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MNHQ

Everyday Ageism - we're after your thoughts on Mumsnet getting behind a campaign on this

7 replies

JustineMumsnet · 06/01/2015 12:50

Hi all,
Following on from this thread, and now that the decorations have come down (hurry, it's tonight, or possibly even last night - depending who you listen too), we'd like to ask you about whether you feel Mumsnet should get behind Gransnet's Everyday Ageism campaign.

Everyday Ageism is an awareness-raising campaign that aims to identify and challenge ageism; empower people to deal with it; and challenge brands if they fall into the ageism trap. They're planning plenty of media work to gather support, and are asking GNers for their experiences - but if MN's going to get on board it might be nice for MNers to chip in with some ideas too.

So please let us know whether you'd support MN getting on board with the GN campaign, and if so whether you have any genius ideas for campaign actions (preferably things that can be done online: we don't have the budget for poster campaigns or TV commercials Grin).

Many thanks.

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MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/01/2015 10:34

Thanks for the comments so far. The idea of this discussion is to construct a campaign you're happy with - so nothing set in stone as of now - and hopefully we can reach some kind of consensus, if not then of course we won't be able to proceed.

Do keep the suggestions coming - if the name doesn't work for people then we'll need something else! Thanks.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/01/2015 11:45

@DrankSangriaInThePark

The casual ageism on MN is abhorrent, and all prevailing. There is hardly a day goes by that some poor slightly over-middle-aged woman dares to look at a baby on a bus, or heaven forbid, in a supermarket, and gets all manner of abuse thrown at her, both from the RL MNer crowing to the mob on here, and as a response from the same mob when she does.

It has increased exponentially over the last few years as well.

I have lost count of the times I have reported comments, and threads for being full of the "I'd have told the old caaaaah to fuck off" classy stuff, only to receive an email back saying "blah blah blah, do continue to waste time report anything you see blah blah yadda yadda". Hmm

I reached the conclusion that for MNHQ, sexy fertile, Bobbi Brown wearing, bugaboo pushing, GHD using yobs are more advertising revenue, and more likely to bring you another Penis Beaker hilarious story, so I don't bother now.

But to suggest backing a campaign proposing to do exactly that which HQ has never bothered to on their own patch is risible at best, and hypocritical at worst.

We actually get very few reports of ageism on the boards - when last checked we'd had on a couple in the last six months or so - and, as you may know, we don't pre-moderate but respond to reported posts. So if you have a problem with ageism on Mumsnet you need to report it. We will always take a look and will always remove nasty ageist stuff.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/01/2015 12:35

@MovingOnUpMovingOnOut

Is that data completely reliable Justine? Or is it possible that ageism reports are not actually being recorded as ageism? Maybe because the person reporting doesn't flag it as ageism or because the person receiving the report doesn't log it as ageism?

We know that under-reporting is often a problem where issues are only just starting to be taken seriously. For example, a few years ago many banks were reporting high levels of customer satisfaction because they had low levels of complaints. However, it later transpired that what they actually had was poor reporting practices and unreliable records. These days with the FCA cracking down they just can't get away with it any more.

Let me check.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/01/2015 15:16

Ok so we've had a good look and we had in fact around 30 reports mentioning 'ageist' or 'ageism' in 2014.

To put that in context we receive around 1000 (!) reports each week.

As has been said though, some other ageist posts might have been reported for other reasons, in which case they wouldn't necessarily show up in this tally.

Our hunch is that lots of MNers either don't recognise ageism or don't think that casual ageism matters overmuch. I suppose this discussion is partly to ascertain whether that's the case and what, if anything, folks want us to do about it.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 07/01/2015 16:09

@BIWI

Justine - I think there are some key things here:

a) many, many MNetters say that they never bother reporting things - from a general 'can't be bothered' perspective

b) many MNetters say that because of the response from MNHQ they won't bother reporting again

You may not like to hear this, but it is said very, very often on threads.

c) some MNetters don't like to report threads - somehow they feel it's inappropriate/they don't dare/it's not their place, etc

Whilst that might seem 'wussy', it's a view that many MNetters seem to hold - not just about ageism, but about reporting in general.

d) (the most sad) many simply don't see the issue. It's apparent on the Feminist boards that many women simply don't realise sexism/misogyny. It's even more apparent that many, many MNetters don't realise that their posts are horribly ageist. A quick squiz around the S&B threads reveals that. All those 'am I too old at 25 to wear xxx?', etc

So taking all of these together, I can quite see why there aren't that many reports to you.

a) Yes that's probably true
b) Yes I've seen this complaint too - in my opinion it tends to be said a lot by the same folks about things where we simply have a different view on what should be deleted and what shouldn't, and to be frank we're never going to reach agreement on what should be allowed unless there's a sea change in what users want.
c) Yes probably true, but it's the only way to change the tone of the boards I'm afraid.
d) Yes, I think you're right about that.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/01/2015 09:16

@Samcro

i have to say I don't have much faith in mn campaigns. the idea that mn hq want to do a campaign about yet when they did the "this is my child" campaign, over 18's not welcome. (before someone shouts at me, this is true and you only have to look at the threads about it) mn hq need to get their own house in order first.

Hi Samcro, I think that's a bit unfair and a case of letting the better being the enemy of the good - all successful campaigns need to have a focus in my opinion and TIMC's scope was decided entirely in discussion with Mnetters. Most users seemed to think that it was successful in raising awareness and promoting understanding of what it's like to have a child with SN, which was the stated aim. Are you really saying you'd rather we'd not bothered??

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 08/01/2015 10:24

@Samcro

I would have rather you had included adult "children" as well, rather than cutting off at 18. I was shouted down at the time, as people could not see beyond 18. and as for TIMC what did it do?

That's democracy Samcro - guess others didn't agree with you. As said I think TIMC did a lot for people's understanding and sympathy here on Mumsnet, certainly lots of folk commented as much.

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