Guardian interview with Juno Dawson

brilliant

God those bands take me back. They were bloody birlliant women.

I often browse this sub although don't post and I'm quite nervous of getting it wrong here (don't take it the wrong way, you all come across as very intelligent and I feel some of what I say would just be eye roll worthy) and I was quite shocked by the deletions here.

I didn't have any boobs til way after everyone else but I have spent years of my life trying jumpers round my waist to hide my arse. I still do.

They have no idea what it's like do they

It’s hardly any wonder we have a generation of teenage girls trying to identify out of being female - where is the representation of the actual Adolescent and young adult female experience?

So glad I grew up with Judy Blume and Jacqueline Wilson and all these women in bands

Don't forget Kenickie, Elastica and Skunk Anansie...

I won’t! Justine Frischmann 😍 Skin 😍😍
(please add videos. I gotta go out for a bit!)

No Doubt:

St Etienne:

Curve:

Hole:

Silverfish:

The books and TV show ‘My Mad Fat Diary’ (they changed the era for the show) are the best/most representative stuff that I’ve encountered in recent years. Who is writing like that for the girls of now?

www.amazon.com/My-Mad-Fat-Diary-Memoir/dp/125011649X?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

All threads about Dawson receive a high volume of deletions. I have noticed it in previous threads about La Dawson. It’s almost if someone is watching 👀

Surely one of the reasons young girls mutilate themselves, starve themselves and binge eat is the very real terror of men who are suddenly interested in those emerging breasts.

For me I did those things because I didn't feel attractive enough. I wanted a slimmer waist, bigger boobs, a rounder bum, a slighter nose... The list was endless.

I was a teen not so long ago and remember what I would read from the school library. I read Candy at age 13 and that's a Kevin Brooks story about a man who meets a prostitute and falls in love with her, has drugs and violence in it. I was able to just check it out from the library!
Even some Jacqueline Wilson books.. Love Lessons features student having a semi-relationship with teacher. Girl Out Late I think features teen girls stuffing their bras with paper and sneaking off to parties making out with boys etc.

BTW I am not excusing this book by Dawson. Its horrible. I was just picking up on the comment made by PP about general state of YA fiction.

I wouldn't expect kids older than 16 would be reading YA though, more like adult at that age.

A real Alice possibly would be appalled by those breasts and spend the rest of her school life wearing over-sized jumpers or starving them out of existence.

So true. Part of the appeal of someone like Justine Frischmann was her androgyny. I would rather have looked like her (or Brett Anderson, actually) when I was 19 than some perky-breasted male fantasy.

There were amazing US bands around, too, when I was a teenager - Hole, L7, Throwing Muses, style icons like Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth - all really cool and much more aspirational than Lolita for heaven’s sake

A real Alice possibly would be appalled by those breasts and spend the rest of her school life wearing over-sized jumpers or starving them out of existence.

I think the Alice in Dawson's book is actually a boy taking cross sex hormones. The book is written from a male point of view (which, of course, Dawson would know about).

Dawson is the worst of all the high profile British TRAs, IMO, because Dawson erroneously claims to speak FOR women (rather than just blatantly speaking over us, al la Bergdorf et al)

One of Dawson's books is "The Gender Games: The Problem With Men and Women, From Someone Who Has Been Both".

Deluded.

A real Alice possibly would be appalled by those breasts and spend the rest of her school life wearing over-sized jumpers or starving them out of existence

So true. I did this. But men do not understand that at all.

Surely one of the reasons young girls mutilate themselves, starve themselves and binge eat is the very real terror of men who are suddenly interested in those emerging breasts.

Hurting themselves may be the only control women have their bodies, in a world where their youth, appearance and physicality is so highly commodified.

To have an adult transwoman and ex-teacher write about the body of a young girl in such a way, is very unpleasant. Women and girls seem to exist only as a product of a sexualised fantasy, not as real people experiencing their own, individual lives. A real Alice possibly would be appalled by those breasts and spend the rest of her school life wearing over-sized jumpers or starving them out of existence.

Don't forget Kenickie, Elastica and Skunk Anansie...

Guide to being a (British) teenage girl in the mid 90s

Republica

Garbage

Catalonia

Lush

Portishead:

The book Wonderland is being published by Hachette.

Hachette dropped plans to publish Woody Allen’s memoir.

Fascinating world, the book publishing industry.

You're probably right BadLady:

twitter.com/junodawson/status/1259815435735875584

Speaking hypothetically rather than about any particular individual (plz don’t smite me, Mumsnet) Blanchard’s typology of MtF transsexuals is often mischaracterised by over simplicity. It’s important to note that gay males can be indeed transition due to AGP, despite the majority of late transitioners being heterosexual (or gynandromorphophilic )

———————

Dawson is the worst of all the high profile British TRAs, IMO, because Dawson erroneously claims to speak FOR women (rather than just blatantly speaking over us, al la Bergdorf et al)

The article in the screenshot (Dawson proudly claiming to be an ‘older woman’ despite having been giving interviews as a youngish gay man less than three years previously) has thankfully been wiped from history by the new owners of The-Pool url.

I’m about the same age as Dawson and I recognise fuck all From Dawson’s teenage cultural references. The only people my age listening to the Spice Girls or Steps etc were young gay men - straight girls were mostly listening to Brit Pop...

I'm not sure how mass reporting this thread helps them, to be honest. The article is what people are talking about - it's still there, people are still reading it.

To be honest the standard of much of kids' fiction and YA fiction is worrying! Sturgeon's law applies.

r/menwritingwomen on Reddit is an amusing/depressing read (depending on what mood you’re in).

r/writingcirclejerk is also quite funny about characterless female characters.

I suspect someone is watching this thread and mass-reporting it...

To be honest the whole genre of books designed for teenage girls is worrying. Is this any worse than twilight? Which includes an near adult Male imprinting on a baby to later be its mate.

James Dawson looks like a confident man and a successful author.