Holidays and absences

Holy shit Squach! Are we allowed to say that around you? You are 14 now...

I'm glad to see you back! I thought you were gone for good. Hope you'll stick around.

Hello Squach  Great to have you back in Forumshire again.
Although not sure Ally (wherever she has got to lately) and Norc need your help in the mischief stakes!  

Norc wrote:oh.. god.. are we starting to discuss female role models and shit... :S

...actually, I was hoping to hear your thoughts on my beach anecdote.

i am glad you're back Squach  always needs help in the mischievous business  


sorry Eldo... i think it might have been lost.

I'll try to stay here this time. I'm starting my GCSE's in September (  )so I don't know. I will do my best. I solemnly swear.

Petty, I can't help it. You'd think it was genetic or something.

And Eldo - just don't tell the mother.

Norc wrote:sorry Eldo... i think it might have been lost.

No worries.

Eldorion wrote:We'll be heading back home to Maryland this afternoon, so it's the end of my summer vacationing.  It's been a nice (if kinda long) trip.  Unfortunately I don't have a ton of stories or pictures to share this time around, although I did get a girl's number after she noticed me staring at her huge rack.

Eldorion wrote:In any event, the girl whose number I got was actually the one who started talking to me after each of us noticed the other was looking. :nod:But when you run around half-naked (or more) in a swimsuit on a public beach, then you (man or woman) probably realize that other people might look at you.

Squach wrote:And Eldo - just don't tell the mother.

Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I still have to be sneaky with certain words around my parents sometimes (my mom has loosened up a lot though).

Well then Squach I shall just have to learn to live with it, again! Odo wont be pleased though, you know how respectable he is, luckily he is spending the year dead for tax reasons.

well... and?

  Ok, from now on, I'll be incognito.

Squach-cognito.

and? - Norc

And it led to a lengthy debate about feminism!

(As to whether Eldo ran away or stayed to play with the beach balls he hasnt told us!)

Actually I didn't ask her for anything when she said goodbye the first time but then I started mentally kicking myself for being an idiot (since she had been sending some not-so-subtle signals) and went and found her packing up and offered to help her carry her stuff to her car. She declined (which I expected) but when I asked for her phone number she gave it to me and I kept it in my memory long enough to get back to the hotel and write it down.

well.. i would say something about that last paragraph but i think i want to shut my mouth if i don't have anything nice to say...



((truth is i couldn't decide which of the two snarky comments i'de go for))

Aww poor Norclet.

Hmmm, I find the whole feminist debate a difficult one. It can be fraught with ideas being misconstrued.

They is no doubt there are some men who are intimidated by strong women, the threats that some women receive for simply being capable women is horrifying (Mary Beard springs to mind, what on earth how she chooses to dress has to do with the validity of her comments in a professional field I do not know)

But the waters are certainly muddied, I actually think a lot of our obsession with looks has a lot to answer for and ideas that we 'deserve' the best and that means to look our best. Too many girls do still seem to equate life success with catching a man (preferably a rich one). But then people are all different and will continue to be.

I believe I am a feminist, but I define that as believing in the right of each women to make her own choices, be that to be a CEO, an engineer, a stay at home mum or even work in more provocative industries. One of the biggest issues with feminism I felt growing up is women who didn't strive to 'have it all' were letting the side down so girls who had different dreams felt they couldn't subscribe to it.

Let's not kid ourselves it may seem things have moved on, but actually we are still a long way form parity (a far better term than equality I feel). The news this week report that women still make up less than 30% of top level execs, get paid 30% less for the same job on average and 50% less in bonuses than their male counter parts.

Equally, some unpleasant gender assumptions are made. Three major comic book writers in an interview basically said that girls shouldn't stress about gender stereotypes in comics as girls didn't read them, so they weren't written for girls and actually it was a tradition within the genre so women should just put up with it. (I'm paraphrasing in the worst light from a secondhand article, so may be laying it on a bit thick, but the underlying sentiment was there.)

But I do think we have to be careful of brand every example of a strong women who chooses to use her sexuality as deluded and playing into men's hands, not all of them are. In fact I would argue that of those posted Beyonce is actually one women who is incredibly in control of what she does, (Brittany couldn't handle fame, Rhianna is like a lot of women who convince themselves he doesn't mean it and miles Cyrus is simply trying to pee off her dad).

This has a little bit on the whole feminism thing...



And this just makes me laugh.

so i just ignored  it all.. hehe..


but good for u that u got a number or whatever, i dunno how it went, but cool

any woman with tits is an improvement right? and not made of plastic


sorry i am being very cruel here.

Oddly enough Kafria I feel Beyonce is a main offender- I might have got some of her songs wrong, as I generally cant stand them and dont think Ive made it through a whole song, but the sentiments dont seem very feminist to me.
That one about 'put a ring on it' seems to send the message you can only marry me if you can afford to pay for me. Its still women as property, only 'strong' part is she sets her own price.

There is a strong theme of independence through the early destiny's child stuff, although actually I was referring more to the fact that she is very much in charge of her own destiny, controlling the band, her solo career and a number of offshoot businesses too.

And put a ring on it is actually more about the fact that if the bloke really cared for her and wanted her about he should have committed instead of trying to string her along.

Jordan also has put a lot of her time and effort into business, and amassed herself a fortune- doesn't change the fact she is best known for having huge tits, getting them out at every opportunity, marrying people and divorcing them within a year and a sex tape.
In a sense thats part of the problem- its one thing to try to get girls to have higher expectation for themselves than their physicality- but people like Jordan are successful doing just that.

Hello young lady ! I loved the "Blurred Lines" parody !  

in other words, the worlds just gone plain crazy ! Im a dinosaur ! All I see is that it really DOES pay to be a dur brained, open legged, silicone boobed, money grabbing, arse kicking, nonety with low intelligence unless your parents run a porn store & know the right "connections" ?  

I don't disagree that the role model there is wrong, but people will always have different values and you can't say well women should have this equality, but only if they use it in the way I decide they should. There are men who in large part make there living of looking good, less of a living maybe but still a living. Do we criticise them the same way?

And this is the problem to me, what is people being people? What is being oppressed by stereotypes and sexism?

Our Squacheroo is back!   Just in time to be dumped into a feminism flamefest. Good timing, kid.

Back to the festival: men and women are nearly damn identical psychologically and intellectually (I still claim from my teaching experience they are BETTER at math and physics, etc, they just refuse to pursue it). It's only when you get in relationships and hormones start messing around with emotions that you begin to see the difference. But since relationships are a pretty big deal it has a big impact on society.

Men and women have different pathways to sexuality (though they both seem to pass through a phase of starry eyed nincompoopism), with the female approach being more cerebral and the male approach being more physical. To paraphrase Seinfeld, women's bodies are sexy, men's bodies are utilitarian.

Because the male approach is more physical it's much easier to manipulate a man sexually. I salute women who choose to use this power deliberately, but if a woman dresses provocatively just because she thinks "that's what girls do" then she's making herself a potential victim of that power. So some early feminism (not the hippy strain) rejected gender differentiation.

Young people need to be cautious with sexuality until they understand all the emotional complications. Some young people learn faster than others. What feminism has brought into the mix is the idea that women need to be respected in the same way as men: not the false Victorian ideal of women as a paragon of virtue, but as exactly the same in every way.

Once that type of respect was in place, women could go back to exploring and safely embracing the differences between men and women, which largely pop out in the sexual arena. I think that's what's been happening recently. Young women feel they have enough respect built into the culture that they can explore these themes more than in the past. I think it's fine so long as they know what they are getting into, hard to judge from the outside.