I know, this pic is a little old. But I still think it’s funny!
Anyway, here’s a somewhat belated Open Thread for Non-Personal Stuff. As always, Open Threads are CLOSED to MRAs/trolls, etc.
Categories
Open Thread for non-personal stuff, Sept. 2015 Amazing Cat Box Edition
@POM
I suspect that it’s probably more down to the fact that this sort of work is publicly funded. By definition the disadvantaged can’t generally afford legal fees so the Government pays, and they’re pretty grudging about that.
Also there’s no ‘profit’ to be had from the cases. Someone preserving their rights is a worthy aim of course, and means something to the person whose rights are at risk. But at the end of the case one party isn’t writing a cheque to the other (and even where it’s a case where someone gets a benefit, they need that money, that’s why they were fighting for it). Not going to prison is of value to that defendant, but there’s no cash benefit.
In private practice individuals and businesses are generally arguing for commercial considerations. There’s something of material value at stake and they’re willing to fork out to either avoid paying someone or to get something from someone else.
In my practice I do the military stuff because it’s fun but I subsidise that work by the better paying but dull commercial stuff. Having said that, defamation work used to be both fun and profitable, but they’ve really clamped down on that now.
I’m glad to be back! 🙂 I hope I stay back! But never worry about me, I’m always fine.
@ POM
Well, I mentioned our obsession with confidentiality.
It may also be that, because the bar is so tiny, anonymity is harder. People do tend to know everyone else, certainly within a particular Circuit.
I wonder if the , much lager, solicitors branch of the profession would do things the same way?
@Alan
I mean, this is absolutely standard with all human research. Researchers always inform their subjects and get informed consent for research first. They always anonymize their data. Ethnographers actively semi-fictionalize their work in order to protect the subjects, who are usually of very small number of intimately known. Even the fucking Census won’t release data on scales smaller than about 500 people without scrambling it with noise to anonymize people.
None of that section would have been published in an American paper, at least not in that form. An abbreviated “informed consent was obtained” might be mentioned in passing, but usually you don’t even see that much. It’s just so absolutely standard in research with human subjects that you don’t mention it, any more than you bother to mention that the subjects were all alive at the start of the study.
Why is that there? Is it like the “THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT” notice that every lawyer advertisement in the US has plastered on it, and no other advertisement does? Just something lawyers do for their lawyer reasons, inscrutable to the masses?
Also, I thought that “women barristers” was bad, but the quotes from women in pink italic?
For real? For real? Someone thought this was a good idea, and then 100 other someones read it and said, “Yep, that’s a great plan!”??
@ POM
Ah. I get you now. Nope, no idea why they highlighted that other than it explains the methodology and identifies a risk as to potential skewing of results. Maybe that’s a standard thing over here. I don’t know enough about these sorts of studies to know what you have to disclose. Could well be a compliance thing.
The pink thing is a bit bizarre. It’s weird though, the Labour party over here had a ‘pink bus’ campaign to attract women voters. That was Harriet Harman’s idea and she’s usually portrayed as such a straw feminist that her nickname is Harriet Harperson. Thing is, apart from one article in the Guardian no one seemed to think it was odd. Maybe pink doesn’t have the same negative connotations here? It’s the colour of a lot of women’s campaigns; especially around health stuff. Quite a few of my friends are involved in those things. They’re quite happy to dress up in pink for charity runs and the like.
Of course the irony is pink used to be a boys’ colour and blue was the girly one until quite recently.
Dude. It’s pink italic on white.
I gave up. I’m on page 22, and this report has become so actively hostile to my eyes, in service to a stupid gendered color scheme, that I’ve decided it has done the literary equivalent of shutting the door in my face.
So, I learned that there is still some sexism in the barrister profession and men feel like they can get away with it without consequences. The takeaway (I’ll spare you the pink):
That’s where I decided that unless The Bar (which is something, I dunno what, but definitely separate from women) is willing to buy me a new pair of glasses especially for reading this, I’m done with it.
@ POM
I admire your dedication.
You raise some great points. Now obviously I’m not putting the onus on you to do anything about this, but it might be that the Bar Council should be apprised of the issues you identify.
If you do want to drop a line to the appropriate person then this is their email:
[email protected]
Suuuuuure. That self-satisfied white British guy inside the front material is definitely going to want to hear a critique from a random American. LOL
@ POM
Ha, that’s Alistair, he’s the new Chair.
The email is to the Equality and Diversity committee. I suspect that they actually would be interested; they do seem to be trying to address the issues so they may appreciate the feedback
Anyway, as an American, surely imposing hegemony is your thing? 😉
American hegemony is only important in the Americas. Physical and psychological separation from Europe has always been the greatest asset of the United States.
@ POM
And you get another few millimetres every year!
As Al Murray put it:
“Two nations separated by a common language; and a fucking great ocean thank Christ” 🙂
America’s richest natural resource: the Atlantic Ocean.
Well, we’ve eaten all the Cod, so you’re welcome to it.
You’re certainly welcome to package up what I said and send it off yourself. It’s your profession, after all.
Yeah, but I always think it’s a bit presumptive for men to impose themselves into women’s issues.
