Caitlin Moran in the Guardian today

[RoyalCorgi]

I promise I'm not trying to start another argument about Caitlin Moran. It's just that I want to record my annoyance and despair at her rewriting of history. Apparently in the 1980s there were no female role models for girls apart from Mrs Thatcher and Miss Piggy. And no one ever wrote about female masturbation until Caitlin wrote about it in her 2011 book. Plus more in that vein.

I remember back in the 80s reading Dale Spender's marvellous book "Women of ideas and what men have done to them" where she painstakingly writes in detail at the lives of amazing historical women - scientists, philosophers, writers, campaigners - and looks at how they were simply forgotten about and written out of history. Thanks in part to Spender's work, female historians went about the business of researching more forgotten women and writing their biographies.

Now it seems as if all the work of feminists in the 70s and 80s on, for example, female sexuality or in political campaigning has just been forgotten about. Feminists hadn't achieved anything of note until Caitlin Moran wrote How to be a Woman.

Once again, women's achievements are being written out of history.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/29/caitlin-moran-reread-how-to-be-a-woman-marvel-what-i-got-wrong

@DarkmilkAddict

I’m conflicted on whether I really want her to read this thread or I really don’t want her to!

You’re a nicer person than me. I want to lock myself in a room with CM and read it out to her until she cringes herself inside out.

What about Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgoise? Cindy Sherman and Valie Export, Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas? What about the Guerilla Girls and Kathleen Hanna? I could go on.

All the comics too from Bunty right through to Julie Doucet.
And what about 'bitch' Reberta Gregory's snarling middle aged character. She was meant to be funny but those comics dealt with some really heavy themes.

I cannot believe all this has passed CM by, and HTBAW was just conjured up in an absolute vacuum.

Nice one Kim 👍🏻

Go Kim!

@CivilCervix I loved that Emin retrospective!

[quote nobodysdaughter]@CivilCervix I loved that Emin retrospective![/quote]
Same, loved the fact that she dgaf too!

Kim there has to be on this thread.

Has someone posted the link to this thread on her twitter? Just saying...

@ChilliBeanSauce Does Caitlin Moran have rich grandparents and posh parents? Is that true?!

@Pelleas

Masturbation, pornography, pubic hair, abusive relationships, wonky tits, menstruation, eating disorders, abortion, the madness of expensive weddings, sexism in the workplace, the pressure to have children, binge-drinking, the pain of childbirth, the joy of life as a modern woman: when I wrote How To Be A Woman in 2011, these were pretty novel subjects

Caitlin seems to have got 2011 mixed up with 1952.

comment of the thread!!!

err what about Virago books? spent the eighties me and my mum must picking out the green spines from Edinburgh libraries.

I enjoyed How To Be A Woman. Yes, it's light and lib-femmy, but I didn't expect anything else from her, and I thought it was a fun read.

Now, however, she sounds totally deranged. Check out this article. Top quote"

One day, back in 2011, I was on the train going into central London, when a big group of 14-year-old girls ran up to me, like a gang of giggling meerkats, shouting, “Are you – are you CAITLIN MORAN? You wrote How To Be A Woman? Oh, my God! We learned about masturbation from that! Dude, it’s amazing! We’ve all started doing it now! We’ve formed a gang! At school! It’s called wank club! And we come in every morning and say how many times we did it last night – and then high five each other! In the playground! Shouting Wank Club! Can we shake your hand?”

Caitlin, Luv, that never happened, did it? You are not the Masturbation Messiah. Get a grip.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

I enjoyed How To Be A Woman. Yes, it's light and lib-femmy, but I didn't expect anything else from her, and I thought it was a fun read.

Now, however, she sounds totally deranged. Check out this article. Top quote"

One day, back in 2011, I was on the train going into central London, when a big group of 14-year-old girls ran up to me, like a gang of giggling meerkats, shouting, “Are you – are you CAITLIN MORAN? You wrote How To Be A Woman? Oh, my God! We learned about masturbation from that! Dude, it’s amazing! We’ve all started doing it now! We’ve formed a gang! At school! It’s called wank club! And we come in every morning and say how many times we did it last night – and then high five each other! In the playground! Shouting Wank Club! Can we shake your hand?”

