Someone in Sweden once explained to me that the theory behind their generous parental leave (and let’s not forget subsidised daycare and right to care-of-children days that don’t affect the parent’s own sick days) is that by facilitating the women that they paid to educate (because education here is free up to PHD…

Err, no - Sweden is neutral too.

Why shouldn’t they? Small businesses need to have insurance, to cover sick leave and offer vacation (at least I assume they do in America) - why isn’t parental leave considered one of those things that you must be prepared to cover or else you can’t afford to run a business?

Well I pay 50% here in Sweden, part of which goes towards 480 days of parental leave which a couple can split (pretty much) however they choose, and part of which goes to heavily subsidising daycare so that it’s a maximum of 3% of the household income (if I remember correctly from the last time I read the website) and…

If you’re that determined to believe so then knock yourself out, but I’m still on “not remotely” ;-)

For the exact same reason football is on Sky: they bid the most money for it. You could imagine that there’s some nefarious political plot against Game of Thrones too because it’s on Sky which people have to pay for - but you’d be just as wrong.

Amazon isn’t exactly a niche broadcaster and the fact is that regardless of locations and casting it is an American series. It’s a series I love but I only watched it initially under duress because I’ve only just recovered from the last time Americans tried to do my country’s history (the unadulterated pile of shite…

Like I said, no idea - but it’s available all over the UK on Amazon and has been for some time. I’d give Scottish voters some credit - it’s not as though they didn’t already know about the ‘45 and Culloden (which had a lot more to do with sectarianism and the divine right of kings than it did Scottish sovereignty).

I’ve no idea why no terrestrial or Sky channel picked up Outlander, but the idea that it could have had anything whatsoever to do with politics or Scottish independence is so ludicrous I can’t believe it’s still being repeated.

Pacing I’m with you on, but “fast and loose with history”? How so? I’m fairly familiar with the period, and while it’s definitely not a documentary (plenty Redcoats would be Scottish themselves, for a start), I wouldn’t remotely say ‘fast and loose.’

Tack, jag ska läser...

“The same cultures that are responsible for Sweden becoming the per capita rape capital of the Western World.” Complete and utter lie. Nice try.

I’m torn. Half of me is pleased that mothers are being given somewhere comfortable to feed, but the other half is WTFing about the idea that the bathroom was the only other option. Why on earth can't mothers breastfeed anywhere they damn well chose to in America like they do in (most) other countries?

My sister (married with two kids) followed him around a Homebase (British Home Depot) a few months ago, and even abandoned her shopping just so she could stand behind him in the queue and pretend not to notice him. Apparently he’s very tall, has a huge tattoo up one arm, and smells nice.

When I was in 7th grade, I thought that oral sex meant talking about it - like an oral report (it made sense to me!) So when some kid was running around the lunchroom asking everyone if they had ‘done oral sex’ I was outraged that everyone was clearly lying because we talked about it all the time, so decided to take a…

Bollocks ;-)

Extremely patriarchal then. I think you know what I mean.

It is, and doesn’t that show (yet again) how we value ‘masculinity’ over ‘femininity’. It’s almost as though we believe girls are reaching to be tomboys, while boys are less than if they are ‘girly’ - such useless bollocks needs to (somehow) be stamped out of society.

Agreed - it’s just one area in which Sweden has us beaten. For me it’s all different aspects of the same equality and freedom to be an individual regardless of sex.

Were you in group/level 4 though? I gather from other immigrant friends that it gets touched on at least in an informal way in classes that tend to have more people from patriarchal societies in them.