Why do men always...

Yes, I know it's terribly boring to talk about a forum on a blog, or to talk about a blog on twitter, or to talk about twitter on a forum, or any of that.

I came across a number of threads today asking questions along the lines of "Why are men useless?" "Why do men never empty the bin?" "Why can't men multitask?"

To which my answers are no they aren't, yes they do, yes they can. Perhaps one man in your life is currently fulfilling your expectations of men as useless, but there is no reason at all to think that all or even most men are like this, and certainly no reason why they should be.

I want to emphasise that this kind of lazy generalisation is just as sexist and just as damaging to society and just as unhelpful to feminism as the traditional "Women can't park" or "Women don't understand politics". If you repeatedly tell people that they are bad at something it is likely to become the case. If you tell people that they are incapable of doing something when in fact they have not had the same opportunities to learn then you are a fool. If you say that men cannot do a task, you are claiming that task for women (and vice versa). Why is it that we want to claim bin-emptying, while men claim politics?

For those who want to say "oh but men can't multitask" or "everyone knows women have worse spatial awareness" I strongly recommend Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine (ignore the horrible cover). It's sociology/neuroscience/behavioural psychology applied to gender differences and it manages to be very entertaining. A couple of key experiments: men do better at empathy tasks after reading that men who are empathetic get more girls; women do worse in maths tests if you remind them that they are women and women are expected to do worse than men.

Apparently it's Feminist Friday.

So I should write something feministy.

I am a feminist. Obviously. So are you, probably.

Here's a handy cosmo-style quiz to help out:

1 - Do you think that how people are treated, valued, and respected should be equal, regardless of their gender?
a Yes, of course
b No, people like ME should be treated better than people who are not like me
c No, people like me should get less good treatment

2 - Do you think that people generally are treated, valued, and respected equally, regardless of their gender?
a Yeah, pretty much
b Not completely
c Not at all and I am ANGRY about it

3 - Assuming you answered #2 correctly - do you want this to change?
a Yes, of course
b I told you, I like things being unequal
c Yes, and I try to make it happen wherever I can

Answers:
1
a - Correct, this is an essential point
b - That's not very nice, is it?
c - You need to work on your self-esteem until you switch your answer to a

2
a - Maybe you should look around a little more, because they aren't
b - This is also a key realisation - you don't need to be angry, just aware...
c - ...Although the more you think about it and look around and see sexism the more likely it is that you will become angry (sorry)

3
a - Congratulations, you are a feminist
b - Sounds like you are sexist, well happily for you the world is too. Enjoy it.
c - You're a feminist too, but you already knew that

I am older and wiser now

Last night at the gym (actually on the way back) my ipod decided to play me Avril Lavigne's "Nobody's Fool" (apologies, couldn't find an official video), followed by Blink 182 "What's My Age Again?"

I might've fallen for that when I was fourteen
And a little more green
But it's amazing what a couple of years can mean

Clearly Avril at 16/17 felt that she was much more worldly-wise than she was at 14.



Nobody likes you when you're 23
...
My friends say I should act my age
What's my age again?

And this guy is being accused of acting too childishly for the grand old age of 23.

It made me think that there is only a very small window in your life where you can seriously say Feeling twenty-two, acting seventeen (Katie Melua "Closest Thing to Crazy") before you scoff that 22 and 17 are so close together you can barely remember the difference.

It also reminded me of Stuart Baggs (of Apprentice 2010) in his "You're Fired" follow-up interview, claiming to be much more mature than he had been during the filming of the series. Either the presenter or another guest mocked him, saying "oh yes, now you;re 22 you're much more grown-up than when you were 21." (this part is from memory)

So at what point does it stop? Is there a time when we stop looking back on how we've grown?
When I was 20 I was naive, but now I'm much more wise.

When I was 30 I was idealistic, but now I'm much more pragmatic.
When I was 40... when I was 50... when I was 60... I was <adjective>, but now I'm much more <opposite adjective>.

Sorry for the absence

Been quiet recently, because I'm well aware that there could be "real life people" reading this, and the main thing I've been thinking about is the fact that I'm going to be changing jobs, which I wasn't ready to tell everyone about.

If you are one if those RL people, by the way, feel free to keep quiet about it. I know intellectually that I don't do the best job of anonymising, but I prefer to think that I am talking to Internet sprites who only know the virtual me. 

I don't usually capitalise Internet. I'm writing this on my phone in the doctor's waiting room. They have restored the magazines that were for a while banned on germ-spreading grounds, but in the meantime I have discovered other forms of entertainment. I have also decided that I agree and old magazines that have been handled by ill people are a bit yuck. Dentists surgeries are ok, because everyone is extra clean when they go to the dentist (and unlikely to have a caold, becausse can you imagine the horror?).

Oh no, not another food blog!

There are too many food blogs in the world already, I know.

