Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that being a working woman doesn't make Miriam Gonzales Durantez a ballbreaking harridan?

27 replies

PollyParanoia · 05/05/2010 13:03

Cf Daily Mail article here
I know I shouldn't react (or better still avoid daily mail online in the first place) and I know that Jan Moir is their provocator in residence (cf Steven Gately article). But the way she insists that Miriam GD is some sort of extremist freak for retaining some sort of dignity and a career makes me want to go out and cast my vote for Nick Clegg, even though what their wives do or don't do is an utter irrelevance.

Obv not going to make any sort of comment on that pic of Dave and Sam...

OP posts:
Lucianne3 · 05/05/2010 13:06

YANBU

But don't read the DM if you don't want to see cheap sensationalist smearing....that's what it's there for...

Original poster
PollyParanoia · 05/05/2010 13:22

You are wise Lucianne - it's like a terrible compulsion that I have.

OP posts:
stickylittlefingers · 05/05/2010 13:24

YABU to look at it, to then make me look at it (love pod? Eeeeeuw). YABU to think about it. They are dreadful people at the DM. Keep well away!

Lucianne3 · 05/05/2010 15:50

I know it well Polly...I have it too..

My OH frequently catches me on it and says 'oh dear, is it that pop-up virus again?'

The thing is, I HATE the DM and its judgemental, petty, reactionary tory agenda.... but I just can't stay away!

AbsOfCroissant · 05/05/2010 15:55

YABU
You should know that ALL women fall into the following categories (per DM)

  • Wonderful, salt of the earth, keeping the country together housewives (otherwise known as, SAHMS)
  • Tarts (woman under 60 wearing shortish skirt)
  • Ball-breaking harridan (married woman with job, regardless of job or reason for job. Could probably be a nursery nurse and still be considered ball-breaking harridan)
Ball breaking harridan does not include, of course, clever woman who set up own cup-cake/bunting/dress making business (as she knows her place)
minipie · 05/05/2010 16:13

ROFL Abs

schroeder · 05/05/2010 16:17

Oh ffs they just can't win can they?
And do you know why? like croissant says it's 'cause they are women

Itsjustafleshwound · 05/05/2010 16:17

The fact that NC didn't make his wife the centre of his campaign makes me like him more...

The pictures of GB and wifer on the GMTV sofa are also worth a retch mention

AbsOfCroissant · 05/05/2010 16:20

I have to say, I do kind of love the Femail section of the DM. I get to head off into a righteous tizz every day month because of it, especially when some sleb dares to wear an expensive designer dress, so they get some poor size 14 woman with cellulite into Herve Leger and then say "yes, she should have worn this lovely frock from M&S instead. SEE"

Original poster
PollyParanoia · 05/05/2010 18:50

Oh god, you see Abs, it is indeed addictive. I get particularly worked up by the baby weight obsession and the way that pregnant celebs are always described as having "enormous bumps", "ready to pop" especially when they are "flaunting" said bump on the beach in anything more revealing than a marquee.
I think DM online is probably evil genius idea as it gets non-Dm readers addicted and before you know it you'll be sneaking a peak at the hard stuff/copy in your local cafe.

OP posts:
foureleven · 05/05/2010 18:58

Dont click on link.... dont click on link...

doh, clicked on link.

what a twat.

porcamiseria · 05/05/2010 18:59

I hate hate HATE JM, but did not see anything against Miriam here?????

Lucianne3 · 05/05/2010 19:02

I realised I had a problem when I visited my mum (a commited and lifelong DM reader), and made a beeline for the DM as usual (it's a long drive to her house and I needed to unwind! ). She said "Darling, you always have a lot of bad things to say about the DM, yet you and (OH) are glued to it the whole time you're here. You never seem that interested in your 'Guardian' (spat in the tones I reserve for the DM)".

It was soon after this that my pc developed the 'pop-up virus'....

Lucianne3 · 05/05/2010 19:03

btw.. at AbsOfCroissant.

noeyedear · 05/05/2010 19:07

It was implied- 'Miriam loves nick and her job/ ironing Miriams tights that she is a ball breaking harridan( yes, I clicked on the vile rag too and now not only do I hate myself for clicking on that website twice today, but also because I am a working mother/woman with an opinion/woman) They only seem to emoloy female columnists who are willing to slag off other women, as if if they have working women indulging in self hate, it somehow makes it more valid!

