Judy Blume & Dylan Mulvaney

[BabyofMine]

I think I just had some sort of revelation.
I’m actually furious. Maybe I’m overreacting but Judy Blume wrote a book called Are you There God? It’s me, Margaret in the 70s. My myself, and I bet many others of my era, it was the first time I ever read a book that depicted a girl going through puberty like me. It made me less afraid of periods, and growing breasts which I did precociously. It meant so much to me.

So there is a film adaptation coming out and I was ecstatic when I saw the news.

Just seen the first piece of promo apart from the trailer that I have come across - TikTok suggested it to me - and it’s a cosy little chat between Judy Blume the author and Dylan Mulvaney. Talking about what it’s like to be a girl, grow breasts and such…
Really, Judy fucking Blume? Why of all people would you choose to promote the movie, which I would presume would have a target audience of preteen and teen girls, with a person that will never go through female puberty, will never bleed between their legs like a girl, never has to worry about buying sanitary products, or a million other things girls worry about.

I’m sure they have their own many and varied things to worry about, and lots of experiences that might be great to share with their audience, but really?

I just feel like I’ve been pissed on from a great height. I may well be overreacting - forgive me, I’m due on.

Oh I loved Judy Blume. I read her books as a little girl and now DD and I have read ‘Are You There God’ together.

Total lack of integrity. When her books mean, and have meant, so much to women and girls. It’s really cowardly.

How disappointing. I loved her books as a girl and had planned to see the film, particularly in light of her support for JKR. Can’t bring myself to do that now - it feels like a betrayal.

I feel like this now 😢 suppose I could just wait till it comes out on TV but I think it’s been a bit soured for me.

She might as well have been interviewed by Ralph.

I have a theory about JB and Margret Atwood, I think they are now just assuming this is what the future will look like and they want their legacy protected.

He's nearly 30 the grifter! I hope everyone boycotts the film now.

That is problematic because Are You There God It's Me Margaret is for little girls. It's from the perspective of girls and its purpose is to help them to examine that experience with the knowledge of how intimate the experience of puberty is for a girl. It's a very interior book. When I was an adolescent girl, it stimulated many conversations with other girls my age, about topics that we would never discuss with a male around. There was an understanding that what we were experiencing was simply not the business of any males. Having a male elbow his way into any discussion about periods or about the book is really an invasion of something very private.

A fully adult male no less, who isn't veing treated like that but as a 14yr old girl it seems. How is that OK? Wtf? Seriously, are you there god?

It probably would have made more sense for Timothee Chalamet to be interviewed about periods and teens-he is also an adult male but at least appeals to teen girls.
He could have talked about his lived experience, while not pretending to be a girl.
It makes me so mad.

JB is cowardly. Does she need the money THAT much?? Utterly infuriating that when dylan encroaches on male territory (bud light) the world ends and a massive brand feels the pain, but nothing really came of the nike bra sponsorship, and now this!

What’s with his Mary Tyler Moore hairdo?

That was me too!

I used to vomit and faint. I would lie on the toilet floor in school because the tile was cool. My lower back would throb with a dull, pounding pain, while my whole pelvis felt like it was being excavated. The only thing I could do was sleep it off.

Awful until my late teens /early 20s when it eased.

Dylan Mulvaney, if he had any decency at all, would walk away.

Well, not only is she a coward her and her team are fucking stupid.
In 2023 cinema is not king. Films are competing with streaming platforms at the cinema and hundreds of series, not to mention tiktok and gaming.
Who has to drive their 9-13 year old girls to the cinema? It's the cunty mums who gave birth and definitely know what a woman is.
Sure, some girls might stumble across it on streaming platforms but she's lost a whole, 'use it for sex ed' parent audience.
Ok the trans purists will now flock to it but judging by Hogwarts legacy they've not got much pulling power.
Polarising people on this means she's literally cut her potential audience in half.
Won't be watching ever, and definitely would have done. Of a generation that must have missed her book. Avid reader. Mother of girls. Won't be buying her books either.
Both her and Atwood are cowards and I'm setting fire to that golden bridge in this case.
They can fucking swim back.

Oh and she's doubly fucking stupid because now when the film flops the genderists can say there's no appetite for biological reality in media.
But the people who are fans of reality will be put off.

Does DM claim to have read the book as a child? I think the poster who stated he's a grifter is right. I hope to goodness no one casts Mulvaney in any female theatre roles in future.

Maybe she thought Dylan was genuinely interested and would learn something - such as realizing the completely different experience of male vs female puberty.

He’s the fool here for continuing this weird imposture. Why let his irritating persona ruin JB’s much more significant work?

She is doing publicity for the film and I would say her PR team thinks this is a good opportunity to ‘fix’ that JKR support issue while getting exposure to a particular target audience. If this was a film review show and a man interviewed her in his capacity as a film reviewer or presenter, I wouldn’t have a problem.

However, this is a male influencer celebrating ‘girlhood’ and being celebrated in turn for their wondrous journey. This is a slap in the face to any girl who is seeking girls and women to inspire them.

This 100%, would have taken Dd (and maybe some friends) now I won't.

I can't even watch this, it had made me fucking furious. How dare he, how bloody dare he. These books were what we grew up with, went through puberty with. The absolute insult of him taking about female puberty.

I think you're massively overreacting.

Why do you think that?

I 100% agree that it is stupid, inappropriate and offensive to use an offensive, misogynistic womanfacer to 'promote' AYTGIMM, a story entirely about a female child's experiences as she navigates puberty.

But I wonder whether the producers thought they were being clever, because AYTGIMM is not just about the biological experiences of beginning the transition to womanhood. It is also about choosing an identity. Margaret tries to work out whether she wants to be Christian or Jewish, for example. Maybe they thought they were being so clever by drawing a parallel with a male adult choosing an identity.

My sisters and I were going to take our daughters next weekend...now I'm feeling rather grim about it. Dylan fucking Mulvaney - that prick who mocks girls. FFS, how could Judy Blume sink so low? Does her PR team hate her? It's losing all the magic for me.

@DobbysTeaCosy, don't let your dds miss out on some wonderfully woman-positive books. Buy them secondhand or borrow from the library.

I will if I ever see them, but before I would have bought or borrowed from the library.
No way I'm doing that now.
By the time girls reach puberty it will probably be banned and burned for representing transphobic reality anyway.
Or this shit will have ended, but I keep hoping for people to regain sanity and they keep disappointing me.

But remember to divorce the art from the artist.

The book may be marvellous but the author has just backed an ideology that is hugely harmful to women and girls.