Clementine Ford

[skeptical_sausage]

I worry about the influence she has on young ones and all the stuff she was doing with derm lab posting story after story about the expensive body mods she was having done. This new campaign also feels like public relations to try correct her reputation with the sisterhood because she is being called out by Indigenous and WOC writers for lifting their work. She doesn't have a good reputation for supporting women locally I know that much


---

nothing about Clementines work even touches the surface with systemic issues it just feels like a content stream on rotation and takes away the focus from feminists on the ground doing real advocacy work or fighting to change policies and legislation. I think she does do more harm than good. I think she was saying some good stuff a few years ago that not many feminist voices were yet talking about in media in Australia but she has lost her way and is stuck in the hate all men phase and seems to be running out of ideas. Most of my mob are in Coffs and some in Sydney and our communities are battling with severe housing crisis while Clementine telling women to leave their husband's, screams of blindsided privilege to me.

Late to the party on this thread - only just realised it existed! - but THANK YOU for saying this. The earlier years of my career were spent on advocacy for women facing social issues (DV, homelessness, teen pregnancy, SA etc) - my role was around policy making and advocating for reform through legislation. It was a tough fucking gig. Mentally, physically. A lot harder than posting a shit loads of ‘facts and research’ on Instagram stories all night long. Ford has ZERO tact with her delivery and she borders on being a bully. Anyone who thinks otherwise, I urge you to disagree with her on something. It’ll take her 0.3 seconds until she fires back with a barrage of condescending insults, hidden behind her overuse of big words to position herself as an intellectual. She likes to position herself as an ally, a thought leader and an expert on all things feminism - she brings nothing but rage and division to the very spaces she claims to support - I 100% agree that she does more harm than good. Unpopular opinion I’m sure, but my experience working alongside and for vulnerable women underpins my perspective on her and despite my attempts to understand her POV (and despite agreeing with some aspects of her work), I can not support this woman.
---

Clementine Ford is a performative blue tick feminist who is willing to throw women under the bus to stay popular & relevant. She can get in the bin.

 

[slayer123]

“I am 100% unequivocally pro Palestian” ok what does that mean though Clem? What do you want to see happen? The complete destruction of Israel where 7 million people have to go somewhere else or die? It’s easy to just shout free Palestine without explaining what that actually means. My heart breaks for the people of Palestine but Hamas is not the answer. She’s posting dms arguing with people about whether or not they beheaded babies, they definitely murdered babies does it really matter exactly HOW they did it? They rule with Sharia Law and have the same belief system as the Taliban, an interesting organisation for a ‘feminist’ to be in support of. To her, every single piece of information Hamas puts out is a fact but every single piece of information the Israeli government puts out is a lie. There is no nuance whatsoever.

It’s funny you’re concerned about the 7 million israeli colonial settlers, but have no regard at all for the native Palestinians who have had their homes stolen so Israel can illegally expand their borders, been killed (young babies up to elderly), displaced and thrown into open air prisons living with daily crimes against humanity at the hands of the IDF and with very few human rights.

On your question about what a free Palestine looks like - it would entail:
- An immediate ceasefire
- Destroy the separation wall
- End genocide on Palestinians, end Apartheid conditions
- Demand Israeli occupiers release 5000+ political hostages (that yes, include children who are kept in military prisons and cut off from contact with their families and legal representation. Abuse at the hands of IDF is rife in these prisons)
- Hamas release 200 hostages
- Demand basic human rights for Palestinians - End the Occupation
- Israel to answer to and be held accountable for 65 international war crimes as verified by the United Nations
- End Extremist Zionist ideologies, White
Supremacy and propaganda

The fact that you’re okay with Israel outright lying about beheaded babies to inspire a global anger leading to a genocide in Gaza and not wondering what else they’re lying about is unbelievably naive of you. Meanwhile babies are genuinely being blown apart by the thousands in Gaza, but I guess that’s okay cos they’re doing it via indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas? Also, it’s actually not been proven at all that the hospital bombing was self fire. There has been no official statement released from any credible body that the bombing was definitely not Israel and of course Israel won’t allow any experts in to assess the situation. I think you’re forgetting Israel proudly claimed responsibility for the hospital bombing originally and then backtracked. This was not the first hospital they’ve bombed, but it did have the largest death toll. FYI just in case you haven’t been keeping up, they’ve also bombed multiple UN schools, churches & mosques as well as residential buildings filled with families sleeping. They’ve also bombed civilians as they try to escape as instructed. They’ve bombed ambulances, journalists. All of these are war crimes.

