Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Lucy Mangan

27 replies

beanlet · 07/05/2011 11:11

In guardian weekend today and last week, on late pregnancy and now in labour.... (can't post links cos I'm on the stupid iPhone, but they're no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners awesome opinion pieces that made me smile and weep a little cos I feel like we're SISTERS!!!!)

Bloody good luck to you! And try to stick with the BF even if it does hurt like buggery at first. It took me six weeks but after that it has been a dream.

(and I'm posting on AIBU because I'm being bloody unreasonable to have broken my mumsnet fast to post this, so pile on and flame me lovely harpies!)

OP posts:
belgo · 07/05/2011 11:20

here is the link.

Hassled · 07/05/2011 11:23

Do try to keep up, Beanlet :o

bronze · 07/05/2011 11:26

I like her mum

RamblingRosa · 07/05/2011 11:30

I liked the bit about giving the baby the father's surname because "everybody knows the baby belongs to the mother" and it just makes the father feel more like a part of it Grin Sums up how I felt about it.

Again10 · 07/05/2011 11:45

I quite like her, but she can be quite repeatative. It's like she thinks nobody ever reads more than two of her pieces. Enough of the soup/drink story Lucy!

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 07/05/2011 11:46

It doesn't though, does it. The baby is part of both the father and mother and belongs to both of them equally. You only have to look at the threads here to see the anguish caused when a father loses interest in a child. I don't suppose it's always because they're feckless, but perhaps because the mother tries to take absolute control. I hate that concept and won't buy into it because it's not in the child's best interests.

CareyFakes · 07/05/2011 11:52

My child has my surname and will do until she wishes to change that. I would still have given her my surname had I been with her father, and had I been married because I would not take a mans name.

I take absolute control because I had to. Yes, some women go further than necessary, but others do it for the best.

Spudulika · 07/05/2011 12:30

Weirdly fond of La Mangan.

I know it's not very sisterly but I hope she gets back to work the instant her thighs have ceased to tremble after giving birth. Want to hear all about it and will be running out to buy the Guardian next Saturday in vain hope that she's put her readers needs ahead of her new baby's and trotted out another column.

Original poster
beanlet · 07/05/2011 13:15

Cross fingers it's not an EMCS then...

Thanks hassled, but I've been FASTING Grin

OP posts:
Emmee · 16/05/2011 14:34

Dear CareyFakes, if you want to strike a blow for women's equality, this isn't the battle to pick. For those women in the UK of anglo saxon origin (and others too) you have probably had a man's surname all your life. Your surname is literally your sire's name. A woman's ownership is still advertised by a male name either the father or the husband's. Unlike some other societies we have no second name that is really our own all our life or directly taken from a mother (so-and-so's-dottir, in Iceland for example). Unless you invent a brand new name for yourself, you will always have a man's name even if you didn't take a husband's name on marriage. This fact shows how far we still have to travel towards genuine equality, but as I reckoned I wasn't up to the challenge of reforming the tradition all by myself, I did adopt my husband's name, mainly because it was easier to live with, and spell, than my original name. It isn't fair, but it can have some advantages such as making it easier to trace family history.

Fecklessdizzy · 16/05/2011 14:42

She totally cracks me up. I'm with Spudulika!

smallwhitecat · 16/05/2011 14:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

kerala · 16/05/2011 14:48

Ooh felt I wanted to contact her but didnt want to seem stalkerish. I had SPD to a similar degree in my first pregnancy but Lucy if you are reading this I did not have it all in my second pregnancy. Just wanted to get that across to her!

carabos · 16/05/2011 14:49

Emmee - totally agree - this was the position handed down to me by my mother, with the addition of "pick the one you like best and use that". In the olden days (1970s) separatist feminists used to choose their own names, which were often plants / trees / winds.

DELHI · 16/05/2011 20:01

Sorry, have to disagree. I read her column this week and thought 'this woman thinks she's the only person on earth who's ever had a baby' Very unoriginal IMO, self-indulgent and boring

sonearsofar · 16/05/2011 20:20

I love Lucy Mangan. Her book (Handbags and ?) is v good as well
I had a shock, though when I read an article by her in the Daily Mail (!!!) about getting married. Funnily enough I don't think she called the grrom Toryboy though. The article was in a totally (unfunny) style, very different from her Guardian style.

YusMilady · 16/05/2011 20:21

I'm with DELHI. Can't abide Lucy Mangan. I find the knowing tone just too relentless and school-magazine-y. Never says anything straight. And what's with all the 'Toryboy' nonsense? You married a Tory - deal with it. It's like she's got to keep taking the piss out of her husband because she's worried she might lose her gig with the Guardian. Sad.

ziptoes · 16/05/2011 20:42

Anyone else see the very snide letter on the letters page the week after she mentioned in her article about her pelvic pain (12th March)? I had guessed reading that article that she had SPD and was very very annoyed at the editor that published the letter chiding Lucy Mangan for saying she was disabled. As as two time SPD sufferer I can vouch that it's very disabling, physically and emotionally. I only hope she recovers quickly after the birth and then marches purposefully (not waddling, hooray) to the editors office to give him/her a good stern talking to.

Emmee · 17/05/2011 20:43

Re: battles and names, I don't have strong personal feelings about this except you should pick whatever name you like best. My point was that keeping the name you were born with doesn't equal a refusal to perpetuate sexist traditions. If you're a woman, you're just keeping one man's name instead of another's.

microserf · 17/05/2011 20:52

I love her stuff, and hope all is well with toryjunior. I selfishly wish she'd hurry back to the Guardian as well with updates of how Toryboy is adjusting to fatherhood.

TheSecondComing · 17/05/2011 20:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BeattieBow · 17/05/2011 20:59

She tweeter that she had an awful labour and a terrible time ( not sure if it was a cs or not) and spent a few days in hospital.

I like her articles.

BeattieBow · 17/05/2011 21:00

Tweeted even, bloody ipad

madonnawhore · 17/05/2011 21:24

I cannot fucking stand Polly Vernon. How on earth has she got a career?

DirtyMartini · 17/05/2011 21:49

My sense is that LM is herself OK and can write, but that she has become entangled in a web of Guardian-column-related expectations and nonsense over the years (I am a Guardian reader -- but still) and cannot easily disentangle herself without backsliding and losing income etc. Esp now she's had a baby & presumably wants to take time off. Hence increasingly irritating school-magazine style someone mentioned earlier, & going in ever-decreasing circles.

As for the Daily Mail piece, I didn't see it, but can imagine it was probably quite different when she submitted it and then got heavily edited by the DM machine.

I hope, though, that at this point she doesn't give a fuck about any of that and is just having lots of lovely bonding and cuddly feeds in bed and whatnot