Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Julie Burchill (legendary writer) is unwell

110 replies

TERFspice · 11/01/2025 19:59

https://x.com/boozeandfagz/status/1877678411142828088?s=46&t=p6GESSn09HWHVXYgTLIbJg

Can we have a Julie Burchill appreciation thread?

For those who don't know, she's the author of "Sugar Rush" and has written many pro sex/ anti gender op-eds over the years.

She's just posted that she has an abscess on her spine. Flowers

OP posts:
Shimmyshimmycocobop · 15/01/2025 19:39

I've always made a point of reading you Julie, I have disagreed with your views about 50%of the time but yhe writing was always entertaining. Funnily enough it happens much less these days, I'm glad you are reading these comments!

Quantum6 · 15/01/2025 19:53

Just read Julie’s wonderful and barbed article on the sad demise of “Coronation Street” in ‘The Spectator’. A bright beacon in a world of dreary self-regarding drones. Was very shocked you have been in hospital - 💐

ArabellaScott · 15/01/2025 20:07

WhoPutTheBomp · 15/01/2025 19:37

Ok but no ones asking you to declare yourself a fan. All these demands for purity!

Jeez.

For sure. Imagine if we were all human beings who pissed each other off sometimes, disagreed, rubbed along and got over it?

duc748 · 15/01/2025 20:30

i do have one strong memory from those early days that I've always carried with me, and that is reading the review in the NME of Horses by Patti Smith (don't remember who wrote it, though), and going straight into town and buying that beautiful LP, with the B&W photo (Mapplethorpe) of her on the sleeve, and thinking, what a fucking record this is! Still do.

ArabellaScott · 15/01/2025 20:46

God yes, what an album.

BeckyBloom · 15/01/2025 21:20

.

SettlerofCatan · 15/01/2025 21:54

Well done TERFspice for starting such a great thread and if it really is you Julie (Raven/Burchill/Godess).. thank you so much for your incredible writing which I have loved all my adult life… I know you know it already but it never hurts to hear it from someone else as well .. you are so talented and brave.. quite Burchillian !!

Forcedtoresign · 15/01/2025 22:16

WhoPutTheBomp · 15/01/2025 19:37

Ok but no ones asking you to declare yourself a fan. All these demands for purity!

Jeez.

Not demanding purity - Jeez! She’s just not a good human.

themostspecialelfintheworkshop · 15/01/2025 22:37

Forcedtoresign · 15/01/2025 22:16

Not demanding purity - Jeez! She’s just not a good human.

In your single opinion. Others have given examples of huge generosity.

I do remember once reading a JB piece that made me laugh when I was at my lowest, and it made a difference, and I bet I'm not the only one.

It's depressing that even on here we have people complaining that women aren't 'good human's' when they're not perfect in every aspect of life.

It's also - IMO only of course - generally quite shitty to give your negative opinion on a thread which at the start specifically states it's an appreciation thread and is because Julie is ill.

No-one's stopping you of course - free speech and all that - but some of us might feel free to judge you on your actions too. I don't see the point myself - do you think your single opinion will somehow convince all of us that have appreciated her significant body of work over the years that she's somehow not a good writer who's made us think and laugh?

Forcedtoresign · 15/01/2025 23:00

themostspecialelfintheworkshop · 15/01/2025 22:37

In your single opinion. Others have given examples of huge generosity.

I do remember once reading a JB piece that made me laugh when I was at my lowest, and it made a difference, and I bet I'm not the only one.

It's depressing that even on here we have people complaining that women aren't 'good human's' when they're not perfect in every aspect of life.

It's also - IMO only of course - generally quite shitty to give your negative opinion on a thread which at the start specifically states it's an appreciation thread and is because Julie is ill.

No-one's stopping you of course - free speech and all that - but some of us might feel free to judge you on your actions too. I don't see the point myself - do you think your single opinion will somehow convince all of us that have appreciated her significant body of work over the years that she's somehow not a good writer who's made us think and laugh?

In your single opinion.

Iwishihadariver · 15/01/2025 23:59

She's an imperfect woman writing for imperfect women in an imperfect world, and that's alright with me. Thanks Julie.

BeBraveLittlePenguin · 16/01/2025 06:49

Forcedtoresign · 15/01/2025 23:00

In your single opinion.

Tony, is that you? 😁

ArabellaScott · 16/01/2025 07:23

'Not a good human'

Callous.

Forcedtoresign · 16/01/2025 08:56

ArabellaScott · 16/01/2025 07:23

'Not a good human'

Callous.

Just like Julie then.

ArabellaScott · 16/01/2025 09:13

Yet sadly without the wit and charm.

