Feminism

Any 'disgusted colonels from Cheltenham', please stand up and be counted.
Seriously, Peter, you aren't telling us anything we don't already know about the more disreputable aspects of our history. Why do you 'stress English'? Much of the prosperity of Glasgow (which isn't English) originated from the labour of slaves in cotton plantations. Some of my ancestors on both sides of the border must bear some responsibility.

I t is my sincere wish that men and women of all ages will look back on threads, posts etc made not only by myself but virtually everyone who has made suggestions, jokes or raised serious issues and be genuinely puzzled at the use of very word feminist and dominant male. I hope University students write learned papers on why it was necessary for anyone to fight for equality. in the same way an essay on the need for Wilberforce and a relatively few others who had to to fight parliament for a staggering 23 years to abolish slavery in all places the English and I stress English held sway. Before we congratulate ourselves for eventually setting slaves free the majority were mainly re designated bound apprentices and the aristocracy that formed the bulk of MPs demanded and got compensation for loss of property, ie fellow human beings.. The sad,, but I can assure you accurate fact is that the majority of our stately homes were either built or reequipped to the high standard we are now privileged to be allowed to visit today.on the compensation they granted themselves, seems little changed l accept it would be incredibly naive to hope one day all will be equal irrespective of gender class, creed or skin colour.
Ooops, there goes another disgusted Colonel from Cheltanham who will never read another rant from a quasi socialist, pity we don't have the appropriate Basildon Bond and stauatry green ink used to write letters of protest what
Cheers
Peter

Yes, I understood that, jess. Sorry I wasn't clear. Maybe laddishness was more gentlemanly, if you see what I mean, in the past. I mean, the everyday sexism was still there, possibly even more of it than now, and even supposéd (sic) 'gentlemen' indulged in it without anyone publicly objecting. I've certainly experienced that kind and let it pass. I wouldn't let it pass nowadays, and that's what I meant about young women now – they object, often loudly. So gentlemen stop it but the 'lads' get louder.

Just a thought (or two).

I meant by men bags There are whole magazines devoted laddishness Nuts etc I am going by the @everydaysexism twitter site in part.

Plenty of laddish language on Mumsnet!

A wordf to the wise MOGGSY , you might be considered to going off subject by the thread police .

just saying !

You seem to have got your MOJO back , I am soo pleased .

Has there really been a rise in laddish behaviour in our children's generation? Could it not be that today's young women simply make more noise about it on average than our generation did? And good for them!

One of my friends was unable to go to university in the 60's as her widowed mother couldn't afford it. She got a job in a laboratory at Unilever where her boss told her he had never employed a woman before and wasn't that keen to take her on! I'm glad to say that she went to evening classes, got the necessary qualifications and ended up running her own department.

It wasn't all that different in the 80s, MOGGSY. Our Deputy Chief Probation Officer came to visit we lowly students, prior to our interviews for qualified posts. She arrived wearing a hat and gloves, and said she expected us to have matching shoes and handbags at our interviews, but they were relaxing expectations about hats.

The previous year's cohort had tipped us off that she was a bit strange, so we just smiled and nodded, then dressed as we wished. After the last interview, she commented to another member of the interview panel 'one day they will realise that dressing smartly and conservatively will hold sway with judges! And there was me, thinking that intelligent, analytical court reports were going to influence sentencing!

On my first day as a Probation Officer in Durham City Office I was almost knocked over by a lady clutching a brief case and grabbing a large felt hat with an 12 inch feather on one side. She apologized profusely but said she was late for Duty PO at Durham Magistrates Court. A member of the office staff, female to a woman of course, explained that the lady was the statutory woman PO prescribed by law to be appointed one per division and that hats must be worn by females in court and the length of the feather marked the persons importance in that particular court ( 1973 ). At first I was amused but then very angry. Being a new boy my only way of silent protest was to trim a 1/4 inch per week off the feather and eventually to hide it. Not sure if I did right but as a direct result hats became optional. It took me a good 12 months to convince my wife to describe herself, both when answering the phone or discussing her then, new promotion to Manager and not Manageress of a small packaging company she was headhunted to run in Skelmersdale.
Strange decade the 70s
Cheers
Peter

X

Me too Nonu wonder if I've missed a compulsory sense of humour bypass required for women.

Why is Boris Johnson's comment funny?

We do not really know whether huge amounts of women will not vote for him.

Perhaps they , like me took it as a joke !!!!!!!!!!!

Well yes of course he would say he was "jesting" but the problem is nonu that not all jokes should be told on all social occasions. Problem with this one is he has offended:
Huge numbers of young women who will not now ever vote for him [doh Boris]
Malasians possibly - because he was on official business in a different culture - where you would expect a bit of caution, rather than the assumption that they will all share his dubious sense of humour.
If he'd said it at a private party one of the women (or men) would probably have told him off and nobody else would have known about it.

Surely Boris was just jesting ?

What do I know ?

Iam64

My late wife did not go to university to get a husband.
She met her future husband on the first day of grammar school.
The headmistress said I made a very good choice.
I must have done as she was her mother.

Frank

I think we should be encouraged that the present generation of young women are becoming a bit more aware, after the materialistic have-it-all boom years.
Possibly because one of the products of all that was a rise, rather than a decline in laddish bad behaviour.
There is a lot more discussion of feminism on mumsnet last time I looked, than there is on GN.

It is just depressing that 50 years after I graduated there are still British men in high places mouthing such stupid opinions.

iam64 - as I posted last night at 19.22.

Flickety - the press this morning is quoting Boris as saying women go to university to get a husband ..... and we wonder why feminism still needs to be alive and well in the UK

Flickety - the press this morning is quoting Boris as saying women go to university to get a husband ..... and we wonder why feminism still needs to be alive and well in the UK

OMG, I remember getting outraged in the early 1960s when one of the men in my year said that the women at university were only there to find husbands. The vast majority of women left unmarried so I presume the quality of the candidates was so poor they decided to look elsewhere.

It's also knows as face ache, and I'm sure lots of other things, rather than Facebook. I confess to having joined after I retired. I was always anxious about the amount of information shared on the site and limit my "friends" to family and very close friends. It's a great way of keeping in touch with friends who don't live locally, grandchildren, children away travelling or at university.

Today on Twitter the @everydaysexism are rightly outraged by Boris Johnson in Malaysia, who "quipped" on being told about high percentage of females going to university that they were going to uni to find husbands.