It’s not that I’m lazy or anything.
Actually, I think I will. Just to see what they say.
If nothing else PINK ITALIC. ON. WHITE. is not an intelligent choice! Nobody would do that for any reason other than a stupid gendered one! And it makes the document literally inaccessible to me. I can’t read it without leaning forward and gluing my nose to the screen, or blowing the PDF up enormous and doing this silly moving it around business with the pan tool, and I’m frankly not willing to do that for this kind of information.
My monitor is a 22″ widescreen, which is usually adequate, but not for pink. italic. on. white.
I’ll bash something off tomorrow. I’ll let you know what they say.
An Update from the Fields of Mordor
Commander:
Shadow of Mordor on 360 sucks. Everything looks crap, the textures pop in if they ever do, the lip syncing is atrocious, if the orcs ever move their lips, and a third of my playtime had to be solid loadscreens.
Seriously. I went on a mission to save some slaves and the half second of camera time to show where each was has two seconds of loading time between each one. This game was not meant for last gen consoles.
It is still fun, however. It’s Batman Arkham Asylum in Mordor with more blood and killing and Tolkien lore. It could be better. I killed the same Uruk captain 3x. I don’t think he’s even coming back from the dead, I think the game just doesn’t have anyone else to fill his rank.
This is what the websites warned me about, warned us about.
I would not pay for this game for last gen. Borrow it. If you have current gen or computer, borrow or rent it and judge it for yourself. From the videos I’ve seen, it’s much prettier and runs better.
XOXO,
Ranger McBadass
P.S. Seriously, a half second of screen time took two seconds to load. What shit.
P.P.S. What is happening in this thread I am confused you know what never mind I don’t need to go.
Range McBadass out.
@Alan Robertshaw
I’ll be watching Corbyn-related developments with bated breath.
@Ranger McBadass
Aww… I’m running a PS3 myself. I haven’t heard good things about any next gen games being released on the previous gen (why I never bothered getting Dragon Age: Inquisition). Too bad too since I’m a pretty big fan of Arkham City and already read about the similarities.
On the bright side, the PS3 has a massive catalog of awesomeness that will take me some time to chunk through 8p
Thank you for slaying an army of misunderstood, lovable and animal-loving goblins, orcs and Uruk-Hais on my behalf. Send them my love 8p!
Yeah, that Women of the Bar report is pretty atrocious. Maybe if the italics were dark magenta or purple, it would be legible, but right now it’s eye-searing.
And was having a full page spread of some white guy’s photo in the report really necessary? In a report about women? I get that the feedback was supposed to be anonymous, so they can’t use the picture of women who participated but jeez, if you’re going to include photos in the report, throw in some stock photos of women or something. Or include some photos of the women who helped write the report, in the credits! (Women did help write the report, right?)
I did do a ctrl-f for ‘harassment’, and all I could find were accounts of women enduring it. Nothing on measures that have been taken to prevent/punish harassment, the closest thing was a throwaway line about equality rules and how the female barristers have fewer stories about blatant harassment/discrimination in recent years. And while letting their stories be told and the harassment acknowledged is progress of a sort (though in a format that actively punishes the reader for attempting to read women’s words), it’s kind of falling flat on the topic of addressing the issue further.
You can’t even argue that solutions or recommendations aren’t the point of the report, because that’s the literal contents of section 5 (which is mercifully black and white). Lots of points in that section about mentoring and women’s support networks and facilitating the establishment of senior female role models. All good points, not to knock them. Definitely good ideas. But what’s notably missing? Anything aimed towards teaching the dudes of the profession how to maintain an atmosphere that is welcoming and respectful towards people of all genders. Women should be supported and made aware of the resources that are available to them, but part of the hurdle is the attitudes of the men in the practice. If those aren’t addressed, there will still be issues. And putting out pink-coded reports that practically screams NOT FOR MEN TO READ doesn’t really help with that part of education. If these issues are only coded as ‘women’s issues’, then most men aren’t going to bother caring about it. It’s not their problem. (See also: society’s attitude towards rape and violence against women- it’s a women’s issue, women have to worry about this, women have to protect themselves, men don’t even have to consider any of this, it’s not like it’s primarily men who commit these offences against women or anything! Nope, rape and harassment just happen to women, like the weather. No perpatrators here.)
Disclaimer- I’m not intending this as an attack on Alan, I hope it doesn’t come across like that, just a critique of the report.
Catalpa, you have both my deepest sympathies for your eyestrain, and my unconditional admiration for your willingness to put yourself through that to get to the end.
@ Catapalta (and POM)
Hi, no certainly didn’t see it as an attack. I think you make some really good points.
As luck would have it, my inherent procrastination (I’m not even going to pretend it’s because I’m currently really busy) meant I haven’t got round to emailing the Bar Council with POM’s comments, so now I can add yours.
As for the photo, that’s the current Chair of the Bar Council. It is pretty dire though. Come to think of it, the only decent barrister photo I’ve seen recently is of that woman at the heart of the LinkIn controversy. Her photo is really good. I’ll drop her an email to tell her.