Ruby Granger #11 A book a day will not keep the ignorance away

[buflesse]

It's such a shame. Ruby has everything going for her: attends a good uni, studys an interesting course, undivorsed parents, a sibling who although is a lot different than her personality wise cares for her (just read Martha's insta post for ruby's birthday), privilege, money, etc.

I understand that stuff could be going on behind closed doors and her life might not be as picture perfect as what I wrote above but from what we can see she has it pretty well and easy. Which is why I find it such a shame and feel sorry for her in a way. She wants to be the perfect student, daughter, sister, etc. But at the cost of her mental and physical health. I want to shake and yell at her about how lucky/privileged she is and to not take things for granted. But at the same time I just want to give her a hug because damn she needs a friend not just at the surface level. Someone who will call her out on her BS and be honest with her.

I get the sense that anyone who called out Ruby would be cut off or subjected to a temper tantrum.

 

[otravlen]

i really don’t mean this in a salty way (please don’t attack me lol) but i’ve just been wondering if people would still go so hard on her for being “weird” if she did happen to get diagnosed with autism

i was the “weird kid” in my class at school but then when i got diagnosed people weren’t as harsh?

(btw, i’m not excusing her ED baiting behaviour, i just mean her fashion sense etc)

 

[alligatorshades]

i really don’t mean this in a salty way (please don’t attack me lol) but i’ve just been wondering if people would still go so hard on her for being “weird” if she did happen to get diagnosed with autism

i was the “weird kid” in my class at school but then when i got diagnosed people weren’t as harsh?

(btw, i’m not excusing her ED baiting behaviour, i just mean her fashion sense etc)

EDs are also related to autism.

This is going to sound crappy but I’ll do my best to articulate it - has there been speculation that the performative nature of whatever she’s going through with her eating could be a ploy for later content? Like once she’s done with uni and can no longer rely on the studying content as much?

I know it's tempting to think that she is "doing it for attention" but I always think if that's true, wanting that much attention is a sign of a problem anyway. Seeing comments like "you're glowing" on her Instagram posts where she looks unwell is troubling too.

 

[jonjj]

long time lurker here but just wanted to say that i find it bizarre that in her finishing exams vlog they went to oxford and she raved about the waterstones there which is not even that big... and didn't even mention the massive blackwells down the street which IIRC is one of the biggest bookshops in the country? think it's safe to say she doesn't really know her bookshops very well

 

[lululaylah]

Just to put it out there too, it’s common for people to romanticise eating disorders and role play/ ‘try it on’, if you will, but sooner or later if you’re predisposed it will turn into a real disorder once you enter starved brain. It’s so easy to say that she has a responsibility to her viewers and that she’s wrong for triggering them, but at the end of the day an ED is a severe mental illness and the insight often is not there, especially before proper therapy and refeeding has begun. I’m not saying that it’s ok - far from it - but it’s not as black and white as ‘she should know better’. If she can’t climb out of this herself (and I expect at this point she can’t) then I do, however, wish a therapist would intervene for both Ruby’s sake, and the sake of her young viewers.

 

[gossip_guy]

i really don’t mean this in a salty way (please don’t attack me lol) but i’ve just been wondering if people would still go so hard on her for being “weird” if she did happen to get diagnosed with autism

I think that would definitely be a valid and understandable reason for some of her behaviour (her problems with social interaction, etc.) and if she announced her diagnosis, that would definitely change some of the things people would poke fun at, but wouldn't explain or excuse most of what she does.

Realistically though, she'll only announce that she has autism if an autism charity offers to pay her to advertise for them. But she'd also probably pretend to be an elderly black man if it meant another lucrative sponsorship deal, so who knows.

 

[Ilaariaa]

The solitary confinement thing is actually shocking. I know she was younger when she wrote that book, but the psychological effects of solitary confinement are genuinely awful. I was put in isolation several times at school because I was a ‘problem’ (read undiagosed adhd) child, and that was horrible, but solitary confinement??? Wtf?? I find that really strange. I think it really says a lot about her if she thinks that is an acceptable punishment for a 12 year old child lmao...

The more appropriate punishment according to Ruby would have been the pillory but it wouldn't have been historically accurate so she just chose the next best thing

 

[gossip_guy]

I know Bath - this is not an “independent” bookshop like she’s portraying. It’s a secondhand bookshop in the guildhall market! You can see the craft shop opposite. I can’t believe she didn’t go to toppings of Mr B’s… or mention where are actually went in her caption. Surely places like that would benefit from a shoutout if her ‘fans’ planned to emulate her and visit?

I imagine she only ventured inside to check if any copies of her own book has ended up there. If so, she'd have demanded to see a complete inventory of the store's sales since her book was published so she could prepare a full invoice for the revenue she felt she was owed. Hell, who am I kidding? She probably did that anyway.

I do wonder how she feels about second hand book sales of her own book though (not that I think there's many paperback copies around) knowing she'd make zero money from the sales and considering everything we know about how money-hungry she is.

 

[figgypud]

The solitary confinement thing is actually shocking. I know she was younger when she wrote that book, but the psychological effects of solitary confinement are genuinely awful. I was put in isolation several times at school because I was a ‘problem’ (read undiagosed adhd) child, and that was horrible, but solitary confinement??? Wtf?? I find that really strange. I think it really says a lot about her if she thinks that is an acceptable punishment for a 12 year old child lmao...

I think it's also quite telling that she sees helping out in the canteen as a terrible punishment, as if service work and catering are some kind of modern day workhouse (I've done service jobs and catering and they can be gruelling but Ruby has not experienced this so it feels much more like someone looking down their nose at it).

