Has anyone else noticed that Mumsnet seems to be becoming more regressive on women’s rights?

[CurlewKate]

There are a lot of threads, on big issues and small, that seem to indicate a drift in that direction. Women shouldn’t be police officers. Marriage is wonderful. Changing your name on marriage is a good idea… And, most significantly, many conversational, this happened to me type pro life threads. Do we need to be even more vigilant, in the face of America’s lurch to the Right and the rise of Reform in this country?

Gen X and the Millennials are now well into our forties and thirties.

IMO the generations after them are hugely conservative and gender conforming and there's nothing really we can do about it. There's also a strange liberal-yet-intransigeant political vibe about them. They are the only ones who can shape their destiny. If the younger generations are happy embracing regressive attitudes towards women, thats their problem and future to solve.

Rash of anti-abortion threads. Maybe bots.
Also strange content farming by one particular poster.

Yep.

It saddens me how “gender confirming” people seem to have become!!

Wonder how it happened? I’m thinking social media…. I blame everything on it 🤣

I've noticed quite a few anti-abortion posts over the past couple of weeks. Even on threads that started off as light-hearted.

Yeah I wonder too. I remember when I was at uni in the early 2000s going to the gym was seriously niche in our age group. It was more a thing that middle aged people did. Young people were more into their teamsports on a weekend.
This ubiquitous "body shaping" gym focus was the first big "image shift" I noticed, along with hair lengths

Also way more creepy men who insist on sharing what they find attractive about women and pontificating on subjects they know nothing about.

Hard to know if it’s real people or AI trolls or just people wanting to feel popular via controversy now tattle life has closed down

Vigilant? How? What do you mean?

Some people have conservative views. How will we cope?

Tattle Life hasn’t closed down, I just googled it to check!

I think a lot of this shite is being peddled by fake posters be it Reform apologists/Tory Central/red top journalists. MN is turning into Reddit at some points.

OP is suggesting MORE people have conservative views, or rather more posts here are.

Very noticeable, and has been for some time, that the site is targeted by propagandists. Whether this be Russian influence over Brexit and other attempts to encourage instability, men’s rights pushing, or anti-abortion rights influencers, it’s rife. I’m sure it will be the same on other fora. Hostile actors will see this as a ripe breeding ground for sowing instability.

They won’t stop, and MN moderators would find it very difficult to be constantly weeding them out to the extent we never see them. We just need to be very wise to the subtle (and not-so subtle) manipulation.

The youngsters are revolting against our gen x liberal values. Numerous friends young adult kids are getting married and starting families young. They are rejecting our gen x pattern of late marriage and children. It was rare to marry at 23 in our generation but lots are now. It’s all cyclical..

There is a general lurch, there is that trad wife movement. It was all about having it all when I was young. I’m older Gen x @Gallivanter Gen x is up to 60 or thereabouts.

A couple of friends are disappointed that their sons have girlfriends who expect to pay nothing towards social life and household. Both girlfriends work part time and one even had the whole holiday paid for her, saying she's 'old fashioned.' There's a trend called embracing the 'soft girl' culture (in social media) also 'Trad wife.'

My DD also says her uni friends are not interested in carers. They have said together no need for emphasis on careers, but luckily my DD wants a good career and to be independent. It's so hard to start out now I wonder if this is a reaction to current struggles.

The move against abortion rights is what scares me the most. Couldn’t give a toss if young girls want to be housewives etc., more power to them. But a move towards a society that doesn’t have free access to abortions is a move towards society where women’s access to healthcare is restricted.

@ViciousCurrentBun I am older generation x and feel a bit bemused by the changing times! Perhaps it's still fairly niche (I hope so anyway). As someone said up thread quite cyclical.

It's a worrying trend. Luckily, my 20yo dd is fully signed up to the principles of feminism, as are her close friends, but she is definitely aware of a fair amount of regressive thinking within her wider peer group.

@LightandAiry Indeed, I have made it very plain to DS that his life is his own and he can make his own mistakes . He has had two girlfriends both career orientated fortunately.

Correct, except for the last bit – what it actually is is the first signs of them identifying and trying to solve problems left to them by ‘us’.

I’m basically on their side, but even I get a little terrified when I see how determined those in power are about squeezing every last drop out of boomer liberalism. Nobody ever thinks about just how far in the opposite direction the young are going to have to go when they try to restore balance. Instead the assumption seems to be that if we do it and call it progress, then it can never be undone.

"Hey, we've got a really good set of abortion laws in England which aren't seen as controversial and are among the most liberal in the world, let's not do anything to upset that balance by bringing in American culture war talking points..."

"I know, let's make abortion defacto legal till birth. 'As early as possible, as late as necessary', right?! Wait, why is everyone suddenly actually thinking about abortion law and remembering they're actually not that comfortable with it post-first-trimester?"

Marriage being seen as a good thing and families sharing a name is not regressive.

What are the principles of feminism?

It is natural for younger generations to rebel against older ones.

And quite honestly I can see why the life of Gen X doesn't appeal massively to Gen Z. My experience from my parents and my friends parents was of mothers who were utterly exhausted from having a career and carrying all the home and child stuff too. Children in childcare for long hours, weekends filled with all the housework and little time for leisure. Often a bitter divorce at some point and then being forced into blended families. I just remember adults complaining about life all the time. Not just my parents but my teachers too. Very much an attitude of adult life is shit and there is nothing you can do about it.

I agree that we need to protect women's legal rights but we also need to do more to make home life fairer if we want younger women to be less conservative.