Jack Monroe (born 1988) is a British writer, journalist and activist who has campaigned over poverty issues, particularly hunger relief, and has published a blog and several books of "austerity recipes". As a non-binary person, Monroe rose into prominence for writing a blog titled A Girl Called Jack, and has since written for publications such as The Echo, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. Monroe has campaigned alongside various British charity organisations.
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Early life and career
Monroe was born in Southend-on-Sea to David Hadjicostas and Evelyn (née Beatty), a former nurse. David Hadjicostas is of Greek-Cypriot heritage, and served in the British Army for seven years and in the fire service for 30 years; he was awarded the MBE in 2007. Monroe has three siblings.
Described as coming from a working-class background, Monroe passed the 11-plus examinations and attended Westcliff High School for Girls, a grammar school in Westcliff-on-Sea, before leaving at age 16, "bullied and disillusioned", with insufficient GCSEs to progress to A-level (either 4 and a half or 7, according to different sources). Monroe left the family home and began working in a chip shop, before going to work as a call handler for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, a well-paid job which she enjoyed. After having a child, Monroe was unable to arrange the work around childcare responsibilities, and the fire service was unwilling or unable to make adjustments to the working pattern to make continued employment feasible. Monroe resigned the post after serving between 2007 and 2011. It was at this point she changed her name from Melissa Monroe to Jack Monroe - "Jack" being short for "Jack of all trades", her nickname. In an interview with The Telegraph, Monroe noted that "M Monroe is a bit of a handle."
Monroe spent the following 18 months on benefits and looking for work, and moved from relative affluence to poverty and financial hardship. Monroe came to prominence in the media through writing the blog A Girl Called Jack, sharing cheap recipes created as a single parent with a young child, and aiming to provide family meals for less than £10 per week. In December 2015 the blog was renamed to Cooking on a Bootstrap.
In 2012 Monroe became a weekly columnist for The Echo, a south Essex daily newspaper, and in February 2013 was taken on by the same as a trainee reporter - the timing was fortunate, as Monroe was having difficulty affording nursery fees. Monroe was later retained as an unpaid columnist for The Huffington Post, before signing a publishing deal with Penguin Group. The book deal, reported as worth £25,000, resulted in housing benefit being cut off and Monroe came close to being evicted, which led to moving into cheaper accommodation. Despite working every day, Monroe was unable to make ends meet. By January 2014, finances had improved, and Monroe was able to move into a small two-bedroom flat with her son.
Monroe formerly wrote a twice-monthly food and recipe column for The Guardian and additionally contributed a number of political columns, as well as being featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker. Monroe has written several budget cooking recipe books.
In 2013, Monroe appeared in a six-week advertising campaign for Sainsbury's supermarket. Monroe accepted the equivalent of the living wage for the six weeks that the campaign ran and donated the remainder of the fee to charities including a food bank.
Speaking in 2014, Monroe described life as having "changed beyond recognition", but said that she is still affected by her experience of poverty. The University of Essex announced in May 2015 that it would be awarding Monroe an honorary degree. Monroe appeared on BBC television's late night political programme This Week in June 2015.
In 2015, Monroe won the Women of the Future Award in the media category. Monroe was "surprised", saying "I'm not sure I'll even be a woman in the future". The award was won after Monroe came out as transgender, which created some controversy. It caused a gender debate and angered Monroe, who questioned the headlines of some newspapers and said "Because of my trans identity, I'm attacked for accepting a real woman's award."
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Campaigning and politics
Monroe has been an active campaigner for a number of causes in the UK, particularly those concerned with poverty and hunger, campaigning alongside organisations such as Unite, The Trussell Trust, Child Poverty Action Group and Oxfam.
Monroe was a supporter of the Labour Party, and appeared in a Labour campaign video in October 2013. Monroe left the party in March 2015 after disagreeing with its rhetoric on immigration, and became a member of the Green Party of England and Wales.
In November 2014, Monroe said on Twitter that David Cameron "uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends". The Daily Mail journalist Sarah Vine (wife of the senior Conservative politician Michael Gove) criticised Monroe for using the death of Cameron's son for political purposes and "choosing" a life of poverty. The Independent described this as a "caustic attack", and Monroe replied on Twitter that the column was "homophobic, transphobic, deadnaming [and] ignorant".
In April 2016 Monroe appeared online supporting the Women's Equality Party.
Monroe intended to stand as a candidate for the National Health Action Party in the 2017 United Kingdom general election in Southend West, but withdrew over death threats and health problems caused by arthritis.
Personal life
Monroe, who was assigned female at birth, identifies as non-binary transgender, and has spoken of beginning to identify as trans from an early age. Monroe did not take part in a fire service passing out ceremony in 2008, because protocol would have required her (then living as a woman) to wear a skirt. Monroe kept her birthname while working at the fire service, concerned over "the potential for deadnaming and bullying in a not-particularly-tolerant organisation. Not a great place to be gay, let alone genderqueer." During this period, Monroe also had a brief relationship with a close male friend, which resulted in a son.
On leaving the fire service, Monroe adopted a short haircut and took the forename "Jack". she began identifying to friends and family as a lesbian woman, and began a long-term relationship with a woman; the relationship ended shortly after Monroe told her partner she was considering a mastectomy. Monroe was still careful at this point to downplay any suggestions of gender ambiguity, and in an interview in February 2014 described herself as a "lefty, liberal, lezzer cook" who had reassured her parents that she identified as female. "I was like, no, I'm a little bit tomboyish, a little bit butch. But I have no immediate plans to transition." Monroe publicly came out as non-binary in October 2015.
In 2013, Monroe was ranked No. 19 in The Independent on Sunday's Pink List of influential LGBT people in the United Kingdom. In 2014 it was reported that Monroe and her son were living with Monroe's then-girlfriend Allegra McEvedy, and McEvedy's daughter in London; the relationship ended in October 2015.
Libel case
Monroe initiated legal action in 2015 after the Daily Mail claimed that "Jack" was not Monroe's "real" name, and has requested that her birth name not be used by the media. In 2017, Monroe won a libel case against the newspaper columnist and television personality Katie Hopkins after Hopkins suggested on Twitter that Monroe was supportive of vandalism of a war memorial and was "social anthrax". The High Court awarded Monroe £24,000 in damages plus costs.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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