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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

1000 replies

MyrtleLion · 13/06/2025 18:35

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

OP posts:
Thread gallery
214
Bannedontherun · 22/06/2025 22:14

I would like a GNT please gerbils just returned from a picnic at silverbells

post SC judgement all is good, TRA’s having their death knells.

Happy days.

MyrtleLion · 22/06/2025 22:21

MarieDeGournay · 22/06/2025 21:38

Who knew that you could knit a poem?💙
Beautiful, Myrtle.

Oh, gosh!

Entirely unintentional, but thank you xx

OP posts:
inkymoose · 22/06/2025 23:22

Bannedontherun · 22/06/2025 22:14

I would like a GNT please gerbils just returned from a picnic at silverbells

post SC judgement all is good, TRA’s having their death knells.

Happy days.

Coming right up, dear Banned!

The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.
Chersfrozenface · 23/06/2025 08:51

Back from holiday - a week, or 10 days if you count the travelling, of ignoring most real life crap. Marvellous.

An Aperol spritz, please, bar gerbil. In the spirit of Continental escapes.

MarieDeGournay · 23/06/2025 09:14

Chersfrozenface · 23/06/2025 08:51

Back from holiday - a week, or 10 days if you count the travelling, of ignoring most real life crap. Marvellous.

An Aperol spritz, please, bar gerbil. In the spirit of Continental escapes.

Welcome back, Cher, I'm glad you had a good hols, and I hope real life crap has eased a bit? at least you can face it with renewed vigour, and you can always pop in to the Bluestocking for a good impression of a Continental escape -
'Gabriella! Garance! Giuilana! Gisele! Over here please - Cher needs a Virtual Continental Escape!'😄 🍹☀🌴

MyrtleLion · 23/06/2025 11:03

I asked AI for an image and it gave me this little tale. So I asked it to show this as an image.

[Interior – The Bluestocking Women's Pub, early evening. The lighting is soft and golden.]

A flurry of tiny paws and the faint rustle of satin capes signals the arrival of Gabriella, Garance, Giuliana, and Gisele – the legendary Continental Gerbil Quartet. Each one alights onto the mahogany bar with practiced grace:

Gabriella, ever the Milanese sophisticate, adjusts her rhinestone monocle and flutters a fan made from a playing card.

Garance, Paris-born, all smoky eyes and tiny scarf, nods with unbothered cool.

Giuliana, resplendent in Amalfi lemon-print silks, whirls dramatically before posing like a Fellini extra.

Gisele, from Geneva, precise and serene, carries a miniature tray no larger than a saucer.

Cher, seated in the corner on a velvet barstool with her notebook open and pen poised, barely finishes saying “I need a Virtual Continental Escape” before the gerbils spring into action.

With astonishing coordination:

Gisele uncorks a minuscule bottle of Prosecco.

Garance dashes over with a fresh vial of Aperol.

Giuliana hoists a sprig of rosemary over a jigger, twirling as she goes.

Gabriella carries the tiniest sliver of orange zest like a ribbon in her teeth.

In moments, they produce a thimble-sized Aperol spritz, radiant and fizzing with chilled promise, set down delicately on a coaster stitched with a map of southern Europe.

Cher smiles. The bitter-orange aroma carries her, for a moment, to a tiled courtyard in Tuscany. The laughter of unseen women drifts on the breeze.

Escape achieved.

The gerbils bow in sequence.
The jukebox shifts to Françoise Hardy.

And somewhere, perhaps in the back, someone mutters: “God, I love this pub.”

The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.
OP posts:
Chersfrozenface · 23/06/2025 11:12

@MyrtleLion not bad at all from AI. Well done and thank you to the gerbils.

Could I perhaps ask for a bigger spritz? Or just keep the thimble-sized ones coming.

MyrtleLion · 23/06/2025 11:20

Chersfrozenface · 23/06/2025 11:12

@MyrtleLion not bad at all from AI. Well done and thank you to the gerbils.

Could I perhaps ask for a bigger spritz? Or just keep the thimble-sized ones coming.

Like this?

