I think everyday sexism is getting worse

I feel like I'm encountering it all day every day and everywhere at the moment.

I have signed up for a radical feminism activism workshop day in a couple of weeks and I can't wait. I've never done anything like it before.

I need to do something. I don't think I can cope with anything to grand or too big, (I would find that too stressful) but I need to find a positive way to make a difference for Women and girls. On a society level I'm very concerned prostitution/ buying sex is going to get rubber stamped by our govt soon. And that will be very bad for all women, for equality in society, for our safety, for our children's future.

Boys in dds y4 class are accessing porn!

I don't know if it's getting worse but I do know that you can't fart a waft of feminism anymore without hearing, well men get battered/raped/passed over for jobs too. That and the "surely it should be equalism" bollocks.

I think it has got worse but I find MN tends to go through phrases of hot topics. Mil and sil post seem to be the equivalent of daily mails click bait pieces at the moment. Where are the men?

I feel like it's a lot worse on mumsnet than it used to be. Or maybe my tolerance level has dropped.

Totally agree re Backlash. I read it when I was a teenager in the early 90s and then again a couple of years ago. It's very relevant still.

I wouldn't worry about it being 20 years old - I re-read it recently, and it is still bang-on-the-money and frighteningly relevant.

Matilda - thanks for that recommendation. I haven't read it but it looks interesting. I wonder if there is also anything more recent along the same lines?

andinto - yes to both your posts.

I feel like Susan Faludi's backlash should be compulsory reading for all young women in their teens and twenties - because by god we are on the receiving end of an almighty backlash at the moment.

The mumsnet vilification of any "other woman" is really taken to extremes. Even dating a man who is separated is generally considered to be wrong - on the basis that he is probably lying but nevertheless it would absolutely be the woman's fault for believing his lies and/or depriving his wife of any chance of reconciliation.

I think much of it comes from women who have been very hurt and lied to by men in relationships, which I appreciate is difficult. But I really don't understand the demonising of the other woman combined with the desire to forgive and excuse the man who, after all, is the only one who has actually lied. I think that in many ways it is tied up with distrust of women who are seen to be deviating from the norms of relationship, societal or mothering roles.

I work with young people and I despair at times. A boy goes out with girl A while in a relationship with girl B. Girl A is vilified even if she didn't know of the relationship.
The other girls will fall on girl A and destroy her. The boys watch bewildered and slightly smug cos they are getting away with it.
A lot of the issues are related to self esteem and we work to build it up but bloody hell those girls can be scary.

Yes Olenna, good point. I meant I agree mn is getting worse, that was just a rather extreme example of it. I was more upset by mnhq's response to it than the posters - I could view them as a lot of one offs!

I also feel as though it is getting worse. I sometimes wonder if there is a general feeling that women have made as much progress as we are allowed to make, and we should now stop complaining about "trivial" matters. There also now seems to be an increasing backlash from men and women who feel threatened by any measure of feminism or female success.

It scares me to be honest - I am not sure what has happened to make it seem as though things are getting worse again instead of gradually better.

There was thread recently in relationships from a man who admitted to raping his wife, and the sycophantic "coercive sex isn't rape in relationships, ffs! " responses

WTAF?

Glad I missed that one.

I've been seeing it a lot lately

Especially women excusing men's bad behaviour when it comes to certain situations

Beyond - I see that as more than casual sexism, though. I think that's an example of misogyny, and bloody depressing too (see also the thread about someone reflecting back on a sexual encounter when she was younger and whether it was assault or not because he initiated PIV sex without using a condom or seeking her consent to do so)

That is, I agree that mn is worse.

I did read the op as "everyday feminism" though and wondered wtf they had done now

I agree. There was thread recently in relationships from a man who admitted to raping his wife, and the sycophantic "coercive sex isn't rape in relationships, ffs! " responses (along with hq deleting the thread when he asked them to) have disillustioned me somewhat.

I think it's like seeing pregnant women when you're TTC: once you have a reason to notice, you see them everywhere!

I don't know if it's got worse, perhaps the examples are more egregious. I used to love a MIL thread, though (remind me how lucky I am with mine, perhaps), but now the casual sexism and misogyny can be pretty depressing

No, you're not imagining, sadly. Some awful stuff on here these days. To take just two recent examples: thread on Keith Vaz, gets turned round to "was his wife complicit?" with some posts coming pretty damned close to implying she played a role because (quite possibly - i.e. entirely unsubstantiated speculation plucked out of thin air) she wasn't putting out enough; recent thread in relationships with several posts saying "It just baffles me why women put up with this shit..." - err, she has 3 kids, one really quite tiny, part time job, he's the big earner, and she's had years of being ground down, and he's a "good guy" abuser, i.e. the sort where the rest of society piles in and says "but he seems so nice, you could do so much worse for yourself, shut up and put up..."

ARGGGGHHH.

And breathe.

Hiding AIBU can help but there's some corkers in relationships at times.

I can get dejected and hide threads for a bit!

I'll keep an eye out for that thread then.