Women's rights general conversations - Thread 6

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of Thread 5.

There is so much excellent information and so many active discussions on FWR that I wondered if it would be useful to have a thread to sort of "cross-fertilise" between them - airing little thoughts or vignettes that wouldn't themselves merit their own thread, to highlight other posts/threads of particular interest or to point to notable developments on fast-moving threads so that casual observers know where to look.

(For example, "the X thread has meandered onto a fascinating discussion of Y" or "Poster P's amazing analysis on thread Z might have relevance to the scenario in thread W" or "Has anybody noticed this recurring theme that keeps coming up??" or even "Random bloke asked me to smile while I was choosing onions in the supermarket, grr"- that sort of thing).

@IcakethereforeIam I made sure to be on my own. No one saw me move it, which pleased me.

It should have a discrete plaque, that archaeologists will find and puzzle over in years to come 😁

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast moved me!

I took a photo of it, cake,* *I was proud of moving that rock 😅

Thank you for the rabbit hole find Cake!

every day's a school day!

Shouting at Radio 4 at around 8.40 this morning as there was a piece on surrogacy in Italy. All about the poor LGBTQ people who won't be able to order a baby from an American breeder...

I've sent the stone lifting link to an Irish friend.

I sent it to my brother who wondered what treatments there were for hernias in those days.

Well, firstly they're probably called 'themnias' now.

Arf! 😂

The stone thing is interesting, but I doubt it weighs 120 kilos - comparing stones I've lifted in the garden (same bedrock) and what I remember of the weight of my mother, my guess would be 50 or 60 k. Still impressive - women worked very hard in the country in the past - carrying fuel and water and huge cooking pots, and doing farm work, often while pregnant.

But I also noted that the stone was from a place associated with Biddy Early - where she lived for the latter part of her life (and height of her fame) and wondered about the different sorts of 'strong women' and the ways their tales can be interwoven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddy_Early

Didn't Terry Pratchet have something in his books about economies being dependent on the lifting power of old ladies?

Don't know about the Irish lifting stones but there's this from Scotland.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/aug/07/short-guide-strong-woman-lifted-332-5kg-dinnie-stones-scotland

Biddy Early - blimey, what a life!

This is the Terry Pratchett quote

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10077-studies-have-shown-that-an-ant-can-carry-one-hundred

but I recommend googling 'lifting power of old ladies'. Yay, 100 year old Florida granny.

On the subject of books, Judy Murray has got a book 'the Wild Card' for 99p as a Kindle daily deal today (23/9/23). Isn't that Andy's terven mum?

Biddy Early looks fascinating. What a life.

I remember learning about Biddy Early from my 1980s wandering around Ireland with friends, think I’ve even got a book about her somewhere.

There was a Bridey Someone I became fascinated with, don’t think it was Bridey Murphy but she sounds interesting too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrideyMurphy#:~:text=At%20the%20age%20of%2017,being%20in%20life%20after%20death.

An interesting angle.

www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/billionaire-family-pushing-synthetic-sex-identities-ssi-pritzkers

Isn't it? God, the are some malign bastards in the world. 'Follow the money' may be not be the biggest thing, but it's always a factor.

And we're the ones always accused of taking American money. I'm still waiting for mine 😡.

Ah, but remember, there are also only six of us and a multitude of sock puppets! So all those far-right-wing fundamentalist Christian $$$ have been paid to the real six, you see?

As (usually) ever with American reporting, there are too many words in that article, but it is a helpful if lengthy summary/reminder.

This book sounds interesting, if depressing.

Jobs for the Girls by Ysenda Maxtone Graham review — Britain’s lost generation of working women

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8635608e-56cd-11ee-8902-8ae15399642c?shareToken=50a0ecfa88a56dac57bb8fd54eab8482

Those poor women with lives less than they should have been. I feel so grateful that my mother wanted me to have a career. She had had to give up her dream job as a Children's Ward Sister when she got married, and started working as a nurse at the dental hospital. But even she said that women shouldn't be paid the same as men, as men had families to support!

Thanks for the share token. Let alone the inequality, what about the economic output the country lost by not educating young women! Shortsighted sexism.

@Kucinghitam, stop talking to ourself like that! 🙄