You Are Being Unreasonable - 086 - In which we send people back to the end of the Fussy Queue and reboot Frasier so he's a club DJ

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

"Eat kale to keep hale." Get in an autumnal cocoon in your baby-seal room with the latest You Are Being Unreasonable episode. This week, we address unreasonable questions and rushing through niche references to ask: Is it unreasonable for a teacher to give a pupil a bag of kale, nature's gag prize? How long should we expect to keep expensive chairs like the ones in Frasier's expansive apartment? Should people ordering fancy coffees be required to stand in the Fussy Queue? And we relitigate Bridget Jones' lean-in feminism *checks notes* 24 years too late.

Hello, driving on drugs feels better when their prescription. All I know, the world looks beautiful, the world looks so damn beautiful. I feel fantastic, and I never felt as good as how I do right now, except for maybe when I think about I felt that day, when I felt the way that I do right now, right now. I feel fantastic, and I never felt as good as how I do right now, except for maybe when I think about I felt that day. Hello.

Hello, welcome to You Are Being Unreasonable, the podcast about people being Unreasonable, reasonable on mumsnet.com with me, Hells. And me, Simon. I can see you've made yourself a little cozy nook in the spare room today. Yeah, I have. I've made a nest. I've made a cocoon. Just before recording, you said, a pro pro of nothing, that some people record podcasts in blanket thoughts. They do. Not us, though. You're very business-minded about this, and we are recording at a desk. Like, I have a glass, mayo and cur mode. Yeah, do they record in blanket thoughts? I'm almost certain they do. Well, then, if anything, it seems less

profess that we're using a desk rather than a blanket for on all levels this is the worst this is the worst thing about 2020 it's a good cosy nook though you've got a big pile of pillows like the elephant man

rude he did have a big pile of pillows what we really need is more pillows so that those pillows can be part of a permanent nook for reading rather than having to cart them back and forward to the bed a perma nook a perma nook

Yeah, I mean, it's our room, we can do what we like Yeah, we own it, we own all the things in it We just don't own as many pillows as I would like Because I would like to own every pillow But you can't own every pillow Some pillows need to be free That's Christmas shopping, done for hell Good luck buying every pillow, my friend

WWW dot pillows.com Every dot pillow Bulk order 10 pillows Click, done Doesn't sound like every pillow to me It sounds like 10 pillows We could make this, the spare room, the pillow room, and just literally fill it with pillows, like a ball pit, but with pillows. A very long time ago, I was on holiday with like 30 friends, and we found a room that was just full of duvays, and somehow we ended up doing a, would you rather have a room full of duvays or a room full of baby seals?

A lot of people chose baby seals, but that sounds really high maintenance. Yes, you have to feed those baby seals. That's also a room full of baby seal poo. Yeah, and it's not very kind to baby seals to pack them into a room that tightly, is it? Yeah, unless it's a wet room. That's a bad room for baby seals. It's captivity. You can't keep them in captivity in a blanket fort.

Let's do some speed round. Am I being unreasonable? First date, not fun. If it's not fun, go home. Am I being unreasonable, or am I work? Probably workplaces suck. Working sucks. Am I being unreasonable?

to turn down this gift from my in-laws. No, no, got to turn it down. There was a room full of baby seals. It was inappropriate. Am I being unreasonable? Why does my son hate me? My son hates me. Discover my one simple trick.

My one simple trick to putting my son in the baby seal room. He hates me. Oh dear, let's do a thread, shall we? Am I being unreasonable? teacher gave nephew a bag of kale. I'm being unreasonable to think this is strange. We're speaking to my nephew last night and he proudly showed me a bag of kale his teacher had given him.

He's at secondary school and apparently it was a prize for winning the tutor competition. He picked a prize out of a hat and ended up with the gag prize. Honestly, not making this up. Am I being unreasonable to think it's a bit weird? Very cute. He proudly shows up at the bag of kale. Secondary school age child

Very cute He's 15 Yeah He's 28 Didn't take in the bit about him being 15 He's not 15 Necessarily He's secondary school age

It was cute when it was a little boy A bag of kale as big as him I want to see the hat This bag of kale came out of That must have been a hefty hat It's the teacher JK from Jmiroquai I wish I'd been given a bag of kale

At school Could have set me on a different path Yeah, just yesterday. Just yesterday, I said, I'm going to have some kale with this. Do you want any? And you said, no. Well, I think that's because kale is the gag prize. Cale's life's gag prize.

