Washington Babies
And another thing... (Pioneer Woman related)
Is anyone besides me starting to be completely over her?
I've been reading a few blogs from folks who don't exactly love her and it's starting to sour me on the whole Ree Drummond phenomenom. Am I the last one to realize not all is as it seems at the Drummond ranch?
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Re: And another thing... (Pioneer Woman related)
I took her off my google reader a few months ago. She just got to be too much for me. For me it had to do with the 410 posts in a week.
What do you mean by not all is as it seems? Give me the gossip!
Well...the ones that stick out in my head according to these sites:
She doesn't actually home school her own children.
In fact, she doesn't do much of anything around her own house.
She's super, super rude, according to local townsfolk.
She's no longer writing her own posts, ghost writers for her publisher are doing that.
She's removed all references to her brother being "a retard" at the request of her publisher (and if you go back and try to search her site for anythign like that, you will only find it in the URLs of the original posts).
She blantantly plagerizes recipes out of several 1950s/60s cookbooks.
Apparently the Drummonds are mega rich and Ladd's dad (that's funny to write) is notorious about mistreating locals and taking advantage of government subsidies. I was reading that Ladd and his dad are not well liked in the Oklahoma ranching community.
Here are a couple of the funnier websites about her:
https://www.thepioneerwomansux.com/
https://themarlborowoman.com/
https://www.pienearwoman.com/
Same here. I don't know why it bugged me but I just was anti PW because everyone else was so ga ga over her.
They think they're hawt stuff. I saw this last year and just went to find it again. This is her FIL:
https://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleID=070729_1_A1_hFour01672
Also, you know who else I am kind of over? Kelle Hampton from Enjoying the Small Things. I love looking at her photos, but SHE wears on me. She wrote a whole post about how her friend's child died sledding this winter and went on and on about how she dropped her coffee in the middle of Starbucks and ran home ... to take photos of her own children, who were still alive. It was kind of appalling how she made it all about HER.
I never got into her either. Just something about her posts... maybe it was TOO many pics? I don't need to see the pan with the butter, then the flour, then you stirring.... I get it.
Plus I feel like her recipes are kind of something anyone could come up with - just add more butter, cheese, cream to something your mom made. Or Paula Deen.
This as well.
Meh...
I kinda figured out who she was a long time ago and never really jumped on the bandwagon, though I do check in on her site from time to time. But I don't dislike her. I knew all about her family and their money so that was never like a Revelation to me. Who cares if her recipes are simple or from a 1970s cookbook. So are Rachael Rays. So are a ton of people on Food Network. Oh my gosh why are people so mad at the world? LOL
Quite honestly though, I just think haters are gonna hate. In particular people who design entire websites focused on tearing into another person - lame. So what if her publisher made her change things? Happens all the time. Getting a book deal is like going public on the stock exchange. You have to clean up your product line a bit to make it more palatable. You're going from a privately owned to public. It's like becoming corporatized. Plus she's got several things that are going to make her a target:
- She's rich. One of the things I dislike about our culture is the propensity for people to just outright not like someone because they have money.
- She's found success on the internet. There are lots of unhappy/inecure moms on the Internet who would kill for that. I also think some people don't think she deserves it because her family already had money. Meh.
- She's not doing anything particularly innovative or amazing (though I disagree because I think the fact that she gives away such fabulous stuff is what made her site take off). I think people despise the simplicity of what she's done (or not done according to these reports). They'd be better off channeling that hate towards doing something equally as simple and being recognized as a success for it.
If nothing else, I think Pioneer Woman is what it is. A well to do woman with lots of time on her hands and good story telling. Nothing more or less. She's found some success -- good for her. That should motivate all of us that if someone like that can become an overnight sensation, anyone can.Nykola - I don't hate her, I just get a kick out of reading those websites. I think, for me, the fact that she plays herself off as a little ole' ranch wife who homeschools and does all of these fantastic things for her family is what has me not digging her so much.
None of that is actually true.
I have nothing against her for being wealthy.
I have nothing against her for finding success.
I do think it's lame one doesn't write their own blog posts. If she's a writer, she should write them. To me, that's like an author hiring staff to write their novels. Otherwise, you're an editor, not an author. To my knowledge, my favorite authors write their own stuff. It's edited, sure....but they write their own stuff.
I look at Heather Armstrong (dooce.com) and I have no issue with her success whatsoever. And - she doesn't portray herself to be anyone but who she is.
This, totally. Well put, H. I could care less how much money she makes or that she's super successful -- hell, I have her cookbook -- but what is she is presenting is fraudulent. The post on the PWSux blog about the blogger's trip to where PW lives was eye-opening -- and yet not overtly surprising.
She rubbed me the wrong way in one of her very first TV appearances, on "The Bonnie Hunt Show," in late 2009. She sounded very fake in talking, and an old man kind of crashed into her segment (he was an audience member who tasted whatever she cooked and was all excited and Bonnie started talking to him) and PW looked pissed, like her thunder was being stolen.