does it bother you that men use this site also?

[SomethingLike]

Sometimes very female skewed things are discussed and I can't help feeling slightly uncomfortable when I read: "Male perspective here..."

I'm sure I am BU but does anyone else feel the same? I am struggling to put into words why it bothers me but it does.

It surprises me that men are interested.

Sorry ego I don't understand your question. They have already 'announced' themselves as male.

Which is precisely what "mansplaining" as a term was concocted to describe. Men explaining predominantly female issues to a woman.

It was first used by Rebecca Solnit in 2008 after a man was telling her all about an important book she should read on her subject (the photographer Edward Muybridge) - he was telling her about her own book. So it's not specifically about women's issues, more about men who assume they know more than a woman can, regardless of the subject.

Not that that is particularly relevant.

How could you police anyone talking on MN anyway? If we were expected to supply ID somehow, there would be far fewer posters, and it just wouldn't be the same.

But I'm discussing posters who do announce themselves as male.

You have the ones that have something in their NN proclaiming they are male and the ones that like to announce it then presumably lots of others that do neither so we wouldn't know.

I wonder what the attraction is for male posters

Well, for me the attraction is any number of the following. There's a huge membership, so there's always new content to read. I don't live in the UK, so I like to know what people in the UK are discussing (it used to be part of my job to report that, which is how I found this site in the first place). It's well organised - I can find posts about saving money, starting my own business, relationship issues, TV programs etc very easily. It's also a good insight into opinions I'd never really thought about. I mostly hang around with other men, so things like, for example, women thinking it is male entitlement when a man tells a joke and looks expectantly (for laughter) at the women had never occurred to me.

I tried to choose an obviously male name so I wouldn't have to announce my gender, but neither could anyone accuse me of hiding it.

Acting out a persona on MN sounds like hard work to me. You would have to put the effort in wouldn't you?

Nope.

I agree Sparkling I reported a series of posts by one poster accusing another poster of being a man and lying about being a woman of colour because" no real woman would write like that" .

If poster was lying "he" was being remarkably consistent in "his" persona, to the point of being familiar with the writing of black feminist women.

Yeah, some. Probably the best example is that I'd never thought of the SAHP facilitating the working parent being able to go to work without having to worry about childcare. Had I given it extensive thought, I'd probably have realised, but as I hadn't, I didn't appreciate how expensive childcare meant that one parent working might well be just working to pay the childcarer.

yabu this site is for everyone. We cannot call equal rights then try exclude others.

But ego most respected male posters on here have never posted 'from a male perspective'. They are openly male, by dent of their nickname. That honesty says a lot to me about the poster, whether I agree with them or not.

I think we are splitting hairs, tbh.

No problem with men here but I cannot abide the "male perspective here" no pal, it's YOUR perspective, not the perspective of ALL OTHER MEN! Just like the thousands of women here do not represent my opinion.

We went to see Sean Locke in concert recently. Part of his act was that, as a hobby, he posted on Mumsnet.

True or not, there was a bit of a frisson around the hall, I can tell you.

It was a very clever piece.

Men I know in RL at the mention of MN just do the face.

Mumsnet as a forum seems to be about a lot more than just parenting now, but even if it weren't, I think it's really important that men DON'T feel excluded from parenting-related things by women. Do you know why? Because it damages equality.

How can we ever expect men to share the parenting/domestic burden wit us when everything is for 'mums'. My husband is a SAHD and he feels quite excluded from the whole 'parenting world' sometimes, luckily he's found a few other dads in the same position (not hard, they stick out like sore thumbs at toddler groups) and they cling to each other like limpets.

No, not at all. I like hearing from men on here when men do post. We are all just people dick or no dick (has long as your not being a dick!). I think this site is for everyone.

Thinking about itit all depends what you want out of MN as a site how much you worry about who you are talking to.

I don't tend to ask for any advice and try and stay away from any agendas and heated debates. I like a bit of a chat,and a laugh wherever possible.

Some people take it all way more seriously.

Totally agree maggie