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.

Here it is :)
www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/nov/20/tiaras-navigate-gender-minefield-tabloid-hysteria-kids-antiquated-stereotypes

thanks Beyond
he actally said "you want Islamist segregation in place"???

OMFG.

oh the lady who called is in the comments!

someone called Ian has replied " Germany is famously liberal, with strong feminist traditions, and mixed changing rooms are never raised as a political issue. It's just so embedded in the culture. What's to say the UK can't get there, a la other top-down cultural alterations such as smoking in places of work and the carrier bag charge?"

I didn't know that Germany is big on mixed changing rooms - but I can't help noticing that someone called Ian thinks this is a great idea.

I hate the idea that Germany is so great for women. The state is a pimp.

Feminist traditions like it not being illegal to grope women?

OK, so yes, there are European countries that don't find nudity so embarrassing, but, we're not those countries. I know there are things that Brits do that Germans would find uncomfortable too.

I've lived in a lot of places, and you can never predict. In the country I'm in now, I'm putting my (and my kids) very lives in danger by walking around, in my own house, bare foot. In a previous one, going swimming without a swimming cap was a complete faux pas (even for my short-haired son) - in the UK, we like to not see each other's genitals/boobs unless we are intimately aquainted. We all have our own little foibles.

Hell, yes Rex - you're right - the state sanctioned endangerment and exploitation of women is not so feminist.

Oh WOW have the Guardian completely stopped deleting gender critical comments? Amazing!

Regarding the idea that German liberalism is super great, maybe some history is in order:

Sexual Revolution Germany

Paedophilia scandal

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/germany-s-secret-paedophilia-experiment-1.2897942%3fmode=amp

I will have a glass of red wine and some crisps, please

Not to mention the fact that it was only in 2016 that Germany finally brought its rape laws into line with most of the rest of western Europe. Prior to that, it was not rape if a woman simply said no (or didn't say anything); it was only rape if she could demonstrate that she fought back.

That and their penchant for mega brothels, motorway rest area drive-through brothels paying the trafficked women in them a pittance, and the fact that there are parts of the red light district in Hamburg which actually have signs up telling women (other than prostitutes) not to enter mean it'll be a cold day in hell before I accept Germany as some sort of paragon of virtue when it comes to women's rights. (Oh, and for a supposedly liberal democracy, they also vilify working mothers with the term rabensmutter, meaning "raven mother", i.e. cold unnatural woman who doesn't stay home with her children).

Prickly

didn't know any of this. We're not planning to move or anything, it's just an eye opener. I have a colleague from Germany and she has told me most emphatically that she is never going back (quite upset re Brexit etc). She didn't say why but she is a feminist so I think you might have just told me the reason!

Fucks sake, wish I had never started that thread now. I now have a bunch of guys saying that this is utterly fine. I am also quite drunk so really feel like just saying 'you are all misogynistic pricks if you cannot see the issues with this'. Which I cannot do as a moderator :S

Don't get me wrong - there are many things about Germany I like enormously (I've been there a lot, have friends there, German friends over here). And the UK's not a paragon of virtue (bans on abortion in NI and the Isle of Man, laws on rape which look okay on paper but are not applied in practice). But yes, it's a funny place re. women's rights.

What fresh hell will we get today, I wonder?

Completely wasted the day yesterday arguing with people on twitter. However I may have given a few lefty dudes some food for thought as they stopped coming after me when I tweeted the prison report, target numbers and a few other pieces.

The women were adamant that I was a mean witch though. Depressing

I spent a large chunk of yesterday doing the same, assigned.

Giggle for the day - mansplaining with a side order of extreme ignorance:

www.indy100.com/article/mansplaining-twitter-viral-tweet-harrassment-pub-maud-dromgoole-je-ne-sais-quoi-8066751

Ahh I read that thread yesterday, was quite amusing

bit confused by this article

are the book fair people just going to include trans next time?

amp.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/26/transgender-anarchist-book-fair-transphobia-row

No @Nyx1 - they've cancelled it altogether!

Not sure where to put this, but I am scratching my head at this article:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/universities-are-reviving-the-notion-of-heresy-cmjvb87mz?shareToken=95662980a364a4a5780c60a8c44c51b9

Who does Roger Scruton think is taking offence at whom? He seems to be mixing up the issues somewhat. I had to look up who Tim Hunt is - he seems to have made ill-judged remarks about ‘girls’ in the science lab. The criticism of him has nothing to do with the no platforming of Germaine Greer - or does it? I am confused where Scruton thinks radical feminists fit - they are the modern day heretics, not the other way around. It is radical feminists objecting to gender ID, not ‘old-fashioned women’. And I doubt it was radical feminists who cost Tim Hunt his job, they really do not have that power!

It is a mish-mash of an article. I think he is trying to support free speech at university, and condemn trial by Twitter and policy making by Twitter (I agree with him), but unless I am misunderstanding, his evidence is upside down.

@Catsrus, it's the last line of the article saying what they'll do next year.

That's a completely different group - an uncritical pro trans group who think this is an opportunity for them to jump in - the group who've organised the book fair for donkeys years have bowed out.

Hi All

Just thought I'd say hello. Have only been on mumsnet for just over a week, but am feeling a bit blown away by how much thought provoking content and solidarity there is the feminism chat section.

Mine will have to be a lime and soda for tonight (antibiotics)

Cocoa I just put that article on another thread. It was interesting - and a bit inconsistent but it wasn't a feminist article. It was a plea for evidence, and sometimes evidence isn't helpful.

Hi @FattyCat

Welcome I ended up on Mumsnet after googling something pretty innocuous like "washing machines" - started browsing and before I knew it had re-found my rad fem mojo - lots of interesting stuff to keep you occupied in here 😉

Cocoa, I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark (haven't read the article yet!) that they are mixing up Radical (aka root) Feminism with radical (aka extreme) feminists?