I am deeply unimpressed with the deletion of that thread. If MNHQ allows media requests, said journalists need to do their research. It would have taken that journalist five minutes to get a sense of the flavour of the boards here, and to reword her post in less reactionary terms, which would have got an entirely different response. And the responses were largely coloured by this journalist's unprofessional aggressiveness, rude (and, I believed, not allowed?) use of pms to harangue, and rudeness at people legitimately querying her sexist wording and the sexist assumptions of the 'story'.
In fact, she got a great, wryly comic, real 'story', which was considerably more interesting than the stupid, sexist-materialistic one she came looking for - which was more than she deserved. To then go whinging to MnHQ and Twitter about the 'abuse' she got suggests someone who isn't regularly challenged for the reactionary nonsense she writes in a publication which regularly hits new lows in its media depiction of women as vacuous 'celebs' shamed by cellulite/'flaunting their curves', vacuous recipients of 'push presents', or cartoonishly feckless, ASBO-bearing teenage mothers of 12 who somehow buy giant TVs and Caribbean cruises on benefits.
She is a public figure, not just another poster on Mn looking for advice or support, for all her doe-eyed, disingenuous pleading about being a 'fellow-mum'. Her article on 'exercise in pregnancy' was one of the more disturbing things I have read recently - woman-hating, body-fascist, basing female self-esteem on thinness, and full of contempt for the overweight. It is a kick in the teeth for all the values for which I thought Mn stood - tolerance, mutual support, inclusiveness, the challenging of limiting female stereotypes.
Is MNHQ really OK with appearing to validate the unprofessional and aggressive behaviour of an under-prepared tabloid journalist over the legitimate expression of their own members opinions on a frankly sexist 'story'????
If so, that is a sad look out.