Bluestocking lock in!

[QuentinSummers]

Posted a whole thing on the last thread and it was locked!

Last thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3062013-The-Bluestocking-is-open-for-business
Here's my post replying to Moth
Thats an interesting article moth. Best not on the board or MRAs would be all over it!
I was wondering today, hopefully, if the news about darts getting rid of the girls means the overton window is shifting and maybe p0rn will become less acceptable?
If not all this hooha about F1 girls and the presidents club is just tinkering on the edges.

birthday drinks last night

do we keep Alka Seltzer here?!

(Clink clink fizz)

Thanks BeUpStanding
I forgot about that advert! I always think of Bernard Black saying "I went to the chemist to get some fizzy good" and Fran says "What?" and he says "you know, fizzy good - make feel nice".

I think I'm going to sit in bed and MN a lot today!

I have a feeling something really bad is about to happen.

Not just in my general pessimistic attitude but like a real gut feeling....to the point that I don't want to tell my friends because I don't want to freak them out, and we've had a couple of bereavements.

Possibly the bereavements are freaking me out....my friend's mum and a friend's auntie.

Vodka please?

Oh dear
Hopefully it will turn out to be nothing

Thanks Quentin

I've done a workout and it hasn't helped. Might to have a real vodka instead of a virtual one!

Evening all.

Has anyone else got 'Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls'?

I can't read out a page to the bottom to my kids without my voice trembling and tears - making a bit of an arse of myself.

This evening I read the Malala Yousafzai page and dc was really interested in protecting the right to go to school, because the Taliban didn't want girls to go.
I did a bit of age-appropriate explaining about the history of inequality of the sexes, then DC mentioned learning about Black History Month at school.
I told her that Linda Bellos, the woman who pioneered that in the UK, has recently been no platformed because women's rights are under attack again.

It brought it all into sharp relief for me again.

Feeling a bit worried that we are sleepwalking off a precipice..

Has anyone else got 'Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls'?

Not yet. I'm going to get it for my boys once they're a bit bigger.

We're not sleepwalking GuardianLions. And more and more of us are waking up

Yes. My DD (11) absolutely adores it.
I found the inclusion of Corey Maison a bit jarring but trying to overlook that.

Ah man! Just looked at who Corey Maison is. Think I'll be damaging that page!

And thanks Tallulah I am feeling a bit more hopeful this morning.

Holy hell this place is going bonkers, I can’t keep up. I replied to the twitter thread about WEP/Heather Brunskell-Evans, and I got retweeted by Julie Bindel, it feels like shit is getting very real.

On a less stressful note - is the Rebel Girls stories suitable for a 7yo? She’s reading a few years ahead.

Can I pull a stool up? I'm fed up of being told I'm to blame for all the ills of the world for being older and thinking feminism is about women.

I think Rebel Girls is good for a 7 year old. You might need to explain some of the contexts, and that these are real people, not just fictional characters. But it really is lovely the way each page is written in a way that appeals to children, picking out the details that are significant for them. I imagine that reading it to children from as early an age as possible could have a profound positive effect on them for the rest of their lives.

Ethel you are welcome to pull up over here. You are in good company.

Thanks. I've learnt so much from this board! I need a stiff drink to cope!!!

Here have a

On a totally random note, I realised something intesting about my workplace. Big organisation, huge R&D section in which I'm a scientist. Now the scientists (of both sexes) tend to be somewhat uninterested in their appearance, so it's no big surprise to me that many of the female scientists (myself included) don't wear makeup.

But recently I've started doing public outreach / interface of science and wider policy work, so I'm now working with quite a lot of women from the corporate comms team and press office.... And they don't wear makeup either. So I've started deliberately looking, and I'd say the number of women round the place wearing makeup is maybe round the 10% mark. I suspect this is very, very unusual. And rather heartening. (Important disclaimer - we are way out in the sticks, far away from London or any other large city, where fashion and being trendy might actually matter).

Hairy - yes, friends outside London have said to me that the increasing pressure to look good at work is a bigger thing in London than elsewhere.

Okay, potentially stupid question alert

second pervy charity guy talking about attempts to damage aid in general

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/22/unicef-deputy-justin-forsyth-quits-inappropriate-behaviour-claims

now who would want to do that? and if a group did want to do that, is it likely they would use exposes of general pervy behaviour in order to that? Surely they'd be more likely to push the wasted money angle?

I’ve just got some of the Little People Big Dreams books for DD which are perfect for children not quite big enough for the Rebel Girls.

After a hard day's sledging it's time to bump the Bluestocking! I am imagining myself beside our roaring fire, in the wood-panelled lounge bar (bookshelves and comfy armchairs). I have a mug of mulled wine (thank you co-op, you may not have milk at the mo but you have mini bottles of red wine) and a pot of tiramisu.

Hey! I need wine, but snowed in so virtual will have to do. How are you hairy?

I'm a bit annoyed with fashion. Trying to find some long sleeved work tops, all I can find is shirts and I don't iron. The trousers are all cropped at the ankle and as I'm a shortarse they just look stupid. I really need some new stuff but it's all grim. Huh.

Feeling very chilled because (a) mulled wine and (b) work sent us home at mid-day yesterday (in theory I should have been doing loads of reading, but since DS's school also closed, and there was 6" of snow outside, we have just been doing loads of sledging).

I dunno how old you are Quentin, but as a "woman of a certain age" I am now doing a lot of shopping from Monsoon - I find they have quite a lot of nice 3/4 length and full length sleeve tops in nice patterns and knitted fabrics. I've also just bought some new polo necks on line - bit on the big size (their sizing is even more generous than M&S but v. nice colours and nice merino/cashmere mix). But I am a geeky research scientist so frankly I could turn up for work in a bin-bag and no-one would bat an eyelid.

Thinking of binbags, I have re-discovered poly- bagging. On a nice firm snow pack, you go like shit off a shiny shovel. It's great.

What is polybagging? No sledge here, maybe we can do that instead
I hadn't thought of monsoon but maybe I should..

Stout bag for life. Spread on ground, sit on it, grasp handles, lift feet, launch yourself down the slope and off you go!

I wasn't even using a bag-for-life, just a 5p one someone had left in the park!