Taking all of this into account, I’m totally okay with Clem using her platform to speak up for a people who are being absolutely massacred while the media regurgitates Israeli propoganda. I don’t always agree with her, but in this instance, she has all my respect and admiration.

 

[vintagevinyl]

I really hope this is the (much-deserved) ending of Clementine Ford as a hero to the left or to women. She's always been an aggressive and hateful bully with strong narcissistic tendencies, this is now just next level.

 

[therealsmilf]

I'm with Clem on this one, his reels were gross and he's just another sexist man who thinks these 'jokes' are funny

Clementine is consistent at least - it's the always the same stuff she fires up about and I'm with her on this one.

Laura says she's done a podcast episode about weaponised male incompetence - so her and Matty can't possibly be making a sexist stereotype reel "guys we did a podcast about it"

Which just proves that Lauran and Matty lack the education and nuance that Clementine can bring to these.kinds of discussions.

 

[aussieanonforlyf]

I don’t know. I’m really conflicted. I think she’d actually get better profile putting out some mild posts once a week and focussing on other stuff altogether. Even for her biggest fans, her hyper fixation must be exhausting - I think her passion for the topic and her horror at the situation is genuine.

The Andrew bolt article this morning on the WhatsApp saga and the subsequent comments are just so gross. Full of half truths and hyperbole and so so sexist. The comments make it clear that his readers now all believe Clementine herself put together the files and released them. He is a vile misogynist pig of a man - with people like that in mainstream media I feel truly truly sad.

I’ve read hundreds of the pages of the WhatsApp messages. Some of it is terrible. Honestly. Those Thornbury people can get in the bin. And the flat out attempts at silencing ANYONE who disagrees with the pro-Israel stance are horrendous. The hypocrisy of them now claiming doxxing when they were actively working to cancel people who don’t agree with their views is disgusting. On the other hand, there are people in there who argued (mildly but did) against comments like ‘she is a self hating Jew’ - I saw some good comments from Rita Erich for example. And I heard someone say that a friend of theirs had been added and didn’t even know as they had notifications turned off. Or they got added and then left. Which is all possible. Ginger Gorman - said nothing bad that I saw but I guess stayed in a group listening and not speaking up (and her reaction I think has been a bit poor - zero accountability, lots of justification). But do they deserve death threats and their children threatened? Absolutely not. On the other hand - neither does Clementine Ford who is getting it daily it appears. Photos of her kid sent to her. Letters in her mailbox. I can’t quite believe that she keeps going to be honest.

So yeah - I’m very conflicted!

 

[mindlessness]

There's something rather patronising about this group of WOC being 'co-curated' by a white woman isn't there?

 

[Pickoneforme]

What is happening is awful, but some of us have signed contracts that have clauses such as "will not participate in public discourse relating to politics, war, controversial issues" etc. There are so many things I talk about privately with the people in my life, but can't discuss on even my private social media because it isn't worth risking losing my job over. I have bills to pay, you know. Like what does she want us to do? What about the people who just do not want to weigh in because they don't have the mental or emotional bandwidth to get into fights with people online? That's enough reason not to weigh in.

 

[Michy02]

I’ve never ever clicked on Mamamia for hard hitting news and deeply researched intelligent articles. I just see it as a magazine but online. The articles are 3 paragraphs max and it’s usually just news.com.au or Daily Mail content regurgitated or it’s a sponsored post of some fluff piece that someone has sent in that’s been posted (for free or for what $50?)

The women of Australia are intelligent enough to get their news source elsewhere. Give us some bloody credit. I’m so sick of Clem using “white feminist” as an insult when SHE IS ALSO ONE TOO. Makes her look delusional.

