To be really angry (again) with The Guardian

[Unrulysun]

Interview today with Danni Minogue whose ds is 5 months old:

'I'm slightly taken aback when I discover she's still breastfeeding, just because her newly minted glossiness seems so far from the fuzzy haired, milky dressing- gowned image I associate with new motherhood.'

Well the sisterhood thanks you Jess Cartner Twunthead and wonders what further gems you have lined up for us.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I used to expect better but really now I know not to.

What a strange thing to write. I'm surprised it got past the sub-editors.

"fuzzy haired milkey dressing gowned image" probably describes me quite accuratly

Yes that made me mad too though good on Dannii.

Um, well, yes and no. Maybe it's good to see JCM admitting that people can actually breastfeed and function as a normal human being.

Nice.

Mind you I would be annoyed wouldnt I

Fucks sake.

Mind you, well done dannii for 'still' BFing, 5 months is longer than most babies get especially when their mums are so busy.

i thought jcm had a kid, i wonder why the whole thing is so mysterious to her?

I read that as well. If it had said 'fuzzy haired, milky dressing- gowned image I associate with breastfeeding' I would have thought it was very rude really.

But I thought it was a fair comment, she does look very well groomed and polished compared to me many mums of young babies, whether breastfeeding or not.

Dylthan
I was also going to post that I can't say a lot as "fuzzy haired, milky dressing- gowned" is how felt too. Definitely not 'glossy' anyway.
I guess it was supposed to be a compliment.

'I'm slightly taken aback when I discover she's still breastfeeding, just because her newly minted glossiness seems so far from the fuzzy haired, milky dressing- gowned image I associate with new motherhood.'

Sorry, but isn't that the journalist acknowledging that she is wrong? In this instnace, and therefore, possibly others?

She's not speaking for all of mankind. Is she?

I know lots of women who have breastfed (not me...yet). I think it absolutely depends on your image and how important it is to you prior to having the baby. One friend who is impossibly glam, was still impossibly glam when breastfeeding. Friends who were generally 'fuzzy haired' etc. tended to be so when breastfeeding. I think it's a ridiculous presumption and reflects poor judgement to put it in her piece.

she does have a kid, she did an article about it at the time [surprise] ..yawn..
the guardian is just awful i read it at my mums
and have uber low expectations
this confirms them

Yes Tatty but she didn't have to put it in her piece.

I suspect it was JCM reflecting on her own experience of new motherhood (she has at least one, doesn't she?), and sending herself up (ie. JCM was not glossy as a new mum, and is thus amazed by the glossiness of DM).

JCM always strikes me as quite funny, and down-to-earth, and does an ironic (but still engrossed) take on her role as a fashionista.

Anyway, that's how I read it.

I certainly didn't achieve glossiness as a new mother. But the, my career didn't depend on it.

My guess is also that JCM is old enough to be a little ambivalent about the image of glossy celebrity mothers, and the dissemination of the idea that glossiness and new motherhood are achievable.

In some ways, it's nice to have the idea that you don't "lose it" when you become a mother. On the other, it's not quite so easy for the majority of us, if we don't have a "team" working behind the scenes to ease our way to that"glossiness".

I suspect a little of that lay behind JCM's comment.

you know, it's just possible that she wrote more and it was cut. it does seem to miss something more personal to the effect that she herself was ungroomed etc, something more sisterly and knowing.
it's just such an ODD thing for any mother to say, while at the same time it's not even remotely odd for it to have emerged from the mind of a spotty twenty-two-year-old male on a subbing shift. i wonder if Jcm is in fact sitting at home absolutely mortified.

Yes AitchTwoOh you have a point there. Does seem to miss the next sentence about how she was indeed a fuzzy-haired mess etc.

I'm not a friend of JCM's, by the way! But she seems pretty sensible in much that she writes. And funny. Think Aitch may have a point.

LINK?????!!!

Perhaps it's an observation gone wrong. Good for Dannii Minogue to still breast feed with her work commitments etc. Not a fan of the Guardian tbh, but my priority other than ensuring my baby was fed, while I was breast feeding was to be showered, hair dried and well dressed. But I had a mothers help. Surely Ms Minogue has an entourage. So not a massive feat to feed her own baby, hats off to her. Get the help where you can.

I have SO much respect for Danni - she looks so amazing and I look such a tramp and our kids are the same age!!

link for anyone who actually wants to read the comment in context

Who cares about some nobody journalist perceptions are of what a 'breastfeeder' looks like.

Three bloody cheers for Dannii Minogue for doing it and for talking about it and for making it seem NORMAL.

Aw hey i think in context it reads MUCH better. still think it might have had something more personal in there that was taken out, but even as it is i would struggle to take offence at that para.

Yeah, well done Dannii. She is just the kind of person who might actually persuade people to give it a try.

I read that as JCM "bigging-up" bf-ing, but trying to do it in a non-controversial way.

(Should probably confess I'm a JCM fan .)

I think it was still that pissed me off even more than the rest tbh. But as a comment it doesn't do much for bfing IMO. It seems a little 'fuck me, she's breastfeeding and she looks OK when normally breastfeeding makes you look like a fucking nightmare' which may be true for me some of us but definitely isn't the case for everyone.