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.

Good post Trills. I don't usually go with the first site Mrs Google throws up as i assume they're sponsored, but I can see how you've been drawn in!

Are there many topics that would interest single men?

Yes there are and how do you know the men posting are single?

I don't mind men being around in the slightest.

I don't like goady fuckers - who come in both sexes, though the feminism subsection is plagued by MRA goady fuckers who tend to be male - but that's their personal inadequacies showing, and are not attributable to the male sex as a whole.

Are there many topics that would interest single men

Yes I found the 'who's your favourite page 3 lovely' board on mumsnet fascinating.

Believe it or not, men (single or otherwise) can have a range of interests and hobbies just like all single women aren't necessarily interested in ponies, dresses and snaring a man.

I don't always go with the first search result, I'd usually click on a few and see what they look like.

Lots of question/answer sites look quite shit (not just the design but the quality of the answers).

MN stands out in the quality and volume of the responses to any question. :)

I don't know if they're single or not, I also don't know weather someone is male or female half the time. But just going on the men I know, all they talk about is sport, cars, drinking, their job, & music. There's not much of that on here. But hey, it's no big deal really.

Topics for single men

How about

Relationships
Film/TV/books/music
Gaming
Health
DIY
Cycling
In the news/politics
Family history
Preppers
Legal matters
Pets
Sport
Travel...

Tons!!

But just going on the men I know, all they talk about is sport, cars, drinking, their job, & music.

I'd suggest get some more interesting male friends.

I'd rather it was women only . Because the rest of the world and the interested is dominated by men's voices .

I don't mind the men here as long as they don't act like dicks. Which includes mentioning their sex on every bloody post when it's not remotely relevant . Telling women what they should think or feel . Mansplaining . Pretending to speak for 50% of the world population . Complaining when it's not about all about them . Complaining that we don't put NAMALT on every bloody post. And of course the tiresome MRAs. Not being aware of their privilege .

Here's an interesting article about approaching minority spaces , I would like all the men to MN to read it before they post

blog.shrub.com/check-my-what/#minority_spaces

I agree kristina.

Speaking only about our Western countries obviously, I very strongly disagree that women should be considered as some kind of "discriminated under-privileged minority"!

I don't mind the men here as long as they don't act like dicks. Which includes mentioning their sex on every bloody post when it's not remotely relevant . Telling women what they should think or feel . Mansplaining . Pretending to speak for 50% of the world population . Complaining when it's not about all about them . Complaining that we don't put NAMALT on every bloody post. And of course the tiresome MRAs. Not being aware of their privilege

I don't like posters saying 'aww what about the menz' at times whenever men are mentioned.

It is extremely patronising and unnecessary.

Oh and I am female too.

I still don't understand how you would know it was a man unless they said so. I know 3 posters on here who were thought to be men, because their name suggested it, but they were women.

Fresh when I see a post with 'man here' 'male view here' 'hi ladies' etc, that usually gives it away.

Kr1srina I'm female and think what you've posted and your link is utter crap. Poor you, not born a male and don't have this elusive privilege. Fuck off and whine about the big bad men somewhere else, men are parents just as much as women are, they've every right to post what they want on a PARENTS site just the same as women have every right to post what they want on a PARENTS site. And btw, I find that it's the women who post the most dickish things, not the men

'Misogyny?? Wots that then?'

Women, tsk.

Just so long as when we talk of GF's, we don't really mean we don't like being disagreed with, or having our views challenged by someone (male or female) with a different perspective?

I think it's only right to welcome everyone's perspective - men included.

I posted in aibu about access to my daughter, without stating whether I was female or male. One poster accused me of being deliberately goady and nasty simply for not stating - sometimes you can't win. I found Mumsnet when I was looking for explanation of what the flip twitter was actually for. I read a really good explanation and as an indirect result, I got a much better job.

You're missing a really good article if you simply dismiss Kr!stina's post as 'manhating', you know.

Not least because it highlights the importance of listening.

I think one of the things that makes Mumsnet quite unique, in terms of the internet and the pubic spaces of RL, is the role of listening (reading attentively!) on the forum. I suspect that is down to the number of women and, yes, mothers, on this forum.

An amazing amount of the internet - and public space in RL - is given over to people speaking, expressing opinions, etc. There will be a bit of engagement with that but the primary impetus is the professing of an opinion/information.

I do think that Mumsnet has a good deal of communication - the interplay of speaking and listening. Even AIBU (I know, I know ...) is a bit of people posting with unresolved opinions, seeking listeners, seeking alternative opinions, rather than just putting a fully-resolved position out there.

I do think that this is changing, slowly. But it's still here and it is part of what gives Mumsnet a quite unique 'feel'.

I think listening is a really under-appreciated skill. It's noticeable that, when we do need it, and for some reason we're not able to find it amongst friends, it's an expensive skill to buy (counselling, therapy). It's odd, because I guess we go for paid listening when the un-paid for listening in RL is broken in some way. We only seem to notice how valuable listening is when it has broken down, for some reason, in our day to day lives.

A related point (but very loosely related): I've noticed that quite a few of the posters here slide from an avowal of the value of being welcoming of others (I guess that would be 'non-mothers', 'non-parents', or men) into/towards a disputation of the unusual tone of Mumsnet ('It's not different to the rest of the internet,' 'Lots of forums are the same as Mumsnet') and/or into a denigration of that difference ('I think it would be better if it wasn't like this.')

I think that's quite interesting. Personally, I like the tone of Mumsnet (I do think that the role of 'listening', a stance of 'being-towards-others' is a significant - and positive - feature of Mumsnet). I think that has a lot to do with it having started off attracting a lot of female parents. I don't think it was a necessary connection (there are lots of parenting sites that aren't like Mumsnet). It might be interesting to explore why that might be.

I am, for what it's worth, a welcomer - though as a I said earlier, I do hate these threads. I wonder if one of the reasons that I hate these threads is because they do seem to implicitly turn into a denigration or denial of what makes Mumsnet quite unique in order to adopt that stance of welcoming?

I've found myself quite in sympathy with the posts that have said: "Yes, I welcome ..... but I do like the fact that it is ..."

I wonder if it is hard to voice a stance that is both welcoming (of women without children; men ...) and which acknowledges and celebrates what is quite unique (and attractive) about Mumsnet?

You're missing a really good article..

I don't dismiss the article, I simply do not think it applies in any shape or form to Western women (simplifying hugely the geographical distinction obviously).