The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

London, 1930s.



at the last sentence

[Josquius]

Hefty girls
Hefty AND good looking

The must never marry part is amazingly "saying the quiet bit out loud" too.

[Oexmelin]

It never was a quiet part.

[Josquius]

It never was a quiet part.

it is now.

[Oexmelin]

Sorry, I may have misunderstood you. Were you referring to lesbians?

Expectations that working women should never marry, or else lose their jobs was both common and explicitly stated, hence my own comment that it never was quiet.

[Syt]

Stamps being sold in Germany.



Time to find pen pals in Russia?

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Start sending Pooty Poot fan mail with those.

[Norgy]

I think there are Hungarians who would love those stamps, too. 

[Sheilbh]

Sorry, I may have misunderstood you. Were you referring to lesbians?

Expectations that working women should never marry, or else lose their jobs was both common and explicitly stated, hence my own comment that it never was quiet.

Yes - although I think it depended on class and type of work.

[Josquius]

Sorry, I may have misunderstood you. Were you referring to lesbians?

Expectations that working women should never marry, or else lose their jobs was both common and explicitly stated, hence my own comment that it never was quiet.

Not sure where lesbians come in.


Yes. It used to be commonplace.
These days the prospect of a women having kids (marriage being a non issue but that being a pretty key part of it back then so comparable) is a typical source of discrimination that employers won't admit to but there's quite a lot of stories suggesting many do it anyway.

[Oexmelin]

Gotcha.

[Jacob]

Not sure where lesbians come in.

Hefty, good looking girls with brains, who'll never marry and will live in single-sex dormitories? Good for a bit of rough and tumble?

Yeah... hard to imagine where lesbians might come in in that scenario.

[Barrister]

Hefty girls.

[Sheilbh]

Not sure where lesbians come in.

Hefty, good looking girls with brains, who'll never marry and will live in single-sex dormitories? Good for a bit of rough and tumble?

Yeah... hard to imagine where lesbians might come in in that scenario.

I would possibly add that one of the founders of the Women's Police Service in the UK was Margaret Damer Dawson, an eccentric daughter of aristocrats with a special interest in the Anti-Vivisection League and "white slavery".

But during WW1 she founded her own volunteer organisation of women police, along with her sub-commandant (who she also lived with), Mary Allen - pictured here in the uniform designed by Damer Dawson:


She was appointed to  committee on women in police forces during the war - but dismissed by the chairman because he disliked lesbians. She died in 1920.

Allen, her sub-commandant, went on to be a strike breaker during the General Strike and carried on wearing her uniform for the rest of her life. To the surprise of no-one she declared herself a fascist in the 30s and was detained during the war, like the Mosleys.

Edit: I'd also add she's probably one of the more well-adjusted prominent lesbians of the inter-war era

[Josquius]

Fucking lesbians man.

Interesting. I wonder if the current trend for gay folk on the nutty right hold her up as a hero... Then again these people are usually pretty misogynistic so probably not.