Sarah ManavisVerified account

Totally get your frustration, but I’m putting the voices of women and non-binary people on display here based on their experiences – not writing a piece of poorly thought through conjecture.

Ok, welI think it's really interesting and important to hear new points of view, and I really liked that you included non-binary people - those are two aspects of the article I really liked. So thumbs up there.

The bit I'm not getting is why you think this stuff is feminist. Is it because women like it? Or because it helps them deal with the pressures of the patriarchy? I think I disagree but just trying to make sure I understand you.

So I’m not saying that I *personally* feel that way, but the people I spoke to do. They felt that the patriarchy + our capitalist society restrains them and many of them didn’t want to take time to cook/think about nutrition. They feel this helps them subvert that social pressure

Do you see your job as to report what people tell you without any critical analysis or framing?

No obviously not - which is why I spend a couple paragraphs going “yeah, uh, meal replacements can lead to a lot of physical and mental health problems”.

But no paragraphs on whether it's *really* feminist to do something potentially damaging because of patriarchal pressures, despite the headline being "this dangerous thing as a feminist act"

It’s really not dangerous and that headline would be misleading. And a lot of women and non-binary people see it as a way to subvert tasks sexistly coded as “female”, and I reported on that with appropriate caveats, linking to and speaking about where it can be unhealthy.