Sunday Times strikes again!

[therednosedcariboo]

I quote, "The middle-aged, middle-class well of loneliness that is Mumsnet can vouch for that."

FFS![anger]

Article from today's The Sunday Times: Here come the girls by Stephanie Theobald

maggie - this is true. I recall lots of items quoting posters from here, some seruptitiously - it's the world of media n'est-ce pas? A bit of active chattering classes where you are hero to zero in a second.

Absolutely. I often feel reading the papers that a supposedly razor-sharp observation has already been made 3 days ago by mumsnetters.

dull article couldn't be bothered to read to the end

just read it - boring media/celeb curiousness. Yawn. No idea why MN gets a snidy comment though.

Too right. Pointless fleshing out of ST while more interesting writers are "away".

God some of those men on there are just so furious aren't they?

Doubtless someone once told them they ought to pick up their own bloody socks...

I read the article yesterday and pointed out to dh that in 8 years of being on MN,I'd never come across threads mentioned by that article.

Now if it had mentioned Tableclothlady,Pirate sex,bumsex,grapes in the supermarket or the b obbleplate,that would have been different!

Hmmm,this has reminded me of when I worked in a call centre and was very bored.A group of us used to have a challenge.Someone would think of a word and you had to insert said word into your next conversation with a customer.It passed the time.We could do the same thing on here-start a completely spurious thread and see how long it takes a journo to pick it up.

Hey-I'm spuriousFuriousGeorge!

I'm neither middle class nor middle aged

i am middle class and middle aged - i didn't know it was an insult!

Probably 98% of the Sunday Times' readership is middle class and middle aged, so I don't know how they can think that is some kind of insult.

It does seem a very strange article - some women decide to be lesbians later in life. Hold the front page!

I decided to scale back because of all the people using us in papers. Not that I'm very interesting but I didn't want someone from IRL to come along and spot something I was saying.

Isn't it nice to know we're so popular and clever that everyone wants to know what we're saying?

Its a typical ooh what can I say to today thats abit controversial...to help sell the paper I work for......

Its a load of rubbish....lets face it all the Lesbians she mentioned came out years ago....even Alison Goldfrapp (who seems to be key evidence to her theory) I can vouch with me own eyes that she been dating women for years.... found myself at a party with her and previous girlfriend about 4 years ago!

OOh and my reason for being a lesbian or on MN is not that im middle-aged, middleclass, lonely, im cheating on a man, had a fantasy about my partner sharing the ironing or looking after the kids.... i just think the women in the acticle just hit middle-age and cant be arsed to hide who they are anymore....

I think they mention Mumsnet so that someone starts a thread like this with a link to the original article and they get more hits.

Twice this year things I have written on MN have appeared in the national press - and I am not even a prolific MNer. Makes you wonder what those journos do all day... certainy not much work.

Outoftheboxmummy - can I come to your parties? Please?

[Imagine the "Friends" episode, when Joey's friends accompany him to the end-of-series party. That'll be me.]

I've always been vaguely offended by the term "fag-hag" but equally struck that there is no lesbian equivalent. Anyway, that's what I'll be. A cute, token straight friend ... gawping at any stray celebrities.

I think ST's intentions are fine, actually. I suspect she's just trying to promote the visibility of older women, lesbians, and the wideness of life-choices generally.

I was a bit scared to post earlier because ... well, mn is quiiiite judgmental about affairs. But I suspect she's googled and come across some of the advice offered to women in heterosexual relationship, with kids, who think they might be interested. And I've been here long enough to know that ... perhaps mn isn't the bestest place for advice in that situation ... and it can highlight some of the hidden issues for your non-celebrity, middle-aged woman-who-is-considering-lesbianism.

hbfac Id love to say that Alison Goldfrapp was at "MY" Party...hahaha! Sadly it was a party put on by a friend's ex (fashion School Student) boyfriend's friend. That I happened to get a plus one too.... Chain from host to me was quite long, you see....

Alison Goldfrapp coming to "MY" party...I wish I was that cool! lol

I also read this pointless piece of drivel and rolled my eyes at it. The author seems to have tactically missed a key reason why women 'become' lesbians later in life, which is that they fancy women. My own mum's coming out had precious little to do with celebrity, visibility or trendiness and everything to do with her finally feeling able to act on her desires.

It is intesting, but I cant say that I have noticed a mass breaking out of sexuality on mumsnet.

By calling us the well of loneliness, I guess the journalist is comparing us to the woman in TWOL who has an affair with Steve, BUT crucially, runs back to men the moment she gets the chance to get married (the big prize of the day).
I think that is a bit harsh on people who want to explore their feelings on here.

It doesnt surprise me at all that many women come out later, after they already have children. Lets face it, the ability to give us children is a lot of men's main selling point!