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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Journalists using Mumsnet content... Melanie Phillips on tattoos

29 replies

Tatiana6 · 08/02/2022 10:08

So journalist Melanie Phillips has lifted the long Mumsnet discussion on tattoos and used it as the basis for her article in today's paper -

"Seeing tattoos makes me feel physically sick
Ubiquity of body art is born out of an existential crisis of humanity in the post-religious world..."
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/seeing-tattoos-makes-me-feel-physically-sick-6gxpjv85t

If you have a Times subscription you can read the whole article - I shall wait until I go to the newsagent later to pick up my copy.

Hello Melanie! Its good to know that we are providing inspiration and content for your columns.

OP posts:

araiwa · 08/02/2022 10:11

Seeing, hearing or reading Melanie Phillips makes me feel physically sick

RestingPandaFace · 08/02/2022 10:15

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ for breach of copyright. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

araiwa · 08/02/2022 10:18

I stick with my original assessment after reading her shite

SoupDragon · 08/02/2022 10:18

At lest she has actually done some research and written an article rather than just lift everything from MN.

pepperplot · 08/02/2022 10:23

Well I'll stick my neck out and say I agree with her.

thewhite · 08/02/2022 10:25

I see that David Baddiel has just tweeted that he will get a Melanie Phillips tattoo:

"Wondering about getting an "I love Melanie Phillips" one just to confuse her. ps just for clarity: I don't."

I used to read her 25 years ago or so in the Observer and thought then that she was a bit unhinged, having caught her subsequently on the Moral Maze and other media she seems to have doubled down and gone into a right wing paranoid state. How does she get up in the morning if the world is so bad?

5keletor · 08/02/2022 10:27

I'd never heard of her before, now I can safely say I'll swerve her "journalism". Very judgmental and OTT, doesn't sound like a particularly nice person.

vodkaredbullgirl · 08/02/2022 10:28

Who??

5keletor · 08/02/2022 10:29

Okay, just googled her and it seems like this sort of frothy vitriol is her bread and butter, not too surprising.

CoilWatershed · 08/02/2022 10:29

I didn't realise that vile racist homophobe was still spewing out hate that she tries to pass off as journalism.

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 08/02/2022 10:31

Tats don't make me physically sick - that's ridiculous, but agree they are vandalism so I don't have any.

Inextremis · 08/02/2022 10:38

Content aside, I don't see that using a Mumsnet thread as inspiration for an article is any worse practice than referencing a blogpost from two years ago, nor quoting an article in The Critic. What makes any of those sources better (or worse) than another, or should all journalism refrain from quoting relevant references? Why should Mumsnet be sacrosanct - it's not like she's lifted the entire thread and had no further input into her piece, is it?

Mumsnet is a public forum, it's in no way private, and users should be aware of this before posting.

Traumdeuter · 08/02/2022 10:41

@araiwa

Seeing, hearing or reading Melanie Phillips makes me feel physically sick

This

MrPenguinsPoppers · 08/02/2022 10:41

Journalist discovers people like different things shocker!!!

Whoda thunk it?

Zilla1 · 08/02/2022 10:43

Might be an idea for her to reconsidering getting a tatt herself then?

TrashyPanda · 08/02/2022 10:43

Tattoos were once confined to rough sorts such as navvies, convicts or soldiers

Pity she didn’t do any decent research.
King Edward VII had one.
King George V had a tattoo.
So did Frederick IX of Denmark
And Tsar Nicholas.

In his 1898 report on the state of tattooing, R.J. Stephen stated: “When royalty hangs onto a craze, you may be assured that the rest of the exclusive world of wealth and power soon follow in the same path.”

DrManhattan · 08/02/2022 10:46

Yay another discussion about tats.
If she's using all our thoughts and opinions can we get a cut of what she's been paid ?

CounsellorTroi · 08/02/2022 10:51

King Edward VII had one.
King George V had a tattoo.
So did Frederick IX of Denmark
And Tsar Nicholas.

They all served in the military though which brings them into the categories mentioned by MP.

longwayoff · 08/02/2022 10:51

You'd have to pay me to read something written by Melanie Phillips, she is unpleasant and so are her views. I've had the misfortune to encounter these views occasionally and it's never good. So although I'm not personally a fan of tattoos, if she's expounding against them, there must be something good about them.

PAFMO · 08/02/2022 10:55

Journalists have lifted stories from here for years.
There was even a collaboration between MN and the Mail.
Don't want to see it in the press? Don't put it on a public forum

TrashyPanda · 08/02/2022 11:27

@CounsellorTroi

King Edward VII had one. King George V had a tattoo. So did Frederick IX of Denmark And Tsar Nicholas.

They all served in the military though which brings them into the categories mentioned by MP.

She said ”rough sorts such as navvies, convicts or soldiers”

Which is prejudicial in itself, as in criminality is the preserve of the working class. But Kings aren’t generally though of as “rough sorts”.

Edward VII had a largely ceremonial role in the army. Spent a while training, but was never posted anywhere, never saw any active service.

George V trained in The Navy. He also had a largely ceremonial role in the Army, and visited troops in France during WWI. He did not see active service.

Tsar Nicholas was nominally an army officer as Tsarevitch, but again, this was largely ceremonial and he had little knowledge of tactics, manoeuvres etc which is why he was such a disaster when he took command of the Russian force.

Frederick IX was another naval man

yellowc4 · 09/02/2022 13:55

Its all getting very meta - another journalist who works for the New Statesman has referenced the Melanie Phillips article and the mumsnet discussion - www.newstatesman.com/comment/2022/02/tattoos-have-more-meaning-than-their-critics-dare-imagine

SpilltheTea · 09/02/2022 14:03

How boring, banging on about tattoos as if people haven't been doing body art since the beginning of existence. You'd have to pay me to read judgemental tripe by a lazy writer.

MistressoftheDarkSide · 09/02/2022 14:40

Followed this thing with half arsed interest as I try to organise my DOs funeral- have mentioned him before here - a body piercer of 30 years standing with many tattoos and a profound knowledge and interest and respect for the anthropological origins of body modification in all its forms.

Never mind the fact that it's nobody elses business how they adorn themselves in this day and age, it should be noted that in these "woke" times, the dismissal and ignorance of ancient and significant cultural practises is an astonishing display of hypocrisy.

Sone people really do seem to be disappearing up their own ill-informed arses......

incognitoforthisone · 09/02/2022 14:41

Anything that makes Melanie Phillips physically unwell is good, as far as I'm concerned. Might get a full sleeve done now.

Right-wing columnists are such bloody hypocrites. One minute they're espousing freedom of expression and mocking people for wanting 'safe spaces' and the next minute they're being triggered by someone else's style choices. Remind me who the snowflakes are, again?

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