Peachy
Cristina from BrontëBlog sent us this link and begged us to snark it. Happy to oblige for a fellow litblogger.
Peaches Geldof, the daughter of Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates, for some inscrutable reason is considered worthy of profiling in the Times. Well, she probably has the same qualifications for celebrity as Paris and Nicole; but unfortunately for Peaches, that means the poor child’s ill-informed sixteen-year-old opinions have been committed to paper (and cyberspace) for all time. We pity her, really, from the bottom of our dried-up spinster heart.
She’s bright, yet unintellectual, with a gift for the punchy phrase. Jane Austen, for instance, is “boring feminist crap”. What’s wrong with being feminist? “I don’t like feminists. I like the mild feminists — go for it — but not crazy I-hate-men feminists.”
So Jane Austen hates men?
The creator of Fitzwilliam Darcy hates men.
The creator of George Knightley hates men.
The creator of Captain Frederick Wentworth hates men.
The creator of Henry Bloody Tilney hates men.
We gaze upon the future of Western Civilization, Gentle Readers, and we tremble.
But, you know, if Jane Austen isn’t Peaches’ cuppa, really, we have no problem with that. So whose work does she like to read? Why, Bret Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho, in which the torture of a series of women is described in minute and loving detail. But hey! Jane Austen hates men!
Do you want to learn something about American culture, Peaches honey? Step over here.
No, closer.
Cloooooser.
Look! It’s a baseball bat! The Great American Pastime! Bring me some peanuts and Cracker Jack! But this isn’t an ordinary Louisville Slugger, oh no. It is, in fact, the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness!
*WHACK!*
Did you know that man-hater Jane Austen mentioned “base ball” in one of her novels? No?
*WHACK!*
Guess you know now.
(And Cristina answers from the Brontëite point of view.)
March 14th, 2006 at 6:31 am
OMgoodness. Of course, she probably hasn’t really read any Jane Austen. Her teachers should consult I Read It but I Don’t Get It by Cris Tovani.
March 14th, 2006 at 7:02 am
Oh Mags! You made my day.
Honestly. Trying to think of witty and appropriate Austen quote, but I’m too busy goggling over the fact that she thinks “the creator of Henry Bloody Tilney hates men.”
!!!!
Well, her name is Peaches….
March 14th, 2006 at 8:45 am
This is just hilarious…my goodness the girl is completely clueless!!! She needs some schooling
March 14th, 2006 at 10:03 am
How did Jane Austen and feminist end up in the same sentence here? It could be argued, of course, in a lengthy discussion or well-thought-out paper/article, that Jane was something of a proto-feminist, or a foremother of some kinds of feminism. But where did a clueless 16 yr old get the idea that Jane Austen was a capital-F Feminist aka man-hater? Yikes. Yould think Geldof would want his daughter to engage in some critical thinking before sitting for an interview. Then again, maybe Geldof wanted an ill-educated, don’t-bother-thinking-before-opening-your-mouth kind of girl for a daughter, and so named her after a sexually connotative fruit instead of respecting her enough to give her a real name. Humph.
March 14th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
“Root, root, root for the home team…” Give her a whack for me, Mags.
Am trying to figure out how in the name of all that’s holy she could possibly think JA was a virulent feminist. How? *mind boggles* Does she have her mixed up with Mary Wollstonecraft? Good grief.
March 14th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
I loved it! I didn’t expect less from you
Thanks!
March 14th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
I’m with Sophia and Amy. Here I thought JA was a wussy girly girl who thought the only proper pursuit for a woman was a man. I mean, aren’t all her books about how women can’t be happy until they’ve been married off? Curious.
March 14th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Oh dear. Sounds like Peaches has a lot of growing up to do. Mind you, she is a sixteen year old in a post Gloria Steinem world, where most young women enjoy the fruits of labours past, without any genuine or meaningful insight into exactly what it took to achieve the freedom her generation now takes for granted; the sacrifices made, the battles waged.
