This Brick person. Has the world (and specifically this bit of it) gone completely barking mad?

Well said miloben.

FYI op MN is not a borg-like entity in which we all think of and act as one, it's made up of individuals, plus it's really not shocking that people have responded to this deliberately obnoxious polemic with strong opinions.

Thanks SQ. :) You know, I was up last night feeding my little son at different times during the night, and I was reading through some of the blogs and articles people have written about the Daily Mail that were linked to on here, and how people have had entire stories changed and rewritten to fit in with the Mail's misogynist, racist, homophobic agenda. I was shocked, but not shocked too. So I am not really ANGRY with this woman as I don't know for sure how much of the article was really her, but I do know that I would never ever in a jillion years give men who hate women any opportunity to look at me and hold me up as some kind of stupid evidence that women are jealous, vitriolic, spiteful...And she did that!! She played into their hands and then had the nerve to go on This Morning and say she was a woman's woman!!

milobean that is a great post

But MN is thousands and thousands of people, all different sorts of people.

Your opening post and subsequent ones say shouldn't "MN" have reacted better, as if it is a single entity. But it's not. It is lots and lots of individuals. So saying "MN" should have reacted better is something I don't understand. Your point surely is that you don't like the reaction of some of the women on MN who have posted on this topic. Which is of course quite reasonable.

What I hated about the piece wasn't that she thought she was beautiful (all power to her) but that she went on and on about women being hate-filled and jealous. She targeted women and ignored all the men making negative comments. She was reinforcing in all the little misogynists minds that women are indeed evil to each other when it is simply NOT true!! Almost all the women in my life have been lovely to me and other women. It is the men who have tried to bully me. I'm annoyed at her for doing misogynists' work and attacking women with such a generalisation. She'd never say those things about Chinese people, gay people, disabled people whatever. Yet it seems it is ok to be horrible about women.

RF, Your word count on this is probably a lot higher than most people's.

It's not obvious to me.

Stupid is as stupid does.

You have been manipulated, ReactionaryFish. You started this thread.

If people are being incredibly smug and arrogant over anything that they put out in the public domain then they can expect to get taken down a peg or two. The fact that is was over her looks is irrelevant really.

Oh I see you feel superior to the women who reacted as they did.
And you want a clap on the back for rising above it all and remaining dignified.

Well done you

But why do all the women on MN (thousands of them) need to be dignified and post intelligently at all times, and turn the other cheek to media attempts to provoke them?

It seems like a very high standard to set. The knee jerk reaction of many posters was, it seems, a strong one and not a very edifying one. Why not ask why that is (as linerunner says in happening elsewhere). Starting a thread in feminism to call women thick seems a little provocative in itself.

Not very bright
Unintelligent
Undignified

Hardly glowing praise is it!

"What I haven't seen is many people recognising that reacting to the article by slagging off her looks perpetuates precisely the same shitty values as the article itself does. " Well of course they do. But where did people get these attitudes in the first place? You need to tackle the cause, not the symptom.

And there have been discussions on MN in droves about the manipulation by the Daily Mail of this woman, the readership, and women.

I agree with the op. My colleagues were talking about the reaction to her article and my gut reaction was to feel very sorry for this woman. And I do think people who post comments saying the same thing as thousands of others is not very intelligent. And that the comments about this woman were offensive and out of proportion to her daft article.

Well you said 'not very bright is it?' which is sort of the same as saying we were a bit thick for contributing.

I see your point Reactionary but the thing is, she was telling us a story about how tough it is being beautiful. We just pointed out that she wasn't, really. that is all.

If she'd written an article telling us that she was a fabulously talented playwright/artist/musician, and then showed/played us examples of her work and we unanimously thought they were crap to mediocre, the reaction would be the same (although I suspect we'd be a bit less interested generally).

I think Getorf's analysis of the DM is spot on though. In common parlance she was done up like a kipper. Serves her right for not seeing it coming though. Pride comes before a fall. I imagine she feels a bit silly and a bit shaken up now.

I do think that a conversation about why so many on MN have responded so strongly to this article and what that says about the media and society etc would be interesting. Linerunner indicates that these conversations have happened elsewhere.

A thread started in Feminism which seems to be here in order to call women who have reacted to this article thick etc is somewhat less interesting and I wonder what prompted it.

Your posts come across as slightly aggressive RF, I'm not sure if that is intended?

I haven't read any of the threads in question but would be surprised if any of them are here in Feminism - have you read them here?

"Usually a healthy degree of scepticism vis a vis the DM and its works prevails in these parts."

What you are posting has nothing to do with scepticism of the DM at all.

I think that's the right place for it, linerunner.