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?

How about “can’t afford knickers? Cut two holes in the end of a pillow case and tie it around your waste with shoelaces”

Or, if you can't afford pillowcases, if you're knickers are anything like mine, you could use them as pillowcases!

FFS! Your!

😂

If it was completely safe and fine, why bother inventing tin openers?

Who said it was safe and fine? I said it was once 'standard practice' - at a time when painting arsenic on your face to get rid of freckles and giving babies a mix of cannabis, alcohol and opium if they had a cough were also standard practice.

I've often opened tins with a knife. Most can openers are crap and wear out super fast. Or just explode into their constituent parts.

Perhaps JM can design one that works? Nail clippers too while she's on it !

Yes. All tin-openers are shit aren’t they? I think I have three broken, temperamental ones in the drawer at the moment that I don’t get around to replacing because of ring pulls. You always have to have a knack with the bloody things.

I think the composition of tins pre tin openers is different to composition of tins now so opening with a knife/mallet and don't forget a "steady hand" is poor advice. Plus the tips were 'thrifty' tips not 'what to do in an emergency'. - JM created a scenario whereby there was not a single other piece of food in the house, child was asleep and therefore you couldn't pop next door and borrow a tin opener so the only recourse was mallet/knife... how is that a thrifty tip?

On her recipes -on another website, posters have been following her recipes and sharing results. Most don't work and almost all of them are nutritionally sub optimal/tiny portion sizes - again, not good advice if aimed at those on restricted budgets

The first tins were made of wrought iron with a tin lining. To open them, the instructions were for a Hammer and a chisel as wrought iron is fairly soft.

They switched to rolled steel cans some time after ward and as steel is different to iron, they invented a piercing style can opener to open the steel lids.

My dad had a can opener from the early 20s, it had a small knife like blade and a guard. Stab the tin, use the guard as a pivot point, work it around the can.

My feeling is that she has invented the hacks, but hasn't actually tried most of them herself. A little trip into her imagination, like she's improvising or riffing with a tin or a bottle as the jump-off point.

This tin "hack"...wouldn't it also blunt your knives? I dread to think of the "tip" for sharpening them. Source a whetstone from your local charity shop?

Yes, she in fact said to use one you don't care about.

Which isn't at all thrifty, is it? For one tin of food, ruin a knife. In what circumstance does that make sense?

“small sharp knife that you are not particularly attached to, a hammer or mallet, a bit of vigour, some patience and a VERY steady hand”

Her comments about the Patreon account and what she spent the money on are really quite staggering. Perhaps I've misunderstood but it seems to me that she has a) admitted frittering the money on unnecessary and expensive furniture and b) doesn't appreciate the gravity of what she has just admitted.

Incidentally I've always found the cheapy tin openers to be the best! The chunky ones with a plastic handle are crap. This has also revived a memory of being taught how to open a tin with one of those pointy ended bottle openers in Brownies, ca 1985...

Tbh she comes across as a total fantasist who is so used to making stuff up and saying the first thing that comes into her head and sounds good, that she barely knows what is true and what isn't any more.

Ah yes, "use one you don't care about". I remember that now. Because if you're living hand to mouth, you can happily break things you own. Makes sense!

She's claiming that she didn't spend the Patreon money on the furniture, alcohol etc. See this thread:

twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1611735748113305604

And this tweet in particular: "So yes, over the years I’ve blown some cash recklessly, I’m an alcoholic and an addict and blackout is quite the thing - but that was earned from book sales and speaking gigs, NOT from Patreon. Ironically that only started fucking up when I went sober."

It's not really clear what happened to the Patreon money.

Tin openers are safer in the same way that seatbelts are safer. Most of the time if you open a tin with a knife or go in a car without a seat belt you'll be fine, but when it goes wrong it goes so wrong that it's worth finding a safer way.

Thanks for the explanation - I might give that one a miss.

I've never seen anyone ever use an egg ring!

The best tin openers I've had were from Tesco. The one I got in 1993 is still going strong. The only reason I bought a second one was for my dad, who was going through other brands at about 1 every 6 months.

But can she get as many uses out of a sanitary towel as British GOOP? 🤣

How does she know where the money comes from? Does she honestly expect anyone to believe that she had a special account marked Patreon which she didn't spend on crap?

The fact is that people have supported her financially (and continue to do so) because they believe she is living in poverty. If you're spending thousands on booze and furniture, you're not living in poverty.

And now she's not drinking and spending all her money on crap, what is she doing with it? She's making at least two grand from Patreon every month. For nothing.

You’d never fit four posh sideboards in a 2 bed council flat that’s for sure.

It's funny how people who get bad book reviews like to turn it into a personal attack on their identity rather than gracefully accepting they've missed the mark with their work.

Munroe has a point on a lot of things but has a history of not responding well to criticism and then having a melt down about it

The one time she channelled that into a productive manner - Katie Hopkins - she came out looking good.

This is the lesson she needs to learn. To respond in a positive and smart way to criticism rather than lashing out .

I don’t think she has any illnesses other than being a drink and drug addled dickhead, and all the ones she claims she has are probably lies she told to cover up her addictions.

400mg of Tramadol is she max dose. She claims she was taking 2000mg. It’s a controlled drug. No Doctor would/could sign off on that amount, so where was she getting it from?

That alone would kill someone, let alone combined with 1.5 bottles of whiskey?! And the antidepressants she claims she was on.

Ffs, that combination would kill Ozzy Osbourne in his heyday.

Her child shouldn’t be anywhere near her. Even if it’s all lies, being raised by a compulsive liar is horrendous. Given his Dad is active/involved, her parents were/are foster Carers, the chances of him being whisked away into the system never to be seen again are zero.

But of course, anyone criticising her is immediately a TERF.