Great piece by academic Kathleen Stock (mentions MN)

[Ereshkigal]

medium.com/@kathleenstock/when-bindels-speak-b305625a7521

So so good.

That is a really, really excellent piece.

Damns swift response (and questioning of Bowls credentials) was just perfect too.

Clown fish... won't somebody think about the clown fish

And don't forget about the poor strawberries...

Bowl!

Bowl

This stood out from the article for me
"One by one, the familiar words women have used to describe themselves tumble like a chain of dominoes."

works they can earn five house points

Wait...what??

We have houses!!!

There are points!!!!!

...tacks star chart to wall

Denizens of MN: your mix of critical thought, expertise, sheer doggedness and irreverent humour is why MN is what it is. I salute you all.

Theres stars!!!!!!!!

Oh my actual god...this thread gets better and better

Great article and great discussion.
Anyone else been calculating the time taken to achieve all those amazing academic qualifications and professional life .... AND still be young and fertile enough to be “ a little bit pregnant “?? Very impressive.

❤️

Is there a Sorting Hat for these Houses?

Was going to say something unkind about Slytherin but too obvious and not all houses have to be defined by Harry Potter.

I’m efficient and have had the benefit of some interesting career accelerations as well ;) too much more would be outing, but I’m happy to let MNHQ see any qualification I have (apart from the swimming certificates, fuck knows where they are, somewhere in a dark parental loft I imagine...)

Anyway:
Double degree - age 18 to 21
Masters 1- to 22
Masters 2 and PhD run concurrently as is the norm 22 -25 (i was fairly skint and so very very keen to get done on time)
Postdoc 1 - to 27 - two year fellowship
Postdoc 2 - to 30 - standard three year soft money (sigh...)

Christ, did I have that much energy??

Career bridging academic work and clinical work and gradually moving almost totally to clinical research 30 to present day.

My age is none of your business, but I’m very lucky to be pregnant. ;)

I shall not be publishing my CV, publication list, exact age or current professional credentials though. Some rather unpleasant people out there who like to target GC feminists you see :)

The idea that the rest of the world had no idea how babby is formed until white Europeans showed up is so jaw-droppingly racist that I can never quite believe people are saying it while patting themselves on the back for being virtuous.

But if only you would educate yourself, Bowl!

As I said before ... very impressive.
Thank you for clarifying the timings.... there are people on the MN site who can be less than honest so a little bit of cynicism is to be expected I think.
Good luck with your pregnancy... I’m sure you’ll be just as “ efficient “ as a mum ! Unfortunately you won’t get any certificates for it... well , I didn’t.

Well presumably Damnthat is not qualified to air any opinions on here anymore since they assume we should only hear from experts and I think that might be a relief to us all.

I like the article and my first degree is philosophy (I know ) so I happen to know that deconstructing how language is formed, defining what words mean and the importance of that meaning and how we go about debating a topic are very much in the wheelhouse of a philosopher (see also Kripke, Wittgenstein, Frege, Ayer et. al. - oh and any philosopher who has had to take on a point of view and rebut it - soooo ... that would be all of them).

Oh thank you! That’s a lovely image :)

One more day to go then maternity leave... I cannot wait.

Bowl would definitely be in Ravenclaw.

[ponders why wizards and witches don't learn any biology at Hogwarts. Do they all leave without knowing how babies are made? And can a wizard identify as a witch if they want to? And have I drifted ridiculously far from the point of the thread?]

And can a wizard identify as a witch if they want to? And have I drifted ridiculously far from the point of the thread?]

I bet there's a fan fic for that.

Also want to add my congratulations Bowl on your pregnancy and indeed, your efficiency - something I haven't quite mastered.

Enjoy maternity leave.

Another congrats from me, Bowl.

(Another late pregnancy from a female professional scientist - is definitely a thing in my workplace, myself included. Almost as though there's some sort of tension there between the workplace culture to publish, publish, publish while you establish your career, versus the old biological clock when it comes to beating the menopause... But no, surely not. That would mean that the structural barriers women faced in their careers were rooted in female reproductive biology and we can't be referencing pesky awkward facts like that, now, can we?)

Bowl, that is simple not enough, never mind having a baby (congratulations by the way) go back to school.

Dammit if Bowl is about to go on maternity leave then she’s likely to drop a sprog any day now and we all know how those pesky babies eat up our time. Bowl - I hope you’ll still find time to come here and educate/amuse us when you can.

Congratulations

Still several weeks to go!! I’m clocking off early because I’ve been very unwell with HG and SPD and physically I need to rest (knackered old body I’m afraid...) on crutches and still spewing daily so rather shattered.

If this one is like the last one I will be having an awful lot of time in the wee small hours to muck around in MN

Thank you for all your good wishes, I’ll be lurking even if I’m too bug eyed with tiredness to post ;)

Great news bowl. Have very happy maternity leave.