You can look away now if you are sick of them.

But this post is going to be a food post. I love food. I love reading cookbooks (preferably chatty ones like Nigella rather than simply lists of instructions) even when I don't get around to making the food inside. I love reading menus, even after I have chosen my meal. Cocktail menus are fantastic too, and I love to watch cocktails being made, whether the barman looks like Tom Cruise or not.

In a previous life I was a scientist, so the idea of measuring things out, mixing them up, spinning them around, heating up or cooling down, this all is very familiar. And unlike science, what you get at the end is FOOD!

So tonight I am making dinner for some friends. You can call it a dinner party if you must. Really it's an excuse to spend the afternoon in the kitchen, spend more money than usual on ingredients, and try out some recipes. Whenever I watch Come Dine With Me and a contestant says "I haven't tried this before" I always scream at them "Nooooooo! You are being judged! Do something tried-and-tested!" (although when they say "I've done this a million times before" it is generally a sign that this will be the time it goes wrong). Luckily I am not being judged. Except perhaps by you. I am having dinner with friends who will treat my efforts kindly, and if all doesn't go well the Indian takeaway round the corner is open til 12.


Here are the two untried recipes:
Thai pork patties from the lovely, funny, and slightly sweary Esther Walker

Thai green curry from Jamie Oliver (actually from a book but this is where I could find it online - don't worry it's a safe link).

As you can possibly see, I didn't follow either recipe 100% to the letter, but tasty food came out at the end so I will call it a success. The curry could have been creamier but that's easy to fix - just add more coconut milk!

How do I know thee? Let me count the ways.

Prompted by a conversation on Twitter that went something like this (details removed so we don't have to discuss the actual issue itself)

Journalist - Link
Journalist - Joking/sarcastic comment about link
Me - Another sarcastic comment

Journalist - I was being sarcastic! Don't believe I think that.
Another human being (who I assume doesn't know the journalist personally) - I was worried for a second.
Me - I was joining in with the sarcasm - I didnt think you meant it!
Journalist - Phew!

I realised that I had assumed that the journalist knew that I "knew" her well enough to know that she would never say anything like that seriously. Which is of course madness. She doesn't know me, I don't know her, neither of us knows the third person, and yet I assumed that she would know I was being sarcastic, and she cared when she thought that we had misunderstood her joke.

When you communicate with people online, do you feel that you know them? In the online world I can feel that I know a lot about people's opinions without knowing very much about their lives at all. Age, location, marital status, children, even sex in some cases. All of these are secondary to what someone thinks about a new TV series or the best way to mix a cocktail or whether crocs are the work of the devil or comfy enough to override the ugliness.

In real life the opposite is true, when you meet someone the first things you find out about them are the externalities, the house/job/children, but in order to get to know someone, to know if this is someone you want to meet again, you need to chat about what you think about things, not what you have or what you do but how you feel about issues.

I can't see any way to change this, however, without sounding like a deranged quizmaster.
Nice to meet you, now what do you think about MSG? Which is more important, a good haircut or good shoes? Which Beatle do you like best and why?
I can't see it going down well.

The Pepsi(Max) Challenge.

Inspired by a BBC programme called Business Nightmares, I decided to do the "Pepsi Challenge".

You'll be familiar with the phrase, but the footage within the programme (still available on iplayer) was charmingly low-budget. Pepsi started the marketing campaign in 1975; members of the public are asked to try two unmarked glasses of cola, and after they express a preference a cardboard box (I told you it was high-tech) is moved, revealing the bottles from which the beverages were poured. "Which drink did you prefer?" "Pepsi!".

My own Pepsi Challenge will be not between standard Pepsi and Coke, but between the two new players. Pepsi Max and Coke Zero. These are diet drinks branded not as 'diet' but as 'no sugar', perhaps in an attempt to make drinking a diet drink seem more masculine. Both brands have certainly learnt from the New Coke disaster covered in the Business Nightmares programme - instead of updating their diet drinks they have . To my mind Coke Zero is what Diet Coke would taste like if it had been invented in the noughties rather than the 80s. (2006 and 1982 to be precise, Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi were launched in 1993 and 1964 respectively).

So, onto the tasting. Two cans, put into the fridge at the same time, poured into same-sized glasses by a helpful volunteer, and I poured for him, so that neither of us knew which drink we were tasting.

I believed that I knew which was which instantly, and I was right. My assistant also guessed the identity of the drinks correctly.

• Pepsi Max
• is sweeter
• looks fizzier but tastes flatter
• tastes "of America" according to my test subject
• Coke Zero
• is more acidic-tasting
• "sharper" in the mouth
• preferred by both of us (maybe not surprisingly since they had 13 more years to work on the formula)

So I know which I should be buying - although knowing me it is more likely that I will go for whichever is on special offer!

Which do you prefer? Do you know?