And this teacher knew that. And I knew that yesterday. You doveed into that hat and you found something better. Well, I had the booby prize of kale. Yeah. No, no. Cale is the gag prize. Cale is one of my favourite foods.

Well, you'd be happy with this little boy's kale. This 15 year old boy's kale This teenager's kale I couldn't fight a 15 year old for a bag of kale I had teenagers You know doing well with that bag of kale Because you can trade that for some ketamine Exactly

Yeah I got a bag of k here to swap for a bag of k Yeah it's now Tory policy That you can swap Cale for ketamine The kale for ketamine initiative they call it It's like hugger hoodie Only more confusing Yeah

I want to know what the tutor competition was It's a competition to be the best tutor So the kids take turns teaching the class And the teacher does nothing except by KEL I was going to say this sounds like some This sounds like some other Tory initiative Tutor the tutor Yeah tutor the tutor so you don't have to pay teachers

And then you can slander them by saying that all they do is by kale anyway And then you can say that the kale is somehow the EU's fault And that teachers are playing into Michelle Barnier's hat Yeah, exactly. If we sack the teachers, the teenagers teach themselves and are paid in kale, what a world. I know. I mean, I don't know how that's going to help the economy in the long run when there's all this kale in circulation. So much kale in circulation and so little actual

currency. Eat kale to keep hail. What is hail? You know, health it. H-A-L-E. Like hail and pace? If you like. I just don't understand what the policy is. Eat kale to keep healthy. hail okay okay it was a gag prize his teacher sounds funny and trying to inspire her students why do you assume the teacher's a woman and why would that inspire students and that's not what funny means nothing about this is good men can be teachers too now men can give little boys bags of kale that doesn't make them paedophiles exactly you have to look out for men in vans giving out sweets nothing about kale

kale's cool yeah someone pulled up in a van and said hey you want to come and see a bag of kale would you go no because like I say kale is nature's gag prize I really like kale well you'd get into the van you'd be sold up

oh no hell's has been kidnapped the problem is she's quite sure and with a mask on she could be a child and someone asked her to come and see some kale why are you wearing a mask Like, because of COVID. Oh, good, good. I'm not wearing, like, a mask of a child's face.

Like a Venetian masquerade ball mask. But just of a child. A photo of a child. Yeah, just a photo of a child's face on a stick, one of those masks on a stick. Yeah, a famous child. Like a royal child. Okay, not like a famous child from the past, like McCauley Colkin. Mara Wilson.

McCauley Culkin but as he looks now didn't he have a mask that was his own face yeah and wasn't it the wrong size it looked slightly too big like the mouth of saw run in a lot of the Rings return of King extended edition oh he said that very quickly there's a very specific reference

I never had to get it out of the way really it's just taking time that people don't have time for in the podcast why don't they have time It's a podcast. Like, podcasts are background noise. People are skipping 30 seconds when I'm making these niche references. Oh.

Hitting that skip button. They're already listening to it on two times speed. Like those chipmunk remixes of things that you used to get a lot in the noughties. Mm-hmm. Yeah, two-time speed and Simon's making a niche reference to the Lod of the Rings Return of the King extended edition. Yeah. Forward 15 seconds.

Someone samples us talking really quickly and high-pitched about nugs and then it's like an R&B track in between. Yeah, let's lay down some beats just for the background. Well, no, because they'll speed us up, so it doesn't make any... Nugs, nugs, nugs. Okay, can you then release that at two-time speed as a trailer for this week's episode? Nugs, nugs, nugs! Someone has said, I don't understand what you would be reporting. I didn't... Did the O.P. say they were going to report the teacher?

No, they never said they... No, they read into it. Just reading between the lines. Yeah, on mums that they just assumed, well, this is where you talk about things you're intending to report. This is the board for reporting things, reporting crimes. You're being unreasonable to think it's strange. I don't know why you're even giving it any thought. Now, come on, none of us have got enough to occupy our minds at the moment.

