To wonder why there’s suddenly an influx of American posters?

[Wonderwomam]

It seems every other thread I open is from an American poster. It’s all well, the more the merrier, but there’s some advice being given on some threads that just wouldn’t work here and vice versa. I can’t pin point each thing I’ve read as there’s so many. One example is about school problems; how can we advise someone living in another country how to sort school issues? The system is completely different.

I’m wondering was there some kind of big story like the bloody beaker that’s seen an influx of people from the US, or is MN just getting bigger and bigger?!

[AndItStillSaidFourOfTwo]

I agree with PPs about the anti-Americanism on here. I do think that Britain has a huge post-colonial chip on its collective shoulder and a lot of the snobby about (putatively) American language, customs etc derives from this sense of unacknowledged British superiority. I also think the English middle classes in particular have quite a bit of difficulty with taking automatic account, when engaging with someone, of the fact that there are other ways of doing things. (I say this as a member of the English middle classes, albeit no longer living in the UK).

[longwayoff]

O dear. Into the mix I throw Meghan Markle. Glamorous, prince- stealing American beauty. Discuss.

[blueskiesovertheforest]

In an ideal world opening posts would give all the key information, including country. How often is specifying a country (not a town but a whole country) "outing"?

However some people inevitably reply without having read the opening post properly (opening post "my 7 year old DD is in year 2, she says she's not tired at bedtime, any tips?" next post "how old is he OP, he'll be tireder when he starts nursery, let him stay up later til then" that there will always be some totally irrelevant advice on every thread.

Its really only posts where the original poster assumes readers have exactly the same background and situation and asks a question without providing key information that are totally pointlessly confusing - people who fail to mention they're talking about a private school or assume everyone reading is in Wales or London or Australia or wherever they are, or that everything works exactly the same way everywhere.

[EKGEMS]

Fair enough I'm an American member however my late Grandmother had dual citizenship as she was British born-I also still have family in Britain,Ireland and Canada. We can all contribute positively

[QwertyLou]

I love y’all too! And hello back, @Vampirelestat! I lived in Ireland for a year and loved it

[pineapplebryanbrown]

I feel sorry for Americans on MN, they get very casually bashed over all sorts and it's a-ok. I used to live in the rural mid west before the internet and think MN really would have saved my bacon. Please say all y'all in every post - it's lovely.

[QwertyLou]

I have not noticed a “sudden influx” of US posters.

I do see some anti-US sentiment at times. Not personal attacks, more a poster using “American” to mean crass, commercial or generally inferior to the True British Way.

I know no one is saying US posters are unwelcome, but there is a slight sense of “those confusing Americans - baffling up our discussion space, why!?” Which is not exactly welcoming

(I’m not in the UK or the US)

[NothingOnTellyAgain]

Agree that there seem to be more USA people posting which is fine apart from when occasionally they take their experience as universal and make baffling statements

Eg 'most women express a preference for men to be circumcised'

And everyone in the thread is???????

[lljkk]

Am an American who has been on MN almost 18 yrs.
I've been attacked a lot on MN for many things but never felt attacked for the American-ness.
I struggle to write "mum" though. Keep thinking of these.

[Ereshkigal]

As I said, they attended the event as left wing feminists because it was one of the only chances desperate parents of girls transitioning had to challenge the trans agenda and the government plans. The craven and identity politics riven left wing will not give these women a platform. As in this country.

[Chainormous]

Genuinely shocked that a mumsnet "feminist" attended an event sponsored by an anti-feminist group, for the sake of anti-trans allying.

Deranged.

And great post @WarpedGalaxy

[7salmonswimming]

Any anti-American MC snobbery on this site is just a reflection of anti-American MC snobbery in the UK generally.

[Chainormous]

I think we need to build a wall around the site.

[Ereshkigal]

You want to know why women on the left and center in the USA don't appear to be too concerned with TRAs and their encroachment on women's spaces?

Why do you think they went there? They were invited by American feminists.

[TalkingintheDark]

WarpedGalaxy it’s the fact that in the US the only choice is between right wing misogynists who want to strip women of their human rights, and left wing misogynists who want to strip women of their human rights that’s the problem.

If the left hadn’t capitulated so entirely like this, and alienated so many people with this incomprehensible, totalitarian determination to deny basic reality and justice, maybe Trump wouldn’t have been elected in the first place, even with all the help he had from Russia.

You’re the country that is driving through double mastectomies on 13yo girls with LDs, FFS. WHY is there no left wing group standing up against this? Why are you leaving a vacuum for odious Christian Right groups to fill? That meeting was attended by left wing feminists from all over the States, because no one else is giving a platform to desperate parents.

