Poor old Maria from Corrie, wanted to bf but is on the bottles by day three thanks to the scriptwriters being terrified of WOMEN.

[AitchTwoOh]

sure, Audrey is selfish and Kirk is a moron but they're both probably casually racist as well yet we don't hear anyone spouting off about how minorities are a waste of space without there being a serious plot comeuppance.

anyway, let's share happy memories of mad ranting corrie characters suddenly having a hitherto unheard strong negative opinion of bfing and then forgetting all about the subject.

sean, when violet had her baby, banging on about how he couldn't be a father and get near the baby cos of bfing. (little did he know that his bessie mate Jamie would soon steal him altogether).

and most recently audrey and kirk's 'oh you don't want to bf' 'i'm embarrassed to look' spiel.

any more?

(and then let's write to ofcom cos it's a bit ridiculous when 90% of us actually want to do it but aren't supported).

[RubyBlueberry]

Thye did that with Dawn and Roxie on EE too

[Ewe]

Can't you write a long scathing article about it and sell it to DM! Hmm, not sure it's sensational enough for them.

Times perhaps?

[AitchTwoOh]

DM hates bfing more than corrie, for some reason.

what happened with dawn? i remember roxie expressing in scbu (having had a prem i was like 'you go girl') and then a mad rant about hating bfing and being looked down on my yummy mummies at babygroup etc. (when did she find the time?)

[AitchTwoOh]

here's what the nobboid duty officer said to about five MNers who wrote to corrie to complain.

From: Nugent, David
Subject: cs
To:
Date: Thursday, 9 July, 2009, 11:46 AM

Thank you for your e-mail regarding Coronation Street and I?m sorry to read that you were unhappy with comments made Audrey, Kirk & Tony in a recent episode. Successful drama such as Coronation Street relies on realistic portrayal and characterisation. Our responsibility as Producers is to strike a balance between the realities of life and an awareness of the transmission time and potential audience. In the many situations addressed in Coronation Street we never set out to encourage unfair or prejudiced attitudes however there must be moments when inappropriate things are said or done, if no one ever demonstrates human frailty or ignorance it is impossible to identify with them. Audrey?s comments about breast-feeding were totally within the character that we have built over the past 30 years; she has always been a self centered, selfish and highly opinionated woman who has confessed to being a rubbish mother on many an occasion. Her remarks about putting a baby straight on a bottle are just the sort of thing she would say as she would never give so much time to looking after an infant; as she said she put Gail on a bottle from day one. Kirk comments about him being uncomfortable about seeing women breastfeeding are again just the sort of foolish thing he would say and Tony, in his besotted state will agree with Maria no matter what his real thoughts are.

Notwithstanding, we are very sorry you were offended and I can assure you that we have taken your comments on board and hope that this issue will not spoil your future enjoyment of Coronation Street. If you would like to take this matter further you can contact our regulatory body Ofcom at Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road , London , SE1 9HA .

Yours with Best Wishes, David Nugent, Coronation Street

David Nugent | Duty Officer- Coronation Street | Duty Office | ITV plc
[email protected]

[currymaid]

I agree with David 'noboid' Nugent to an extent though. The characters are numpties, so they spout numpty comments about b/f.

Would be better if b/f wasn't brought into it at all though if that's all the character;'s around Maria would have to say.

[Northernlurker]

That's their response?

Well on that basis at least 30% of the Street should be making racist and bigoted comments continuously and the rest should be swearing their heads off! But they don't - why is that again?

Oh yes - because they don't want to offend viewers. Apart of course from breastfeeding mothers who are plainly such a fringe loon group that they can be attacked as much as possible everything excused by saying 'it's in character.

[elkiedee]

That's a real response re Audrey? How hilarious.

I've also seen some comments about this elsewhere, we obviously need a campaign for all the soap operas to show characters struggling with bf but then getting advice and help to successfully bf.

Then they could move on to baby led weaning.

Oops, no, that might cause problems with advertisers.

By the way, what ads were shown during the breaks for the offending episodes of CS?

[AitchTwoOh]

exactly, nl. i don't dispute for a minute that it's in character, but i think it's entirely likely that rita's voting bnp but we don't hear anything about it.

[AitchTwoOh]

by the way tony, in his besotted state, should have been supporting maria because she was trying to bf, it was him who suggested making up a bottle for her.

i thought this thread title might have been tabloid enough to get some hits... maybe not.

[currymaid]

Didn't we do this just the other day though? I'm sure we did.

[currymaid]

here, isn't this the same thread?

[AitchTwoOh]

yes, i was hoping for a broader audience though, rather than people who were looking for corrie gossip...

[currymaid]

Post it in AIBU then?

A lot of people hide this topic and those that don't will have read the previous thread.

Sorry, I'm just confused about how this thread is different?

[OracleInaCoracle]

lol i wondered when i watched it how long it would take before it was on mn. scriptwriters seem to be terrified of anything to do with wanting children/breastfeeding/weaning anything that is "feminine". women who want a child turn into loons and try to steal babies (may ee, purdie ef) women never have uncomplicated births in the place of choice (every child born in every soap) and bf-ing is never successful because its too hard and makes others uncomfortable (violet corrie, roxy ee, maria corrie) i say we should get a couple of sciptwriters on here for a webchat. put them straight on a few things!

[OracleInaCoracle]

oh, and dont get me started on the handling of ep's/mc...

[AitchTwoOh]

oh that is a GREAT idea, lissie. fookin' fantastic!

it's not that different, curry, just a different title, and asking for more memories so as to strengthen any email to ofcom. fear not. but yes, aibu miht have been better. i can't be arsed now, do you want to?

[you]

You are not wrong. At all. However right now I'm pretty about these comments from David;

'Audrey?s comments about breast-feeding were totally within the character that we have built over the past 30 years; she has always been a self centered, selfish and highly opinionated woman who has confessed to being a rubbish mother on many an occasion. Her remarks about putting a baby straight on a bottle are just the sort of thing she would say as she would never give so much time to looking after an infant'

Does that make me, as a ffing mother, self centered, selfish and and likely to pawn my child off seeing as how I clearly can't be bothered to spent time bfing my DD?

Or am I looking too muchg into this?

[you]

Oh, and a rubbish mother. Lest we not forget that.

[currymaid]

Nooooo thank you Aitch. Sheesh, breastfeeding topic in AIBU, I've had a shit enough day as it is.

You - I agree with you, hence only agreeing with his email to a certain extent. I have more issue with what the guy is implying about formula feeding than anything he's said about b/feeding.

[AitchTwoOh]

lol i hadn't noticed that, casual insults about ffing are water off a duck's back to me. right enough, that is NOT a good answer, arf.

[OracleInaCoracle]

oh, and if anyone feels like a rant at the way that women are portrayed pre-panicky-beachhut-labour please do so here my mood swings are coming along a treat!

[ilovemydogandmrobama]

Oh much better title

[DitaVonCheese]

My friend is a scriptwriter thingummy. Bearing in mind that she seems to think I shouldn't be bfing 9 mo DD any more though, I'm not sure she's our best bet

[AitchTwoOh]

on corrie?

[DitaVonCheese]

Oh no, sorry. On the Bill at the moment. She might know people on Corrie though ...