In Active

As an aside.... Advertising.... I want a bespoke traditional veranda....

Shame I live in a second floor flat.

But yes, it is the long term posters who see the ads more often.

As a regular lurker I thought FWR had gone quiet as I wasn't seeing anything in active. Done the suggested search and am shocked at what's going on.

What can I do? I am considering emailing the targeted companies expressing my support for MN allowing freedom of discussion on these important issues* which have potential to massively adversely impact my children.

I want to do something constructive, as opposed to, say noting who current sponsors are and boycotting them if they withdraw, as I suspect this will have a long term detrimental impact on MN and could be an own goal.

*issues in question which I strongly believe we should be free to discuss are the loss of language to describe the female biological state and therefore potential loss of any necessary provisions for it and the enforcement of gender stereotypes particularly on children. I do not want to deny trans people their human rights and they should be free to present how they wish without discrimination. Where biological sex does not matter it doesn't matter, but where it does it does!

I just searched #mumsnet and scrolled back through about a weeks worth. I only found about 3 threads about transphobia and they were all one or two people talking to themselves with few or no retweets or likes. They were tagging major sponsors but people with hardly any followers or traction aren't going to be taken notice of.

Am I missing something or searching the wrong hashtag?

Just put 'mumsnet' into search on a completely open twitter account and you'll see the nature of complaints / tactics etc. I'm not suggesting involvement there but more people posting here need to understand better what's going on...

I think its vital that the bigger picture is considered at all times... some TRAs have strategies which have been used very effectively to shut down and #nodebate. Twitter has and still is been 'gamed' by some. focus is currently on MN, we all need consider how best to continue to keep discussions open in the short term for the good of the the long term!

They want to stop us talking, because they know we've got a point. And they know that when we talk, we are raising awareness of the erosion of women's rights, and our right to use meaningful language.

Policing the tone is fine, I think we can all do what we can to not be deliberately goady or whatever - but that's not enough for the TRAs. They want us shutdown. I hope HQ stay strong on this.

I would know very little about this issue of it weren't for MN.

I understand they are under pressure but it feels like we are being penned in.

I think they are going to review in a week.

The people who are attacking MN have been rallied on twitter - and I'd guess are not the sort of users who are going to stick around for the parking threads, baby talk and recipes.

The users that post on here a lot, and thus see the advertising, rack up the page views, are the ones that generate revenue for MN.

How many of us would be totally unaware of these issues had they not come across them by accident via "Active"?

I certainly wouldn't.

I had FWR hidden for years - but that was my choice. Having it forcibly hidden from all new mumsnetters seems (at best) odd and (at worst) censorship.

I'm hugely disappointed by this step - and even more disappointed that it was forced on us with no discussion.

Feminism is catching, wouldn't want everyone to contract it!

Christ, when a movement wants to silence people who believe in equality what does that tell you?

When someone tells you what they're like, listen.

Yeah, I know MNHQ are under a lot of pressure but this feels like censorship tbh.

I'll be interested to see how long it goes on for. A site run primarily by and for women where the feminist threads are muted?

I am sure they have been under a lot of pressue.

That's no reason to cave. MN is staffed by women and they stand to lose their right just like the rest of us.

I do appreciate MN as a space to debate.

It brings me to wonder though - is there anywhere that women can debate this freely without being made to feel 'grateful'?

I fully understand that MN is a commercial body not a public one.

So where in public can woman actually debate this ?

I honestly don't recognise the country I'm living in anymore. Or maybe I was just fooling myself all these years

yes it is a shame they had to be hidden from the general boards, but that does not stop people starting therads over there, even if loads of people moan. People start christmas threads in august on AIBU, posting for traffic but not aibu, etc etc...

I think it is a shame that it has had to come to the point where mnhq think it is best that it is hidden, and one wonders what has gone on in the background to mean they come to this decision. I suspect they are under a lot of pressure.

Yep, the "what gender are you" one - deleted with the single word "goady".

There has been a policy change

They deleted the Boston Marathon thread today, and I think one other too.

I think they're being hit with the full force of TRA threats tbh, which can't be nice for them.

Those who want all the Trans threads hidden away in their own topic have won.

Not only are they confined to one topic (FWR), they have been hidden en masse from the rest of the board.

It's a pity. I genuinely thought MN would retain this space to talk about issues that cannot be discussed elsewhere, but it seems they've been got at persuaded not to allow it.

I'm still convinced that 'follow the money' has relevance here.

Private gender clinics, puberty blockers, sex hormones, surgery - someone's making money out of this trend.

I'm very grateful for the growing up in the 80s & 90s. Things seemed freer then. Like we could do anything we wanted - and anything we wanted didn't include puberty blockers, surgery, and people bullying their way into the women's toilets, or women's sports etc.

Although I haven't pushed it at all, I'm grateful my children are fairly gender conforming, and haven't seemed to get into the trans/genderqueer/non binary stuff.

Can it be as simple as the next generation pushing the (already very free) boundaries of the last??

I didn't read a lot of the comments but I found the info graphic really difficult to deal with batty and had feelings that SM put into words much better than I could.

I'm so, so grateful I was a teen in the 90s, pre internet, and could wear what the boys wore (dms, checked shirt, ripped jeans) but embroider my jeans if I wished to and watch Star Trek, climb trees, and ride horses, exactly as my male cousins did, without analysing which bloody category I was in.

It was as simple as Nirvana or New Kids. Some kids got picked on for wearing reeboks over Nike I think but I was fairly oblivious and couldn't care less.

I think the post could have been worded better to avoid goadiness but was quite important.

It was a lighthearted thread, but it was completely impersonal and objective, and, like lots of satire it made a serious point. Or specifically, SexMatters did. The thread is gone now (but I still have it open in a different window ) and SM's post is worth repeating (though this isn't really the right place for it - apologies for that) for anyone with troubled teens currently caught up in all this.

MNHQ, I assume that the thread deletion is a symptom of increasing pressure so please zap this if there's anything problematic here. Continued gratitude and respect for providing this platform in such difficult circumstances.

Although this thread is lighthearted that diagram suggests seductive superstitious thinking like horoscopes or numerology embraced by young people who lack direction and aren't sure of 'what' they are supposed to be. Saying "I am an Aries so I am competitive and like red". Or "We are compatible because both our names add up to the number nine."

It suggests how lost young people are that they would use a ridiculous map like that to navigate the complex and trecherous social world of personality and relationships. The OP makes a serious point of 'not knowing when to transition' - because it seems 'taking T' has replaced whether to get your first piercing or tattoo.

Although they would really benefit from feminist thought young women have been systematically prevented from getting to it, with males heading up feminist groups, and encouraging them to use 'terfblockers' and to get feminists books removed from the library. It's a tragedy

Sen threads are deliberately kept out of active.

It's already been said, but I've got a feeling MNHQ have been under horrific pressure to quash our discussions here. We know the sort of pressure tactics TRA use, have used against women. Visits from police, threats, doxxing. I do applaud MNHQ for standing up for it's users.

Oh, that's sad about the silly thread. No satire . But bless MNHQ for using #TGLWGH.

When I first go to Mumsnet.com the trending box will show a few FWR threads (everytime I think) but then when I click in to actual MN chat threads it turns to other non FWR threads. Anyone else get that?