AIBU?
and unsisterly in wishing Gwyneth Paltrow would take a blardy sabbatical
queenceleste · 27/04/2011 09:31
and give us a break from her skinnyassed cookbooks (WTF?) potty mouth and general swaggering about like a hysteric?
Enough already woman! Please just give us a break, what are you trying to prove?
TaudrieTattoo · 27/04/2011 09:36
Not only that, she has recorded a version of my favourite song ever (Landslide) with the cast of Glee.
I take that as a personal insult, and as a result will not be listening to R2 for the forseeable future.
I actively dislike the woman. And her mimsy husband, while I'm at it.
queenceleste · 27/04/2011 09:44
It's also all the Macho-Mother thing - I mean, wonderful that she has rewarding work etc All Hail the working woman, I respect that, but sort of presenting herself as this uber career woman who is also baking cakes with her kids all the time just wreaks of fiction to me. The sheer volume of staff this woman has could probably sink a ship and I think there's something hypocritical about never mentioning the help you get.
How many women have that level of support to work out that hard, have sushi hand fondled into bijou lunchboxes, write cook books, appear on telly loads, write a blog, making and promoting a film. let ALONE the beauty regime which must be garGANtuan. And to be all 'oh yeah I'm always just cooking with my kids", you have to ask how many hours this woman has even spent with her kids in the last year.
FINE, no judgment on that but why present it so falsely, I think it just makes everyone else feel inadequate..... (or me anyway!)
Right, my ass is ready for the kicking I'll now probably get!
queenceleste · 27/04/2011 10:01
What I'd respect is if she said something like this:
"Stopping work to be a full time mother was great but nearly drove me crazy. This massive output of work I'm now doing is a direct reflection of how hard I found full time mothering although I don't regret it. I can work so hard because I have a massive team of helpers. I owe my sanity and my family's sanity to these hard working people who get little credit. My husband is a millionaire musician who doesn't have to work full time so he can do a load of childcare, that's great for our kids. When he's not there it's grannies and nannies hurray for them my kids love them and they provide continuity. To be this skinny is as I've said massively hard work and the diet is grim. Couldn't do it unless I was massively rich. I have barely seen my kids in the last two years. When I have a break I try to catch up but it's hard. I cry often because I miss them. But it's the price you pay for having this kind of career, I;m not getting any younger, I have to do this now. I'll catch up with them later. It's a huge and agonising sacrifice."
Now THAT, I'd respect. Not a guide to curtain shops in Milan.
MrsTerryPratchett · 27/04/2011 10:06
And when she was on Glee, where were the kids? Having just traveled from North America to the UK with mine I can testify that NO ONE looks like she did with jet lagged children to look after. I look like someone hit me in the face with the ugly pan (and DD did wake me by punching me in the face yesterday, bless).
queenceleste · 27/04/2011 10:57
An air steward told me once that the A listers very often put the kids in steerage with the nanny and are in first class 'resting' because they have to work. Fair enough but still.
On one flight with my dd when she was 19 months old she behaved so horrifically on the plane (overtired) and screamed like a banshee and wouldn't sit still for a minute. I was literally sobbing quietly to myself because all my prep for the journey came to nothing! She was horrible. If only I had been an A lister I could have paid staff to go to hell for me!
EldritchCleavage · 27/04/2011 11:18
This is a brilliant thread. No arse-kicking from me.
I put Gwyneth on my shit list after reading an interview in which she judged women who didn't take a career break to look after their children. Even allowing for some disingenuous magazine editing, it was hideous.
The problem is, GP comes from a wealthy family and has had a lucrative career, so I'm not sure the economic and social realities that most women face are something she really understands. There was just no acknowledgment from her that for some women, a career break isn't possible.
Plus there is the hypocrisy of people who are at home, but with nannies, looking askance at women who are at work during the day but fully in charge without help at all other times.
LittleOneMum · 27/04/2011 11:58
Oh I know that I am coming to this late but it is UTTER NONSENSE that she spends time with her kids with no nannies etc. My nanny is best mates with her nanny (this does not make me posh, trust me). She has a full time day nanny and she clocks off at 8pm when the night nanny comes on shift - GP and her husband are practically never around and never have been.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.