Dawn French

[Violetparis]

Anyone else appalled and shocked at Dawn French's social media video mocking the reaction to the terror attack in Israel on Oct 6th. What on earth was she thinking ? She comes across as horrible and lacking in any empathy. I feel sorry for the innocent people on both sides of this war, in Palestine and in Israel.

I read it as there is NO excuse for withholding aid and killing babies.

surely no rational person would disagree with that.

killing innocent people be they Israeli or otherwise is never ok. NO.

i get it.

So I'm intrigued by people saying she often does these videos and have just scrolled through her feed to see more. The Kardashian one is ok and quite funny. The coffee one. FFS. What is wrong with her? How bloody hard is it just to ask for an Americano? And why she thought it was a good idea to do a video about genocide in the same style that she uses for humorous downright odd 'takes' on modern life I have no idea. Deeply disturbing.

I agree with you but that fact that is has been so widely interpreted in that way is a problem. She should have explained herself better.

I agree. She’s done it in a way to draw attention to it. So it’s talked about. Objective achieved.

she is saying there is NO excuse for what’s happening. No ifs no buts, NO.

to those saying what she is saying isn’t funny- I don’t think it was meant to be…

The same argument is used all the time. Every time I bring up colonialism I get the same response 'the big bad British'. During Brexit I was called racist against British people for wanting to stay with Europe. It's a defensive tool to shut the conversation down.

Again I agree but the delivery was too open to misinterpretation. People are perceiving the voice as mocking. It’s a badly thought out video.

I'm talking about anti-semitic, fascist attacks on the Jewish people. This was the equivalent of Kristalnacht. Sheer evil terror.

Her frivolous delivery of a topic that couldn’t be more serious in the world today, is in extremely bad taste and is therfore open to being misconstrued.
Her message, I guess, is that she doesn’t agree with the genocide which is ongoing in Gaza as a result of, or in revenge of the Oct 7th atrocity on Israel by Hamas. That’s an important message but completely lost in her egotistical delivery…and only serves to negate/confuse/belittle it.
Her delivery minimises the Oct 7th atrocity in a despicable way and we are all worse off for having this readily available to see.
I think she should remove it … and think about a genuine apology.

Yes, I was talking about fascist attacks on Jewish people.

Well clearly many people (as frequently seen on MN for example) disagree with that. They won’t explicitly admit it in the stark way you have phrased it, but it’s clear that many believe the indiscriminate killing and starvation, particularly of children, is an acceptable response.

Ditto.

The actions of Hamas were/are horrific and unjustifiable. Every sane person agrees.

The situation of people in Gaza is horrific and unjustifiable and the world should be ashamed that they are suffering in this way. Which is what I took DF’s video to mean.

I never engage with this topic on SM because it immediately descends into name calling - as this thread proves - so this will be my last post on the subject.

it’s one area where I absolutely do think it’s ok to be on the fence and be sorry for the suffering on both sides, but to also admit it’s complex and you might not have the expertise or background knowledge to fully take a side.

I agree with this. I think it’s a very complex conflict and one can acknowledge the suffering in both sides without coming out with crass and badly informed statements.

I can’t find the video. Lots of talk about it, but can’t find it.

@OrderofthephoenixparodyNo it isn’t. It’s how so many people feel
now. It’s terrible to me that Israel has squandered support and good will with their disgusting right wing government. I do realise that many Israelis don’t support him, obviously, but he’s an evil man, and so are his henchmen.

She has badly missed the mark on this one. She may be trying to say enough is enough but that’s not how it comes across. There is raw pain on both sides which really doesn’t lend itself to that style of response.

These sorts of complex historical issues that have a history of grim actions by both sides and mutual distrust really don’t lend themselves to a quick video.

Yes, utterly horrific. There's something wrong with her.

It's so offensive I can only hope she didn't understand fully what actually happened that day, but in that case why the hell speak about it?

You can be horrified by what's happening in Gaza and not mock families who've been destroyed by rape and murder.

This

I don’t know what’s more astounding, the fact she ever posted this or the fact that this video is still even up?!
Where are her mgt team?
I was appalled by this video and seriously question DF’s judgement on this, so deeply offensive and utterly tone deaf. How she began to defend this is beyond me. Horrifically bad, I wonder if she will ever work again? Or will we get a thinly veiled apology video on Monday?

you want to boycott companies for...um....not being psychic?

as per the majority of comments on this thread, people are shocked at this because she didn't have a reputation for being offensive or controversial before i.e. when she was hired by whoever.

If your children had been murdered and your daughters raped, you'd never be ok with someone doing a whiny voice and saying "they did something bad to me.

We've seen the worse of what humanity can do on both sides but the very real humans that are enduring it do not deserve for people to use it as a chance to mock them in their pain.

What is it you actually object to in the video?

She starts by saying its complicated and nuanced.

She uses that voice to minimise the attempts at justifying why they are starving children to death in Palestine, suggesting these are unimportant when set against children being killed by starving.

And she keeps repeating 'no' to emphasise that no matter how the war started starving children to death cannot be right.

I'm not sure what people are finding so wrong with that?

I absolutely agree with her - there is no justification for starving children to death in any context or circumstance. Just NO

She's not mocking the victims, she's mocking the people who are using the attacks as a reason to obliterate that Gazan population.

She's mocking what happened on Oct 7th. It's not acceptable.

It's on her twitter and Instagram