Paris nightclub red-faced after booze-for-boobs offer exposed Bar staff at a nightclub in Paris have hit upon a two-for-one idea to boost custom by promising female patrons that dare to bare their boobs a small, free drink. Wanderlust, an open-air club billed on TripAdvisor as the best in the French capital by one punter, displayed a sign that stated "tits = shots". It was spotted, …
On a loosely-related note, many years ago, participating in a Central London stag night dressed (in drag) as old ladies, we overheard a US tourist observing this in McDonalds at Tower Bridge and remarking "Gee, these UK cross-dressers sure are ugly"...
No photos remain, I am relieved to say! To anyone reading, if you saw any of this in early December 1999 (or were that US tourist) then I can only apologise.
The sight of my Kiwi ex-brother-in-law with huge colourful tattoos, wig and what remained of an old lady dress running down a platform at Waterloo is not easily erased from one's mind.
I know, but I'm referring to articles like this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-19/how-women-got-crowded-out-of-the-computing-revolution
Which has been relaunched by others. It looks that today the worst people, the more racist, the more sexist are programmers... other categories just fine, despite the news...
There were lots of female programmers in the 1980's. Today, it's down to around 20% in the USA (not sure of figures for UK but likely comparable). You suggest that women have been "crowded out". I believe more likely is that women have ceased to be crowded out in other places. In the 1980's it was very hard as a woman to progress in a career in law, in medicine, veterinary science, in business and to an extent, in the Sciences. Nowadays women make up 51% of law students in the USA, make up the overwhelming majority of veterinarians and have similarly surged in management and medicine and other areas. Where did all these smart women magically come from? A lot jumped ship from IT. In the early years of computers going mainstream, it was actually seen as an outgrowth of secretarial work. Cosmopolitan magazine had an article in the 80's on what a good career it was for women and Admiral Grace Hopper (Peace be upon her) said programming was "like planning a meal - you had to make sure everything arrived when it was supposed to arrive". A peculiarly (for the time, offensive now) female way of selling the career as one suited for women.
Why suppose that women have been "crowded out" of this moderately well paying career rather than falling sexism allowing the pursuit other careers that are either more lucrative (management, medicine and law all typically pay better) or more interesting; or both?
In country's with a higher degree of sexism than the West - Iran, Indonesia for example - gender ratios in programming are actually more even. It's likely not that these countries are more enlightened than us in this one, rather specific area, and more that the prejudices prevent women progressing in more traditionally male careers such as law, management, medicine, et al.
N.b. to be very, very clear - women perform equally to men in technical areas, scoring as well in maths and in engineering in general. But what we are finding is that many women choose other areas more so than men do. Not exclusively, but to a degree that is noticeable.
@h4rm0ny: I've often felt it the case that many find it far too easy to just play the sexism card when it comes to women in computing than to stop and think a little and come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, they have gone into other careers that are more lucrative and more interesting to them. Let's not forget that programmers and other IT workers are often seen as almost a worthless commodity to be bought at the lowest price possible by many in management and on the user side of the fence. I mean what female wouldn't want to spend the next 40+ years of their life being treated like they're an inconvenience? Not to mention that, where I live at least, there is a booming section of women that have decided to create their own businesses post child birth in order to have greater freedom around the time they have to do things. My guess is that most of these have never looked back. Mumtrepreneurs I believe is the hipster tag for them.
Yeah, again loosely connected, some of the females in my house will doubtless be watching Shitly Come Dancing in the autumn. I hate it, so I've no idea of the line up of 'celebrities'. One thing can be guaranteed : some of the male contestants will be 20-30 years old, probably from Hollyoaks or the like, and they'll be spending a lot of their time topless, for the benefit of teenies or the menopausal. One year, I suggested that some of the female professional dancers should, in the interests of equality, perform topless as well. For reasons I'm struggling to remember (due to the mild concussion I received in the seconds after the suggestion), the females in my house thought that proposal unacceptable.
