AIBU to find the comedian Katherine Ryan's turn to the right surprising?

[exceptmeandmymonkey]

I was raised by a single mum and really liked Katherine Ryan's early standup that mostly focused on being a single mum in crap relationships. Several years ago she hooked up with her childhood sweetheart and had several kids with him, and since then her persona has taken quite a turn.

She defended the manosphere participants in Louis Theroux's recent docs, said that she liked Jordan Peterson, and today on social has featured her partner talking about how the moon landing is a conspiracy. Partner is 'not academic' I'll say politely, and MAGA-adjacent. He doesn't work and is a full time dad yet Katherine does the vast majority of childcare (and all of the earning) whilst he golfs. Clearly she got a lot of negative feedback from her (100% women and gay men) audience on her manosphere comments, because she backtracked a bit.

The situation seems like something she would have laughed at years ago, and it's been strange to see her comedy twist to support this, claiming she's always had provocative views.

I don't see any celebs as heroes so this isn't a 'my hero isn't who I expected' just more of a wow, didn't see this twist coming.

Yes, there is quite a big difference here. There are lots of ways to be right of centre that MAGA are anathema to.

Holding right wing views is no more having a mind of one's own and not conforming than holding left wing views. In fact right wing views are populist, so I'm always puzzled when people try to give them a veneer of maverikism.
Have you not noticed the support for Reform?
For every person disappointed in KR for following the herd to the right, I'm sure there will be others who have newly noticed her with approval now she's saying the things they agree with. I'm sure she knows this.
Regardless, the OP started her thread to discuss one particular woman who has freely aired her views in the public domain, yet you seem to want to silence women discussing the work and opinions of that woman, and get us to talk about men instead? So when a woman speaks, you think its best we ignore her and turn our attention to the men in her field?

Completely agree with this. Her last couple of Instagram posts are literally her husband talking about his moon landing denial. This isn’t obscure stuff I’ve gone digging for.

And it’s not about “she votes X and I vote Y, burn the witch.” It’s about noticing a pretty stark shift in a public figure who shares intimate details of her home life on monetised platforms.

She’s said she and her husband argued early in their relationship because he believed Hillary Clinton was involved in Pizzagate, and that she’s since come round to realising he was awake to the truth (pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that alleges that Hillary Clinton herself literally sex trafficked babies and children via the basement of a pizza restaurant). Add in the moon landing stuff, and these views all line up very neatly with her relationship timeline and what her husband publicly says on her channels.

I don't give a shit about who she votes for. The disconnect between her public opinions five years ago and now is remarkable. It would be just as notable if a public figure platformed a partner with Holocaust denial or race pseudoscience views. It’s not about “picking on her." It’s about commenting on what she’s chosen to publicly promote.

And? I am disagreable and I am childless. This is not breaking news.

No, knowing what Evolutionary Psychology says about one thing DOES NOT MEAN I agree with that premise.

Is these what the problem is now? Having any knowledge of something automatically means the person having that knowledge 100% must agree with it?

I mean more fool you really for spending so much time listening to so much guff.

Maybe clean your room?

Some women in the public eye aren't necessarily that progressive, but they'll ride that bandwagon if it makes them popular and helps their career. Given her current views, I wonder if she might have said/done "feminist" stuff in the past to help her gain attention and notoriety, not necessarily because she believed it.

I guess this sounds a bit misogynistic in itself. But sometimes I just get a vibe that what you hear someone say isn't necessarily genuine, they're just saying it to sound/look good. I don't notice it that much (I do believe that most women do believe in equality and feminism, if they say they are feminist). So yeah, that's my theory. Maybe she's just full of shit.