The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.
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Chersfrozenface · 23/06/2025 11:29

@MyrtleLion that's perfect. And kudos to the little bar staff for carrying it.

JuneShellChangeHerTune · 23/06/2025 11:33

I wonder why AI gave the gerbils satin capes when it described them. I can now imagine them rushing round at speed to be helpful, with their capes almost horizontal floating behind them

MyrtleLion · 23/06/2025 11:33

Chersfrozenface · 23/06/2025 11:29

@MyrtleLion that's perfect. And kudos to the little bar staff for carrying it.

They are very talented.

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lcakethereforeIam · 23/06/2025 11:46

Not sure that carrying the orange zest in the teeth is very hygienic, but the rhinestone monocle and the fan made from a playing card are lovely details.

Now I want a lorgnette, a really filigree, silver one.

MyrtleLion · 23/06/2025 13:44

lcakethereforeIam · 23/06/2025 11:46

Not sure that carrying the orange zest in the teeth is very hygienic, but the rhinestone monocle and the fan made from a playing card are lovely details.

Now I want a lorgnette, a really filigree, silver one.

This is the third attempt...

The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.
OP posts:
EdithStourton · 23/06/2025 13:54

Virtual Continental Escape sounds as if it should be added to the cocktail menu.

MarieDeGournay · 23/06/2025 14:03

I love the AI story, Myrtle, and the illustrationsSmile

It strikes me though that the gerbils in the story are a bit... fancy, aren't they? They have what we call in Ireland 'notions' - sorry, gerbils, but 'tis far from Amalfi lemon-print silks and rhinestone monocles ye were reared - state o' yiz!

If you say you'd like an Aperol spritz to that lot, they'd probably look at you disdainfully - one of them through a rhinestone monocle, FFS - and reply
'And this affects us how?' before returning to their debate about whether Etretat is better than Honfleur in August...

And one last point - sorry, AI, but if Garance is really French, there's no way she'd tie a scarf like that - every Frenchwoman I've ever known had the apparently innate ability to tie scarves effortlessly into any one of a range of perfect, and perfectly chic knotsEnvy

Boiledbeetle · 23/06/2025 20:32

Suddenly the gerbil's attire makes more sense...

Although I'm not sure exactly what play they put on!

The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.
lcakethereforeIam · 23/06/2025 21:13

The Vagina Monologues?

I've never actually seen it.

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2025 21:21

No idea what it is, but it looks like we're all enjoying it.

MarieDeGournay · 23/06/2025 21:31

lcakethereforeIam · 23/06/2025 21:13

The Vagina Monologues?

I've never actually seen it.

😂
Second from the right of looks like she's doing Ophelia 'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance'.
Ms Monocle is reading extracts from The Well of Loneliness.
Not sure about the rest!

lcakethereforeIam · 23/06/2025 21:34

First one could be Lady MacBeth, though too cheery to be doing the 'out damned spot' bit.

FuzzyPuffling · 23/06/2025 21:41

I think it's "Show and Tell" time.
Bit of cookery of something green, a sprig of tree I have grown, a poem, a painting, and a red scarf i have knitted.

AlexandraLeaving · 23/06/2025 22:09

I’m confused. Was one of the gerbils not called Germolene? Do they change names frequently?

Boiledbeetle · 23/06/2025 22:23

AlexandraLeaving · 23/06/2025 22:09

I’m confused. Was one of the gerbils not called Germolene? Do they change names frequently?

Many many many gerbils.

Many with the same name!

It usually depends which shift is on!

JuneShellChangeHerTune · 23/06/2025 22:38

Tonight I was working at an (private) event where Kate Nash is headlining. I have come home without waiting to see her.

(It’s possibly a bit too revealing to say where, but wanted to make that point. 😉 )

JuneShellChangeHerTune · 23/06/2025 22:43

Boiledbeetle · 23/06/2025 22:23

Many many many gerbils.

Many with the same name!

It usually depends which shift is on!

Oh, no, it’s not like my brother’s boarding school in the ‘60s is it, where all the female workers were known as Mary and the male ones as John? I think it was so, certainly the collective terms were the Marys and the Johns.

That seemed wrong to me, even when I was still in primary school.

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