AIBU or is Mumsnet particularly hysterical?

[hellisotherpeopleandhorlicks]

In the last twenty minutes I've read threads on societal collapse, civil unrest, war all breaking out in the next year. I've seen people hysterically telling an OP to leave a husband or slept in accidentally, and others encouraging people to panic buy for Brexit while disputing the fact that what they are encouraging is in fact panic buying.

Is Mumsnet generally a good representation of people's views in your circles do you find? Or do people post their true feelings here, ones they wouldn't speak out loud do you think? IE anxieties about things like civil unrest?

I'm just curious really as to whether people read threads on mumsnet and feel that they're a bit OTT and scare mongering or whether they think they're a good representation of the general vibe in their area or circle?

@DeliciouslyFemale

Try using a less misogynistic term to describe Mumsnetters, than hysterical and I might think you’ve a valid point. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Case in point

I'm just havering.

I'll come up with something better at 3 am when everyone else has moved on..

Hysterical means "marked by uncontrollable, extreme emotion." If your favorite sports team wins a championship, you might get hysterical and started weeping and screaming all at once. ... Hysterical can also mean "extremely funny," even more so than hilarious

Hyperbolic is an adjective describing something that resembles or pertains to a hyperbola (a curve), to hyperbole (an overstatement or exaggeration), or to hyperbolic geometry. The following phenomena are described as hyperbolic because they manifest hyperbolas, not because something about them is exaggerated

Clearly not the same thing and nothing to imply hysteria is misogynistic.

Oo er.
That's me told!

Some of them are actually hilarious, though. About this time last year there was a lot of posts about cashing out of the EU. People were talking about panic buying/preparing for Armageddon. One woman kept suitcases full of pasta. Another had stocked up on cigarettes and those minature booze bottles to barter after the monetary system collapsed. It was extraordinary.

I called my brother hysterical over a football result the other day (and not in a positive way!) so because I don't associate it as a misogynistic term it didn't occur to me when I was typing the post with a head full of civil unrest and societal collapse. I have apologised and reported my own thread and accepted the point completely that it does have that association, if you read the full thread.

@Maireas do you think those posts are actually true though? Or an exaggeration? I know it's impossible to tell!

Well I am going to go in a corner and sob and shake because I still don't know what alternative to hysterical would be👀

@VinylDetective I think it's about how the term started

That post about the use of the word ‘hysterical’ proves OP’s point. People are so extreme about their interpretations. From 1 to 100, no middle point. Lol about hysterical being a word that can’t be used because it is misogynistic. Most people won’t give you that reaction in the real world.

IIRC the word "hysteria" is female specific and the words derives from female reproductive organs (think hysterectomy etc). Hysteria was once a diagnosed condition way back when for women who were too outspoken, wouldn't follow rules, sometimes they wanted to do things that men would do, like write books. It was basically a diagnosis to send the message to women that they need to STFU. And these women were imprisoned for life in asylums. There's a very sad, deeply hidden history behind it.

Well I hope mn don’t change the word.

“Is mumsnet a little bit ott sometimes” doesn’t quite carry the punch your thread is after.

But I don't think that's widely known. I didn't know about it until I came to MN

I can be hysterical sometimes, I’m peri menopausal and that’s all I’m saying.......

Nobody I know in real life is anywhere close to as judgmental, overbearing, hysterical, unsubtle or aggressive as most of the posters on here! In general the majority of people I meet in real life is nice and sensible with the odd arsehole thrown in, that seems to be reversed on MN

It’s the shaking that gets me. No one is just a bit annoyed or upset, they’re always bloody shaking.

I think people do exaggerate for effect about all sorts in real life and on line.

On here there are also the long running threads which are far more low key and supportive.

Seems normal to me (I dont get it myself though!) No in real life I dont remember people like this but then I also dont feel in real life tge double standard of male/females as in female saint male bad just because

People advocate leaving partners immediately for the tiniest thing. AIBU is the worst place for relationship advice by far.

@hellisotherpeopleandhorlicks - who knows? It got so bonkers it was hard to fathom. It started with the assertion that we were going to crash out of the EU in October, how are you planning for it, then it got reminiscent of a storyboard for a dystopian nightmare of desperation, squalor and bartering cigarettes and mini Baileys for a pound of spuds.

Hahaha yes definitely. Sometimes I read stuff just for the lolz tho. I find it mental how they react so quickly telling ppl to leave their partners when they know nothing except one story 😂

The only reason I’m here is to read all these hysterical threads to be honest - so entertaining some of em 😂

Omg your husband was 10 minutes late - obviously he’s having an affair- you must leave him immediately

🤪

@Yorkshireswithallroasts As well as shaking, they're often "fewmin".

And hysterical.

You should have seen the recent fabric softener thread OP, tops all of the ones you have mentioned

Yep, it’s MN. It’s always the opposite to reality where many millions of us are going about our everyday lives (albeit with a wee mask in our handbags).
There were hysterical women practically weeping and whipping themselves in horror about Boris on another thread claiming they’d never hated another person as much as him.
They must have lived pretty cushty lives if they’ve never hated someone more than BJ.

I find mumsnet bizarrely full of covid deniers - people who say it's just like flu and who seem to think we should all just go out there and die.

In my real life nobody I know would think their right to have 12 people for Christmas lunch trumped the law, everyone is following guidelines and getting on with life.

I don't like the word hysterical though - definitely misogynistic