The Milf Diet will put you off lunch – which is a start, right?

[boston bean]

Mums, feeling a bit low? Let The Milf Diet help you rediscover your sexuality – but please, don't call it a feminist choice

Today I'd like to talk about the fourth wave of feminism. But don't worry, that's for later. First I'm going to talk about Milfs. You've heard of the term Milf, right? Of course you have, everyone has. Even Milfs know it, which goes to show how well-worn the term must be, what with mothers generally being so passe and unattractive. Yet some rare few, miraculously, slip through the ugly net and know how to do things like buy jeans and use acronyms. They're so modern, those Milfs.

But for those poor unfortunates who fail the Milf test, don't cry into your M&S cardigan. A new book has just been published, The Milf Diet, which promises to help mothers improve their "Milfification" and to provide succour to all women aged 30 to 50 "who have been waiting the last two thousand years to get our sexuality back". Two thousand years! It's amazing any conception happened at all!

An interview with the author, Jessica Porter, ran in a British broadsheet on Monday and was as full of baloney as the diet itself is full of wholegrains, which, Porter claims Gillian McKeith-style, "literally have intelligence" – a claim that begs the snark, "Well, comparatively, perhaps."

If you are desirous of losing weight seek out this interview, because while I cannot say from experience whether fermented foods really will make you resemble Halle Berry (Porter has an obsession with celebrities that seems ever so slightly at odds with her keen insistence that Milfs work on "their higher self&quot , I can say for certain that it will put you off your lunch. Which is a start, right?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/05/milf-diet-put-you-off-lunch

To general readers and or juries who may be called to adjudicate this post, this is an OP ed from the guardian, for feminists to discuss in this group. The OP ed is critical of the MILF Diet.

Feminists should be allowed on DU to discuss the usage of this acronym, by actually spelling out the acronym.

To all who want to post, be sure to click the link and read the entire OP ED.

[seabeyond]

1. omg.. this article is funny as hell.

saying "down there" being all that as a "sexy" feminist. totally buying into the reinvent self for man to proclaim empowerment of self. geez.

that does not mean every choice a woman makes is feminist in itself.

this cannot be said enough.

Ditto for a woman being judged purely on her desirability.

fuckable. where does this come from, i wonder.

as far as your comment clarifying the use and reasoning for discussion in a feminist group. good. i did get a post hidden actually saying what milf means, as opposed to being one of the boys playing with the term in giggles and chuckles.

not only is MILF NOT a feminist choice, it reinforces the patriarchy, privilege, entitlement of men.

[zazen]

2. henceforth, we should promote the acronym DILF

I'm sure this is obvious to most feminist readers, but I'll restate it for clarification:

1. MILF implies the male gaze, presumably of a younger male, but not necessarily so
2. MILF implies that wanting to have sex with a mother (or woman post-30) would be aberrant and thus warrants a special designation when an exceptional woman meets some male-defined criteria
3. Mainstream (non-feminist) middle-aged and older men enjoy a presumption that they can date women 10-30 years their junior, and consider dating women their own age or older a sacrifice or at least an act of generosity for which older women should be extremely grateful.
4. We don't have a term like DILF because the culture (namely, men) is terrified that young women in particular might get honest about their sexual judgment of men who are 20 plus years their senior and are pursuing them.
5. The acronym DILF implies that young women have a sexual judgment, a gaze, that is worth respecting on its own terms, and that their noticing that an older man might be attractive to them would be _an aberration_ from a general assumption that these younger women don't find older men attractive.
6. Henceforth, I'm going to use DILF in a matter of fact way around any man who assumes he can date much younger women, because it will undermine in a small way his sense of entitlement and remind him that he has a body that can be as subject to judgment (and ridicule) as the middle-aged and older women who are rendered sexually invisible in this culture.

PS: Before anyone calls me a bitter rejected woman, I'm called a MILF on a weekly basis. And while it's flattering on some level, frankly, the idea of having sex with a young person who could have been in nursery school with my children is just gross. I feel a need to nurture younger people, not sc**w them.

[seabeyond]

3. good post. what really turned me off, even though all your points are right on,

was seeing these pimply faced, punk ass BOYS judging a grown woman on fuckable. i would look at these BOYS and think, who the fuck are you, to make a comment like that to me.

i could not get past that, hanging with teenage boys and younger (raising boys).

[BainsBane]

5. I believe one already exists

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=filf

[redqueen]

4. lol, brilliant!

wholegrains, which, Porter claims Gillian McKeith-style, "literally have intelligence" – a claim that begs the snark, "Well, comparatively, perhaps."

Great op ed, bb. Thanks for sharing it.