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Mumsnet is like having a wicked stepmother and a smug supermum next door..

29 replies

biddyofsuburbia · 06/04/2010 07:26

Anyone read Libby Purves column in The Times yesterday? Less than complimentary about us mumsnetters! And she's been lurking recently as we've been quoted! Apparently we occasionally scare her! Here are some quotes:

'Such websites have practical uses, providing a useful forum for the minutiae of life in the hard, baffling, wonderful years of practical motherhood. I wish it had been around when I was wrestling with it all'

But also...

'Addressing mumsnet, whether on biscuits or fiscal policy, means only that you are talking to the most keyboard addicted section of the fertile female electorate. Its a niche'

'if you surf around long enough it is like having a wicked stepmother, a bullying Nurse Ratched and a censorious, smug, competitive supermum next door'

Her column is in response to this being dubbed the mumsnet election i.e that we are not representative of female electorate or even those of childbearing age and that focussing on 'people like us' is a mistake for the political parties as it does not address other important issues. Blah blah. I don't normally read her column but any thoughts anyone??? just for you Libby.

OP posts:
cory · 06/04/2010 11:42

Ooooh...can I be the Evil Stepmother, please?

TrillianAstra · 06/04/2010 11:56

We aren't all necessarily fertile...
some of us are currently childless (by choice or not) or have grownup cildren and are past the menopause
not necessarily female...
there are definitely some men about
and not necessarily the 'electorate'...
some are citizens of other countries or possibly underage

mrsbaldwin · 06/04/2010 12:17

belledame (and betadad) - there is definitely something in what you say about online being beyond the sphere of traditonal media influence. And I also agree with tummytime - Libby Purves' own book was/is a lot like some bits of MN - at the back it has a section on how to take your baby sailing on a yacht!!!

ABetaDad · 06/04/2010 13:56

I wonderd why she mentioned the story about being on a yacht in the middle of the Atlantic.

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