To like Kirstie Allsopp?

[plaingirly]

Pretty much all of my friends and colleagues seem to hate her! Something about setting women back 60 years.

I like her - and all the craft stuff. I don't see that she is setting women back or being anti-feminist. Surely feminism is about choice so she is choosing to live the way she does - and has the freedom to do that.

In interviews she always seems pretty straightforward and doesn't hide who she is. She is a bit posh but that is who she is - no point hiding the accent! Maybe I am biased because I love all the crafty homemaking type stuff. (And her clothes.)

"For some women, the wedding-veil canopies, crocheted jellyfish mobiles and calli-graphy place cards in Kirstie?s Vintage Home (more recession-friendly than her previous books and television series, it has tips on how to transform old fabrics and furniture into modern-day treasures) are not only off-message but demeaning. Sally Bercow called one of her shows 'condescending, too-good-to-be-true, middle-class nonsense?.

Allsopp is unflustered by such criticism. 'When people call me a 1950s housewife trying to take us back ? that?s so wrong,? she says. 'I consider myself a feminist. I have the most balanced and equal relationship with my husband. Likewise at work with Phil [Spencer, her 'TV husband? of the past 13 years]. He?s paid the same as me and I expect to get paid the same as any of the men on Channel 4.?"

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9599318/Kirstie-Allsopp-televisions-crafty-lady.html

Oh didn't see it. The programme was about transforming a dilapidated house to a holiday home so the reality should have been at least mentioned. I wonder if she used locals too. I might ask her

It's nice cosy escapist telly. Kind of Blue Peter for grown ups.... 'you too can make a fabulous lampshade from a loo roll and some sticky back tape'.

It's like the Great British Bake Off. Obviously there are lots of people out there who dream of a kinder, gentler, more homebaked victoria sponge scented world........

And I know someone who has worked with her(and does atm) and says she is a pita! I will ask them re the house quite interesting.

Tbh lots of people from the city who buy a house in remote parts do import their builders and tradespeople in as they don't trust the local workforce.

It is how I met XP - he was managing the conversion of a house in Devon, was imported (and his whole workforce) to do the job and he lived there for six months (and met me).

And people from outside buying holiday homes in the desirable parts of the west country is a problem - the local people can't afford to buy a house as the prices have shot up and the local wage cannot support it.

Not that it has affected me personally because I left that hovel without a backward glance, but still.

Even so, I don't think Kirstie Allsopp is responsible for that general trend!

Actually, that's another thing. She spells her bloody name WRONG.

Yes getorf true. I doubt she used locals. Although the local b abd bs prob did ok out of it

Tell us more Noddy??

Poor old XP was rather gutted when he first moved to Ilfracombe - he assumed that it would be a vibrant place like Brighton.

I'm afraid not, sunny Jim. Especially not in November.

Since when have crafts been sexist and un-feminist?

I'd better go tell all the knitting/sewing/spinning/dyeing/felting feminists I know on twitter and ravelry. They'll be devastated. Do you reckon I should go tell the men I know who do these things, too, or would that introduce too much cognitive dissonance?

I couldn't possibly but her m and s 'work' is apparently fairly hands off

I don't think knitting etc is sexist but she does assume we would all be doing it.She enjoys it and she assumes it is some sort of ideal. It is easy for her as she is wealthy. Laqueen those properties do seem cheap to outsiders I have looked too but to locals where the average wage is about 20k it is impossible.

Does she actually rent her "holiday house" out or is it just her family "holiday house" which gets used for one weekend a year?

I also know someone who has worked with her. She described her as a "right caaaaah"

Most of those celebrity products are. I don't think Jaimie or Nigella have much to do with the table ware that bears their name. (Apart from pushing the prices up ridiculously).

Yes local wages are shocking. You simply cannot get a mortgage if your local salary is £14 and the average house price is at least £160K. Cheap to people outside but an impossible dream if you live there.

Yes it does cost a fortune - when DP worked in Devon he was paid his salary plus the employer paid for his accommodation and per diem expenses.

"It's nice cosy escapist telly".

Indeed. And for me even more so, as I also try to avoid watching ANY Italian tv since having moved back here, from the UK and its much better tv programs.

Porca, yes, I adore Nigella, I adore her nasal posh accent, her affectation, and whatever it is that she cooks (apart from meatza).

Yes, I have a thing for posh English tv entertainers, and I am a leftie

She said she paid 300k for it as she wanted to show that she was considering a price that would be in the reach of local families and so she wasn't out bidding them. Yeah ok

I love nigella

I love Kirsty.

She is my girl crush.

(along with Angela Merkel)

Beeny is such a know-all. She grinds on my nerves and makes me want to stab myself.

Love Kirsty

Gary Barlow is a Tory?!?!