Blair
OK sorry I just had to say something.
I’ve got no beef with La Blair Femme. It’s not, like, she’s on my Favourite Person List or anything. But I don’t hate her. Actually, I don’t really have any significant emotions when I think about her. She’s just someone else, innit.
And then t’other day she made some comments at some conference about some stuff, and the whole world went mental-crazy and called her a bitch and a hag and all sorts of other insults and degradations based upon her appearance and demeanour (wahoo! Gotta love a bit of misogyny with your toast in the morning).
Seriously, people, please. Yes. She said some misguided things, which, I suspect, were taken out of context and reported in a way which would provide the most sensation and audience reaction. Who’d have thunk it, journalism doing such a crass thing? Almost as if it were ON PURPOSE.
Holy smoke-without-fire. One of the things she said really struck me: ‘What is important is that women have a choice’. Totally. Absolutely. I agree wiv ya, Chezza. I am totes pro-choice, me. Let’s have some more of that tasty tasty choice-stuff. Let’s make it so that women can CHOOSE to stay at home, and look after the bairns, and not have to worry about judgement from society at all. Let’s make it so that women can CHOOSE to go back to work once they’ve had some babies, and have a successful and fulfilling career, and also not be judged and other shizzle like that. So’s we are all CHOOSING STUFF, yah?
Let’s make it so that women can be self-sufficient, yeah, and also co-sufficient, if they’re lucky enough to have a partner wot loves ‘em and wants to and is able to provide for them. Right? And let’s make it so that if a co-efficient person suddenly finds herself self-sufficient, but with not so much of the farking SUFFICIENT, then there are processes in place to help that person. Yes I am totally talking about me here. I am currently trying to be self-sufficient and failing miserably, mostly cos I never, ever thought I’d be in this position, ever. And it farking sucks. I wish with ALL MY HEART that I was self-sufficient. There is nothing I want more right now. Oh, apart from affordable – or FREE – childcare so that I can go get a job and start feeling like I can support my daughter in ALL THINGS.
What else?
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Mz CB is ‘attacking yummy mummies’. I think she’s saying that she was never going to be a SAHM and that’s what works for her. And, presumably, that’s what works for millions of other women as well. And Madame B is right: I don’t think young girls should aspire to having a rich husband and spaffing out his babies. That’s the LAST thing I want for Moo. Even less than something really dangerous, like vulcanologist, or rabid space-donkey tamer. I want Moo to have choice. I want Moo to be self-sufficient. I don’t want Moo to end up like me.
But MOSTLY (I’ll shut up in a minute) I just think this whole farking fracas has been another bloody smoke’n'mirrors act designed to get us whipped about something damned inconsequential and moot, at the end of the ruddy day. SO WHAT if Her Blairness has an opinion on something? She’s not the BOSS OF EVERYTHING, is she? She’s just someone else, spouting their thoughts into the ether, like we all do every farking day, and not everyone agrees with us, do they. No. So. Innit.
Let’s all calm the fark down and shake it out. I had to just get it out of my system. And the best thing? I’m going offline for a few days, so any comments will rapidly cool in my inbox for a spell. Hoopla!
Dare I ask? Where dost thou stand on the whole Missus Chez thing?
Never mind Mrs Blair. I’m struck by the line that you don’t want Moo to turn out like you. Now I don’t know you. I know you’ve had a very hard time of late. That you’re trying to make a new start on your own and that it’s bewildering, isolating and painful. But what I can tell from your writing is that you are intelligent, empathetic, devoted and an enviably charismatic writer. I am, thanks to your blog, intimate with most of your body parts and can therefore declare that you’re also attractive. That’s quite a list. I know what you’ll say – you don’t have a beloved partner to share all these gifts with. But something you don’t realise when you’re 33 is that you’re very young. Most of your life ahead of you, which may seem yawning and burdensome in your current circumstances, but it will change. In four years or so Moo will be at school. You’ll have time in the day to write/freelance/work shifts in something. You’ll have more energy and more liberty and you can poo in peace. So the obvious conclusion is that Moo would do very well to turn out like you because your you-ness is not the situation you happen to be right now but the charismatic person who will storm a way out of it when the dust has settled. Report back to me in ten years. You’ll see I’m right.
