Kathleen Stock article about Jack Monroe

[AnonWeeMouse]

Kathleen Stock writes:

unherd.com/2023/01/jack-monroe-the-acceptable-face-of-poverty/

Monroe responds by blaming these critical points on Kathleen Stocks GC views.

I don't think that's fair. I think Monroe is using that as an excuse to try and avoid criticism.

Her publisher has had to release a statement about the dangerous tips in Monroe's New Book and Trussel Trust are refusing to hand it out over safety fears.

I don't think it's right or fair for Monroe to try and hide behind being Non binary or trans etc. She hasn't claimed those identities for ages has she?

Great article 😂

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/celebrity-cook-jack-monroe-gets-fried-after-recipe-book-is-branded-a-danger-mn2jdk5mb

Much talk though there is about JM , the main target of the KS article are the consumers of ‘poverty lite’ who are not actually poor. The genre. The fêting of writers and principles whose practicalities they will never actually deploy.

Perhaps JM was actually compiling this book as a parody to see how far she / they could take it! (No, I know not really…)

But JM was quick to lash out at KS for saying things that KS didn’t say. E.g that JM thought poverty ‘acceptable’. The mc adopting JM as ‘the acceptable face of poverty’ is entirely different, and a serious issue for the way society views poverty. Especially those with power and influence who are not experiencing poverty.

Exactly. This is the gist of the article in a nutshell.

And this is a right hatchet job but very subtly done. I expect it will go right over her head

www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/07/jack-monroe-interview

Wow! This is not in any way flattering...

But also, the whole thing is a bit Common People from Pulp isn't it? So, even at the lowest poverty point she experienced, the minute her parents found out they turned up with massive bags of shopping and sorted her out?

I've paid v little attention before but that article just discusses someone who is clearly v unwell and needs a lot of help, not endless exposure and relentless social media engagement.

That Guardian article

“One of the reasons I’m being so frank about the depths I plumbed is not to use it as an excuse but to go, that was then.

I can't bring myself to believe that.
The whole article is literally her saying "I'm so disorganised! I was a mess! I would've killed myself if anyone had asked me to deliver on any of my promises! " (from the Graun article, not the KS one).

I can't fathom how a house could cost £3300 a month before energy bills? The mortgage must be eyewatering?!

Also whose idea was the photoshoot of her bathing in pennies? Tone deaf.

What did the glass bottle originally contain in this utterly-strapped-for-cash home? Wine? Elderflower cordial?

The idea that breaking down where it all goes will justify it too.

I met a mum when on mat leave who I invited to my (perfectly comfortable) ex LA house for a cup of tea after a group. She spent the whole time going on about how lucky I was to clearly have a small mortgage and bills. As their house was so much bigger and in a much more desirable area. ..we didn't become friends.

I kind of think that's the point ..l

That Guardian article is eye opening. I hope Monroe's patreon supporters see it and they feel completely enraged that their money has been wasted on expensive furniture and drink etc. I would, I'd be demanding every penny back.
The tramadol line is a new one I've never heard, 40 a day though, pretty sure your body would not cope with that amount, but I'm not a Dr or chemist.

There is so much of this stuff.

Bathing in pennies, "tips" about egg rings, ghost writing an autobiography in which your wife laughs at another woman's "baby brain", shots of you moaning about your lot in life against a backdrop of a mansion...

...anyone else sometimes wonder if parts of the media, publishing and documentary business is secretly rebelling against these people, covered by a plausible deniability?

Also, then endless obsession with avoiding her child having any involvement with social services when we know that living with a parent who is alcohol and prescription drug dependent, has financial issues etc cannot not impact the child....everything she talks about makes me think the child SHOULD have been much better supported. How can you parent if you're intoxicated, drugged and sleeping the day away?

Ia she the Owen Jones of Sarfend?
A breath of fresh air that went a bit stale. But I wish her well with the alcohol problem , sincerely.

Freezing glass bottles filled with liquid rarely ends well. I've lost a fair few bottles of white wine that way. Wanting to cool it down fast, forgetting about it and ending up with a freezer drawer harp shards of glass and frozen wine. Really stupid thing to suggest.

Open-mouthed at the Guardian article. Because it was the Guardian (who have given her work over the years) and Simon Hattenstone (who signed the anti-Suzanne Moore letter) I'd assumed it would be a fawning piece of hagiography, and would put a lot of weight on how mean the nasty old right-wing media had been to her.

But nope. She's pretty much hoist herself by her own petard. No one who has been donating her money to her Patreon for the past few years is going to be thrilled that their money has been going on bottles of whisky and expensive furniture. Her message is basically "I wasn't lying about being skint - the reason I had no money was because I spent it all in an alcoholic haze." Perhaps she thinks that people will be more sympathetic to an alcoholic than a liar. I'm not convinced.

Interestingly, it gives credence to Stock's argument that she is simply chaotic rather than a manipulative fraudster. Turns out Stock is a good psychologist as well as a brilliant writer.

I read her on Twitter the other day saying she went halfs on those sideboards with her partner at the time.

In the Guardian article, she admits buying FOUR when drunk.

Just staggering.

I don't really understand - did she think that wouldn't make it into the article, or does she think people who use Twitter don't read the Guardian?

I've done some rolling without a rolling pin. Good thing I didn't read JM! Didn't have a wine bottle anyway. I just used the tallest glass I had.
Wasn't great but did the job just needed to press harder. If she had a good bottle why go faffing about with the ice. Will make it difficult to handle and give it a shelf life apart from the risk of cracking in the freezer.

[Sorry , missed the point completely]]

I think, all in all, there's a difference between being poor and being shit with money.

I wish I had enough money to be shit with, I don't, if I pissed £300 away in a sideboard, we couldn't eat for a month or more.

Jack's never been poor, ever, I'm convinced of it shit with money, perhaps, but even then, she's not so shit that she can't regularly take the Patreons money or the Teemill money, or the furlough money, or the PayPal money, or the appearance fee money etc etc

I wish I could afford to be as poor as Jack Monroe.

I don't really understand - did she think that wouldn't make it into the article, or does she think people who use Twitter don't read the Guardian?

Possibly she doesn't remember her lies? It's difficult to say. Having read the article, I am now less inclined to believe that she is a cold, calculating liar, and more inclined to believe that she says what comes into her head at the time. The interview begins with her not answering the door to the photographer at the agreed time, and everyone running around desperately trying to work out where she is. That is absolutely guaranteed to piss everyone off, including the journalist, and get the interview off on the wrong foot. If she'd been more calculating, she would have made sure she was punctual.

You can keep glass bottles in the freezer, that’s standard practice with the vodka in our house 😉🤣.

Anyway, bottom line of reading that Guardian article is that I still have no idea whatsoever about what is real or not in Munroe’s life, other than someone who really isn’t well in the holistic sense of the word.