Depressed about Caitlin Moran

[shinynewusername]

I loved How to be a Woman but all her work since seems to have recycled the same ideas and it sounds as if her "new" book will be more of the same.

AIBU to feel she is ripping her public off?

Just because there is such a thing as Twitter trolling and bitchiness and unreasonable attacks on women that arise out of misogyny, does not mean we shouldn't be allowed to discuss a public figure and say what we do and don't like about what they've got to offer - even if they are female.

I will allow Kathy Lette into the private venue.

She wrote this. I liked it enough to bookmark it defineordinary.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/something-very-important/

And I'll always appreciate the chapter about abortion in HTBAW. It was not only very brave, it told women 'you don't need to have a good enough reason to get an abortion. If you don't want a kid right now, that's more than good enough' and that isn't something that's said anywhere near enough. I see that from all the 'I'm pregnant by an abusive dickhead and I have no money, but I'll never forgive myself if I don't have it' threads on here. We need a lot more of that.

*ugh sorry, that second paragraph wasn't put together very well. I wish we could edit!

I have always found her very irritating and so avoid reading anything that she writes.

I read four pages of How to Be a Woman and gave up. I'm fed up of hearing about her impoverished childhood in the Midlands. Yawn!!!

Actually, as a side issue I think there's a lot of the phenomenon of publishing "this is my story / my schtick" and letting it stand in place of a political or coherent argument or expose. Especially in mainstream news features and magazines.

Things like the Guardian "family" section do my head in because it's all "how I coped when my mum had Alzheimer's" and "I read my dads old letters and found he was gay" whereas a family supplement would be a great place to get proper feminist writers to discuss things like wifework, stepfamily issues, teen mental health, domestic abuse and many other massive issues facing families. But even though that could be done really well, it's not seen as fit for readers who must only want personal-sounding fluff and can't handle anything that might scare the horses. Moran fits perfectly into that market.

Noeuf

The Guardian weekend family supplement is excutiating. Basically it is "here's me telling you in mind numbing detail about this perfectly ordinary thing which happened to me"

I loved 'How to Build A Girl' I think she's very funny and could relate to a lot of it. I was rather disappointed when I read 'How to Be a Woman' and realised it was pretty much the same! But on the whole, I like her.

The bit about the abortion upset me actually, and I am very pro-choice. It was like she brought her "jolly wacko funster" attitude to bear on the embryo on the screen, and it felt inappropriate. I suppose it's the same thing as people have said, it was just her experience, and she felt fine about it, which I admire her for saying, but it doesn't mean everyone can just have her attitude. I agree it's an important message that it's ok to decide you don't want a baby. However many women don't feel completely unmoved by it at all. It can be a really difficult decision with lasting effects and I felt her account seemed to be saying "it's not a problem, so hey be cool about it." It's not that simple.

I read How To Be A Woman when baby DD was very ill and I had to sit by her bedside, and it did make me laugh and distract me. But I was surprised when it was hailed as feminism. She doesn't address feminism in a coherent or political way at all

YES, Madam! This was exactly my problem. I was expecting feminism and got highly embellished stylised autobiography instead.

And yes, we all know you were a child prodigy and had a newspaper column in your teens and then was a fabulous music journalist all before you were 20

And I had to unfollow CM and Lauren Laverne on Twitter because they just talked to each other all day long and cluttered up my feed. Like it wouldn't be right to take it to email, they need to make their witty repartee public to prove how wonderful they are. Used to like Lauren as well...

She was very funny here on mumsnet years ago and helped set the sweary, funny tone we all benefit from if you don't like it fuck off to netmums

The Guardian Family section column by Stuart Heritage gives me the rage: "Man has baby, giving rise to a series of banal observations that every other parent in history has had before him".

The Guardian seems to be down to about 5 writers, all of whose opinions are totally predictable. I have given up buying it. I know newspapers are strapped for cash, but surely they could use some freelancers for variety?

Me too MadamF. Especially tasteless when she claimed her aborted fetus might have lived to have been her cool gay son (IIRC).

I like her. I've always enjoyed her Times column and I thought How to be a Woman was enjoyable, I like her style of writing. Clearly she's not for everyone

I do remember reading an 'explanation' for the crazy face pulling. Paraphrasing wildly here but it was something like she refused to take a 'straight' photo and have people hold her up for comparison and objectification and dissect her appearance. The gurning was an attempt to subvert that as that is then all people will comment on. Or something like that. It made some sense when I read it.

Oh god
It just struck me that this is the second thread about her on mumsnet in a few months.

I thought how to be a woman was a pile of regurgitated shit

she's a smug knob

It is bitchy. But y'know I'm probably not a as good a feminist as you lot.

Man has baby, giving rise to a series of banal observations that every other parent in history has had before him

Off topic, but Dawn O' Porter is the same. As though she is the first person in the history of the world to be pregnant and give birth.

I also remember her saying something about not going on radio 4 comedy panel shows because they weren't fair to women and the male comedians were aggressive etc.

Well she might have a point except that I've heard sandi toksvig, Susan calman etc own those shows plenty of times. I was a bit

The Guardian's awful now for columnists. I only read for Jay Rayner and the Felicity Cloake 'Perfect' columns now.

Grace Dent was great when she wrote for the Guardian, I loved World of Lather.

It is bitchy. But y'know I'm probably not a as good a feminist as you lot.

Well that was really bitchy! :o

Yes there have been some bitchy comments, also a vast majority of reasonable discussion.

Stewart Lee is still very good in The Guardian

I like Victoria Coren- can we take her out of the room? You can have Marina Hyde instead.

I liked 'How to be a Woman'. I thought the section on abortion was important but agree with a PP that it's tone felt a bit odd. I felt quite unsettled when I'd finished that chapter. It felt overly flippant with an undercurrent of something darker that she wasn't quite willing to acknowledge or explore.

As a point of principle I still like Caitlin Moran because I think it is important for different types of women to have a platform in the media but I do wish her editor and agent would push her. She has plateaued.

I always get Caitlin Moran and Katie Puckrik mixed up.

she's a smug knob

And he's a smug knob has never in the whole history of MN been said about say Jeremy Clarkson, Owen Jones, David Cameron, Boris Johnstone with no one complaining?

Why is it "bitchy" to say it about her but fair comment about them ?