The last seven months have been very long. We all have to think about other people's kale. It's all we've got. If you're still listening at this point after we've been talking about someone else's kale, you've got to be on board with this. All we've got is talking about other people's kale. You're on boarding the kale? Yeah, you're part of the kale crew.

The O.P. has come back and said, I'm not reporting anything. I just wondered. And then someone else said, it was a joke, lighten up, which... Well, they're reporting. You, but what? No, bad. Any time someone says it was a joke, lighten up, it suggests to me that they themselves should also consider lightening up. Yeah, it suggests that maybe it wasn't a joke. You were just hiding your feelings with irony. Yeah. The O.P. has said it seems surreal, which it doesn't. I don't think you know what surreal is. It's a gag. What would you, O.P., have picked as a gag.

prize. The OP probably wouldn't have put a gag prize in there because the OP doesn't approve of gags. The OP wants to report humour. Yeah, it's a joke. The teenagers get it. They're on TikTok right now laughing about this kale. Yeah, it's one of the big TikTok trends. Yeah. And someone has said the teacher sounds like a good laugh, which again, that's a stretch, isn't it? It's a joke prize, but it's not that funny. Yeah. Jokes in high school don't have to be that funny. No. They're kids. They've got undeveloped senses of humor. Yeah, and you just have to do enough jokes I'm thinking of one of the cool teachers. Yeah. And that's like a really low bar. Teachers, you know, no.

Yeah. Should we do another thread? Mm-hmm. Am I being unreasonable to think fussy people ordering coffee should always be in a separate queue? Drives me mad. I just want to buy a sandwich and in front of me someone's ordering four coffees with very exacting requirements. Yeah, you should have the fussy queue and the regular queue. Why?

And if you get to the fussy queue You get to the front of the regular queue And you ask for an extra packet of sugar You're hauling ass back to the back of the fussy queue Get back! Get back in the fussy queue That's not a regular order Get back! What is this voice you're saying get back in?

Get back! I don't want to sound... Back to the end of the fussy queue I was waiting to buy a coffee at the little cafe in the park next to our flat the other day And what did you order? An oatte latte.

Back in the fussy queue. I was also buying you, a vanilla latte. Fussy queue. Super fussy queue. If they'd just been two dairy lattes with no syrup, would I be allowed to be in the real queue? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. If you can point to its picture on a simple picture board.

That's allowed. So it's got like latte and they can't it, whatever. Why? Because they got a regular queue and the fussy queue. Anyway, I was in the queue and somebody had to step out of the queue to go to a little serving hatch because they didn't have a mask with them. And then this woman came along and very loudly said, look, there's a second

cue and there's only one person in it. And everyone in the queue that I was in just started really passive-aggressively saying, that's not actually a queue. And this woman just stood there like, well, we'll see about that. And no one served her, but she just militantly stood there as three more people got served. She seemed to think if she just stood behind someone who then left and then she was just standing there. This must be a regular cue. You can't just stand somewhere and declare that there's a shorter queue Because no one else is in that queue Especially if everyone says, no, that's not a cue

No, you can't just like, I wouldn't stand in front of the freezers at the supermarket And be like, oh, there's no one in the queue for this till No ma'am, that's not a till That's a bag of oven chips Like, nonsense It sounds to me like the OPE herself, though, would be in the fussy queue For trying to get a sandwich at a coffee shop Well, quite

Get in the fussy queue It does seem ridiculous to me that I can only assume this is a coffee shop and the OP's annoyed that people are trying to buy coffee. Yeah, my dude, if you want a non-fussy sandwich experience, go to Greggs. Get yourself, not even in Greggs, get yourself to Tesco. Yeah, get yourself a meal deal. Yeah, prepackaged sandwich. You can get one of those cheese and onion sandwiches where the cheese and onion is both a paste but also more solid than cheese itself. You know what I mean?