LittleSilver · 05/05/2010 19:20

I am voting for NC largely because he didn't wheel his wife out to gurn at the public. Unlike GB and DC.

BeenBeta · 05/05/2010 19:26

Why are we talking about wives again?

Tomorrow one of their DHs will be our new PM. Europe is in flames as we speak. Financial markets are in chaos. The UK is on the verge of slipping back into recession/depression.

Rather more important issues to talk about I think.

scottishmummy · 05/05/2010 19:29

so dont read dm its well known chuff.i hate the political wags.so patrinising .lookay at my arm candy wee wifey,just something for you laydees

i have never got this false division that some aspects of politics are wummins issues eg health,education

dont vote becauses on gender
dont want to see the wifeies trotted about like passive supporters

admire that miriam gonzales durantez remains her own person.not subsumed into political wifey role

Snobear4000 · 05/05/2010 19:35

It really is unhealthy to read the hate papers. I can't help look at their covers as I leave the supermarket, all of them, the Sun, the NOTW, the Mail, all yelling at us telling us we need to be outraged as Labour once again is forcing motorists to marry foreign gays. (sorry, I stole that last bit from another poster)

I understand the appeal, the need to read the enemy's literature, but really, it's bad for you, it eats you up inside.

MIL banned the Mail from her home a couple of years back and the change in FIL was absolutely amazing. He stopped talking about immigrants and youth crime and instead concentrated on gardening, his grandson and his love of music, sport and fast cars. A transformation.

An American friend remarked upon returning from a trip to meet the inlaws, "They live in a middle class village that's all white, yet they are always moaning all day about these blacks and illegal immigrants who are taking over the estates and schools and so forth, yet I saw no such public housing or asbo youths within miles of their house, which had spectacular ocean views".

"They read the Daily Mail, then?" I enquired.

"How did you know that?", my friend answered.

snickersnack · 05/05/2010 19:37

Actually, BeenBeta, I think the agenda of the DM is important. Because in a very clever way they have managed to snare a large female readership through froth and celebrity stories and then go on to drip poison into their minds through garbage like this.

My SIL is a sweet but naive woman whose world view is largely determined by people like JM. Which means she has a very distorted view of what the world is really like. I am trying to work on her by exposing her to other writers with a less pronounced anti female bias. Actually that article was quite mild by JM's standard.

And Amanda Platell is as bad.

Lucianne3 · 05/05/2010 20:00

Further to my posts earlier, please oh please watch this...

I haven't stopped laughing since, and so pertinent to this thread!

BeenBeta · 05/05/2010 20:07

snickerssnack - you make a fair point. I do see that whole anti female bias with some female columnists. What is wrong with them? My uncharitable conclusion is they are just jealous of successful women who are better paid and more successful than they are.

Not pointing that comment at anyone in particular or even the majority of women jornos - just a general observation.

porcamiseria · 05/05/2010 20:17

I am voting for NC largely because he didn't wheel his wife out to gurn at the public. Unlike GB and DC.

Now I dont want to pick on you..... BUT that is a pathetic reason for voting!!!! I am\ assuming thats a joke!!!

snickersnack · 05/05/2010 21:25

Why thank you, BeenBeta. I hate the thought that my beautiful, fiesty, can-do anything dd is going to grow up in a world where the majority view is shaped by people like JM.

Interestingly, apparently the Mail is the only newspaper with a female readership of over 50%. It was the first paper to have a women's page. And yet it hates women. Which suggests that perhaps turkeys do vote for Christmas...

Why does it have such a strong anti-female bias? I suspect it is probably reflecting the prejudices of its (female) readers, to some extent - it's hard to work out whether they influence the tone, or whether they think like that because they read it in the Mail, but I do think women tend to be more critical of other women's life choices than men, possibly because our choices are so loaded - whether to work, stay at home, etc etc. Much more simple for men - get a job, earn money, come home, relax...

It's bloody awful. It despises me for going out to work. Yet it is equally vitriolic about women who stay home with their children and live on benefits Nice one, Amanda. So, I clearly have to marry a nice man and hope he will keep me in the style I would like to be accustomed to.

OrmRenewed · 05/05/2010 21:27

Step away from the DM. Just shove it in the recycling and step away. And NEVER ever read it again. Do I make myself clear?