Welcome to Philippa Perry, who has taken over from Mariella Frostrup. I think Phiippa Perry is great. I actually preferred her graphic book 'Couch Fiction' to the couple of books of hers that I've read.
It is an interesting development. She makes a solid start in her first problem - my sex life has dropped off
There's a change of approach. Philippa's style is very much about coping and adjusting realistically to life, whereas Mariella was more of a cheerleader to get out there and live it up. Philippa's 'realism' approach can come across as slightly depressing at time, such as:
I’m afraid our bodies do reach a peak condition in youth and, as you age, you are allowed to mourn the loss of taut flesh, just as you are allowed to mourn the fact that sex is no longer a daily occurrence. But this will not dent your capacity to love and appreciate each other as much as you ever did. And, occasionally, such a body, with its bulges and aches, will also be the vehicle with which you enjoy great sex – just not as often.
Looking forward to read more over coming weeks though.
― Luna Schlosser, Sunday, 20 June 2021 09:26 (two years ago) link
Yes. I hated MF’s answers, they used to make me silently shout at the screen. And I think PP is generally very thoughtful and grounded in reality when she responds.
― Madchen, Sunday, 20 June 2021 10:47 (two years ago) link
Hey guess who won the Orwell prize for Journalism?https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-prizes/
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 26 June 2021 09:12 (two years ago) link
I was thinking there were so many terrible Guardian writers to choose from but at least it won't be John Harris...
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Saturday, 26 June 2021 10:35 (two years ago) link
previous winners include
Suzanne MooreCarole CadwalladrFintan O'Toole Peter HitchensMatthew ParrisDavid AaronovitchPolly Toynbee
from which I surmise that the criteria for the award is you need to be an overexposed fool who is wrong about nearly everything and a total dick, which is quite in the spirit of Orwell tbf.
― calzino, Saturday, 26 June 2021 11:17 (two years ago) link
jesus christ that list tells you everything
― Take me home, Jordan Rhodes (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 26 June 2021 11:30 (two years ago) link
It really seems to favour opinionated columnists rather than the craft of journalism.
― Luna Schlosser, Saturday, 26 June 2021 11:30 (two years ago) link
i only just realised this is a serious award, i'd always assumed it was some darwin awards type thing that you didn't want to get, handed out for alleged "doublethink" or what have you
― Left, Saturday, 26 June 2021 11:35 (two years ago) link
The Orwell Prize.
If Hancock hangs on, we know England has turned into Animal Farm where all animals are expected to follow the Covid rules but some animals can do what the hell they like— Lionel Barber (@lionelbarber) June 26, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 26 June 2021 12:01 (two years ago) link
whoever it was who decided to make everyone read these books at school has a lot to answer for
― Left, Saturday, 26 June 2021 12:50 (two years ago) link
short and easy to draw out an essay's worth of trite allegory, same reason An Inspector Calls is still going strong
― Take me home, Jordan Rhodes (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 26 June 2021 12:54 (two years ago) link
it's worse than harry potter references, at least people don't get to pretend they're being intellectual with those
― Left, Saturday, 26 June 2021 12:55 (two years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/Ww4mPiK.png
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 26 June 2021 23:35 (two years ago) link
lmfbo what, is this a terf
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Saturday, 26 June 2021 23:41 (two years ago) link
um how dare you guess that for no reason whatsoever, she has merely been ~just asking questions~ in the graun for at least six years
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/11/caitlyn-jenner-transgender-feminism-woman
― bobo honkin' slobo babe (sic), Saturday, 26 June 2021 23:48 (two years ago) link
You don’t have to link it
― Clara Lemlich stan account (silby), Sunday, 27 June 2021 00:09 (two years ago) link
I’ll just take your word for itAnyway I’m glad whoever this is is suffering social consequences from her former friends
I’m just an alien observer here but isn’t this the same Grauniad that harped on Corbyn’s alleged antisemitism for years? Is “just asking questions” now their editorial policy?
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 27 June 2021 01:02 (two years ago) link
Just a mode of intellectual enquiry now, no matter if people get killed at least it's an interesting discussion at dinner parties.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 27 June 2021 08:13 (two years ago) link
Noticed in the column Tracer screengrabbed that HF called Corbyn ‘adjacent to antisemites’ so I guess the lawyers are watching? She went on that horrible Enough is Enough demo so her actual views are more than that.