In one of my favorite bars there was a row of lady breast and chap buttocks snaps behind the counter. I don't remember if the barkeep offered a shot for these, but being featured there was considered a badge of honour by all parties. Although presumably not for life. Quite luckily, instant snaps have quite a limited lifetime when kept exposed to light, after a few years the snaps would have faded and be replaced.
"Films can be kept in good condition forever though, and be used to print more pictures...?"
Polaroids are basically an instant one-off print medium - although IIRC they did experiment with a "negative" system for later copies.
Polaroid cameras were once the equivalent of SnapChat for couples exchanging intimate pictures - especially in colour.
And don't forget the original peel-apart Polaroid film. I have this memory of my dad having one of the Polaroid cameras from that time. Take picture, wait for it to eject from the camera, wait 90 seconds, peel apart, throw away the other half very carefully. (Much like the pro film, I guess, except that perhaps the pro version let you keep the other half as the negative.)
You were lucky!
When I were a lad we 'ad t' 'old onter camera wi' both 'ands while tugging on't flimsy little paper tab on't side wi' t'other pair.
AND we had to know 'ow t' count up t' 30 afore we could pull 't film apart ...
AND we 'ad t' know t'at were seconds we was counting...
AND we 'ad t' know wot a second was ...
AND 'ow long it was ...
AND when it were cold we 'ad t' put pussy caustic film in't aluminium frame wi' our toes...
AND we 'ad 't pull't frame out 'o back o' camera wi' our teeth ...
AND open up t' frame wi' our t'other pair ...
AND use t'other set of toes t' put 'pussy caustic frame up an armpit t' keep it warm ...
AND if we tore 't little paper tab out o' camera our dad ....
Kids. Don't Know y've bin born!
Polaroid stopped making the peel apart film some years ago but Fuji carried the torch until they ceased production early this year.
Still got a few boxes of the Fuji in my fridge. Quality compared to the modern Instax stuff is wonderful, lugging around 3.5 kilos of attached Mamaiya less so.
Can I ask what a "leftie" is?
A couple of years ago this phrase had no meaning yet now it is described as anyone that isn't on the right, which is another phrase that had a different meaning.
Why would you downvote someone for being a "leftie"? It doesn't exist except in the rantings of a peculiar president.
In an ideal world everyone would take a step back and evaluate where we are going, what the mainstream press is pushing and then push back because to do otherwise means you are sheep.
Maybe it's an outlet for anger, that kind of makes sense. Placate the masses by allowing them to vent anger at different groups and each other.
A leftie is a homo Satan worshipper determined to spend white mens' taxes on supporting terrorist immigrants and using profits from sexually exploiting children to run gay conversion camps. All that pales into insignificance when you discover they use their own email servers.
"A leftie is a homo Satan worshipper determined to spend white mens' taxes on supporting terrorist immigrants and using profits from sexually exploiting children to run gay conversion camps. All that pales into insignificance when you discover they use their own email servers."
In the sake of fairness, let's hear both sides....
A rightie is a beastial Klan member determined to spend white mens' taxes on supporting terrorist nationalists and using profits from exploiting immigrants on low wages to run fascist conversion camps. All that pales into insignificance when you discover they are bigger communist bedfellows than they slam their opponents for being.
"A leftie is a homo Satan worshipper determined to spend white mens' taxes on supporting terrorist immigrants and using profits from sexually exploiting children to run gay conversion camps. All that pales into insignificance when you discover they use their own email servers."
Yup, that'll do.
When I were a lad, lefties used the term "fascist" I never did get a proper definition out of 'em, but it seemed to mean "Someone whose politics are very slightly to the right of mine and with whom I choose to disagree".
Does that help at all?
Lefties were Montagnards who sat on the left-hand side of the French Assembly, initially at the Palace of Versailles, and represented the interests of the common man, mostly the commoners of Paris, in opposition to the Girondistes, who represented the interests of the elite, primarily King Louis XVI of France.
Today, a Leftie is anyone who opposes any political ideology, policy or initiative that could most succinctly be characterised as Social Darwinism, which for the most part encompasses Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism, or in other words that which now sadly qualifies as mainstream politics.
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