to want answers to these S&B questions?

[HullyEastergully]

Why are:

1. Certain items of clothing = "mumsy" eg bootcuts, tunics, some boots but not others (forget which)

1. Short wide jumpers are inherently better than others

1. Anyone over a size 12 = fat

1. Fat = mumsy

1. That thinking the above makes you a cleverer and more knowing alnd all-round better person with a slight pitying disdain for those that don't agree.

Lastly I would like a definition of "Mumsy" and why it is an insult.

Thank you.

Apologies for grammatical incorrectness of "why are" - c&p job.

I am C&P my answer from the other thread!

The mumsy thing - it makes no sense to me as an insult whatsoever. I am a mother. My body produced and nurtured three amazing daughters. It's also got the scars (literally) to prove that. Why wouldn't I be proud of looking like a mother? It's a big part of who I am. so I look like the person I am? Wow! That's the last thing I expected to happen

Forget 'fashion' - it's an industry. A misogynistic industry at that. What are clothes for? I think they are to make you comfortable, warm or cool. Able to carry out tasks. But clothes also enable you to be proud of yourself. To look at your 'plummage' and be content but that has nothing to do with the clothes themselves. It's from your own sense of self and what really annoys me about using 'mumsy' as an insult is that when you do that you are trying to detroy somebody's sense of self. To make them miserable in their own skin. I think that's pretty bloody bitchy actually.

(NL - warm in another wool tunic today )

1-4: because some people like to feel superior and more 'knowing'. To insult someone or define them as 'mumsy' is childish and rude. It's lazy and uninventive.
5: see 1-4.
I tried hard to write something more interesting but my wood's damp.
The people who call others 'mumsy' probably have those UPVC front doors which have a panel-so the door looks tiny. Those doors make me itch.

What Northernlurker said.

I have noticed that, very often, rich & skinny women have bloody enormous feet. Makes me a size 16 very happy indeed.

I agree with Northenlurker about 'mumsy' making no sense as an insult. Tunics + leggings = mumsy but skinny jeans + jumper = trendy? The majority of people where I live wear skinnies/straight jeans and a jumper so surely that is a mumsy outfit too. What is wrong with looking like a mum anyway?

it's only someones opinion isn't it, and they are (as they saying goes) like arseholes, everyones got one.

Still doesn't make sense.

The vast majority of women are mothers.

How is looking "mumsy" defined?

I am a 14-16 and I am NOT MUMSY. I look jeffing marvellous. So up yours, whoever said that.UP YOUR BUM.

Or to put it another way, if two people are standing together and one says to t'other, "Oo look at her, she looks really "mumsy" " and the other one laughs and aggrees, WHAT ARE THEY AGREEING ABOUT?

Come on, you people that use the word "mumsy" WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

If you just look a bit drab you can look mumsy. Dressing in shapeless things and FLEECES. If you havea fleece you are mumsy. If you look like you get all your clothes from Regatta, you are mumsy.

I have bootcuts, tunics and boring, flat boots in brown. Not sure what constitutes a short jumper. I'm over a size 12. I'm 35. Am I mumsy? And WTF is S&B?

I guess looking 'mumsy' is:

• wearing clothes for comfort and practicality rather than look

• looking as though you don't have time to take care of yourself

• looking as though you put looking after children before making yourself look nice

• wearing clothes that are a bit out of date, suggesting you are out of touch

• the being overweight thing - leftover from being pg, hence mumsy - or maybe a sign that you cook big meals

That's just it Hillt. They don't even know.

From Djembe's definition I am mumsy. I'm not sure I'm all that bovvered. Being a sexy-minx type didn't really work for me when I was in my 20s so maybe I was born to be mumsy...

Hully - no no, it's all changeable stuff - I don't think anyone would say that without thinking how she would look better if she eg lost weight, styled her hair or wore more flattering / fashionable clothes. Has anyone ever sai anything so bitchy?! Most of us are mums, it's just fun to care about fashion and looks, and take an interest in others too.

So, according to your definition of mumsy, the opposite would be a vacuous person who put 'style' over practicality and looking after their children?

The weird thing is that I've fairly certain that I looked 'mumsy' from about the age of 16.

And if anything I am less 'mumsy' now that I am a mum

I used to be proud the fact that I didn't give a shit about clothes. Now that I am a mum I feel judged for 'mumsiness' in a way that I never did before..

Try not to use sweeping insults like 'vacuous' Tufty pls.

I don't put my looks before my children. Thats ridiculous. It's a hobby.

Oh so this is the sane thread. "Mumsy" is so silly.
It's way too mumsy to post on Mumsnet. Everyone fashionable should stop now.

looking as though you put looking after children before making yourself look nice
.
Really?
Bloody he'll. I'm off to walk the dog. In the mud. With boots.

Why shouldn't I use sweeping insults like 'vacuous'? Fashion is vacuous.

This is what I don't understand further.

The fashion industry depends on slightly changing the width of a trouser leg or the length of a jumper or skirt each season so that people will go and buy new clothes to be fashionable and make the producers of said items rich.

Once you understand that process, and know that you are effectively being taken for a mug, AND that Indian and other children are going blind in the interests of lining the pockets of the skirt-length-changers, how and why do you go along with it??