Mumsnet vibrator: for "mothers, women and people with wombs"

We knew from previous activations with our community that sex and motherhood is a deeply-rooted taboo

IME 'deeply rooted taboo' is salespeak for 'something we can make money from.' See also 'menopause.'

That thread has been hidden from active now.. how odd 🤔

Yeah gotta laugh (hollowly) at that: “sexual needs of new mothers”.

This thing was clearly wholly devised by very young non-womb people who have no idea - and due to their aforementioned non-womb-ness will NEVER have an idea - that the words “my sexual needs” are never thought or spoken by new mothers.

MN ought to be ashamed to have anything to do with this. They do know that women who've had children probably know a bit about sex, don't they? And that most of us can work out how and when to start masturbating and having sex again after childbirth without the help of "Smile Makers" <boak> <boak> <boak>

Sorry, they've rewritten it to focus on the sexual needs of new mothers who aren't yet able to have penetrative sex?

Obviously I can't speak for all women but masturbating - with or without shrek's ear - was the very last thing on my mind.

"Smile Makers"' brand director appears to be called Cecile Gaslight.

I think their context is that the vibrator is aimed at women who have just given birth and the vibrator company doesn't realise that sometimes even women who have just given birth no longer have wombs.

I've not given birth so I have no idea, but judging from my sister and friends and neighbours who have, and who have ouched and limped around like John Wayne and sat down gingerly for weeks afterwards and sworn they were never having sex again, I'm a bit gobsmacked imagining any woman wanting a vibrating bit of plastic anywhere near her vulva just after giving birth. It's not a taboo that's holding them back from sexual pleasure, it's the painful physical reality of having just squeezed out a human baby. The last thing they need is some marketing trainee fresh out of university telling them they need to use this whispering bit of landfill to overcome a taboo.

I'm old and I've been masturbating very successfully since I was a young teen in the 1970s. Never used a sex toy. My fingers know exactly what's required and when and where and how fast or slow or heavily or lightly. No plastic pollution. No need to whisper.

Way back in those frigid and ancient days BG (Before Gender) —the Olden Times that most mothers hail from — it used to be customary to do what was called “market research”, where instead of getting the non-binary interns aged 21 to write your product descriptions, you actually went out and asked some actual potential customers about the product and what they thought about your marketing before you unleashed it on the target audience and risked making a fool of yourself and your business. (I know, right?!? What a bizarre idea!)

Depends whether you want to sell products or educate those daft, repressed old motherhags, I suppose.

What a load of bollocks that blurb is! There are masses of different kinds of vibrators on the market aimed specifically at women. As for all the trans-friendly speak? Bleugh!

There's a thread in Site Stuff (just popped up on Active) where someone says the vibrator in question looks like "Shrek's ear" 😂

I think they've rewritten it three times. The general MN part has got better. But one of the problems is the quote from the vibrator company - they're the ones using 'with wombs'. I think their context is that the vibrator is aimed at women who have just given birth and the vibrator company doesn't realise that sometimes even women who have just given birth no longer have wombs.

Has the article changed? Maybe I clicked on the wrong link but it seems very different from what is being written about here.

May as well call it a vibrator for people with bleedin' 'oles 😆

Fuck the dictionary. (Channelling Vanessa McCulloch).

Not really in this case, I don't think. It's more to do with a refusal to use the term women and, instead, reduce us to body parts. Someone on the other thread (AIBU vulva owners) said it was a deliberate attempt to separate the word woman from our bodies.

Also, as I'm in the fuck off mood. Can we please fuck off with the myth that an intern is in charge of the social media posts. People get paid a lot of money posting this kind of crap - it's a sought after job.

🫰

Yes, absolutely. Why?

I’m also shocked that Mumsnet put their name to this
Its so disrespectful and sexist
Perhaps since it’s MN they will write about it and explain all about the careful market research and user testing they did with a wide range of mothers…?

Isn't part of the language problem that the dictionary definition of "woman" was recently updated to include "an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth."

www.independent.co.uk/tv/lifestyle/cambridge-dictionary-woman-gender-definition-b2244579.html

Why is Mumsnet involved in this crap?

Yes, they have, and it speaks volumes.

Must be inclusive to include the tiny population of trans men.

But women who have had a hysterectomy? Nah, fuck 'em, doesn't matter.

I'm so angry. What absolute bullshit.

It's like the Emperors New Clothes that people can't seem to see the lunacy here.

Sex and motherhood is deeply taboo? Really? Do they understand where babies come from? Who the fuck writes and approves this shit - seriously, my teenager could do a better job.

has this vibrator been developed in such a way that interacts with the womb?

Well... it might, indirectly. Uterine contractions during/after orgasm do occur (especially when pregnant and IME painful so probably not what they're aiming for. )

has this vibrator been developed in such a way that interacts with the womb? Must do surely, otherwise why single out that particular body part? Seems a bit odd to develop something that wouldn’t work for those who have had a hysterectomy though.

A female child has a womb, but I would not buy a vibrator for her. A woman who has had a hysterectomy hasn't got a womb, but there's no reason why she shouldn't use a vibrator.

It's a bit weird when manufacturers or advertisers don't seem to understand what their product is for, or who would buy it.

That article is so awful, it's made me sad. Perhaps they should just go for 'buy this but we have no knowledge of female anatomy and its name conjures images of feathery strokers that will put you off sex for life'.
I can't think of anything less appealing than some whispery contraption trying to give me an orgasm in my womb ffs.
I also really hate the perception that women, sorry, <checks notes> mothers and womb havers are twee, delicate flowers who can't talk about sex. It's creating a false idea that talking about sex is taboo. Have they ever met any women?