― the thin blue lying (suzy), Sunday, 27 June 2021 08:44 (two years ago) link
observer is even more foul than usual today. in addition to the freeman thing, there's an editorial about how trans people should be up for debate forever and suggesting otherwise, plebs, is antifeminist. plus a foghorn racist piece about batley and spen by-election.
― plax (ico), Sunday, 27 June 2021 13:37 (two years ago) link
Toby Helm(et)
― calzino, Sunday, 27 June 2021 13:56 (two years ago) link
Toby Belm, please.
― the thin blue lying (suzy), Sunday, 27 June 2021 16:02 (two years ago) link
Zoe Ball’s pay cut means BBC’s highest-paid star is still a man
Hmm, seems to hint it was a man before, so.. Rubbish headline.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 6 July 2021 16:19 (two years ago) link
Not sure about Philippa Perry's tough approach on this one:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/11/ask-philippa-perry-will-my-menopausal-wife-ever-want-to-have-sex-with-me-again
She wants to make questioner think more deeply, but it does come across a bit 'internet hardman'.
― Luna Schlosser, Sunday, 11 July 2021 10:36 (two years ago) link
from the intro to the reply:
There you are, living with your sexy wife and, oh dear, you don’t know if you are ever going to get a shag again. Not that you put it like that, that’s just how I read it. You are very measured in your email, showing me just how well you behave, almost as though you’re walking on egg-shells. Got me wondering whether you must walk around your wife on egg-shells, too.
― Luna Schlosser, Sunday, 11 July 2021 10:57 (two years ago) link
Yeah, thought this was a terrible response. Guy’s not blameless and needs to ask himself some questions but this just seemed like a pile on.
― Dan Worsley, Sunday, 11 July 2021 11:02 (two years ago) link
Be hilarious if she is like this to every letter that after a while she stops ppl from writing in.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 July 2021 11:14 (two years ago) link
I didn't see her reply as being particularly "tough guy", and read in her voice a much more empathetic tone than Mariella Frostrup brought to the page over the last couple of years. Also, Perry is writing as a therapist, not just a columnist, and so she's offering advice and inviting the letter-writer to examine their own behaviour and take same agency, and even suggesting practical methods in doing so. She's aiming to help them solve the issue, not just making them feel better in the moment. I mean, also I didn't read her chiding the letter-writer in the slightest.
― burnt hombre (stevie), Sunday, 11 July 2021 12:54 (two years ago) link
"She's aiming to help them solve the issue, not just making them feel better in the moment."
Yeah, that's what I read. I could imagine the letter writer feeling a bit "But ... but ... I've done research!"
― djh, Sunday, 11 July 2021 20:04 (two years ago) link
I have a particular dislike for the "Not that you put it like that, that's just how I read it" formula which anyone who has experienced microaggressions in the workplace will instantly recognise as the classic "that's just my reframing of what you said - hey! don't blame me for the reactions that your words generate in me, they're your words " excuse in being aggressive.
I'd be more reassured by the answer overall if I thought the answer was likely to help the questioner examine their behaviour and take some agency. But I'm not sure about the usefulness of the scenarios - there are at least four more things that could be going on here.. I think they're just too open-ended and speculative:And anorexia can be the body’s way of trying to solve a problem that has not been articulated and quite often after psychological investigation that problem seems to be the patient’s lack of autonomy in their life. Of course, I do not know enough about your dynamic to say whether it was like this for your wife, I’m voicing it only as a possibility. If you became too parent-like and controlling, this might have been her body’s way of rebelling.
I don't think columnists such as Mariella do just aim to make the questioner feel better in the moment btw
― Luna Schlosser, Monday, 12 July 2021 07:10 (two years ago) link
I mean everything Perry wrote sounded and felt like something a professional trained therapist/counsellor with years and years of experience would say, and I didn't find that any of it read tough or "internet hardman" at all, but ymmv. Therapists/counsellors will reframe what a patient has said as a way to get them to confront the situation as they see it from a different perspective, it seems it would be a fruitful way of approaching.
I'm not saying Mariella just aimed to make the questioner feel better in the moment, but I am saying that often Mariella's columns read like she was playing internet hardman because - at least for the last couple of years - she seemed burned out and impatient and not interested in the people writing in, or quick to identify the complainant as "actually the bad person". I've enjoyed Perry's columns so far because she doesn't bring that energy, and her answers have seemed empathetic and productive.
