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Let’s hear it for the girly swots!

(56 Posts)
MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 08:10:43

Go, girl, Baroness Hale! I am liking this woman more and more.
As seen in today’s paper

BARONESS HALE was last night criticised by Cabinet ministers for “exercising poor judgment” after she opened a speech with the words “Let’s hear it for the girly swots”, standing in front of a presentation entitled “Spider woman takes down Hulk: Viewers transfixed by judge’s brooch as ruling crushed PM
The Supreme Court president, who last month declared the Prime Minister’s prorogation of Parliament “unlawful” while wearing a spider brooch, was speaking at the Association of State Girls’ Schools (ASGS) conference in Westminster yesterday.
She said her number one piece of advice to young women is: “Don’t let the bastards get you down!” The “girly swots” phrase was an apparent reference to an insult Boris Johnson used about former prime minister David Cameron in a leaked Cabinet paper.

Whitewavemark2 Sat 05-Oct-19 08:11:47

Yes saw that maw

Brilliant!

Apricity Sat 05-Oct-19 10:50:53

Oh. Yes! I'm all for the 'Girly Swots', saw the article in the Oz Guardian and loved it. All power to the Girly Swots. Maybe our time has finally come. ???????

jura2 Sat 05-Oct-19 10:54:41

Hurrah- oh I wonder what Theresa thinks of the antithesis to girly swats now.

Jane10 Sat 05-Oct-19 11:18:18

I wasn't impressed by this and feel it undermines the integrity of her judgement in the Johnson matter.
Far too easy to come out with these cheap phrases. Leave that to Johnson.
I'm a girly swot and proud - but not of Lady Hale.

EllanVannin Sat 05-Oct-19 11:21:03

Of judges in general---they don't always get it right !

SirChenjin Sat 05-Oct-19 11:41:01

Go Baroness Hale! Time to reclaim girly swot as something to be proud of as opposed to some pathetic, childish nonsense from our puerile PM.

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 12:36:17

Far too easy to come out with these cheap phrases. Leave that to Johnson
But Jane10 that was precisely what Lady Hale was doing in referencing Johnson’s cheap jibe at Cameron.
No intellectual slouch, she! .

Luckygirl Sat 05-Oct-19 12:38:04

And in context it was entirely appropriate.

Sparklefizz Sat 05-Oct-19 12:43:48

Yay for girly swots. My daughter's one and I am proud!!

lemongrove Sat 05-Oct-19 12:46:22

Am not impressed by Lady Hale for this actually, either for the girly swot phrase or standing in front of a presentation with the wording ‘Spider woman takes down Hulk’ etc.
It implies a personal grudge, when the judiciary have to be impersonal in their approach at all times.The more I think of it, the worse it is.

Riverwalk Sat 05-Oct-19 12:46:37

It's a great pity that she's coming up to forced retirement in the new year on turning 75.

Jane10 Sat 05-Oct-19 12:50:21

I think she's well past it considering her speech last week.

jura2 Sat 05-Oct-19 13:24:06

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Jane10 Sat 05-Oct-19 14:16:51

How superior do you actually think you are jura? Unfortunately for you I'm not bothered by your brexit obsessed posts from a non EU country. Surely you've got more to occupy your time than trying and failing to patronise people who don't agree with you.

M0nica Sat 05-Oct-19 14:20:47

Boris used the phrase because he was jealous. David Cameron got a better degree than him.

What bothers me far more is that Boris used the word 'girly' as an insult. It is chauvinistic and could (and should) be declared to be sexist in nature. I think Lady Hale completely misunderstood the use of this phrase and its context. It was an insult and these words were used to insult a man.

jura2 Sat 05-Oct-19 14:30:53

It was a compliment in fact. But there you go..

Comments from a non EU location are just as valid as those coming from a Country which has overwhelmingly voted for Remain btw. So, again ...

Jane10 Sat 05-Oct-19 15:15:54

I'm British. Britain voted brexit. Nuff said.

pinkquartz Sat 05-Oct-19 15:18:55

I agree with you Monica

Shame he isn't called out on being so sexist. How much longer can he keep being this way and get away with it?
I hope not too long.

Gonegirl Sat 05-Oct-19 15:50:48

I think it was unprofessional. As was the banner she gave the talk under.

She was obviously revelling in her judgement, and taking sides.

jura2 Sat 05-Oct-19 15:54:57

'I'm British. Britain voted brexit. Nuff said.'

you are a very intelligent woman- and you know full well the facts and circumstances that make that statement invalid.

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:12:21

For heaven’s sake!
Has anybody actually read the context?
1) Lady Hale was not responsible for the “banner” and had no prior knowledge of it.
2) she was speaking to a conference of State Girls’ Schools.
3) she certainly did not man “girly swot” to be used pejoratively - unlike Johnson who seems to think treating women as second class citizens (or “bits of torture”) as perfectly acceptable.
If I may quote for those who seem to have got the wrong end of the stick:
“Lady Hale said a few words before leaders of girls state schools and was glad to declare support for “girly swots” in that company,
Mr Johnson was revealed to have called his predecessor (David Cameron) a “girly swot” in an unredacted version of court documents relating to the prorogation. The handwritten note prompted condemnation of him for using sexist insults.
Wearing another animal-themed brooch, a diamanté dragonfly, Lady Hale, 74, spoke of her rise up the male-dominated legal profession to become the first woman appointed to the Law Commission in 1984 – and the first female president of the Supreme Court.
Arguing that single-sex schools allow girls the space to develop intellectual confidence and revel in being “swots”, she said her all-girls state-school education in Yorkshire meant she wasn’t interrupted by boys in class. “I found this in Cambridge – I was a girly swot and there were quite a few young men who were, similarly, “girly swots” … But sometimes supervisions were invaded by the other sort of male student, who wasn’t particularly interested in doing much … work, and who concentrated on trying to put the supervisor off with silly questions, and just generally not do a lot of work.”

As TM might have said “Remind you of anybody? “

Now what, please, do any of you object to in that
Encouraging girls to stand up to sexist intolerance?
Encouraging girls to take a pride in their intellectual and academic achievement?
Encouraging girls to be confident in what is still, sadly, frequently a sexist environment?
What is “unprofessional” for the first woman to reach her position in saying to girls and their teachers - “You can do this too, do not let others put you down for being a woman” ?
I am reading more sexism (or sheer lack of comprehension) in some replies which frankly surprise and disappoint me.
I thought better of you.

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:13:02

“Mean” not “man”

Whitewavemark2 Sat 05-Oct-19 16:13:53

maw give it to them girl????????

MawB Sat 05-Oct-19 16:14:58

I think Lady Hale completely misunderstood the use of this phrase and its context. It was an insult and these words were used to insult a man
No * M0nica* - she understood perfectly.