Vote for post of the weeks -

**helen**

Howdy :wave:

Time to vote for last week's nominations. If you're affections are divided then you can vote for more than one! :thumb:

Stu147 and Scary Monster both nominated this...

Arctic Roll1 wrote: »

There's a great deal of double-think going on with attitudes to sexual violence and I can't get my head round it. On one hand, only "sexy" women get raped ("dress like a slut and you're asking to be raped"), yet when it comes to court only "innocent" victims get justice ("of course she must have been raped, why would any normal man want to have sex with an old woman/ugly woman/dowdy woman/preteen girl?" and "of course it wasn't rape, look at what she was wearing!"). I don't understand how people can hold the view that "you're asking for it" by dressing sexily yet you're less likely to see your attacker jailed.

I also like the point that Julie Bindel made, that the people who think women should dress demurely to avoid rape have a much worse view of men than "man hating feminists" like Bindel have. I don't for one second believe that men "can't help themselves" and I'm actually quite offended by the people who think that a bit of cleavage means that a man loses all his self-control. Men know fine well what the difference between "yes" and "no" is, they just know that if they play the "she was a slut!" card they'll get away with raping someone.

That said, I do have to agree with Suzy. If you drink so much that you cannot remember who or where you are, you're leaving yourself very vulnerable to attack because you won't be able to defend yourself. It's the same if you go back to someone's house alone. Even if you manage to get justice it doesn't undo the effects of the sexual violence, people do need to be sensible about where they go and how much they drink. Telling men not to rape will only work to an extent; men who get off on the power of being a rapist will get off on that power regardless of how many adverts get put out. Being drunk and going home with a man doesn't give you any blame at all, definitely not, but it does put you in a vulnerable position.

StrubbleS nominated this:

jamelia wrote: »

Ok, let's take the homeopathic flu reedy that I'm With Stupid posted from Amazon, here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Native-Remedies-BaniFlu-Homeopathic-Alternative/dp/B002JIWDZ6

It makes the following claims:

Product Features
Provides seasonal protection against current flu viruses
Increases the body?s ability to fight against invading germs
Improves recovery time from common flu symptoms (blocked nose, sneezing, coughing)
Discourages secondary complications of the lungs, chest, throat and ears
Protects against the flu while traveling or on vacation

If it does do these things, it does so only to the same degree that eating a spoonful of dogshit would, or sacrificing a goat in your back garden would - as long as you believe it would work.

Do you think I should be allowed to package up little bags of dogshit and sell them on Amazon, making the above claims about its effects?

and this...

CptCoatHanger1 wrote: »

Quackery shouldn't be employed for minor ailments, but if the shit gets serious then we bust out the big guns and bring on the ju-ju?

Franki and Indrid and I nominated this:

StrubbleS wrote: »

sounds pretty boring.

on dating sites the competition is really large and if you are just offering "lemons. meh, bit lemony. are alright, might cure scurvy." and someone else is offering "OMG XXL LEMONS, MAKE YOUR VAGINA TASTE LIKE CINNAMON, YOUR HAIR GLOSSY AND IT FILES YOUR TAXES" then the average girl surfing www.lemon-sale.com won't buy your lemons.

Just saying how it is.

FireyFirenze and Arctic Roll nominated this:

CptCoatHanger2 wrote: »

If you've got a massive wang then you should probably elude to it - or at least post a picture of you posing in a banana hammock. Girls pretend like that they want to talk about their feelings, play dress up, make lists of the favourite boys and watch Twilight movies, but they'll drop that thin veneer of femininity for a thick and meaty spam cannon.

**Cupcake** nominated this:

stu147 wrote: »

I guess a lot comes down to your core happiness, or lack of, and how important the exams seem to you right at this moment. They will be important in the context of your life, of course, but it's hard to worry about a future problem when you have a huge pile of current problems. That's not to say that GCSE results are the be all and end all because they aren't. Mine were adequate, not fabulous. I went on to do A Levels but flunked out due to personal issues. So I ended up with about 5 decent GCSE grades and no A Levels. I went into temporary jobs and did a number of those before I found a settled position. I have now been here 10 years and have developed very marketable skills. So there IS life beyond bad GCSE results if worst comes to worst.

That being said, there is nothing to say that you will do badly. The pressure of having to face the exams is no small thing, because every pressure is magnified when you are feeling low or depressed. You can still pick up quite a lot of information in revision even in a small space of time. Don't give up just yet, and don't think that failure is inevitable. Also, give yourself a break. You clearly are not free from problems in your life and therefore you have an obstacle to overcome that perhaps others don't. You're trying your best, given the energy and motivation that you are able to summon.

Being intrinsically unhappy affects all things, and there is a very strong compulsion to do the things that pick you up NOW. It's natural that you would seek refuge in activities that provide comfort and distraction from all the stresses. I've lost myself in some amazingly stupid activities in the past in order to avoid the pain or the constant blackness of feeling.

Don't try to rebuild Rome in a day. Small steps are the way forward. Even an hour or revision is better than none at all, and you'll be proud that you did it. Your brain won't regress, it won't lose intelligence. It needs exercising in order to stay sharp, sure, but you don't lose your abilities just like that. Bear in mind that if you are under stress then it's completely normal for your mind to wander and for you to be unable to focus.

Just some thoughts. I'm tired so I may have rambled lol

Melian nominated this:

Arctic Roll2 wrote: »

Nowt wrong with bald, it's a solar panel for a sex machine.

Apparently.