And like the bread has been refrigerated so it's moist but also dry. Man, I miss going to supermarkets for lunch Yeah Now I just have these These Schrodinger sandwiches These fresh sandwiches at home I never used to have sandwiches for lunch When I was going out to work

And I always found it odd that you did But I think that's because I'd forgotten What it's like to have a sandwich That you've made yourself Using ingredients that you want Yeah, it's interesting But yeah, you get that And then you get a packet of crisps

You could get some monster munch perhaps Or some sort of diet crisp baked, not fried, if you're having crisps Just own it, enjoy them. These sound like fussy crisps. Into the fussy queue. And a little can of water, because now water comes in cans because of the planet. But water should just be free.

You shouldn't be buying water in any way. It should just be free and available. This is all going in the fussy queue. Yeah, I mean... Unless you're getting a ham sandwich, a kit cat, some ready salted walkers, anything else, you're in the fussy queue. Okay, so you can only go in the main queue if you're buying ham. So that's anti-Semitic and Islamophobic.

to begin with, and then we can move on to all the other things it is. Getting the footy queue. Simon's special cue for bigots, the bigot queue, where you're just buying ham sandwiches, and then the other queue for others, people who you have othered. Keeping Britain simple. Meat and two veg. Very exacting, I want to say the exacting requirements of these coffees. What is so complex about these coffees that it's a thing?

I can't understand how this could possibly be such a drama. If a place sells various types of coffees The likelihood is the staff know how to make them It won't take that much longer at all Yes, I would say, chill out Just wait in the regular queue You don't have to go there Like you say, you can go to Tesco

Apparently not though Someone has said, like where was this No, it was a National Trust cafe type place Rather than a coffee shop But a National Trust cafe sounds rather like a coffee shop to me It sounds like a coffee shop It sounds like it'll be busy too Because it's the only place for all around

Yeah, you can't go to Tesco. Yeah, suck it up and wait. I'm sure it makes them feel superior to order the most intricate sounding coffee they can think of. I don't think, I think you're really overthinking this. I think people just like coffee. When I order an oat latte, I hope no one around me thinks I've done it to somehow get one over on them. I just want an oat latte, I like an oat latte, please. I say, I'll have a vanilla latte, please, and then they make a super-sillious look at the rest of the kids, waiting for them to applaud.

That's what I should have done to that woman who started that second cue. I'm having an oat latte, and at home I have a husband, and he is having a vanilla latte. And everybody clapped. I don't think people do any of this stuff to try and impress you. I think you think everyone cares about you far more than they do. Someone has said... Yeah, you're not Frasier going into the coffee house. You're not inexplicably in a busy coffee house.

where you don't have to wait and the camera follows you and there's always a free table for you and your brother. You are not the protagonist of real life. Then the O.P. said that they're not sure how to order a coffee in a cafe. They said, can I even just say a coffee please and get a coffee? Not really. No, that's letting people in sitcoms and soap operas go up to the bar and they're like, I'll have a pint and a gin.

Like, what? No. Beer me. What kind of beer? What are you on about? Yeah. If you went up to the bar, well, I mean, most places won't serve you. at the bar now, but if you tried to order just a pint, and you didn't even specify what that was, they would say this is unhelpful, this brief is too open. You need to narrow down the brief, you're wasting time, because now we're having to ask further questions. Yeah, your idea of the norm, when you say a coffee, you need to explain what your idea of the norm is to other people, because people don't share your ideals. You need to look beyond

yourself. Interestingly, OP, you're not the centre of the universe. People are ordering coffee because they want coffee and they're not doing it to impress you and they don't care that you think a coffee means a specific thing. Someone has said ditto in bars for people ordering cocktails. I just want a beer which will take seconds to pour and I'll have to wait for the barman and usually it is a man takes half an hour to pimp up the cocktail of the person in front of me. Sounds like you're going to a cocktail bar.

Yeah, it really does. It is a bit annoying when you're at like a pub and the pub has got a menu of cursory cocktails. and then there's three people in front of you and they all one-by-one order cocktails. That's a little bit annoying because that does take longer than if they'd ordered them all together.

But at the same time, you're just at the pub. What could you possibly be in a hurry to do at the pub? Yeah, it'd be nice to get back to the table and have a chat with your friends, but, you know, it's fine. It's irrelevant under these COVID times anyway. Yeah, because you just sit at your little table

and you use an app, and then it's not your concern who's doing what, because it's just appear. Exactly. It's just going back to talk to Simon someone. Like I've been doing all day every day for seven months. I'll take the time at the bar. Miss, you can't wait at the bar.