Well said, bloody agree with ya. And at the end of the day we are all just trying not to screw our kids up too much… no pressure huh
I have to disagree. I don’t think people got riled up for no reason and I don’t think she did get taken out of context. I’m a shit blogger and a shit tweeter but I read this blog and got annoyed that I was being told to calm down about something that I felt passionately about.
I feel the reason that people got angry with Mrs Blair isn’t just about what she said but that someone with her background had the gall to say it. Her and her husband have made a pretty penny out of an illegal war. They have manipulated rules and regulations as if they don;t apply to them to enable their children to have million pound houses (yeah really self sufficient those kids are. She is also a large share holder in a private health company which is slowly contracting services within the NHS, taking advantage of another money making opportunity that will eventually see the NHS gone. She is under investigation (again) for some dodgy sale/rent deals on housing. So no, I don’t think I’m wrong to think that the woman is vile. Women should have the right to choose but for me she has made her living out of some morally corrupt ones and therefore negates the right to tell me that what I’m doing for my family is wrong.
Hooray!
Yur but, no but, yur, this isn’t a debate about her character, she made some perfectly reasonable points. Bad people have good things to say sometimes and if you think purely with your emotions then you will forever be narrow minded and, and, and… just sayin’
I think she is actually saying that the government doesn’t make it easy for women to return to work, well those that don’t have rich husband or a pile of cash under the bead that magically replenishes itself. I truly believe that the main thing stopping equality and by that I mean even choice for men and women, is the high cost of childcare. And yes MoVo, another classic case of the media getting women to bitch about each other and the choices they make. Pesky media.
I hate to say it but I do agree with her. I don’t want my daughter to grow up thinking she doesn’t have to try hard at school because she can always marry a rich bloke and stay at home with the babies. I work part time as well as being a mummy, yes I would love to stay at home with her but as well as not being able to afford it I know that at some point when she is older I will want to work and so I think keeping working is the best way to make sure I can keep my career. It is all down to choice, it should be easier for women to choose which path they want to take whether it is SAHM, part time working or full time working. At the moment is it bloody hard whichever you want to do.
I know I called her a cow bag yesterday on Twitter but that was not really meant …. I did get her underlying message and some comments were taken out of context. On thing I didnt agree with was emphasis on working mothers fostering independent children – actually being either a SAHM or working mum fosters independence. Its all down to the quality of parenting. Good enough parenting, whether a woman works or not, creates well adjusted children. So I guess my other criticism is whether her opinion is based on informed research. Tis all. I hope to say hello to you at Britmums. And best of luck in the awards you funny lass!
I have to admit I got fairly riled up when I read that stuff but have been trying to calm myself since. I care for my kids full time. I am a professional person and worked as such for 10 years. I intend to go back to that in a few years, maybe not to the same exact role but probably the same field. I’m really lucky, I know, to be able to make such choices. I just get sooo mad about crap like that though. It’s like looking after your kids isn’t a really worthwhile occupation! FFS maybe someone should have told my mum this. She was a single Mum of 5. She couldnt afford to work but she did her best with us and we are all fairly well functioning and independent people with our own lives. That dependant but really got to me, as you may notice.
On the other hand, I’m sure you are right. It’s probably somewhat out of context and a little twisted in the reporting .
Phew, anyway feel a bit better now . Needed that little vent. And breath…
Have a great time at Brit mums and bring a bloody raincoat . London is the new Ireland these days. Rain, rain and more rain.
She looks like Cruella De Ville when she does THAT face. That’s where I stand.
And I don’t mean her O Face.
You speak sense lady! As always.
Here here & well said!