Open letter: Mothers Appeal To Mumsnet CEO Justine Roberts

Oh dear what?

💯 times this.

As well as everything else that is wrong with the letter, why Gaza?

The people of Gaza are suffering horribly. War is hell. Modern urban war is particularly hellish for civilians. They should get all the help and support they need.

But why single out Gaza when there are about 60 other armed conflicts going on around the world, there are 17 million people facing famine in Yemen, 14 million people displaced in Sudan, and many more ongoing horrors.

I could go on and on with a litany of human suffering that for some reason doesn't have the X factor that Gaza has.

It's doubtful that Mumsnet carries political weight and policy makers listen.

Agree with points about rape in conflict zones and not trusting Hamas statistics. Wasn't there some reports about women being cooerced into sex (raped) in return for food rations?

Another factor is the cultural desire/pressure to have large families in the Middle East. This article from 2019 is about booming use of IVF in Gaza (https://www.trtworld.com/article/12730203) Where did the money for that come from?

They’ve completely missed the grassroots, bottom-up nature of Mumsnet - and that mothers are autonomous people, not a homogeneous, command-able category. Yes and this is a really extremely misogynist, unfeminist upper class snobbish approach too. Seeing women as some kind of mindless group to be used in whatever way a superior class deems is needed is what the Taliban do.

Do they think that mummies can't think?

They're treating the women of mumsnet (and men, though this type of approach is because they're assuming it's majority women) as if we don't have minds of our own and will just go along with what the modern equivalent of our 'betters' the landed gentry tell us to do.

It's in fact even worse than the landed gentry doing it to their housemaids / gardeners because we're not even getting paid or housed by them! I can't see they're giving Justine anything in return for acceding to their request.

My feeling about Gaza is - it's awful but I (along with everyone bar perhaps the foreign secretary and PM in the uk) can't do anything to change it. I CAN try and do something about maternity care in the UK, poverty, VAWG, grooming gangs etc HERE. So I focus my limited time and energy (after paid work and unpaid caring and volunteering) on that.

"run the world order"? oh dear...

I was always opposed to the two child cap, and don't trust statistical claims made by Hamas either.

I'm happy to delete my comment as my flippant tone / sarcasm doesn't really reflect the point I wanted to make, which is that the numbers around pregnancy and infant mortality within Gaza are not to be trusted and the reasons behind the high pregnancy rate need looking at too.

Many women and girls are also raped and abused in the UK and yet nobody seems to have any qualms about discussing the two child cap and whether these women should be more responsible.

Which raises the question as to why these celebs aren't petitioning Oxfam etc al to cooperate? Am I missing something?

Yes, I absolutely do understand that. Why is this not a point within the letter and campaigning on this issue?

Yeah, I mean come on. As if every woman in Gaza has a choice about whether to have sex and carry to term.

I am very cross about the stupidity of the letter to Justine but you must surely understand that in a war zone there is a horrific amount of rape quite often

Yes I know that. Who is raping the women in Gaza?

NB: to put this in context Save the Children says that around 47k babies are born in Gaza each year, in Manchester (slightly higher population) it's around 6-7k. It seems odd to me.

Reposting this because a few facts never hurt anyone. Especially on FWR.

Reminder that Shiri Bibas was a mother too

Nicely put

Let us show our humanity and put our voices to this call to the government to end complicity in the Israeli genocide.

Ok, then go and write to the government. Although maybe you already have, as you care so deeply about an issue that's been going on for over 2 years. But all the marches, demonstrations, lobbying MPs hasn't worked, so now is the time to unleash Justine on them? Yeah that'll definitely get the government to change its mind.

War zones tend to have high levels of rape, and poor access to contraceptive services. Let's not blame the women for yet another thing.

Men in the middle east are fighting. I know! It must be women in the UK's responsibility.

What an load of Aunt Lydia performative bollocks. Could only come from a profession that has spent the last 20 years making films where plucky Britishers solve war / poverty / sexism / the Miner's Strike / the lack of geriatric nude calendars / the problems of ballet dancing Geordie boys by just pulling their sleeves up, forming a team, writing a letter and marching to Downing street before punching the air in a cheery musical sequence.

Absolute asininity as Ed Reardon would say. BAFTAs all round.

I do love mn when this happens..
Someone posts thinking that we'll naturally support their part of the Omnicause (thinking our little lady brains will immediately agree if some luvvie name is attached) gets itchy and calls us out as horrible meanies when we don't .
And gets their ass kicked down the road.

First of all Justine Roberts owns the web site. She isn't the editor, nor the policy maker of what the site is substantially ie a wide range of posters who will argue every point, sometime for no reason than to have an arguement! Nobody speaks for MNers!

Yes, be careful what you wish for!

As an example, I knew about Israel not letting some charities operate in Gaza before this letter, but it's only in reading discussions of the letter on here that I've found out their rationale. I bet I'm not the only one.

@AmyAbd its currently 19 degrees in Gaza with an overnight low of 16

There's nothing stopping any of the signatories making an account and starting threads on this on MN (as other famous people have done in their own name - usually people who have brilliant minds, facts to hand and the courage of their own convictions though). It reeks of not wanting to associate with the hoi polloi as they consider us lesser.

Or possibly being scared because women on here generally want receipts and proper argument, which maybe they can't do and secretly know a letter like this is all virtue signalling nonsense.

Not a good look either way. Makes them look either dimwitted or ignorant of what their name is being put towards at best and unpleasant snobs at worst.

They’ve completely missed the grassroots, bottom-up nature of Mumsnet - and that mothers are autonomous people, not a homogeneous, command-able category.

Justine speaks on issues that represent a consistent groundswell of opinion on MN. She does not command us as our queen.

So cringe. So patronising. So manipulative. And MN is NOT the place to come and try to manipulate women - it’s the place women come to escape from that shit.

We’ll make up our own minds and act accordingly thanks.