No, no, it's fine. I'll wait. No, you can't. I will wait. I'm in the background waving. Someone has said, why can't I order a white coffee no sugar without a bloody menu? Oh, white coffee no sugar. That sounds a bit fancy to me.

You can order a white coffee no sugar. You just say white coffee no sugar, but you need to accept that you're getting in the fancy cube. And then someone has said, used to shorten this further to a Julie Andrews, a white nun. That's not shortening it. That's really unhelpful. If I was in a coffee shop and the person in front of me was like, I'd have a Julie Andrews. Imagine how much explaining's going into that. And I'm like, I just wanted an oat latte. Yeah, I'd tell you, we don't do cocktails here. So Julie Andrews just sounds like a cocktail. Yeah. And then someone has said, my dad in Starbucks 10 years ago said,

I want a cup of coffee and no questions. All these people think they're so fucking salt of the earth, don't they? When they're actually just holding up the queue further than the people they're complaining about, who recognise the system and the environment for what it is. Rude. If you just want a cup of coffee that you've made to your specifications, stay at home. Just saying, I want whatever. I want, doesn't get.

I want, doesn't get. Yeah, is rude in and all of itself. Oh, it drives me wild when people ask for stuff and don't say please. Absolutely wild. Oh, it's so rude. And, like, people think they've said it in a nice tone, but believe me, especially if you're a man, you haven't. So, just say please.

Let's move on. Am I being unreasonable? Broken chair. Am I being unreasonable to take them to court? In 2007, I bought a very expensive recliner chair that came with a 15-year manufacturer's warranty, expiring in 2022. This year, the two springs supporting the underside snapped.

I contacted the company, who told me they don't make those kind of springs anymore, and I should look on eBay to try and find some second-hand ones and get a local repair man to fix it. And I'm being unreasonable to expect that the manufacturer is responsible for doing this, and not me. The warranty states, all frame parts and springs have a limited warranty against defects of material and workmanship for 15 years from date of delivery, and that reasonable repair or replacement of defective limited warranty parts

will be made within 90 days at no cost to you. I'm not sure what my consumer rights are here. Is it worth taking them to the small? claims court. I'm in England. Good to specify that they're in England. I'm going to end all of my messages like that from now on. All my tweets, all my WhatsApps, all my work documents, my handover notes, I'm in England. Brackets, I'm in England. I think if I ended all my tweets with I'm in England, it wouldn't take me long to absolutely hemorrhage followers, and I've hardly got any to begin with. I'm in Little English flag emoji. Oh, no. I would say like 30% of the tweets that I get,

in response to things I tweet, it's just people saying, why do you still live in England, though? Come on. Why do you hate yourself? I don't know. We don't know. We don't know. Every day I go on right move and such. Glasgow and then sigh wistfully. One day. So in 2007, this person bought a chair.

This English person bought a chair in 2007, and now they want to go to court because the springs broke. I mean, the manufacturer did want to it. Until 2022. too. I don't think it's what I wouldn't bother, but I do think they have a point. The worst person you know just made a good point.

I think they have a point, like a 15 year warranty, and if they say they'll replace it, then they should have kept replacement parts for 15 years. I can entirely see that, but at the same time, I hate this poster. Hmm, conflicting. See, I hate companies more,

I think, so I'm on the side of the little person, which unfortunately in this case might be a twat. Yeah, I mean, they do seem, they do seem little. They don't seem like the bigger person for sure. I guess, yeah, you have done the right thing and you've kept sight of who the real enemy is. Yeah, the real enemy is the companies. Yeah. That company that sold me that dodgy filing cabinet. Yeah, okay, but that was, that arrived dodgy. If it was 13 years from now, would you be... I stay mad. I stay mad for 15 years. You're not me, darling. I bear grudges for 13 years.

2007. Let me think I've got a grudge against from 2007. No, I don't. Even I don't have grudges from that long ago. I don't think I'd expect to keep furniture for 15 years. I think 15 years are the good innings. I'm curious as to why you haven't updated the aesthetic of your house in all that time. It sounds very drab.