Caitlin, Luv, that never happened, did it? You are not the Masturbation Messiah. Get a grip.

Today on Things That Didn't Happen:

'Caitlin, Luv, that never happened, did it?'

I dont think we were ever supposed to believe it happened. Total cringe though. Self satisfied nonsense

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

I enjoyed How To Be A Woman. Yes, it's light and lib-femmy, but I didn't expect anything else from her, and I thought it was a fun read.

Now, however, she sounds totally deranged. Check out this article. Top quote"

One day, back in 2011, I was on the train going into central London, when a big group of 14-year-old girls ran up to me, like a gang of giggling meerkats, shouting, “Are you – are you CAITLIN MORAN? You wrote How To Be A Woman? Oh, my God! We learned about masturbation from that! Dude, it’s amazing! We’ve all started doing it now! We’ve formed a gang! At school! It’s called wank club! And we come in every morning and say how many times we did it last night – and then high five each other! In the playground! Shouting Wank Club! Can we shake your hand?”

Caitlin, Luv, that never happened, did it? You are not the Masturbation Messiah. Get a grip.

Yes, that's the article we've all been discussing for the last few pages of this thread....

Once, I was on the bus, and a group of girls recognized me as the woman who chased off a marauding party of Vikings. They had set up a fan club in my honour and wore horned helmets as club badges. They all cried "Hail Shield Maiden!" when they saw me. Fair made me tear up about all the times I've doubted the impact of fighting off invaders.

Once I was on the train and a huge group of girls recognised me as the coolest, the sexiest, the wokiest.. and the wankiest of em all

Yes, that's the article we've all been discussing for the last few pages of this thread

Actually my link was to a completely different article. (I didn't read the one in the OP because I try not to give the Guardian income via clicks. )

Clearly CM has recycled the same made up anecdote, which is a very CM thing to do. She has trotted out the minutiae of her - by her own admission - intensely boring childhood so often that I sometimes feel like one of her eleventy billion siblings.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow

Yes, that's the article we've all been discussing for the last few pages of this thread

Actually my link was to a completely different article. (I didn't read the one in the OP because I try not to give the Guardian income via clicks. )

Clearly CM has recycled the same made up anecdote, which is a very CM thing to do. She has trotted out the minutiae of her - by her own admission - intensely boring childhood so often that I sometimes feel like one of her eleventy billion siblings.

I am reading both side-by-side and as far as I can see they are the same words, in the same order. I can't think of any way you could describe them as completely different. I am feeling quite low and tired at the moment so perhaps I'm missing something or not understanding.

or whatever is your thing Deacon hope you’re OK

They are the same article. One is just from a news aggregator.

to you Deacon

I am reading both side-by-side and as far as I can see they are the same words, in the same order. I can't think of any way you could describe them as completely different

Happy to accept your word for it. I'm not meaning to argue about it - as I say, I haven't read the Guardian article. I was just saying that I came across the same story somewhere else, which is common for CM as she recycles the same few anecdotes.

I bet the Masturbation Messiah story will be recycled iIt's a perfect example of the easy ride CM gets from her mates in the media. It's so obviously untrue, but it wasn't challenged.

Someone may have posted this already and I missed it? But anyway, worth another post! www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/31/dont-forget-so-many-brilliant-women?CMP=share_btn_tw

Oh thank you chatty and littlebear I'm fine, just had a day of things that should be simple becoming battles for no reason. I usually have a sense of humour about things but it had gone awol!

Actually my link was to a completely different article. (I didn't read the one in the OP because I try not to give the Guardian income via clicks. )

I hate to break it to you, but the article you linked to was not only the same article, as has already been pointed out, but it was from a news aggregator, who will have paid the Guardian for the right to publish it.