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.

Why thank you @ArabeIIaScott, I do indeed feel as though I have been catapulted via the gins of time to this point.

The only thing I can say, is that I'm trying to imagine my DM (same age as Judy) sitting with a straight face through such a conversation without saying "but Dear, aren't you a little unlikely to have a period?"

Also, why did you marry Ari Onassis, and aren't you dead?

My DM would not be so bloody fucking wishy washy conciliatory. In fact plenty of older women, while admittedly perhaps not conversant with TikTok trends, would respond more robustly to a 28 yo male attempting to discuss periods and breast enlargement in girls approaching puberty.

Nothing wishywashy about DM. Think Violet Kray meets Dame Joan for tone and intent.

Mine don't and neither do their friends. My DD13 and DD 18 can't stand Dylan and wish he'd go away.

We live in a progressive area and their friends parents are all liberals of some sort. Girls know when they are being mocked.

Girls know when they are being mocked.

Yes. Only if their instinctive response to that has been fucked by 'bekindandinclusive' they can question their own self protective reflexes by buying the bullshit hype.

If only Budweiser and Nike were run by teenage girls. Imagine the meeting where some rightoner (from my own teenage vernacular) came up with the Bra Idea. Our eyes would have been rolling like fruit machines.

I was thinking about this earlier. These companies are not truly supportive of trans people, they just want to exploit what is currently a massive market given the huge increase in teenagers questioning their gender identity.

I don't consider myself old at all, that was kind of the point - that just because you're older, means you don't know what you're on about, and can't possibly be thinking for yourself which is often implied on here, including this thread.

It's like banging my head against a wall.

I've never had comments that you say you've had said to you because you're 'older' (your choice of words).

No one said JB or anyone else in their 80s wasn't thinking for themselves. For about the 4th time, I said she may have been unappraised of trans issues and social media coverage of same, particularly via TikTok

Mine don't and neither do their friends. My DD13 and DD 18 can't stand Dylan and wish he'd go away.

Nor mine. My teen DSs also think he's a ridiculous joke tho they are somewhat fed up of my ranting.

No one said JB or anyone else in their 80s wasn't thinking for themselves

Great to see so many posters calling out a revered author having to be involved in a humiliating hostage exercise
Just one example.
Stop gas lighting, or if that's not what you're doing, read the thread.

I feel this 85 yo iconic author was pushed into this - shame on her PR machine
Oh look, another one insinuating she doesn't know her own mind, bless her.

@CremeEggQueen

I think you've misunderstood those posts. They are not saying JB is being influenced to say things because she doesn't know her own mind , they are saying she's being pressurised to say things she doesn't believe. The posters mentioning her age here are not doing it to imply weakness, but to emphasise her status as a cultural icon and their horror that someone of her stature can still be at risk of coercion and bad faith activism.

So who is DM's target audience?

they are saying she's being pressurisedto say things she doesn't believe
Yes, as she is too weak to know her own mind, must be being pressured 🙄
I loved Judy Blume books as a young teen, she really doesn't strike me as someone who bends to others when the positive messages in her books are so strong.

@CremeEggQueen and how do you think that Mulvaney adds to that positivity for young girls? What do they bring to the table that makes them suitable to discuss the experience of girls and young women?

Well , that was a fucking car crash of an interview. Admittedly, I only got to the Softies part and then cringed so much it was impossible to watch the rest.

Who’s got all the money to engineer all this?

Lionsgate is on the CEI list of US businesses (www.hrc.org/resources/best-places-to-work-for-lgbtq-equality-2022), similar to stonewall's list. "To earn top ratings, these employers took concrete steps to establish and implement comprehensive policies, benefits and practices that ensure greater equity for LGBTQ+ workers and their families." This interview with Dylan would have earned them more points toward staying on the list for 2023. It's literally a point scoring exercise- see nypost.com/2023/04/07/inside-the-woke-scoring-system-guiding-american-companies/

If Judy Blume had refused to speak to DM, the chances that right wing conservatives who like to ban books would have called her out for hypocrisy is absolute zero, and it’s laughable to suggest as such.

Not one single book-banning religious person would have seen any hypocrisy in such actions from JB because there isn’t any. And it’s such a weak argument to progress their cause: “We want to ban certain books. Judy Blume says that’s bad, but then she refused to speak to that prancing idiot! See! She’s just like us, really!”

And then JB and her PR team sat together mulling over strategy and said “yeah, that could happen, we’d better talk to DM to avoid that”?

I mean, come on🤣🤣

@CremeEggQueen

Yes, as she is too weak to know her own mind, must be being pressured

No one is saying this apart from you.

Please realise that you are simply reflecting your own belief that people who are pressurised into doing something they do not want to must be "too weak" "to know [their] own mind".

History is full of people who were forced to declare things they did not believe. The force might be social/peer pressure, or economic threat, or legal sanction, or in the worst cases, torture or death. To call these people "weak" is incredibly arrogant.

Furthermore, even this linking of "too weak" and "to know [their] own mind" is something you yourself are inserting. Someone can be "too weak" to resist coercion - and as I noted above "weakness" here is relative; even incredibly strong people can submit if subject to overwhelming pressure - and still very much know their own mind. Someone who doesn't know their own mind doesn't need to be pressured in the first place, just influenced or misled.

No one is saying this apart from you
Try reading the thread. And stop trying to gaslight.

I have read the whole thread.

I won't reply directly to your nasty little accusation other than to refute it utterly.

Furthermore, not only have I read the whole thread, I replied to your post based on the examples you chose to illustrate your point.

If those examples don't, in fact, illustrate the ageism you have seen so clearly maybe you should have picked better ones to illustrate it?

Because as far as I can see, based on the posts you chose to highlight, the things you are objecting to are not what's actually been said.

Wondering if this might work against the film.

DM’s work for Nike, Budweiser etc has seen loss in sales, the opposite to the expectation.

Catering to fantasy identities is not healthy for anyone.

I won’t be going to see the film now. Fuck you Judy Blume.

Reading her comments after the JKR business, I see her as being similar to Margaret Atwood. I think she is very used to being on the progressive, kind side of things.

She also seems to heavily associate any kind of censorship or political authoritarian with the political right.

So she's been put on the back foot with all of this. She is clear about freedom of speech and thought, but doesn't really get what is going on with political progressivism and these authoritarian orthodoxies. And I think she equates some of the concerns about things like school books that have explicit content - drawings of oral sex, or telling kids how to hook up for sex online - with objections to her books. But the fact is that unless you want to say any sexual content, even pornography, is ok, there are lines somewhere that could be crossed.

If the film doesn't do well, nobody will think it's because JB spoke to DM. It'll be because they think nobody is interested in the subject matter or a film made from a dated book.
Personally I think anyone boycotting is shooting themselves in the foot.
I'm still going and am as GC as anyone.