No, maybe I'm assuming a level of privilege here. Just because someone's a twat on mumsnet doesn't mean they have the disposable income to be sorting out their chairs and replacing furniture. I'm being quite unfair there. I've made a lot of assumptions. It is very different if this is their comfortable piece of furniture and they do not have the means to fix it and they expect it that that would be covered.

Yeah, okay, I've come round to the worst person, you know, just made a good point. Fair enough, I've checked my privilege and even though I think this person is ridiculous, there are circumstances in which I understand. Yeah, this is Martin in Frazier again, back to Frazier. This is Martin in Frazier again with his recliner, which one is his one link to his independence

and he's passed before he came to live with his very, fussy son. Yeah, I couldn't live like that. He's a very folly son. I could not live like that. Big apartment, though. Yeah, I mean, and that level of fussiness, you'd probably like me to be able to live like that. For a DJ as well. Big apartment for a DJ who only works a couple of hours a day. Yeah, but also a qualified doctor. It's not like he did any doctor in there. He did a bit before he became a DJ. Yeah. A radio DJ as well. A local radio DJ. Oh, okay, yeah. I was going to saying not a club DJ where it's the gig economy and that's different, especially now. I mean, if he was a club DJ, he would not be working at the moment.

The reboot of Frasier where he has to be a club teacher. But he's still doing his show. It's the same stuff that he's doing, but he just does it at a nightclub. There's just people off their face on kale dancing. I'm listening. I'm listening. Drop the beat. that beat doctor I can't imagine being organized enough or details focused enough to keep hold of a warranty and then go looking for that information me and this person is just very different I think

that's all it comes down to I thought this was a really silly post but now I think it says more about me than it does about the OP yeah I think they have a point but I would also let it go it's been 15 years it's not been 15 years it's been 13 years yeah and you've got your you've got your money out of the recliner. Yeah. Give it up. So, should we hear from the thread? The warranty states that it arises out of defect.

How have you evidenced it was defective and not general wear and tear after 13 years of use? That's a good point. How have you evidenced it? The mum's net lawyers are on the case. Oh, yeah. Kicking it apart. So someone has said, I would interpret all frame parts and springs have a limited warranty against defects in material and workmanship for 15 years from date of delivery.

to mean that the parts have an expected lifespan of 15 years with normal wear and tear. It would be meaningless to offer a guarantee for defects at last 15 years if the guaranteed components are expected to break from wear and tear before that time. It will be difficult and expensive to prove the fault was due to a defect rather than you having used the chairs in a way that isn't normal wear and tear, though. I would ask them to pay for the cost of buying springs and repair. If you can't source the springs, you could try asking for two-fifteenths of the retail price for an equivalent chair.

It's probably not worth fighting if they refuse, though. It's not worth fighting. But by the time you've done that much fighting, then I would feel like maybe you do just have to see it out. Maybe you have to go to their doorstep. You have to start this fight in person. You have to wave a sword around. By the time you've got as far as all of this,

if they then refuse, why have you wasted all that energy? All or nothing. You bought a sword, which in itself could not have been inexpensive. Yeah, and then what's the warranty on that and what if that breaks? You're making banners and the time cost in making banners. It's quite heavy. Yeah. It was a very expensive chair, the type that used to last people a lifetime made by a major international corporation.

My dad still has his that was purchased in 1976. You made things to last that then, didn't they? What boring family? Made things to last. You imagine that family having lunch, they haven't seen each other in months. How's that chair? How's your chair coming along? has that chair treating you

oh yeah we've we've still got our chair from 1976 oh you should get on them about that warranty yeah i would take to the small claims court i can picture this family and i don't want to meet them they sound like the worst people a major international corporation the walt disney corporation corporation is a really weird way to describe a chair company what are you on about it sounds like you're thinking too much money into chairs

Yeah. And I know certainly with like shoes, it's worth paying a little more for good ones. Yeah. But they're still going to wear out. So there's a happy medium. Yeah, definitely. Between like a thousand pounds for a chair and a few hundred. I suppose we have an office chair that costs about 80 quid that is super comfy and I love it.

