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Remember the Tim Dowling thread? Can we really not slag off celebrities on mn any more ?

92 replies

BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 09:59

Like the site used to allow.
I'd like a clarification on mn policy on this.

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Ironfistfunkymum · 31/08/2015 12:31

not being mean to her as she's a mother

Isn't that mumist?

Loads of people were going on about Rita's age, agist?

I was even called orientalist the other day Hmm

Squooshed · 31/08/2015 12:32

Jay Rayner must have been strutting around like a peacock!

I bet that comes up in arguments at home 'Fine! If you don't appreciate me well I know a few pervs who will'

KanyeWestPresidentForLife · 31/08/2015 12:48

It's the post Leveson world isn't it? Celebrities can use the media as much as they want to promote things and make cash. But beyond that they can behave as appallingly as they want to climb the slippery pole and treat 'civilians' as appallingly as they want and sexually exploit women and it mustn't be discussed as that's nasty.

OurBlanche · 31/08/2015 12:54

Not really, Kanye.

It's more a world in which the anonymity of forums such as this seems to give some people permission to post in an unusually vitriolic and unpleasant manner. As I said earlier, it reflect really badly on them as individuals and occasionally makes me doubt their humanity.

It is possible to decry the behaviour of celebrities without descending to such depths. After all, I am allowed to say that I disagree with your post but am not allowed to directly refer to you as a stupid cunt, or some other such epithet. It should be possible to apply similar restraint on all posts!

KanyeWestPresidentForLife · 31/08/2015 12:59

I disagree. It was well known that Marilyn slept her way to the top, this kind of discussion has been around for years. And it also stops people having the opportunity to kick 'little people' without the means for them to respond. Cilla Black wouldn't have been exposed as a nasty piece of work without the internet. I remember Jimmy Savile was exposed well before he died on Digital Spy.

I wonder if perhaps if the internet had been around when Diana was alive we would all have thought the same about her if all the stories about how she treated her staff had leaked out?

BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 13:01

'As though childbirth should have purged all bitchiness from one's being.'

and props to Squoosh for being generalyl funny

the Tim Dowling one ( i had never heard of him before) was Tim dowling, for example is a twat' or something

Spawned a whole meme of using, for example, in that way

that was when Mn was not so obsessed with misogony and being offensive

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ElkeDagMeisje · 31/08/2015 13:07

I didn't think there was anything that bad on RO thread but I'm afraid to say her name as I posted a couple of times, nothing that bad, on another media site about her, as did many people, saying that I didn't find her that watchable, found her image fake and found her a very unappealing manufactured product, and was banned.

The same thing happened as on the thread last night - several new posters joining the thread to say how wonderful and beautiful and young and talented she was, and that any criticism of her was anti-feminist. Very similar script.

I find that sort of monitoring of the media far more sinister than any fake allegations of anti-feminism by a pop industry product whose team are trying to make a lot of money out of by controlling her media image.

I see the above comments as far more to do with control of the pop industry and getting young, impressionable people to part with their money so that a select few can enjoy the proceeds, not nasty or anti-feminist, and as such very valid criticism of the industry as a whole. In terms of pr, I would say its not a very good approach if its producing such a lot of vitriol on a regular basis and the people behind it need to look at their product placement and whether the model is as valid in the UK as in the US. Although even in the US I've heard comments that the invitations to big name bashes are viewed with increasing scepticism.

Wolpertinger · 31/08/2015 13:07

Found the Sheherazade live chat that wasnt - why did I not know about Mumsnet in 2008? How could I have missed this? Grin

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/547085-live-chat-with-sheherazade-goldsmith-wednesday-june-18th-12pm/AllOnOnePage

OurBlanche · 31/08/2015 13:11

I appreciate that celeb gossip has been around forever... that isn't going to change. What has changed is the deliberately personal, cruel, vitriolic way in which it is done, by some.

The 'little people' have always had one very good form of reply to any gagging order - to simply shut up and NEVER talk about, watch or listen to any given individual again. Deprive them off oxygen, so to speak.

But no... so many seem to somehow suspend disbelief and discuss such people as though they are comic characters, somehow rendered unreal by dint of celebrity. This has the unintended affect of making some of those passing comment appear to be overinvested, sad and lonely, nasty 'little people'.

But if that floats your boat.... go to it!

BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 13:11

i think one can hate a woman without being anti women..

SURELY

Like hating a person from Israel without being anti semitic, or a cat without being cattist

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BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 13:15

I am on that Sheherezade thread but i forgot that was my user name till i laughed at my own post Blush

hits self over head

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ConfusedInBath · 31/08/2015 13:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ClearBlueWater · 31/08/2015 13:30

Kayne - how did St Diana treat her staff? Hmm

JanetBlyton · 31/08/2015 13:30

It is very hard for websites to be fair on these matters so those of us who write their terms and conditions usually allow discretionary removals which makes sense. You cannot spend your life deciding who is right and who is wrong. However it does mean if someone complains a lot they tend to get things censored and others who put up with things don't.

BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 13:31

mate of mine was her solicitor and loved her

WEirdo

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Ironfistfunkymum · 31/08/2015 13:33

several new posters joining the thread to say how wonderful and beautiful and young and talented she was, and that any criticism of her was anti-feminist. Very similar script.

That was very suspicious. Hours of no one liking her then in ten mins half a dozen new posters popped up that loved herHmm

OurBlanche · 31/08/2015 13:37

I may have been one of them. I think I posted to express how disappointed I was with the way some posters were expressing themselves.

And I am new because of the recent hacking fracas! Does that, possibly, explain some of that phenomenon?

oldfatandtired1 · 31/08/2015 13:37

Can anyone link to the Jay Rayner thread? I have a serious crush Blush

KanyeWestPresidentForLife · 31/08/2015 13:39

She bullied her staff. There are several eye witness accounts that she bullied several almost to the point of a nervous breakdown and forced several out of their jobs. Their is an account in the book her housekeeper wrote (before she died) of appalling treatment of her dresser, abusive language, screaming at her. Patrick Jephson wrote about behaviour bordering on stalking including anonymous phone calls and threatening texts. That's just the two I can think of off the top of my heads. But there are a lot of accounts. Freezing people out for no reason and making their lives hell.

BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 13:41

oh yep - def loon

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NoArmaniNoPunani · 31/08/2015 13:43

I really hope MN doesn't take Peter Andre away from us.

BrendaandEddie · 31/08/2015 13:44

you are probably offensive if you say he doenst love his kids

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Squooshed · 31/08/2015 13:44

I remember when Katie Holmes left Tom Cruise some threads appeared by first time posters declaring what a great guy Tom was and how Scientology wasn't a cult but a proper religion.

I'd read in Vanity Fair that his creepy peeps were trying to turn the internet tide on the whole 'Tom Cruise is weird and so is that wack job cult' thing.

They've probably even got the Good Housekeeping and Telly Addicts boards bugged!

ElkeDagMeisje · 31/08/2015 13:48

Their is an account in the book her housekeeper wrote (before she died) of appalling treatment of her dresser, abusive language, screaming at her

Was that the dresser who was jailed for murdering her finance though?

I have no doubt she was a disturbed woman who had behavioural problems. But I don't think she was evil. I can think of perfectly ordinary people who behave the same way.