And she aims to be a writer one day? Whoa. Good luck.
I’ve no idea how she arrived at the conclusion Austen hates men; that she has however, imo, speaks volumes. For it sounds almost quasi-misogynist, the use of her term feminist carrying an implied derogatory connotation. Leading me to suspect she’s bought into the patriarchal backlash which saw the appropriation of self-empowerment by male marketing directors and consequently the rise of bubbleheads like Paris Hilton and her ilk. I wonder if she’s even read Austen’s novels? Or perhaps it’s simply a case of subtext & context, and failing in her youth to fully grasp what she’d read?
She also sounds (I read the linked interview) like she’s parroting views held by others and repeating them while inserting her own limited understanding of things; ie: a typical sixteen year old trying to sound older and smarter than she is. And hey, who hasn’t been there, eh?
At the same time and I’m hardly a University graduate (I went to Art School) I read Austen and Bronte when I was 16 yrs old. Heck, I read everything from Milton’s Paradise Lost to Batman comic books! And I still understood what I was reading. So what’s her excuse? Perhaps instead of commenting upon the plight of the poor and why you don’t begrudge them stealing an old cel phone Peaches, you might consider volunteering your time at some worthwhile local charity; say for children with learning disabilities.
NOTE: American Psycho. I’ve read it. Believe it or not, it was supposed to be a dark ironic socio-political commentary on the moral bankruptcy of America in the 1980’s as personified by the psychotic protagonist Patrick Bateman. But Bret Easton Ellis spent way too much time on the graphic nature of Patrick’s crimes (so as to underscore the public’s fascination with hearing gory details by giving them to us ad nauseum until we saw what that fascination said about us) and consequently his underlying themes were mostly lost. It took a female director and screenwriter - Mary Harron - to rescue the story from its hamfisted failings. And to her credit, she did. For while I totally hated the book, I absolutely loved the film. Christian Bale is fearless and deserved an Oscar (imo.) It’s a case where the film is truly better than the novel. However that’s because every frame of it is told from a Feminist point of view. Patrick Bateman is clearly seen now as a blank cypher embodying all that is truly reprehensible and pathetic.
And in terms of feminism, despite Ellis’ hamfisted approach, in truth, American Psycho is actually far more “white upper-class men suck” in its sensibilities than anything you could ever project onto the likes of Jane Austen - even wrongly so! And consequently again, I get the impression that Geldof’s daughter is simply thinking out loud without really understanding half of what she’s saying. Which is an infamous rite of passage called adolescence; chuckle!
She’ll learn. Hopefully, the process won’t take place entirely in public. As people tend to carve that stuff in stone and you end up dragigng it around with you long after you’ve eventually clued in. Maybe her Dad needs to tap her gently on the shoulder and tell her that? If you say it to a reporter, it will follow you to the grave.
March 14th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
I had thankfully never heard of Peaches in my life before (I’m in Australia).
I don’t mind what she thinks about Jane; it would be more degrading to JA if someone called “Peaches” loved her work. As it is… the comment “boring feminist crap” is so ignorant that it deserves no consideration from intelligent people, and I will endeavor to erase Peaches from my mind.
March 15th, 2006 at 3:51 am
Someone has to have the genius of Oscar Wilde in endevouring to amuse the audience with “the natural fruit of ignorance”.This girl definitely made me cry with it.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
As a 16 year old teenager I really despair of comments of such gaping ignorance like this that give us a bad name. Ah well, perhaps someone will now see to it that she gets to actually read a Jane Austen novel, which i can only suspect she hasn’t from her notion of Jane Austen being some deranged man hating feminist.
March 15th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
(Kelly) “As a 16 year old teenager I really despair of comments of such gaping ignorance like this that give us a bad name. ”
Kelly, you give us hope that Jane Austen will indeed be celebrated for at least another generation or two!
March 16th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Kids like her are a dime a dozen on Livejournal etc. She just had the misfortune of being published.