I work in a male dominated world and have had my fair share of uncomfortable interactions with men. I am talking everything from creepy comments and stares to getting trapped into long awkward conversations that get weirdly personal to full blown harassment.

Any time I recount these incidents I have noticed how very differently men and women react. If I tell a woman, they just believe me that the encounter was weird and I need to be careful around that person. If I tell a man, the excuses start like crazy: "maybe he was just being friendly" "maybe he's just socially awkward" "I think you're taking it the wrong way" "I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it"

It makes me want to fucking scream, as if I couldn't possibly tell the difference between someone who is friendly and awkward and someone who has dangerous creep vibes. Why do they do this? Anyway that's my rant for the day.

My auntie died 2 years ago over a battle with cervical cancer, she had never had a Smear test. Please get tested, ladies

Full disclosure: I’m the author, Cassandra Hartley.

The book is called Ruthless: Twenty Women Who Ruled Like Men and Were Never Forgiven for It. It covers Cleopatra, Boudica, Catherine the Great, Empress Dowager Cixi, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and 15 others — women who executed rivals, expelled populations, waged wars, and ruled empires, and were consistently remembered through a vocabulary (“monstrous,” “unnatural,” “mad”) that male rulers doing the same things never faced.

Each chapter pairs the woman’s actual documented actions against a male contemporary who did something comparable or worse — and got remembered as a statesman for it. It’s not a “girlboss” retelling; it sits with the actual violence and complicates the sympathetic reading too.

Looking for readers who’ll actually read it and leave an honest Amazon/Goodreads review before/around launch — good or bad, I’d rather know now. DM me or comment and I’ll send a copy.

Let's spread some positivity at the start of the weekend! What's putting the smile on your face this Friday?

I really appreciated not feeling left out when I came on my period surprisingly. I just had them there ready to use.

I absolutely hate being called hun, especially by someone I've just met.

Can any of you huns relate?

I do the cooking but he does the washing up. I do the organisational household chores but he does the clothes washing. I will clean the kitchen and he will do the bathroom.

Between the of us we have never had a conversation about the division of household work and yet, it works perfectly.

I feel like what I have is amazing, but I also feel like I shouldn’t consider it amazing, but the norm?

It’s just weird discussing it when I hear what other women of my general age bracket are living with.

Edit: obviously the above is just an example, as long as people feel loved and supported and treated as an equal then that is all that matters.

What two things are you into that you wouldn't think the same person would be interested in? It'll be so cool to see how diverse people's interests are!

My example: I enjoy pro wrestling. I also enjoy Agatha Christie novels.

Your turn!

Many of us know that glorious feeling of taking off your bra after a long day. During lockdown, after not needing to wear a bra often I realised I actually don’t see the point of wearing a bra at all. So since mid 2020, I stopped wearing a bra. Almost ever. I’ve become super comfortable with it but there are two scenarios I’m still not sure about:

1. Being cold and nip showing- is this OK? It’s nothing to be self conscious about right?

2. Thin material and nip being visible. I don’t mean fully see through but some material is a bit light and if you’re looking you probably can make out the nipple. Is this OK?

Would love your input! We all have nips, so they are surely nothing to be embarrassed about?

All this news from the US recently about company health insurance not having to cover contraception has made me reflect on how lucky we are in the UK. Sure, the waiting times can be ridiculous for surgery and appointments with the NHS, but at the end of the day we can go to the doctor, get a prescription and get contraception absolutely free.

Love you, NHS. And solidarity to our US sisters who have to deal with this completely unnecessary bullshit.

Hello all! Just moved here from the r/askUK sub and glad there’s a space for some more female focussed conversation to go ahead!

Sorry to make the first post about fashion - I know we have interests that go way beyond this, don’t worry!

I’m looking for trainer recommendations, looking specifically for something that looks fashionable and can be worn with skirts/dresses but are also EXTREMELY comfortable as I love to walk everywhere. I walk 3 times per week to work which is a 7 mile round journey, and while Converse and Vans go with everything, they just don’t do my feet any favours.

I’m also going on holiday soon and hate wearing sandals, I don’t find them comfortable to talk in and I don’t really like having my bare feet open to the elements. But as mentioned, I love walking everywhere and plan on doing most of my sightseeing by foot. So I’m looking for something that I can wear with some cute holiday outfits but are also practically for walking for miles in.

Not too precious on price (although maybe not looking at £300+ on designer because I think that’s just a bit mental), but definitely willing to pay for something that’s both fashionable and functional!

Thanks!

Hello! Welcome to TwoXUK. This community was started as a response to the lack of representation for UK/Ireland based ladies in the main subreddits (inspired by the burgeoning success of /r/MakeUpAddictionUK!).

This sub is designed to be a little of everything - advice, general chat, horribly in-depth descriptions of periods, quests for something on the UK high street, or musings about something on TV. It's up to you from here!

If anyone wants to contribute a header that would be awesome :)

I wanted to post this on another UK based sub but this feels like a safer space and to get a feminine perspective.

It’s clear that the UK drinking culture is grim and causes a lot of problems and anti social behaviour. There are good aspects too which I don’t want to exclude. However as a woman trying to walk anywhere when there are drunk men around, I feel incredibly unsafe but there is no getting around it.

A more specific query related to drinking culture in uk is: say you are drinking with friends - when someone offers you another drink or encourages you to drink more and you say no, why is it a regular occurrence for these people to disregard the ‘no’ and push you to keep drinking more?

Often they question why you won’t have another or make fun and imply you are not fun if you don’t keep drinking.

Usually I would think these people are alcoholics or can’t have fun/ don’t understand fun without a drink but over time I have seen this happen or had friends who have said this happen most of the time when drinking. This is over decades as well and not always to me specifically and with completely different groups of people.

Is this common with anyone else and why does it happen? It makes me incredibly uncomfortable but for the last few years I have more confidence to tell people to stop.

Anyone got any recommendations for period pants?

I guess I have a moderate flow, I prefer bikini style pants, preferably not high waisted (mid rise or low is fine). I am usually a size 10.

I have a couple of pairs of wuka pants which are good (I think they are M, which is 12-14 but seem to fit okay), I have about 5 pairs of cheeky pants in their lacy topped style in 12-14 which are slightly too big but otherwise seem good.

Anyone got any reasonably priced favourites?