'Yummy Mummies': what's behind all the bile?

[KateMumsnet]

This week MN blogger Rowan questioned the resentment so often directed at 'yummy mummies' in the Guardian, in a piece which sparked a heated debate.

So for our blogprompt this week, we're asking what you think of the 'yummy mummy' phenomenon? Does the 'type' deserve the criticism, or is the term itself essentially misogynist?

Mumsnet bloggers Marytuda and Lynn from Salt & Caramel have already posted - so let us know here if you blog on the topic and we'll tweet your posts next week.

I think 'yummy mummy' is often an aspirational term - I would love to be one! Sadly, I am more of a 'slummy mummy'.
however, I know it can be used as an offensive label, and that annoys me too. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing the best for your children and devoting as much time and energy as you can to their upbringing.
Choochy at www.stumblinginflats.com

"Yummy Mummy" describes a non-working mother with conspicuous consumption habits. Ostentation tends to grate...

Because the term comes from a shite chick lit book about west london wankers.

Plus it adds pressure to the getting your figure back in 2 seconds crap. It's not good and its not feminist.

I don't mind ostentation. I mind children everywhere, at all times of the day.

lol Franca. Me too.

Mary
Interesting blog post. Where I live, I am probably considered the 'yummymummy' type, although I'm really not. I am currently in Germany for the school hols and we went to soft play area yesterday, that happens to be in the most expensive area of Munich. To say that it is another world is not overstating it. Posh dresses and kitten heels - at soft play!

I dislike the term because I find it demeaning and sexist, as I explained on the blog. I also dislike mummyblogger, mumpreneur (I reserve a special place on my spreadsheet for anyone who uses that term) and whatever new mummyblabla term the press come up with next.

I did see a posh mummy at soft play recently with a vair naice handbag and pointy heels and nails. Her kid dressed in joules fixated on dd who was wearing her best organic patchwork

I find the term "yummy mummy" totally offensive and patronising. It is a horrible sugary sweet phrase which most mothers I know shun rather than use to describe themselves or label others. Its a media-term not a term used by mothers with any brain cells. Its just another way to compartmentalise people. So what if some mums where heels and lippy all the time and so what if some women don't? We are women and we are mothers. That is as far as it goes in my book.
I have always had good handbags and worn a stack of lippy, but if ANYONE called me a "yummy" bloody "mummy' I'd deck them!

I think the term mumpreneur is far more offensive and demeaning than yummymummy - keeping us right under the patriarchal thumb.
Just been debating this with friends this afternoon and I withdraw my previous 'aspirational' comment - but we're all mums with teenagers so maybe we missed this trend...

Hi
I have just written about this here:
newmumonline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-guardians-yummy-mummy.html
I assume this is where we are supposed to place the links to our blog posts on this subject?
Liska x
@NewMumOnline

I kind of blogged about it yesterday thebittersweetmanifesto.com/2012/10/18/julia-gillard-my-new-feminist-heroine/

I just hate the whole thing tbh. It's all just mother-bashing.

Motherhood is 'supposed' to be awful, the end of life as you know it. Entering a changed state.

Therefore resentment of any woman who enjoys being a parent and still keeps herself.

Maybe it's not the yummy mummies to blame but the laddy daddies?! I wrote a blog piece about it here sarabran.com/2012/10/22/forget-the-yummy-mummy-what-about-the-laddy-daddy/

Hi

I'm taking the Yummy Mummy haters to task on my blog!

Check out my piece at diamondsanddaisychains.com/yummy-mummy-hater-yawn/