Corporate misogyny

@Baileyonice

For me, the issue isn’t simply that a joke was made about “Facebook mums”; it’s who is being invited to laugh at whom, and who benefits from it.

A huge corporation is taking a recognisably female, often middle-aged and/or working-class group and using sexist stereotypes about them to generate engagement and sell products. The women being mocked are portrayed as stupid, uncultured, superficial or xenophobic, while the reality of the unpaid domestic and caring work many mothers do is completely ignored.

I don’t see this as satire punching up at power, or as an oppressed group reclaiming a slur. It’s a powerful company exploiting an existing sexist stereotype and encouraging people to pile on a group with relatively little power to control the narrative.

And the fact that some women join in doesn’t make it any less misogynistic. If anything, that’s part of what makes this kind of misogyny so socially acceptable: it gets packaged as harmless humour, so anyone objecting can be dismissed as humourless or oversensitive. Presumably that what you think of me!

@Baileyonice

I've not checked the statistics myself. If you are correct, rather than this justifying a massive misogynist piss-take in order to help raise the profits of a corporation, a more egalitarian approach would be to consider: what are the likely reasons mothers, particularly the working class ones, are higher users of Facebook.

Ie: why might this group have lower literacy levels (not my opinion but suggested by the comments on the reel), where are the fathers on forums discussing SEND, children's health and wellbeing, safeguarding, and organising birthday parties, allergies, school uniform, child care, housing etc ? And what practical and financial factors may limit working class mothers being able to give and receive support from their peers in real life?

A little interrogation of why Curry's have seen fit to use a pejorative stereotype of women who have children in order to set up place for snide and condescending mockery would also be worth considering.

Wasn't the point of intersectional feminism to consider the multiple factors that create inequality?

Mothers, especially those from lower socio economic backgrounds, get treated like absolute shit by large swathes of society. Rather than jumping on an insidious corporate marketing stunt to compound this, it would have been refreshing if at least other women, if not men, had seen it for what it is.

@Baileyonice What do you think is the 'kernel of truth to the claim of face book mums' as you've put it? I'm really curious because I had not heard the phrase it before. And isn't the point of the Curry's post is the opposite of dispelling negative stereotypes, for laughs, clicks, profit...

@Baileyonice I wonder if your perspective isn't a bit could bit pearl-clutchy? (I've just reclaimed that one.)

Unfortunately, I don't think the type of 'Facebook mums' being mocked in the Curry's pile-on have the media contacts, resources or time to 'take control of the narrative' as your suggest. They are busy taking care of children/elderly parents, navigating increasingly complex systems for SEND, benefits, food banks, temporary housing, dealing with sexism in life and in the work place, carrying crippling mental loads, dealing with anxiety/depression/PND, offering support and compassion to others, feeding their family in a cost of living crisis, protecting their kids from online harm, and trying to get the laundry done somewhere in between all of that.

If it was as simple as knocking up a satirical fruit cartoon I guarantee it would have been done it long ago.

I don't think it's okay for a massive corporation to utilise the shitty status quo for laughs and advertising and to organise a massive punch down. It's depressing there are so many useful idiots champing at the bit to join in.

@Baileyonice

A massive corporation asking for members of the public to stereotype and take piss out of 'Facebook mums' (explicitly meaning women, fairly overtly suggesting this group are less in numerous ways) in order to generate clicks and advertising is quite a far stretch from 'The French' mocking a King...

@Baileyonice

Calm down dear?

If the only way a joke can be funny is to coerce or demand the subject of it get on board and 'reclaim that slur you stupid little bitch'. Then I think we need to ask some questions.

Also please remember this particular example is all about making advertising! It's not like it's political satire speaking truth to power, is it.

For men I suppose a similarly racist/pejorative term, historically used to refer the Irish, is a 'Mick'. I presume it was supposed to imply the Irish were uncultured, unintelligent not deserving of respect and dignity. For a long time, the Irish were expected to laugh along.

Auto correct at the end I mean internet-based not international!

I don't know why this has gotten under my skin so much, but I'll rant away here even if it's just me!

I don't know what exactly the 'fb mum' trope is supposed to and I obviously realise it's supposed to be light-hearted in this context. I, however, don't think that's what is really happening. It just seems permission has been given in for an insidious misogynistic free for all.

Really, people are being asked to mock and judge a 'certain type' of mother/woman. The implications of the 'jokes' are that 'fb mums', aka mother and women, are a bit thick and uncultured, superficial, and some some a bit xenophobic.

It's particularly grating that the post is selling washing machines. Any insight into the domestic labour that falls mainly to women? Of course not, that's isn't funny is it?

There are lots of women who have been quick to join in reductive and condescending stereotyping of mothers. I guess they need to show they are in on the joke and not one of 'them'

It seems intersectional feminism doesn't apply to working class mothers.

Can you image, if the marketing team chose an alternative international based collective group.