And then we have another one that costs 27 quid and it's really noisy and it's less comfy. And I am thinking I might replace the 27 quid one with an 80. So the 27 quid one was a false economy, but if anything happened to the one that was more expensive, I don't think I'd be that hit up about it. Again, there's a lot of privilege to this, but you know, whatever. But that's because I think 80 quid is like a normal amount to spend on a chair. This person's obviously spent thousands when an 80 quid chair probably would have been just as comfortable. Just buy an 80 quid chair. That's a nice, it's a high-end chair for what it is, but you don't need to invest any emotion into it. You're investing too much emotion in your chairs. It's the problem.

them here. I mean, it's great that you care so much about your bum, but grow up. Things don't last. Nothing lasts forever. Exactly. That's a lesson you've got to learn. Change is inevitable, and taking someone to the small claims court will not help with your deep-seated fear of change. The sun will die out. Every star in the sky will burn out in time. You've got to come to grips with that. There's no warranty for planet Earth. Ugh. I'm being unreasonable to think that Bridget Jones is a terrible role model for women. I quite like the films. They are funny, but they do make me cringe. Bridget overhears Mark Darcy slagging her off, calling her a spinster, a terrible sexist word, then ends up obsessed with him. She has a perfectly lovely

figure, but I'm led to believe that she is fat as she permanently struggles to lose weight, and become like her stick insect love rivals. She's quite inept and bumbling, adorable, but useless. That bloody song, all by myself. I know as women, we can probably all relate to Bridget on some level, especially her insecurities, but bloody hell, we should not want to be like her? Am I missing the point here? Are the films and books sexists, or are they trying to highlight sexism? Either way, Bridget Jones is anti-feminist. It's a very current take on movies. They're a good topical post, isn't it? Yeah, it's not like people have been discussing this since the Bridget Jones movies came out 10, 15 years ago, as long as the chair. Yeah, I think

they're older than the chair. Yeah, and like the chair, things do not last. Art does not last. It wasn't a defect, it's just wear and tear. Yeah, the feminist message has suffered a lot of wear and tear, because it's a kind of peak white feminism kind of message. Well, also, it is an adaptation of a Jane Austen book, isn't it? Yeah, basically. So that was never going to hold up in the long run, was it? Like, Jane Austen, great and everything, very much of her time, very much white feminism of its time. You know, I had the same thing when we went to see, we went to see that new version of little women.

And I was like, why don't these women have jobs? Okay, it's 2020. Joe had a job. Why aren't they going out getting jobs? Not all the little women. Well, they were quite little as well. They were very little. Too little to work, really.

Too little for the harsh realities of the workplace. Like me, I'm too little for the harsh realities of the workplace. Yeah, I don't understand. understand why they didn't go and get like apprenticeships. Yeah, sure. Do it an MVP. Yeah. Also, at what point were we supposed to think that Bridget Jones was a role model?

Why can't we just enjoy something for being enjoyable without assuming it's a role model thing? Yeah, you don't have to be Bridget Jones. I'm sure she was a role model for not all women, all white women of a certain socio-economic level back in, what, the 90s? Yeah, the books were written in the 90s. I think the films came out a little after that. Yeah. So it's very good for the kind of white women in the 90s who at the time were representative of all women. That's not the case anymore.

Oh, don't let the mums net as hear you say that because they'll say that you're a raising women. If you say there's more to life than Jess Phillips, they say that you're a raising women. Yeah, I don't even know if that's true though. Like, she was just a bumbling fun character. I think even at the time, I don't know. I don't know why this person's so up about it when they post. did this. It was the 22nd of October 2020. Well, Bridgett Jones Baby seems to be on, I don't know, five star every weekend or whatever. I think we've seen the whole of Bridget Jones Baby in the

10 minute chunks. Yeah, I think we have. Where we laugh at it for a bit and then decide it's not worth it. Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah, someone has said, this isn't exactly new, O.P., if you just discovered Bridgett. Have you discovered Bridget? Have you let Bridget into your life? Have you heard the good news about Bridgett? But in the year 2000, feminism was a thing, even way back then. Yeah, but it was different feminism. It was worse feminism. Yeah, this seems to expose a core tenet of Mum's Net,

which is that feminism remains unchanged. Yeah, completely. And has not evolved since, like, what, third wave, second wave feminism? I don't know. I don't engage with Mum's net's approach to feminism because it's hateful. But whatever, we're several waves past that by now. And then lots of people saying she was never supposed to be a role model. She's like Natalie Portman

