Maybe I don't spend enough time on the internet. I'm not really familiar with Reddit, so when a friend sent me a link to the discussion on there of what motivates rapists, I didn't know what to expect. I have since found out that the site is notorious for voting down female commenters and featuring posts that are somewhat misogynistic. Given that, I suppose that the ensuing discussion seems pretty balanced. It's certainly interesting. 

I didn't include a link in the first paragraph because I don't want anyone clicking through to it without knowing what to expect, the way I did. You can read it here but be warned - the thread is massively, hugely triggering for anyone who's been the victim of any sort of sexual assault. I'd advise caution with the rest of this piece, too.

127 years ago, on the 29th of July 1885 in the swirling sands of the Sahara (or Cincinnati, U.S) to an Arab Sheik and a French woman (Bernard and Pauline) Theda Bara (Theodosia Burr Goodman) the first known woman to 'vamp' was born.

Last week Maureen Dowd presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary, The Smart Dumb Blonde focusing mainly on Marilyn Monroe's quest to improve her intellectual ability. Dowd mourned Hollywood's disposal of intellectualism in favour of peroxide and discussed with Harvey Weinstein how the stars of Old Hollywood found fame thanks to their quirks, as opposed to simply fitting the ready-made mould. 

On the 127th anniversary (+1 day, I know, my hands are tied by our week day timetable) of Theda Bara's birth I would like to mourn the passing of languid sexuality in favour of dead-behind-the-eyes-sexy. Think of any on a current starlet on a chaise-longue and you think: 'ah, too many Vicodin pills'. Think of Theda Bara reclining on a chaise-longue you think: 'ah, glamorously exhausted'. 

In May Squeamish Kate wrote of how you might go about avoiding the Jubilee. We all managed to avoid the Jubilee (not necessarily because we were all abroad), this allows us to conclude the advice was spot on. It had been our hope that the advice given would translate to the Olympics. But now we aren't even sure if we're allowed to use the word 'Olympics', so just in case let's refer to them as the O***pics.

Just as there are some less than ardent royalists out there, there are some of us who are lacking in sportiness. We're sporting enough to allow you all to have the O***pics, but just like that 'fun' game of rounders, we won't be taking part. As the games draw closer more and more people seem to have succumbed to O***pimania. Perhaps it's the fumes from the torch that's been doing the rounds.

We've been told off for being such negative nellies - 'this is a once in a lifetime opportunity!' we've been told. But is it? This is the third time London has hosted the O***pics so there's a handful of people puttering about for whom this has been a thrice in a lifetime opportunity... So what IS a once in a lifetime opportunity?

Humans like messing with our bodies. Decoration, enhancement, adornment - the reasons differ, but it's found in many societies. So why is it that, out of the wide range of ways people modify their bodies today, in the UK, I find things such as tattoos, piercings and earlobe stretching to be desirable, while I usually frown upon cosmetic surgery - breast enlargements and nose jobs for example?

There are lots of reason I give myself; I'm not sure they all stand up to scrutiny. Surgery involves a general anaesthetic, so it's life-threatening. Ok, but I'm not going, "botox seems like a great idea! Let's all go out and get some!" The main thing it comes back to is the reasoning behind it. Tattoos are personal; this kind of marking is about differentiating yourself. Getting cosmetic surgery is about conforming to a norm, making yourself look closer to 'societies' view of what beautiful should be. But there are sub-sections of society: I know enough people who got tattoos as teens only to later have them removed or covered up. Just as I know plenty of women have surgery to change something about themselves and remain happy with that decision. It's not so black and white.

6 year old girls have issued a formal statement concerning their desire to be sexy. OK they haven't, they aren't even old enough to have a Facebook account they haven't got the organisational tools yet. This month the journal Sex Roles (why am I not subscribed?) published research that seems to show a desire in girls as young as 6 to be sexy.

Sixty girls aged 6 to 9 were shown two dolls by psychologists at Knox College, Galesburg. One doll was dressed in clothes that could be described as sensible, although Live Science says they were “trendy but covered-up”. The other doll was a total vixen in a revealing outfit Live Science might describe as 'funky'.

