My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

AIBU?

Most women aren't pretty: Julie Burchill

96 replies

revolutionscoop · 11/08/2011 11:01

With apologies in advance for linking to the DailyHeil;
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2024655/Face-ladies-NEVER-pretty.html
AIBU in thinking Burchill's got a point?

OP posts:
Report
fuckityfuckfuckfuck · 11/08/2011 11:03

Well she certainly isn't. Inside or out.

Report
CogitoErgoSometimes · 11/08/2011 11:04

Burchill's scraping the barrel with this one, isn't she? Is there nothing genuinely controversial going on that she has to state the bleedin' obvious?

Report
squeakytoy · 11/08/2011 11:04

Julie Burchills only point is that she gets paid for writing articles... she has always come across as a bitter person anyway.

Report
Ephiny · 11/08/2011 11:07

I think she has a point. I don't think I'm especially pretty or 'beautiful', I'm fairly normal-looking, and that's absolutely fine with me. Don't really think about it much.

Report
RollingInTheAisles · 11/08/2011 11:07

I think she's right in some ways but totally misses the point and undermines herself in others. For a start, she wasn't unattractive when she was younger but pretty average. And so she's basically saying, hardly anyone really is beautiful, oh but I was of course.

Then, the stuff about Christina Aguilera's song - I don't think the message of that is 'you must be conventionally beautiful and by the way you really are'. I think the message is 'you're beautiful just the way you are', I don't think it's an unrealistic message, more of a celebrating the differences of people and having confidence in yourself message.

Finally, I think it's totally fine if you do want to be casual about your appearance but for a lot of people, especially women, making the effort to make the best of yourself is confidence enhancing. I don't think it is about being naturally beautiful, more just a pride related to feeling good about yourself.

Report
wildstrawberryplace · 11/08/2011 11:07

Arf at "I used to be a looker" - she looks like Christopher Hitchens in drag in the photos of her in her 20s.

Report
Callisto · 11/08/2011 11:08

I think that most women are pretty or attractive and the spectrum is huge. The plastic, air-brushed, hairless ideal is few and far between (thank God), but I know and see loads and loads of good-looking women (and men).

I also think that Burchill is full of shit most of the time and she is true to form with this article.

Report
diddl · 11/08/2011 11:08

Well it´s all subjective, isn´t it?

TBH, I would think there are very few women who I don´t think are pretty.

Now, drop dead gorgeous-I don´t know many of thoseSmile

Report
Ephiny · 11/08/2011 11:08

I think the article was a bit confused though and not sure I properly understood exactly what point she was making overall!

Report
michelleseashell · 11/08/2011 11:10

Julie Burchill's writing is an insult to the alphabet.

Report
squeakytoy · 11/08/2011 11:13

I agree Ephiny, I have just read it a second time, and I am still not sure what actual point she is trying to make with her disjointed paragraphs. It is such a "nothing" article.

Report
pictish · 11/08/2011 11:14

"I used to be a looker"

Think she's deluding herself, just as she scathingly accuses women of doing in her article there. The pic of her is certainly far from ugly...but a looker? Nah. Sorry Jules.

Report
DandyGilver · 11/08/2011 11:14

Julie Burchill is bonkers and always has been.

Although I think she may be one of the very few women who have never had a moment's self doubt in her life. Not necessarily a good thing.

How many children has she had and walked away from, is it 2 or 3?

Report
AbsDuCroissant · 11/08/2011 11:14

Yeah, I think she's a bit deluded if she's saying she was beautiful when she was 25. She wasn't. and she was wearing too much make up

Report
Miggsie · 11/08/2011 11:15

I assume tomorrow there will be a "most men are ugly" article?

Report
carminagoesprimal · 11/08/2011 11:16

I love her - even though she is ugly.

Report
AlpinePony · 11/08/2011 11:20

First time I've ever agreed with anything she's written.

Report
LareyLaptopLover · 11/08/2011 11:22

why are you reading the daily mail anyway if you consider it so beneath you?

With apologies in advance for linking to the DailyHeil;

Report
SevenAgainstThebes · 11/08/2011 11:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

southeastastra · 11/08/2011 11:26

it's a refreshing read to the usual tripe, one other article on there 'i'm happy i'm now invisible' Hmm sure you are dear

Report
PonceyMcPonce · 11/08/2011 11:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Morloth · 11/08/2011 11:29

Surely pretty much everyone is 'average' with perhaps extremes at either end.

There is also the 'eye of the beholder' thing. I am not 'pretty' but my DH thinks I am hot shit. Same goes for him, he is big, hairy, often smelly and with a nose that has seen too many elbows, but I think he is just yummy.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

revolutionscoop · 11/08/2011 11:29

Interesting logic, larey :)

OP posts:
Report
MsAnnThroppy · 11/08/2011 11:39

IMO, the term "beautiful" has been hijacked by the beauty industry (by which I mean fashion, cosmetics and cosmetic surgery, weight control companies) to mean skinny, flawless, symmetrical and forever young. That way, we'll forever carry on consuming their products and trying (and failing) to attain the holy grail.

Imperfections are what make people beautiful, unique and interesting. I was looking at one of my DD's friends this morning. She is going grow up to be one of those people you will not be able to take your eyes off, there's just something about her that lights up a room. She has a scar, which I think may be a corrected hair lip. It got me thinking of that thread recently where the poster's "friend" had referred to a similar scar cruelly. I hope this little girl never gets that treatment. Scars, blemishes, wonky noses, these are what make you arresting and interesting, it's all part of the history of you. Why air brush that out for an idiot's idea of "pretty".

JB is a complete narcissistic idiot who used to state that fat people should be killed - before she became on herself, of course.

Report
SevenAgainstThebes · 11/08/2011 11:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.