Missing in Action

The Stella Creasy FU was really odd. It's as if SC really did believe that we would be so grateful for a misogyny law that our brains would leak out and we would give our blessing to a legal precedent that would redefine 'woman' away from XX forever. The swiftness of deletions and suspensions was as if some people with that power also believed it, and both were intensely frustrated when we highlighted the very obvious flaw.

There's still a very deep seam of 'mothers and old women are stupid' running through politicians.

The timing is very odd, and not very wise from a corporate branding pov imo, as they could very easily brand themselves as the forerunners who were the first to allow open debate instead.

I don't think they have eschewed that approach yet. Hedging bets and waiting to see what happens. I would also love to see them do that.

Those of us who don't regularly name change, are definitely being targeted.

Absolutely

MNHQ have decided to tighten the noose in terms of what you can't say without getting banned at exactly the same time that the media (minus the Guardian) is starting to question the way that TRAs have been allowed to silence people who question their demands. The timing is very odd, and not very wise from a corporate branding pov imo, as they could very easily brand themselves as the forerunners who were the first to allow open debate instead.

(Helpful suggestion free of charge and would be delighted to see it implemented and not demand any credit for it, if anyone in a position of power is reading.)

Also AAK I like the sound of aggressively reasonable. It sounds like I can have a go, and no-one can say anything...

A tactic that doesn't seem to work at home, unfortunately.

I'm not in the slightest bit complacent.

Those of us who don't regularly name change, are definitely being targeted.

Frankly, I don't find it too difficult to stay within guidelines, and if I'm keeping people busy following me to complain about me, then at least I'm wasting their time.

Apart from banning posters, my main worry is the censorship of language.

Mumsnet is censoring words that are perfectly legal. They are in control of that decision. So it must be beneficial to them to do so. Presumably financially.

And it's not even a worry specifically connected to discussing this issue. It's the concept.

I don't think any words in the English language should be banned. Discourse can be dictated by custom, protocols and public pressure. But words shouldn't actually be banned.

With the trans issue, it's interesting to me, now, that the attempt to shutdown language, is being resisted - all over the place.

The emperor's new clothes are definitely being noted for their absence. And as soon as people like Julia Hartley Brewer say oh fuck off, I can clearly see his bollocks, other people do the same. That's the phenomenon.

tiggyd - that’s who adrian harrop reminds me of!

And i agree with you there empress

That was a shocker

We're ok

I have lang tied to a radiator, blimey was she hard to catch...weirdly nippy!

Corralling the others is up to you

( and please send more weetabix and bananas...im running out of my supplies)

If they banned Maryz they can ban anyone

I've just quoted this elsewhere but there seems to be an uptick of interest in the recrudescence of anger in feminism:

What’s put women’s anger back in the spotlight? I’m guessing that these new books were commissioned at a moment when feminist rage was suddenly more overt and more publicly visible than it had been for many years–the #metoo moment, when women were indeed ‘good and mad’, and when their mass outpourings of anger seemed to be achieving real results. But even though it’s only been a year, the books are being published at a time when we’re beginning to see the limitations of this recent wave of protest. ...

It’s like a feminist version of Groundhog Day: in your darker moments you might well wonder if getting angry really changes anything.

But I think Rebecca Traister is right: to answer that question we have to take the long view. Change doesn’t come quickly, and the same or very similar battles often have to be fought more than once. Without anger, women wouldn’t go on fighting year after year and wave after wave. But its political value ultimately depends on what we’re able to do with it–it’s no good getting mad if you don’t also have a plan to get even.

hyenainpetticoatsblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/all-the-rage/

If Datun ever gets banned I'll start looking for the 4 horsemen and don my tinfoil hat. She's so aggressively reasonable that it's hard to see how anyone could object to her commenting even if they disagree with her persepective.

Oh my god so many brilliant posters gone! What a travesty. They must be picking off the popular & influential posters one by one, sniper style.

Can we please lock LangCleg, AAK, Barracker, Datun & R0wantrees in a cupboard somewhere?! (There are many other brilliant posters of course...)

MNHQ, if you're reading this, more and more women will keep rising up to put their heads above the parapet. Every woman you silence will be replaced by others even more determined to speak out.

It can/will happen faster than that. The F-Word blog was, about ten years ago, the place for proper feminism (non-3rd wave BS), until a change of editor, and the official line became TWAW. Within a year or two, the place was tumbleweeds. I don't believe the F-Word was a commercial enterprise either.

In 2014 pro trans posters like Tiggy D called on MN to adopt the F-Word's transgender moderation policy.

https://www.thefword.org.uk/about/thef-worddbloggerspositionno/

DuckingGoodPJs you've nailed it there. That is exactly what will happen.

When all this insanity is over in about 20 years, the record will show where Mumsnet stood on this.
They stood with misogynists against women.

It can/will happen faster than that. The F-Word blog was, about ten years ago, the place for proper feminism (non-3rd wave BS), until a change of editor, and the official line became TWAW. Within a year or two, the place was tumbleweeds. I don't believe the F-Word was a commercial enterprise either.

Even if FWR effectively gets shut down by driving off the strong commenters, it won't stop the trans contagion from spreading to other boards like breast feeding, which will have to be renamed chest feeding, to appease the new world view.

It is clear that MN are trying to protect the brand/income (the latter possibly has had a boost from the FWR traffic). The mistake they have made is in believing the problem is only with FWR, and will not spread to other parts of the site. A miscalculation when the majority of content providers are born female, with female reproductive systems, who will all eventually be shouted down for 'transphobia' when discussing uniquely female problems.

Pratchet's words of "shoot the messenger", totally spot on.
They cannot say we didn't warn them.

I can't keep up with who is who following all the name changes. I also don't quite grasp the posting guidelines. They seem very subjective.

How can things be made hard for posters such that they have to leave (but aren't actually banned)? What happens?

CertainHalfDesertedStreets too. She thinks her ban is permanent.

I can't believe I've only just noticed that Pratchet is MIA

I have always enjoyed her posts

God yes I saw a bit of that.

That's pretty appalling.

Not just misogynists either

Someone on the john o'donnell thread (think thats the right one) had posts removed and all she was doing was asking about anti semitism

Which is ironic really

When all this insanity is over in about 20 years, the record will show where Mumsnet stood on this.

They stood with misogynists against women.

It will sully their brand forever.

Good.

Unbelievable that do many are being banned. It feels sinister,

Pratchet wrote June 3rd 2018:
" A woman is an adult female human
Of the sex whose reproductive role is togestate and bear young.

Let's just say this while we still can. Because it's true, and however many people try to make us lie about it, or remain silent, it will always be true.

In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act.

It hurts MY feelings to see 'transwomen are women'. It damages MY mental health to see that, it makes ME feel erased and MY identity feel destroyed. I have a voice and I deserve that voice. WE deserve it.

I am Spartacus. A woman is an adult female human. Sex is binary, immutable and defined by reproductive role.

If you report me, or get me banned you shoot the messenger. Because this is true and will always be true. And this day, this day of a lie, I WILL say it."

This.
This, I will shout from the rooftops.

For the record, if you’re reading, I miss you, thebewilderness

Apologies for my earlier post where I claimed that Bewilderness was banned, I posted in haste in between doing a million other things without double checking.My fault entirely and I'm sorry about possibly misleading people. It wasn't my intention to mislead.

She wasn't banned, but she was basically subject to what one might call 'constructive dismissal', iykwim. She had little choice but to go.