewpoints, it was a really interesting discussion. Left me wholeheartedly supporting full decriminalisation and no legal limits on abortion, make it solely a medical matter between a woman and her doctor. I’d also never considered, that the current law requiring women to take abortion medications in a clinic, can leave them miscarrying the pregnancy in public, on the bus home. One woman described passing her pregnancy in a toilet in a café. Women should absolutely be able to take the medication at home.

I’m going to a WEP event on abortion decriminalisation on Thurs, and glad I feel more informed now.

qumquat that sounds incredibly frustrating. What subject do you teach? Absolutely do a curriculum audit - suggest 50/50 male/female representation and representing diverse backgrounds as well (race, class, sexuality, disability). If young people aren’t exposed to role models they can identify with in school, they may not have strong role models in their family, then all they have is what they find in the media - and we all know how women are portrayed there.

Btw, there is a women’s history month in March as well!

Anyone seen daddies thread asking for a woman only topic

Not going well

"Anyone seen daddies thread asking for a woman only topic"

Presumably so that men can take over the rest of Mumsnet?

SomeDyke - that reminds me of the conversation someone told me they'd had with an anthropologist. The anthropologist mentioned that recent findings suggested that the division of labour in hunter gather tribes wasn't as clearly divided along sex lines as had always been assumed, and that women hunted some of the smaller game and men did some of the gathering. So they asked what difference it would make to undergraduate texts.

The anthropologist sighed and said "I suppose it means that in addition to illustrations of men heroically hunting, we will have illustrations of men heroically gathering too."

The anthropologist sighed and said "I suppose it means that in addition to illustrations of men heroically hunting, we will have illustrations of men heroically gathering too."

Well

I would say thats part of a cunning plan...but im not sure he is that cunning

prickly

I know that not funny...but thats quite funny, because its true, sadly

Here you go somedyke
www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bronze-age-women-travelled-men-stay-home-spread-new-ideas-gender-roles-females-sex-a7931186.html%3famp

(Cocoa here with a different name)

I

I posted too soon!

I was going to say that in some clinics I thought women could take the abortion medication at home. I may be remembering wrongly, though, it was a health presentation and they were looking at making the procedure simpler under 9 weeks (which most abortions are).

Looking at Marie stopes and BPAS websites both say the second medication has to be taken in the clinic, and you then leave the clinic to ‘complete the abortion at home’. Which can start 1.5-2 hrs after administering the second medication ‘but may start sooner’.

But isn't this so medical professionals can be sure the medication is being taken by who it's prescribed for, rather than potentially being passed on to others? Haven't seen the programme so happy to be corrected.