He tells women that their biology makes them innately unsuited to contributing and succeeding at the highest levels of society. And that they need to overcome their biology to learn and ape the superior behaviours of men.
He has helped women negotiate pay rises by advising them to present with the same level of assertiveness and display of confidence that men do. An extremely basic and obvious piece of advice, around which he wraps a big woolly blanket of guff to support his unproven and harmful nonsense about pink (inferior) brains and blue (superior) ones.
I don't believe he has ever said he wants women to be in the home. However he has said our biology means this is the most suitable place for us. Which in my opinion is worse as he's disguising his sexist believes as a scientific fact.

Who gives a shit? She’s hardly influencing people.

I think she can do/say what she wants to. If she isn't hurting anyone. If that's what people don't want, they won't pay to see her. She can be left wing, right wing, whatever....Live and let live...

Yeah she's a dickhead. When Trump said, 'Quiet piggy' to a female journalist, KR said, 'Well to be fair to him we don't know how fat she is'.

Yes yes, everything is material and we must know how to take a joke bla bla etc etc.

For me that was a horrifying moment in history (along with all of the others). She's quick and intelligent and could have said a hundred other things but no, it had to be that. At one time it would have surprised me but not now.

It smacks of performing to the misogynist men in her professional circles. Look at me Jimmy Carr I'm a good girl I won't support other women or care about the situation of women in fact I will actively do them harm please like me.

That and the wilfully brainless way she talks about her time at Hooters and how her manager would let her leave early if she sucked him off but that was fine and in no way exploitative or abusive.

It's an extremely transparent performance.

I picked up on the Jimmy Carr thing too. Someone said she kept her ‘integrity’ over Russell Brand, but she doesn’t stand up to Jimmy over his rape jokes.

She’s playing the cool gf to the gallery.

'Someone said she kept her ‘integrity’ over Russell Brand.'

She kept her money. She said why should she end being 'unable to feed my children'. I found that a bit distasteful as at worst she may have found herself slightly less rich.

She rinsed him a bit on the telly but did fuck all really.

I was a fan for years, I saw her live , just when things were starting to turn, I loved the show but there were a few bits that didn’t sit right with me, didn’t feel as feminist as I’d thought she was and her tweakments were ott to me.
now she’s like a completely different person altogether.
im no longer a fan.

I made this point earlier - do as I say not do as I do.

I don't really think anyone who has read her book would be surprised at her views. She's from a very conservative part of Canada, worked at Hooters, etc.

Nah that’s not true. See the recent vote where the Greens one and the Right was claiming it was a fix and there was cheating.

Same when Londoners voted Sadique Khan again.

But neither of those are examples of well known people being criticised for their perceived voting intention.

Also, as someone from an area with a very large Muslim population 'family voting' as its euphemistically called has been an issue for decades. I can remember the Guardian writing about it in the 90s back when they did good investigative journalism cared about women's rights.

The 'right' didn't claim it was a fix, official independent election observers in Gorton and Denton reported numerous instances of family voting but nothing was done about it because there was no cctv to identify alleged offenders and so on.

It was investigated and no evidence was found, despite questioning officials at all the polling stations in question. Reform absolutely asserted it was a fix because they couldn’t accept losing fair and square.

That bloke was her high school sweetheart…who suddenly became re-interested when she got famous.

I’m not saying the two things are connected, but if I was her, I’d wonder.

Having known Catherine when she was establishing herself in her comedy career in the UK, I’m not surprised in the slightest. Back then it was certainly all about Catherine and as her career blossomed it was quite apparent that behind her strong woman message and ascerbic wit, she hadn’t changed.
Don’t ever be surprised to find that favourite TV personality’s persona is all for show - it is quite literally Show Business for many!

Katherine Ryan is an unfunny prick.

I don't care if Kate Bush liked Theresa May and voted Tory, she's a genius who has influenced my life. I am a dyed in the wool Socialist who has Tory friends, though

If she started coming out with insane conspiracy theories around spaceflight (based on her husband's views) I'd think less of her, but she hasn't.

I'm a huge Smiths fan. I love their work. But I loathe the very bones of Morrisey these days, and i do care. Thank goodness for the ever lovely Johnny Marr.