h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I believe that it is presently accepted wisdom to keep babies on breast milk (or formula) until at least a year whereas, in times past, the idea was to start weaning at four months and switch to cows milk asap. I am sure that present practice mightily pleases the formula milk manufacturers.

"as far as I know sexy schoolboys are not one of the archetypal lust objects for women"

The reason for that is obvious - teenage girls are sexy. They look good, they smell good, and they (generally) take care of their appearance. Teenage boys ooze pus, smell bad and have farting competitions. Gosh, why don't women look back on that wistfully, I wonder?

And it's not as if the schoolgirl fantasy object is the only one - policewomen and nurses are pretty popular choices, too, and they're hardly "innocent weak girls". I don't think that for most men the schoolgirl thing is about weakness or innocence per se as much as the fact that most of us were lusting after schoolgirls from afar when we were their age and had no chance. When we're older and manage to secure female company, attaining the previously unattainable is bound to be a turn on. Nothing to do with conditioning about weakness or innocence - some of the girls I lusted after at school were anything but innocent...

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...sorry, drifted off there for a moment. What was I saying?

... erm, the holocaust, wasn't it?

Ed would have offered something challenging & witty by now..........

I'll just end with a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brQu7D0Jj6k

Hoo



Some safe letching for you:

http://www.theartsdesk.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/mast_image_portrait/mastimages/ShappiKhorsandi_DirtyLooks_img%2520s.jpeg

Well, umm, the thing about schoolgirls being generally more palatable than schoolboys... Hate to say this but I think that n this case beauty might be in the sexual orientation of the beholder. My memory of schoolgirls is that they have no idea how to dress, are spotty and cover this up with inexpertly applied foundation troweled on until they are either orange of ghostlike and topped off yesterday's clumpy mascara and smell of very cheap perfume and cigarettes. On the other hand, some of the boys I went to school with...

Plus, nurses. You give me NURSES as an example of a sexy authority figure? Not, say, DOCTORS? Pffft, I say. Don't make my argument for me. Although if I was in a really annoying mood I would point out that given that most of the female nurses I have encountered recently were decidedly matronly in form, and also given their tendency to take care of you when ill, I would say that this is clearly someone's Oedipus complex talking.

I will, however, grant the policewoman example. But I will see your policewoman and raise you the french maid. Dim and easily orderable around. I win! I win! Conditioning, thankyouverymuch.

Honestly? I dunno whether trying to interfere with people's sexual fantasies is the way forward. I'd imagine that it's the other way round - once as a society we reach a certain stage in male female relationships, self perception and so on, those fnatasies might be found to be different.

But things like page 3 girls (suggestively posed tits out women plastered on page 3 of a widely circulated national newspaper for the Britanically challenged among us), surely it would be desirable if that were considered outrageous in 50 years' time?

Sexually submissive isn't the same as socially oppressed. The business man paying a pro domme to spank him is not striking a blow for feminism. The woman who asks her boyfriend to spank her isn't oppressed either.

I think some people find sexually dominant people attractive, some find submissive people. Some don't find either... Don't know what it's got to do with gender roles. Some men seek or pay women or men to be dominant or submissive. As women have gained more equality some are finding men that will be dominant or submissive. They don't usually have to pay.

The point I am trying to make, though, is that by and large the, I dunno, mainstream fantasy figures for men oriented on women are of women in submissive roles, not sexually but sociologically, and for women oriented on men dominent powerful figures, again not in a sexual sense. I mean, powerful not in a sexual sense.

Well I hardly count as a representative sample, but if it will put you at ease I might mention the fact that I don't personally find submissive women or the "schoolgirl image" to be attractive.

Right. Here's one that might be unacceptable in fifty years:

Dogs pissing in the street. I can foresee a time when dog owners not only have a pocket full of bags to put turds in, but also have to carry a wee mop or packet of tissues to clean up the piddle.

Any thoughts?

It might be me being a country dog owner, but as long as it's not notably damaging something I don't especially care about that for myself

Right now nobody cares about it. That's the point of the thread.

Right now nobody cares about it. That's the point of the thread.

But thus far, pretty much everything on the thread has been things that a few people have started to disagree with or things that are considered annoying (etc) but are not "unacceptable"

I'd truly love spam to disappear (not the meat, i actually quite like it)

Hey-ho. I just thought I might try to change the subject to something more interesting. But yes, it is considered unacceptable to have a dog in an urban area and let it crap all over the place.

It's ok to let it pee, though, and that was my suggestion for something that might be unacceptable in fifty years.

I wasn't saying it was an impossible thing, or indeed not interesting - I just commented I didn't think it was bad (and, i suppose at least within my own mind) was hoping it wouldn't be unacceptable - thus giving a bit more to the debate

Maybe pets of that kind at all will be unacceptable? I mean, I doubt it, but the business of keeping a domesticated animal inside your house is an ancient practice but you know... it makes your house stink. And if you tell me you keep dogs or cats and your house doesn't stink... you're just used to it, and your friends are too polite to tell you.

Personally I think this one is wildly speculative and probably wrong - British people are very attached to their dogs and appear not to care that their houses stink as a result.

Did I already say driving your car on the motorway under your own control?

Hmm. Dog pee...
Nappy bags are ok (required in some places, just good mannered otherwise) for poos... but pees?
Ban 'em? Nah. Clean up? Never happen. Ban dogs?
Eh? What was the question?

Ok Hoo, you've been in our house... you didn't mention it.. By definition this means that you are polite.