Rise in male posters…

[loverrrr]

Ive been on mumsnet about 6 years now & over the last 6 months or so Ive really noticed a massive rise in male posters, or at least posters who call out that they are male.
Has anyone else noticed this & does anyone have an opinion to discuss?
My opinion is probably that I would prefer this to be a female only site & I usually skip over any posters or responses that are obviously male. I understand I dont own the site though, and anyone is free to post!

I’ve noticed this and while I recognise it can’t be stopped, I also find it annoying. There are a few things in particular that bother me:

1 The men who post hoping to get women to agree with something shitty about their girlfriends/wives who I assume then say to their partners “ but look - some MN users agree with me so you must be the problem”

2 The men who use MN as though women are an emotional support network for themselves because women are apparently just on Earth to help men

3 The men who are posting for sexual kicks

4 the “Man here” start to responses as though we should pay special attention to their comments

5 The obvious trolls who get their kicks by riling up/ upsetting women.

I’d love a women only space, but recognise that isn’t really possible so I just try to scroll past them and not engage.

That's some vivid imagery 😂

Oddly have experienced this phenomenon IRL - technician arriving in a female dominated office. Partner was fawned over and I could imagine his cartoon inflated head, one of them at least offered me a coffee. 😂

Yes, me too - multiple times under multiple usernames.

Posters make all kinds of nonsense assumptions on here, IME.

I don't see the "man here" comments as a request to pay special attention to what they're posting.

More that they're trying to be up front and open that they aren't female.

Which is fair, given that some women would (as this thread shows) like this site to only be women posting.

How would you, or others, like a man to let you know they're a man when they're posting?

There have been a few threads where a man has come along to tell all the women off (I remember this during lockdown but it happens from time to time). They have a particular writing style and when the women aren’t interested (or just ignore them), they get quite unpleasant and get their posts reported for deletion.

Oh yes i am not sure if i am to lake being called a compliment or not but i find the 'you're a man because all women share one brain cells and have no intelligence who can't think for themselves' thought is tiresome

It’s a parent site bla bla bla, but for me it takes a certain kind of man to have the arrogance and sense of entitlement to rock up in a predominantly female space. There are some exceptions I’m sure, I can think of one male poster who does seem to contribute consistently and positively without an agenda to undermine women, but on the whole I don’t value male input on this site in particular because of the type of males it attracts.

This has been asked repeatedly. I don't have to justify myself and neither do others here who are not parents.

If posters discuss in a civilised way I don't care whether they are male or female.

Doesn't bother me at all. I don't think it should be for women only.

If I didn’t have children I’d still think the FWR boards are the go-to place to learn about feminism and gender theories.

I don’t bother reading those threads as he always gets his arse handed to him for being a lazy, selfish manchild.

100% this. ^

I joined because I could post on the bereavement board, I hope that's ok with you .
I also regularly post on the litter tray , dog house , chat , decorating, and numerous other boards.
There are also boards on here that would get pounced on by idiots like blackmums, politics, royals .

Because the vast majority of the website has nothing to do with children or with being a parent. HTH.

I like to see male contributions as they sometimes have an unbiased and sensible approach. A lot of women can be bitchy and after being on here 20 years I prefer to get advice from ChatGPT than on here. Still like to give advice though.

I joined mumsnet over 25 years ago and after a couple of years my dh joined too.
He's the least arrogant and self entitled person I've ever met. He'd just married a woman with 3 children and looked for advice on step parenting. Where else would he get it?

After a while he strayed into the Friday Night bar, I don't think that's still a thing. We went on a couple of meetups together with the much loved and missed Janh and others in the North West. We were all parents at different stages struggling and helping each other.

I've just asked why he left, and it was because it became a victim of its own success, at the time we both felt like we knew everyone here, that changed and he settled into his stepdad role.

I don't feel like I know anyone now but log on daily and enjoy reading and occasionally commenting.

By parents for parents...

Fair enough that that is your view. And it may well be correct for some of them.

My observations were (obviously) generalisations. For some male posters “man here” is simply to denote they are providing their own male perspective as you say - but the ones who are respectful usually say so in a politer way. Surely you have noticed the number of posts which start like that going on to say something in an overly authoritative way as though their opinion is the irrefutable and is wholly dismissive of other PP’s views? It’s a special type of patriarchal arrogance that shines through on some of the posts and frankly rarely even needs the “man here!” declaration! They are the ones who I am complaining about.

I think the idea that you can tell who men are through their posts is silly and troll hunting. It's silly because it plays into archaic ideas that all men think one way and all women think another way.

Completely disagree, I think it’s entirely possible to identify male posters through writing style. You can often tell when they’re not the age they say they are either. Obviously not allowed to troll hunt on MN, but I’m allowed to think what I want.

I don't particularly like having men on the site, but I can appreciate that it's impossible to police. I think that overall they're a net negative (especially if one takes the cesspit of the sex board into account) but individually some of them are tolerable – or even helpful (on niche topics).

I actually like it when male posters announce they're men; it feels like either a disclaimer (if they're not a prick) or a red flag (if they are). Either way, I can read their comment with the context that they're a man.

I don't think men commenting is necessarily an issue.

The problems is with the ones that are only here to post misogynist posts and 'women are just as bad' comments when male violence and poor behaviour in general are discussed.

There seems to be a few trolls and pervs as well who are trying to sneak in posts about their 'kinks' lately.

I've never ventured onto the Sex board, but I've always assumed it's 50% men pretending to be women, and 50% men who don't realise the others aren't women. Like those AI chatbots who go into an infinite loop talking to each other.

Double

Sure but the moment you start telling people they are men because they don't agree with your particular worldview, you're troll hunting. So basically as soon as any of us can tell you think that because you've said as much, then you have crossed that line.

I don't think the man who posted recently about his wife sending him to a hotel for the night, because he had performed some maintenance on a bicycle, was following that script.