She didn't intend to be a role model I never said I was a role model I think we should all just calm down about Bridget Jones and watch the Natalie Portman rap Yes Which is one of the finest pieces of S&L ever to happen One of the moments where they get it right

There are two of them, there's a Natalie Portman wrap And when Jim Kay was that fly on Mike Pence's head Oh no I was going to go with David Pumpkins Yes better Maybe less pumpkins what he's got a middle initial now someone has now said the book came out at a time when women were talking about having it all on women's mediums full of pieces

about how women were incredible and could achieve everything they wanted Bridget was supposed to be an antidote to that giving women permission not to be perfect and have everything together yes they're dated but that was the point yes we've moved past leaning feminism now have we though I feel like that's still quite a big thing well yeah yeah and then someone said did you know that Helen Fielding

based the Mr Darcy character on Keir Starma? What? I need more information about that. I thought she based the Mr. Darcy character on Mr. Darcy. Jane Austen based on Keir Starma. Keir Starma, the eternal one. That explains why his views are so weird because he's just been around forever.

Yeah, he's been here forever like Keanu Reeves. He was progressive at one point, but that point was several hundred years ago. Yeah, little women times. He thought that Joe Marsh should have. have a job. He thought that Beth doing that charity for the local people in need was very good and actually a better way to behave as a community than the government getting involved. This is quite the revelation, though.

Even though Beth died. Kirstama wanted Beth to die. This is quite the revelation, though. Is Mr. Darcy Hugh Grant or Colin Firth? Hmm. Hugh Grant's character is way too interesting to be Kirstama. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking. No, Colin Firth, I guess.

He seems a little bit cold in the only bit of Bridget Jones I've seen, which is like 10 minutes of Bridget Jones' baby. He's cold, he's stuffy, he's boring. Yeah, he's Keir Starma. He is Keir. Big Ker. Everyone's just saying, what are you on about? Like, the whole thread is people saying, what are you on about?

Yes, I'm no stranger to going back in time to do some cultural studies, but you've gone too far back and done cultural studies that was done at the time. Yeah, and then people talking about her weight, and again, I thought that was also because of the pressure on people to look a certain way. And it's not actually that they believe that she was obese, but obese is a horrible word. That's a word from the thread. Who knows? Let's not get into what Mumset think about body image, though, because MumsNet has two camps. One which is if you're a size 8, then you're fat, and one which is, if you're a size 12, then you've been starving yourself.

Yeah, I think we don't have to relitigate Bridget Jones is a takeaway. message. Exactly. Shall we do one more speed round? Yeah. I'm a being unreasonable, blanket freak. Yeah, you're a blanket freak. You wanted to do this in a blanket for.

Blanket freak. Am I being unreasonable, sharing photos of my baby with family? Yeah. No one wants to see that baby. Put the baby away. Put the baby back in the room for the babies. And am I being unreasonable? Grudy tradesmen or women.

Yeah, greedy tradesman, eating me out of house and home. Can I get you a cup of tea? Oh, if you've got a roast, I'll have that. Okay. I thought this was more about like overcharging for work, but I love the idea that it's just they're really taking a mile, up at an inch, take a mile. We're just going to have a five-minute break, love.

Could you do us up a quick roast? Okay. Why would you agree? Because they're the only ones who can fix the plumbing. I don't have the expertise. Oh, brilliant. Have you got anything you want to plug? Yeah, I covered the London Film Festival for Take1Cinema.net.

So have a look at my reviews on there and the reviews of the rest of the team. It was a weird festival, but there were some good films coming out of it. Great. I had a poem up on Neurological Lipmag. So go and look at that. if you want. The formatting only works if you look at it on a PC. If you look at it on a phone, you'll have to go on desktop mode. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense. But yeah, that was nice of neurological, thanks. Yeah, look at Helsey's poem. It's great. Yeah, great. Follow us

at Yombe Unreasonable on Twitter. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Bye.