Reporter: I have a question to Robert and to Scarlett. Firstly to Robert, throughout Iron Man 1 and 2, Tony Stark started off as a very egotistical character but learns how to fight as a team. And so how did you approach this role, bearing in mind that kind of maturity as a human being when it comes to the Tony Stark character, and did you learn anything throughout the three movies that you made?
And to Scarlett, to get into shape for Black Widow did you have anything special to do in terms of the diet, like did you have to eat any specific food, or that sort of thing?
Scarlett: How come you get the really interesting existential question, and I get the like, “rabbit food” question?
The respect given to you if you’re a man in the entertainment business, and the respect given to you if you’re a woman in the entertainment business: all perfectly summed up in one idiotically thought out line of questioning.
Wow, reading the difference between the questions is HILARIOUS.
Did anyone else notice all the unnecessary ass shots of ScarJo throughout the movie, tho?
And if a woman should say she doesn’t want to have children at all, the world is apt to go decidedly peculiar: ‘Ooooh, don’t speak too soon,’ it will say - as if knowing whether or not you’re the kind of person who desires to make a whole other human being in your guts, out of sex and food, then have the rest of your life revolve around its welfare, is a breezy, ‘Hey - whevs’ decision. Like electing to have a picnic on an unexpectedly sunny day or changing the background picture on your desktop. ‘When you meet the right man, you’ll change your mind, dear,’ the world will say, with an odd, aggressive smugness.
so many people have said this to me already that i’ve practically accepted it as an unavoidable fact that at some point in my mid-30s all my physical and emotional desires will be steamrollered by the overwhelming urge to cook a squishy little parasite in my womb before spending the next two decades moulding it into a functional human.
I AM in my mid-thirties. I can’t wait to be, like, in my mid-forties or whatever, and finally letting go of the fear that my hormones will override my long-held views. At least nothing has happened so far. I still don’t want any kids. May dodge the biological imperative bullet.
Mary Beard is a professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, the Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and a regular columnist for The Times. She wrote and presented the (very well-received) documentary ‘Meet the Romans With Mary Beard’ in her characteristically enthusiastic and engaging style. Always keen to uncover the truth about the Roman’s lives, especially if it’s saucy, a style of presenting that The Times describes as “wickedly subversive”.
On her website ‘A Don’s Life’ she covers a wide variety of topics, mostly looking at links between contemporary events and classical history, but also other points of interest. Her views on marriage and civil partnerships are simple and clearly expressed (and happen to completely align with my own):
give everyone gay or straight a civil partnership, and make that the gold-standard… and leave “marriage” as the optional extra, the religious ceremony, on whatever terms the religions concerned manage to hammer out (and no business of the state at all).
Finally, she’s shrugged off negative comments on her appearance made by A.A Gill, stating on Twitter “don’t think this will give me many sleepless nights. The programme is the thing - glad that so many enjoyed!”
It’s frustrating that such an intelligent and articulate presenter should even begin to be judged on her appearance, but Beard should be commended for her response. She expanded upon it in a typically entertaining and amused fashion in an article in The Daily Mail:
It seems a straight case of pandering to the blokeish culture that loves to decry clever women, especially ones who don’t succumb to the masochism of Botox and have no interest in dyeing their hair. It’s a case of mistaking prejudice for being witty and provocative.
OH MY GOD, Kate, I go away on holiday and come back to THIS!! SCREAM, indeed! :D
In fairness, your holiday was quite exciting, too…! SCREAM, though, SCREAM!
Yeah, it was. But no Caitlin Moran! Although, I did nearly meet Tom Hanks. Well, when I say nearly, I mean a road was closed because he was making a movie and we couldn’t get closer to the salt pans.
In a world beset by worries and woes – the floods! The droughts! The banks! The bees! – a new concern has just rocketed straight to the top of all “fret lists”. In a refreshingly frank piece for Grazia, the author Tony Parsons confessed to a problem. Discussing comments…
Read this. It a piece of writing which is beyond awesome.
If you don’t understand history, I don’t see how you can understand anything else. If you watch the last episode of Big Brother, it won’t mean anything unless you’ve followed the story from the beginning. If you live your life without understanding what happened in the years before you were born, I don’t see how your part in the story can make sense.
We’ll probably never know how many women inventors there were. That’s because in the early years of the United States, a woman could not get a patent in her own name. A patent is considered a kind of property, and until the late 1800s laws forbade women in most states from owning property or entering into legal agreements in their own names. Instead, a woman’s property would be in the name of her father or husband.
For example, many people believe that Sybilla Masters was the first American woman inventor. In 1712 she developed a new corn mill, but was denied a patent because she was a woman. Three years later the patent was filed successfully in her husband’s name.
