The Bluestocking - where women are women, and small furry animals are gerbils, quokkas, capybaras, or a red panda called Rosy

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all to the Bluestocking Pub, a haven safe from harsh reality [mostly] full of good company, and excellent food and drink served by the most efficient team of gerbils in the hospitality industry.

That's awful.

It's right up there with, if I remember correctly, the very next job interview where they wanted to employ me on their sewage team (and yes that was a job that would involve going into sewers to unblock them, which wasn't actually what the job description had indicated AT ALL) purely because I was a woman and it would look good for them having a woman on the team.

Dear reader 17 year old me told them to shove their job!

That terrible, @Boiledbeetle . Was that a long time ago, when we were supposed to accept such things?

Yep! I'm just doing the maths...
...
God my brain isn't working
...

End of the 80s, start of the 90s. I worked in construction, was doing an apprenticeship as a joiner/carpenter and honestly don't know how I put up with all the shit now looking back on it.

Were you offered the job on the sewage team because a dainty young woman could get into the dark smelly and narrow areas that a man was too big for, @Boiledbeetle?

Well done to 17 year old you.

Being built like a proverbial brick shit house I think they presumed they'd get the work of a man plus the kudos of employing a woman.

No thank you!

honestly don't know how I put up with all the shit now looking back on it.

Because that was how things were.
Like my Saturday job in a posh dress shop for women, where all the employees were female apart from the manager. He just sat in his office all day and never saw customers. He didn’t even handle the money or do the wages, iirc, that was left to the second most senior salesperson.

What??????
Bastsrfs.

I'm very sorry you didn't get the news we were all hoping for, Myrtle. I hope something much better, where you will be properly appreciated, is around the corner.
There's a saying around these parts: 'What's for you won't go by you'. This one wasn't for you.

But I guess it's a bit soon for folk-philosophy to help, tonight it must just feel rotten and unfair.
Rosy will be around ASAP for some consoling cuddles

The cheerbils are going round to your interview panel to spit in their tea. I tried to suggest it might not be the best idea, but they are both determined and angry.
And spitty.

Am I the only one finding that despite only consuming Bluestocking alcohol today my head feels like I've been on an afternoon bender?

Hello from the corner where I snuggle quietly and shyly being in awe of the va va voom of the members of this fine establishment.
Very very well done, super well done, so much passion, hard work, intelligence, support, sneaking around, and general brilliance by you all.
I shall sip two more vintage bollingers , saying NO to Prosecco, then dance wildly on the table. Yipeeeee!

Oh Americanlaw please don't feel shy. Pop out of your corner now and again for a Tunnocks and gin. And a dance on the table. I'm looking forward to that.

A friend of mine worked in construction in the 80, proper technical supervisory stuff. She got called into the site office one day and was told that she was bossy and abrasive.

She wasn't one to take any shit (which was why she was surviving a job in construction) and told the manager that if she was a man she would be be described as effective, determined and authoritative for doing exactly the same things.

And I'll have some of whatever she's been having.
Seems to be some pretty strong stuff...

@Americanlaw Hellooo give me some of your bolly i could do with a fizz and welcome to the main bar

Evening all!

I’ve done a full day’s work and then driven a long way to the docked galleon 🏴‍☠️. Just arrived.

Have opened real wine and have a large bowl of crisps. I wanted to catch up on (most of) the Supreme Court thread as I haven’t been able to follow anything all day (apart from checking the amazing headlines).

But I want to be in the Blue Stocking too celebrating with you all! Sigh. So I’ll have a bottle of Blue Stocking wine to every real life glass. And a barrel of Blue Stocking crisps to every bowl. “Diet be blowed!” (Not on a diet but a bit of Victoria Wood just popped up there.)

What a day for us!

So sad and angry for you though @MyrtleLion
You wouldn’t want to work with a bunch of aging misogynists anyway. Hopefully you can adapt the wonderful presentation to another role where the panel are women. And for more money.

Great to see you @Boiledbeetle
Loving the beetle colours.

And I really, really hope that Tunnocks sees that wonderfully coloured teacake and markets it. It looks perfect! Would love someone to post it on their FB page. Or their Twitter X wotsit. Mind you, might be a bit risky, even today.

Cheers to everyone on this happy day!

Ah, there you are Americanlaw - I wasn't sure if you'd checked in to one of the Bluestocking's palatial but cosy rooms after your first/last post, and since we hadn't heard from you, I was thinking that maybe we needed to send up a couple of stout capybaras to make sure you were OK..

You're welcome to the main bar, the gerbils will keep you topped up with vintage Bolly - why stop at two? this is the Bluestocking!
and they have carefully cleared anything breakable off a selection of tables for you to choose from
Santé!🍾

Bugger and bollocks. That's infuriating, there was nothing more you could have done, and they have chosen the wrong candidate. Idiots. Still, perhaps working for them would have been beset by little micro-putdowns and wall to wall sexism and that big-swinging-dickery.

Onwards, Myrtle! You deserve, and you

will get

better treatment.

You ROCK, dear Boily.

Ah yes. Crapola job interviews ... I've had a few ... more when I was a teen.

The near-miss assault when I went for a job as a stable hand for a well-known prolific and wealthy author, whose head groom tried to grope me while showing me around the stable ... I thought I had had a lucky escape, but it never occurred to me that there might be others who weren't so lucky.

@inkymoose Bloody hell!

I posted this over on the 'Terven Roll of Honour' thread, but as it's mostly about you lot, I thought I'd put it on here in case any of you missed it
MarieDeGournay · Today 11:20
I'm not going to name names, because I'd leave out some deeply cherished ones and I'd be cross with myself.
So I'm going to focus on two things - intelligence and humour.
I can honestly say that I've never been in any forum where there has been such a thorough and rich mix of the two. Knowledge, insight, wisdom abound, alongside things so witty and sometimes surrealistically daft that I often laugh out loud.
To all you dear, witty, knowledgeable, wise, and occasionally gloriously silly women here - you are wonderful, and the/my world would be poorer and harder without you
xx [kisses AND chromosomes]
💜

This is why I love MN and the Bluestocking.

It's also why I love a female forum. It shows our amazing strength.

Ohh what utter and complete bollocks, @MyrtleLion - bloody stupid men.

There's a saying in Scotland - what's for you won't go past you - so hopefully this means there is something much better in the pipeline for you - and until then, the gerbils will rally round with bunting and banners and hot chocolate to cheer you up.

Who was in charge of the cheerbils? Just wanted to let you know that I've submitted my job application. Rather than getting the poor things horribly confused about what follows the "M" (and we all know spelling isn't their strong point), can I suggest setting up a second team to start learning how to spell Magpie now?