Happily never after

Article in the Guardian today on whether fairy stories encourage girls to grow up to be victims:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1474614,00.html

I read a lot of fairy stories when I was a child, and they certainly didn't encourage me to think that it was OK to scrub floors for a living, because then some prince would rescue me. I wanted to slay my own dragons (or probably not slay. Befriend them, perhaps).

What I think they did give me, however, was a sense that the world was a strange and capricious place, often dangerous but inherently fascinating, and governed by rules to which I was not and probably never would be privy.

I still feel like that, a bit.

The last sentence of the article, BTW, is so pertinent to the whole issue that I'll copy it here: 'Perhaps we should turn our attentions elsewhere instead and start searching for the answer to a question posed by Professor Cameron. "Why," she asks, slightly wearily, "are we always looking for reasons why women become victims, and not at why there are still such large numbers of men around who think it's OK to beat their wives?" '

Seaside Bank Holiday

The entire country has decamped to Brighton beach: boiled Brits with the modern equivalent of their collective trousers rolled up, and knotted hankies on their heads.

I have just been for a swim, though not in the sea (tempting though it looks, today). The seafront is full of bikers, as is traditional on a Bank Holiday. I know they have to wear leathers, but boy, they must be hot.

Earlier in the afternoon someone was playing such loud music round here that I got a text message from a friend 2 blocks away, saying "Is that you??"

The seagull shag-a-thon has ended for the moment, so all is quiet.

forgot to mention: in the gym's jaccuzzi this afternoon, I had an interesting conversation with an Egyptian bouncer, who got sacked from the Honey Club for being insufficiently gay.* I know I over-use the phrase 'you couldn't make it up', but...Some people have very varied lives. He told me Egypt was a lovely country, but full of thieves, which seemed a bit unpatriotic (although when we went, my friend did get her handbag nicked in Cairo, come to think of it...)


*and in the unlikely event that anyone from the HC is reading this, I am in no way criticising your employment policies.