Share your unpopular opinions here!

If there's any type of man I wouldn't even consider going on a date with, it would be a "lad".

Two things there: that children should be a compulsory screensaver (in what way? What sort of images?), and that your opinion should be reacted to the way you describe. I suspect others share your view but will now shy away from expressing it.

I love children, but have never wanted any of my own, and being an uncle to several nieces and nephews has been great. But possibly like you, there are types of children and baby images I really dislike, one being babies in adverts especially where there are loads of them. There are sometimes baby-related products that have ads featuring a series of babies or a load of them all together. Which is of course logical as ads go, but I can't bear to look at it. I don't why but I find it very offputting. In fact it freaks me out a bit.

Another children-related thing I don't like is children's choirs. Those fluting, piping voices singing things like Lord Of The Dance.... yeeuurrgggh. It takes me back to primary school when we had to regularly sing (as a class) stuff like that and I didn't even like it then. I was off sick one week and when I came back I found the class had been taught another horrible song, Where Have All The Flowers Gone and of course I was the only one who didn't know it. Not that I'd want to - ghastly load of soppy rubbish.

Then there are the occasional pop and rock songs where children's choirs are crowbarred in and they're usually pretty bad too. Another Brick In The Wall, Grandad, and maybe worst of all that Grocer Jack one.

In case @cardinalpirelli is around, I will say one rare example of this I don't mind is in Supper's Ready by Genesis when the children sing, nursery rhyme style, "We will rock you, rock you, little snake." At least it has the merit of sounding a bit worrying. But otherwise - kids singing? No thanks.

annabillersblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/lets-stop-calling-movies-feminist.html?m=1

I just read this very interesting blog post on what makes a movie feminist, I'm posting the link here since there's been a lot of talking about the topic in this thread.

"In recent years, people tend to mistake movies in which female characters “show badass broads avenging themselves” (to quote an article in BUST magazine), as feminist. But again, people think that everything that is not misogynistic is feminist. Just because a movie features female protagonists does not mean that it’s feminist."

If that were my lock screen, I'd be sorely tempted to switch my monitor off as well every time I left my desk. If I can't get rid of the unwanted lock screens, I can at least limit the amount of time I'm forced to look at them. Is yours an office where members of the public might visit or pass through? If you're not customer-facing, then surely there's not a lot of point in forcing the professional branding to the point of lock screens and wallpaper and the like, and I would be very very sad if I were no longer allowed to customise my work PC in the way I like.

Frances de la Tour isn't very good and is massively overrated. As far as I can tell, in everything I've seen her in she's pretty much just Frances de la Tour.


Mimic?

It's a good and timely essay - thanks for posting! I've been frustrated by the way The Favourite is being described (by many commentators) as a 'feminist' film. It isn't. It has three female central characters, which is unusual, but there's no solidarity - it's a bitchy cat fight, two characters exploiting the weakness (mental and physical disability) of a third to gain favour and power, while also being abusive to each other. The 'badger' scene, much used in trailers, and the character's later defence of it - I was only being nasty to you for your own sake - is more like Rob Titchenor-style emotional abuse: it's not 'loving' just because it's spoken by a woman.

Similarly, Fleabag. It's a well written, entertaining sitcom but dear god, it isn't feminist: it has a main character who is obsessed with being validated by male attention, willing to endure whatever undignified acts these males demand of her. And it's written by a woman - well, a well-connected-in-theatre, wealthy, photogenic young West Londoner getting into TV is hardly 'shattering the glass ceiling' stuff.

There were far more strong women on screen in the early-to-mid 20thc than in recent decades. When you think of the big, classic screen stars, you think of women, and despite what went on behind the scenes, their on-screen personas were generally powerful - much more so than today.

Unfortunately the off button is broken on my primary monitor so it refuses to switch off! Otherwise I would certainly be switching it off. No, we're not customer facing. I'm not sure why the branding is considered necessary. As one person pointed out in the discussion, if we need images on lock screens to remind us what the company does then that's hardly a good sign! I really miss all the beautiful landscapes.

...and now awards season is over he, and Rami, can get rid of their beards.

Horses for courses.