 

[gooridoori]

Disagree, she has a platform and could help share important information. It shouldn’t be on the shoulders of First Nations people to do all the work here.

It’s complicated and as a First Nations woman I personally would be pissed off if she publicly weighed in on this one

 

[therealsmilf]

And she posted that tribute to her mother and talked about how she friends over - which is completely fine and something she SHOULD be doing. But she's asking how people can be going on with life as normal and we shouldn't be doing any regular life stuff until Palestine is free, but then she has a dinner party with her friends in honour of her mother.

Social media is her job - yes writing is too, but posting on IG is how she generates income. I can't be on Instagram posting and replying to comments and researching for more posts all day because I'm doing my paid job. I still care about Palestine and I donate to relevant aid organisations, and for the most part, I fundamentally agree with her position and I really dislike Mia Freeman. But she is just so incredibly hard to follow these days.

 

[Squelch]

Clementine and Lauren DuBois are both consistently gaining followers with their Israel-Palestine posts. Lauren is up over 7000 over the last month. I absolutely think it’s about clout. Every one of those followers will be monetised.

This is one of the most complex and intractable political problems in the world but you wouldn’t know it from reading their posts. Nuance doesn’t generate outrage and clicks, it doesn’t attract followers.

Clementine published a woman’s banking details because she disagreed with her. Can you imagine how she would have reacted if someone had done the same to her? She can’t cope with a Instagram account criticising her but she abuses other people constantly. Lauren Dubois is doing martyred videos about how all the abuse is worth it because she just cares so much and “you guys know I never mind people disagreeing with me” (fucking lol). Clementine is publishing a photo of copies of her book in Kmart with barely noticeable ripped covers and telling everyone without evidence that it was done by “pro-genocide warmongers” followed by, of course, a link to purchase her book.

Both of them are acting like they’re the main characters in this conflict and it’s sickening.

 

[mindlessness]

Maybe I'm silly but surely the better option would be to just ignore Mia and Mamamia completely? Mamamia is a bad website and the whole 'what women are talking about' is dumb but they've been shit for years. Like who has ever turned to them for thoughtful coverage about anything?

Answering my own question a bit I think Clementine does just really like having someone to scold/criticise. It's basically what she's built her career on.

 

[melfish]

It has strong 80s mom vibes

 

[cashedupbogan]

Bingo.

For 1 Taylor Swift, there are over 100 male billionaires flying in private jets as well

 

[Blueshirts]

I don’t think it’s going to air

Ganticdotco posted on Instagram a few days ago that he had insider information it was being rushed through editing to go on air.
I hope the unemployed guys actually become unemployed. They seem like major incels. It seems like a strange collaboration for Clementine to agree to.

 

[aussieanonforlyf]

Look, I may not agree with the way Clementine is going about things, and she is verging on unhinged. However, Mia freedman’s sheer hypocrisy is next level today, and goes to prove one of the points Clementine has been making. That women like Mia (not all women but women like Mia, who literally claim to represent women and be front and centre in modern feminism) - that she can send an email about Bondi. LITERALLY saying she cares because ‘he took the lives of those six people who were just like us.’ Just like us.

Not like those nasty people on the other side of the world.

“ and yet I lie awake at night and imagine them.”

But no words for the thousands and THOUSANDS of children who have been killed.

 

[@whyamihere]

If someone she hated - i.e. Mia Freedman - had pulled something like this she would have been all over it. Weeks of outrage would have ensued from Clem and her followers. When it's Clem, though, suddenly she's far too important dealing with matters of state to address anyone's concerns.

I cannot stand Mia Freedman but you’re absolutely right. I’m beyond disappointed in Clem Ford both for participating in this and for still not apologising.

 

[savefloss]

I am not a Clem fan, but I can appreciate the way she can absolutely destroy someone

 

[golirogo]

Yep, she just shuts it down with "because I like it".

The double standards. Maybe some women like being married, Clem.

 

[atome74]

Antonella is AWFUL but where's the lie in this:

"Actually, I’m not sure you could get any whiter than Ford – a queer, bleached blonde agony aunt whose father ran for One Nation in Queensland"