― burnt hombre (stevie), Monday, 12 July 2021 08:12 (two years ago) link
Lolol
Not only will I not pay for the Guardian, this is so bad it's making me wonder whether there's a way I can steal from it pic.twitter.com/o75AoJWs0n— jan 🇵🇸 (@janhopi) July 12, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 12 July 2021 12:20 (two years ago) link
I see Philippa Perry discussed this on twitter (kudos to her for doing so). I've often wondered what constraints columnists have to work with and what goes on that we don't see.
It’s harsh, it’s speculative, and it’s the best I could do. I wrote to him personally as well where I had more space for sugar coating. He replied and appreciated my efforts. I can see he’s doing what he thinks is right but it wasn’t getting them anywhere.— Philippa_Perry (@Philippa_Perry) July 11, 2021
― Luna Schlosser, Monday, 12 July 2021 12:31 (two years ago) link
She’s a pretty good egg generally (I met her years ago when I went round to interview Grayson and at the time she was consultant psychologist for Big Brother).
― the thin blue lying (suzy), Monday, 12 July 2021 12:46 (two years ago) link
i kinda get they're proud of hyde and crace -- they seem popular even tho i think they're both rubbish, him especially -- but is behr on the list for the same reason, or morely likely bcz he'll pout ands feel left out if mom and dad don't give him a lollipop? it's the internet so i've no doubt *someone* has linked a behr piece and called it "insightful! brilliant!" but come on lads he's a world-famous idiot
― mark s, Monday, 12 July 2021 13:34 (two years ago) link
any fule kno
― mark s, Monday, 12 July 2021 13:35 (two years ago) link
Bradshaw is a movie critic I trust less than even Commode - he's the absolute worst. He doesn't even review Sean Penn's latest turkey, he actually attempts to get invited round his yard so he can fuck him.
― MoMsnet (calzino), Monday, 12 July 2021 13:57 (two years ago) link
brb letting el chapo's henchmen know abt the tryst so they can take out the two of them in one go
― mark s, Monday, 12 July 2021 14:00 (two years ago) link
Mark S is right -- no-one likes Behr, except Hyde, Freeman, d'Ancona, et al themselves.
― the pinefox, Monday, 12 July 2021 16:36 (two years ago) link
Not only will I not pay for the Guardian, this is so bad it's making me wonder whether there's a way I can steal from it
that can't be real!!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 12 July 2021 16:47 (two years ago) link
i trust Commode 100% thru the simple expedient of assuming the opposite of anything he says is true
― Southgate Serves Imperialism (Noodle Vague), Monday, 12 July 2021 16:53 (two years ago) link
philippa perry seems like a terrible person sorry
― dogs, Monday, 12 July 2021 16:55 (two years ago) link
I find where the toilet paper is stored and replace a missing roll: this, I think to myself, is mutual aid.
Suddenly each vodka maté feels like a bulwark against an uncertain future.
― Noel Emits, Monday, 19 July 2021 11:19 (two years ago) link
I mean, not that I haven't had dippy thoughts at a rave.
― Noel Emits, Monday, 19 July 2021 11:30 (two years ago) link
What a load of bulwarks
― The 💨 that shook the barlow (wins), Monday, 19 July 2021 11:57 (two years ago) link
But yeah I will prob have similar feelings of bonhomie if I’m ever off my tits in a club again, provided I don’t have a panic attack
― The 💨 that shook the barlow (wins), Monday, 19 July 2021 12:00 (two years ago) link
http://artsoftheworkingclass.org/text/dawn-foster-1986-2021
"Having just completed a blog for them about my gender reassignment and dealt with a couple of minor breakdowns, I was furious with The Guardian’s sister paper, The Observer, for publishing a transphobic screed by Julie Burchill. Dawn had worked on it, saying it was impossible to decide what was acceptable below the line when the article was so full of hatred."
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 23 July 2021 16:59 (two years ago) link
and the Manic Street Preachers, who funded a memorial bench in Newport despite Dawn not being a fan of theirs
hah hah very sad lol!
― MoMsnet (calzino), Friday, 23 July 2021 17:30 (two years ago) link
there is stuff in Dawn's family background I can very much relate to. I have a sister who was conceived when my mother was raped at 15 years old by a violent scumbag who was also the father of an uncle of mine. She really wasn't the type of person who is allowed to succeed in UK media, not smug and posh enough, but she fucking towered above that shower of wankers at the Graun.
― MoMsnet (calzino), Friday, 23 July 2021 17:40 (two years ago) link