 

[CatCafe234]

I think it's also quite telling that she sees helping out in the canteen as a terrible punishment, as if service work and catering are some kind of modern day workhouse (I've done service jobs and catering and they can be gruelling but Ruby has not experienced this so it feels much more like someone looking down their nose at it).

As someone who has a family and work background in catering, a year or so working in catering would be a very good thing for Ruby.

long time lurker here but just wanted to say that i find it bizarre that in her finishing exams vlog they went to oxford and she raved about the waterstones there which is not even that big... and didn't even mention the massive blackwells down the street which IIRC is one of the biggest bookshops in the country? think it's safe to say she doesn't really know her bookshops very well

I wondered this - why would you go to Oxford and visit a chain bookshop like Waterstones and ignore Blackwells, which has the largest academic book-room in Europe (apparently). I love Blackwells and make a beeline for it whenever I’m in Oxford.

 

[gossip_guy]

As someone who has a family and work background in catering, a year or so working in catering would be a very good thing for Ruby.

It would definitely be character-building for her, but given how she portions food and her general lack of hygiene where dishes and utensils are concerned, I wouldn't let her near a food service role.

 

[CatCafe234]

It would definitely be character-building for her, but given how she portions food and her general lack of hygiene where dishes and utensils are concerned, I wouldn't let her near a food service role.

Very true - I would kind-of like to watch Ruby doing even a basic food hygiene certificate, I suspect it would be revelatory.

 

[catsandteabooks]

I’ve actually been wondering about Ruby being autistic because I’m autistic and one thing I struggle with often is getting the right word for things/I massively mispronounce words, even if I know what the word I want is/sounds like, sometimes I really struggle to say them and articulate myself (I don’t know if this is actually a trait, it’s just something I know me and several of my autistic friends struggle with). It could also explain Ruby’s obsessive proofreading: I do that too in order to make sure there are no mistakes in the work in terms of the wrong words etc.

 

[Deeznutslol]

I think it's also quite telling that she sees helping out in the canteen as a terrible punishment, as if service work and catering are some kind of modern day workhouse (I've done service jobs and catering and they can be gruelling but Ruby has not experienced this so it feels much more like someone looking down their nose at it).

I know right, everyone should work in the catering industry at some point, in fact any customer facing minimum wage service job teaches you a lot of really important skills. What the fawk kind of skills does Ruby even have? She can (badly) edit YT videos? She can copy out passages of text from old books onto the computer? Brilliant!

 

[Lola123]

I wondered this - why would you go to Oxford and visit a chain bookshop like Waterstones and ignore Blackwells, which has the largest academic book-room in Europe (apparently). I love Blackwells and make a beeline for it whenever I’m in Oxford.

Because the downstairs or upstairs can’t remember which one is just for children….. that’s why.

 

[gossip_guy]

long time lurker here but just wanted to say that i find it bizarre that in her finishing exams vlog they went to oxford and she raved about the waterstones there which is not even that big... and didn't even mention the massive blackwells down the street which IIRC is one of the biggest bookshops in the country? think it's safe to say she doesn't really know her bookshops very well

It physically pains me to say this but, in Ruby's defence (ack, it stings!), I think she's been to Blackwell's - she has a bookmark from there visible in her latest Insta story (I thought it might be a patented 'Ruby post following a Tattle mention' "coincidence", but it looks like she posted it a little while before anyone mentioned Blackwell's. Very close timing though!)

Why she didn't mention or discuss it at all is another question entirely - her filming a series where she tours unique, notable and independent bookshops around the country and dropping in on places off the beaten path when she travels would be a great video series idea all around, but would take more effort than just churning out a low-effort vlog, so it's naturally off the table.

I’ve actually been wondering about Ruby being autistic because I’m autistic and one thing I struggle with often is getting the right word for things/I massively mispronounce words, even if I know what the word I want is/sounds like, sometimes I really struggle to say them and articulate myself (I don’t know if this is actually a trait, it’s just something I know me and several of my autistic friends struggle with). It could also explain Ruby’s obsessive proofreading: I do that too in order to make sure there are no mistakes in the work in terms of the wrong words etc.

Her being undiagnosed autistic is a definite possibility and a lot of people have noticed traits in her that suggest she might be on the spectrum. It would explain a lot about her.

I don't think she actually proofreads at all though, as much as she pretends to - there's definitely no evidence in her work that she gives it a second glance once she's done.

 

[Lola123]

It physically pains me to say this but, in Ruby's defence (ack, it stings!), I think she's been to Blackwell's - she has a bookmark from there visible in her latest Insta story (I thought it might be a patented 'Ruby post following a Tattle mention' "coincidence", but it looks like she posted it a little while before anyone mentioned Blackwell's. Very close timing though!)

You get that bookmark any time you order online from them! So could be an old one she has/has

 

[gossip_guy]

You get that bookmark any time you order online from them! So could be an old one she has/has

Then I take back what I said. Ruby, you're a fraud! (Waits for a picture of her browsing Blackwell's to coincidentally appear on her feed. "Just found this in my photo roll and forgot all about it!")

 

[CatCafe234]

You get that bookmark any time you order online from them! So could be an old one she has/has

Yup, I have quite a few of those from ordering online. I added a few more recently because of one of the Blackwells eight-hour sales, which are fab (shameless plug ).

 

[yayadumpling]

I think it's also quite telling that she sees helping out in the canteen as a terrible punishment, as if service work and catering are some kind of modern day workhouse (I've done service jobs and catering and they can be gruelling but Ruby has not experienced this so it feels much more like someone looking down their nose at it).

i LOVED helping in the canteen as a kid lol. it was so fun. none of my friends or myself would have seen this as punishment at all! or do i just not see it as punishment as i went to public school with a middle class background? lol