Ultrarunner · 16/01/2025 09:20

Her writing is brilliantly visceral, insightful and honest, she cuts through the bullshit as if she were using a scalpel in place of a pen. I've been a huge fan ever since reading 'Ambition' as a young teen and reading her articles and novels has brought great joy, a sentiment echoed here many times over - there aren't many people who can claim to have such a lasting effect on others. Thank you for all the thought-provoking, witty and stimulating reads Julie, wishing you a speedy recovery.
As for @Forcedtoresign - your username says a lot.

Willowcat77 · 16/01/2025 09:32

I used to love reading her articles in the Guardian, she is definitely the funniest journalist I know. I think she should write more novels or maybe even a sitcom - I imagine it would be really sharp, subversive and darkly hilarious.

JulieRaven · 16/01/2025 10:04

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments! As for not being 'a good human', I've witnessed SO many people who IDENTIFY as 'good' but are in practice quite foul that I'll identify as bad any day. Better a self-knowing rotter than a self-righteous hypocrite!

Seriestwo · 16/01/2025 10:16

i hope you are comfortable, Julie. Rehab is demanding and being an inpatient is weird.

wax earplugs are helpful, I find, helps manage the fucking snorers.

Shortshriftandlethal · 16/01/2025 10:36

JulieRaven · 16/01/2025 10:04

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments! As for not being 'a good human', I've witnessed SO many people who IDENTIFY as 'good' but are in practice quite foul that I'll identify as bad any day. Better a self-knowing rotter than a self-righteous hypocrite!

In fact the amount of 'goodnes' and kindness seems to diminish in direct and inverse proportion to the amount of moral righteousness. It must be a psychotherapeutic truism.

DwarfPalmetto · 16/01/2025 10:46

Better a self-knowing rotter than a self-righteous hypocrite!

JB is a good writer, as evidenced by this gem. I imagine she has good and bad qualities, just like all humans.

@JulieRaven glad you are still able to write, I look forward to reading your work in the future. Best wishes for your recovery Flowers

Quantum6 · 16/01/2025 10:54

Shortshriftandlethal · 16/01/2025 10:36

In fact the amount of 'goodnes' and kindness seems to diminish in direct and inverse proportion to the amount of moral righteousness. It must be a psychotherapeutic truism.

👏 Well observed. Julie should use this quote in her next article

GooseMoose2 · 16/01/2025 11:50

Seriestwo · 16/01/2025 10:16

i hope you are comfortable, Julie. Rehab is demanding and being an inpatient is weird.

wax earplugs are helpful, I find, helps manage the fucking snorers.

Agree, being in hospital is so weird. I’m a nurse and I had no clue how it is to be a patient until I needed emergency surgery last year. I understand now why losing the remote or the bed control is a big disaster when you can’t move 😭@JulieRaven hope you’re doing ok☀️

themostspecialelfintheworkshop · 16/01/2025 13:17

I'd love to watch a sitcom about self-righteous hypocrites and self-knowing rotters written by Julie. In the upside down world we now inhabit, it would be such a relief to be able to laugh at it all.

Just saying in case any tv commissioning editors are reading MN. If they're not they should be, it'd be great to have something DIFFERENT to watch.

IwantToRetire · 18/05/2025 22:32

Before I lost the use of my legs – I had the bad luck to sustain a spinal abscess and am now in a wheelchair – at the end of last year, I’d never given much thought to disabled people.

... it seems that as society becomes more solicitous of those with Mental Elf problems, the less it seems to care about the legions of disabled, blind and otherwise physically afflicted to the point where what are the simplest actions for the able are a struggle for us. I hate the way it takes so much effort to keep things – myself included – clean, and have already been led a merry dance by the vacuum cleaner.

But we keep buggering on. While self-pity among the able-bodied appears to be on the rise, what with the huge number of idle working-age people complaining of “anxiety” and “stress”, from what I’ve seen, it’s rare among the physically disabled. I’ve been paying tax since I was 17 and I still do. I plan to keep working – and paying tax – until I drop down dead, something many thousands of able-bodied people certainly can’t say.

...

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/im-now-disabled-its-made-me-more-determined-to-work-than-ever-3691604?srsltid=AfmBOopPTiaf7oBA7BHJpACokZHmxsU14pzWO-wvcXMzwUestoXWhwq

(wasn't sure about starting a new thread, but hope some FWRers will see this. She is more upbeat than I would be!)

https://archive.is/aZ67r

I'm now disabled - it's made me more determined to work than ever

I define myself as a writer, one who uses my brain to make a living at 65 even more than I did at 17

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/im-now-disabled-its-made-me-more-determined-to-work-than-ever-3691604?srsltid=AfmBOopPTiaf7oBA_7BHJpACokZHmxsU14pzWO-wvcXMzwUestoXWhwq