So the big scandal of this week is not the security shambles of the Olympics or some schools refusal to provide students with the HPV vaccination. Nor is it the not guilty verdict for the Ian Tomlinson case. No. Something even worse, more abhorrent and shocking happened. An advert aired in New Zealand for a Carefree female sanitary product had the audacity to feature a nude woman who said “Discharge” EW and “vagina”, vaginargh!

Complaints and compliments rolled in via social media. Squeamish Bikini is of course on the side of the compliments, if we're taking sides. It got us thinking about some of the truly offensive (or plain annoying) adverts out there.

You know how the Friday 5 is usually light-hearted and flip? Well it turns out adverts really press our buttons. 

Protection can be a wide ranging thing. You can protect someone by shielding them from danger, or you can protect someone by preparing them for the danger. Those who practise either method will think themselves the more responsible guardian. But who is the better protector and is protection so divided between blissful ignorance or powerful knowledge? There isn't, of course. Knowledge prepares and helps you protect yourself.

It is in the name of protection girls from the age of 12 up are being offered a vaccine for the HPV strains 16 and 18 which have been directly linked to 70% of cervical cancers. It is also in the name of protection that 24 schools, (most of which were religious) in 83 of England's 152 Primary Care Trust areas that took part in a Freedom of Information request are opting out of the HPV vaccination programme. Out of these only 15 PCTs informed GPs they were opting out and 5 did not provide information of how to obtain the vaccine they were refusing to provide. 

Perhaps because the princess features so little in it, even though she's supposed to be the main protagonist, Sleeping Beauty is one of my favourite Disney films. Maleficent is of the same school of Snow White's evil queen step mother, devastatingly beautiful, elegant and bloodily glamorous. These Disney films probably inspired little girls not into a life of worthy drudgery awaiting their prince but to dream of the day they would be allowed to wear blood red lipstick and have minions.

At least we know what happens to the villainesses in Disney films. OK they die but they die doing what they love and how many people can say that (not many and not just because death is more than a Facebook status). This is probably why Maleficent is now being portrayed by Angelina Jolie in a new film all about her. She's the star! It's the princesses I feel sorry for, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Death could be sweet but they've got the task of living happily ever after with a man they've had one effing duet with.

On Friday the 13th a macabre anniversary might have been noted by some. It marked 57 years since Ruth Ellis became the last woman in Britain to be executed. Ellis was hanged on the 13th of July 1955 for murder. She was 28 and the youngest woman to be hanged in the 20th century.

While it is not the greatest claim to fame, or certainly a challenging one to use for exclusive club entrance or luxurious freebies it is a piece of women's history worth remembering. Ellis was convicted for the murder of her boyfriend, the socialite racing driver David Blakely.

Ellis was born in Rhyl, Wales in 1926 to a Belgian refugee and a Mancunian cellist. Not long after Ellis and her family moved to Basingstoke where she attended school until the age of 14 and became a waitress. Then in 1941 Ellis' father moved the family to London as the Blitz was well under way. He had got a job as a chauffeur in Southwark. Ellis' father came to terms with his failed music career through drink. Ellis took a job in a munitions factory, then after a bout of Rheumatic Fever a photographer's assistant at the Lyceum Ballroom. A now bleach blonde Ellis took on a war time spirit, telling others: "Why not? A short life and a gay one."

The 90s are back. We called it here but where we are excited Grace Dent in the Independent is sceptical. It seems we remember a very different version of the 90s. For some it was full of lava lamps and inflatable furniture, others combat trousers because we'd Never Ever stray from utility chic. In the UK the 90s are clearly divided between a grey, back to basics John Major Britain and Tony Blair's Cool Britannia. Changing Rooms was bringing MDF to the masses, feminism was being repackaged as Girl Power and we were all busy being bowled over by the Nokia mobile phone. Here's what the Squeamish Team believed in the '90s...