And what happens in the US has a massive impact on what happens here - a lot of this bastarding misogyny disguised as progress was very definitely born in the USA so it very much is my lane too. If you know a way to stop your shit from spreading over the rest of the world, I’d be very grateful if you would implement it right now; in the meantime, the rest of us are very much going to have an opinion on the crap you export.

And actually, child abuse of all kinds, including the kind that TRAs promote, is everybody’s business, wherever in the world it happens.

[Monday55]

maybe MNHQ should now enable flag emojis alongside people's username so we know who is posting from where.. The majority of posters are obviously from UK.

I have seen someone getting sound advice only for them to mention something to do with their social security number & all of a sudden the advice became irrelevant.

[Goldenbear]

That's not an insult but it comes back to the fact that advice on here is based on a relatable, true understanding of the sotuation, including cultural context.

[Goldenbear]

There are cultural differences though, it's not just that the set up is different and so it makes it hard to comment. I've just been watching the Secret Life of 5 year olds with my 7 year old DD, the U.S.A version came on automatically after the British version had finished and she asked me to switch it off as she wasn't interested, presumably because it's not as culturally relatable.

[SenecaFalls]

Yes, having lived in the UK (Scotland), I can attest that the attitude to drinking is a bit more puritanical here in the US.

I did have a bit of a chuckle at a recent thread by a woman who was planning on a holiday in the US with her 20 year old son, but was re-thinking it because he would be under the legal drinking age. She wondered if in restaurants wait staff would just be less vigilant and not ask for ID. Ha! Expect to be "carded" up to about age 35 responded a chorus of US-based Mumsnetters.

[justasking111]

My Welsh friend emigrated to USA first living in Rochester Minnesotta. The mums she said were early to bed early to rise, there was no boozing now for a Welsh lass who loved her wine that was hard, she was frowned at when she took colleagues out to dinner one Friday night and proceeded to get merry. They were all very republican so she emulated their politics to get by. Now she has lived in NY for many years she is a devout democrat. She makes me giggle at the changes the USA has wrought on her personality. She no longer drinks and frowns on anyone who does.

When I heard this Jack Whitehall joke I thought of her.

" The biggest difference, I realize, between us and our American cousins, when I went to California, was the attitude to drinking. Completely different. I heard sentences in California that I’ve never heard before. Like this: “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Did you see Larry? Larry had four glasses of wine with dinner. I think Larry… may be an alcoholic.” Yes, I know. Four glasses of wine with dinner in America: you’re an alcoholic. Four glasses of wine with dinner in Britain: you’re the designated driver. "

[SenecaFalls]

Maybe I will Olenna if I can spare time from my current preoccupation with the Style and Beauty royal fashion threads.

But just one quick example: one of the Heritage Foundation's positions is to defund the grant programs of the federal Violence Against Women Act. VAWA funding supports domestic violence and sexual assault resources all over the US. For me, violence against women is the core issue of feminism.

[WarpedGalaxy]

It scares me how the left in America is, as you say, almost exclusively “blindly pro trans”. Or pro transactivist “TWAW” ideology, to be more specific.

It scares you? You want to know what scares me? Being a woman in the USA under the current administration. You want to know why women on the left and center in the USA don't appear to be too concerned with TRAs and their encroachment on women's spaces? It's because right now we face a far bigger threat to our healthcare, educational and workplace rights from people like the Heritage Foundation who have the ear and the support of the current incumbent of the White House and his ilk.

TRAs may be your biggest issue but they're not ours - you're all blithely ignoring that small fact. Our biggest issues are being caused by the very people Posey Parker was lending credibility to. She didn't do American women any favours while she was here, so, maybe she should just stay in her lane and let us deal with our own shit in future?

[OlennasWimple]

PS - Seneca - I would love to understand more about American feminism and the right wing. Do please post on FWR about it

[OlennasWimple]

Yes, there is huge anti-US sentiment on MN (baby names, baby showers, weddings, "help me plan a visit to the US" threads rarely go for more than a few posts without a snide or outright rude comment)

But then I also think that many MNers forget that not everyone lives in England, particularly in the SE. Solutions that get thrown around like confetti - get a cleaner / move house, you must have enough equity after living there for six years to get a bigger house / find another job / make your teen get the bus to work instead of you driving him etc etc ) often only work if you are living in the SE

[SenecaFalls]

Waves to Across

I did in fact come for feminism, but I stayed for AIBU and Chat. I have not posted on the feminism boards for a very long time because they seldom talk about the things I want to talk about these days, but I do dip in there for a read from time to time. I do sometimes feel the impulse to tell them, and please trust me on this, the right wing, and especially the religious right, in the US is not a friend to women, and the potential unintended negative consequences of making common cause with them on any issue affecting women is great.