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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

MNHQ

Let's talk about sex toys (well, ads for them on Mumsnet), please

486 replies

HelenMumsnet · 07/10/2011 11:51

Hello.

We'd like your opinions, please, on Mumsnet taking ads for stores/sites that sell sex toys.

We accepted a campaign for one site like this earlier in the week - and then removed it after receiving a fair number of complaints.

So, what we need to know now is...

Do you mind ads for stores/sites that sell sex toys - generally speaking?

Does it matter which stores/sites these are? And what kind of stuff they're selling?

And, if you wouldn't run a mile from these kinds of ads, would you be happy to see them all over Mumsnet (with the obvious exception of our more sensitive topics such as Bereavement, Special Needs, Relationships, Miscarriage etc)? Or would you prefer them only to be in Chat?

Do please post and let us know your thoughts.

Thanks MNHQ

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 08/10/2011 11:49

Bear in mind that very few other sites (any?) would let their users have any say in what advertising they accept.

Stop lambasting MNHQ and be grateful that you do actually get to have your say and that your opinions matter.

GumballCharm · 08/10/2011 11:49

I think it's a bad idea. I agree that many of the stres that stock sex toys also stock sexist and questionable costumes and I just don't want to see ads for vibrators etc when I come here...this is safe place...a home from home.

CristinadellaPizza · 08/10/2011 11:52

Soupy - it is precisely because of MN's editorial policy that I do post here. And no, I'm not going to be pathetically grateful for that and not complain when they fuck up.

LetTheSlaughterBeGincognito · 08/10/2011 12:03

I don't think it's puritanical to object to sex aids and BDSM gear. I do think it's puritanical to object to other people enjoying them, and downright Hmm to think that this necessarily means that they're fucked up.

windsorTides · 08/10/2011 12:10

Higgle I think that just as you seemed to blatantly misunderstand on the other thread, where you confused adult women wearing schoolgirl outfits with schoolgirls themselves dressing up, you are doing the same thing here.

You seem to equate a dislike of porn and porn advertising, with a puritanical view of sex and consequently, your posts are extremely patronising.

People who love sex can still hate porn and misogyny.

swallowedAfly · 08/10/2011 13:08

fair enough if you don't get off on sex itself - no need to try and make out that those that do (without the need for speculums and am dram) have something wrong with them. i think it is the need for butt plugs and leg spreaders that implies sexual dysfunction rather than not needing to stick things up their arse and be tied in knots in order to enjoy sex.

seriously - do we want mn to be a place that sells but plugs, vaginas in cans etc?

would MN be willing to put up a warning page for people coming on to the site saying warning you are entering a site with links to graphic sexual content?

BecauseImWorthIt · 08/10/2011 13:12

I think Gumballcharm has it spot on:

"this is safe place"

higgle · 08/10/2011 13:36

this is not a "safe place" it is a place where posters rip apart anyone they disagree with! I alwyas feel that people patronise me when I post, as if my views, just because some people disagree with them have no validity, and as if I am in some way intellectually inferior, which is strange given my background. ( Post graduate, health sector management, qualification in counselling and charity trustee, married for nearly 30 years and utterly faithful)

BellaDonnaSansMerci · 08/10/2011 13:42

Late to this but a "no" from me to all inc Ann Summers.

GumballCharm · 08/10/2011 13:52

But having another poster argue with me is different to being faced with Adult Products when I log on.

I like the full-on conversation....it offers me a mental stimulation that I can't get in real life.

It is a safe place....because if things get nasty, there are always sensible Mnrs to bring things down or report.

To clarify....there is nothing wrong with sex toys...in their place. Which imo is in sex shops. Not on MN

GumballCharm · 08/10/2011 13:53

There are people of many different religions on here...how would they feel about this? Muslims for instance? Would this not alienate them?

SoupDragon · 08/10/2011 13:54

Cristina, complaining is one thing, continuing to whine when MNHQ took the ad down without hesitation following a tiny number of complaints and then asked for opinions is another.

As for MN being a "safe place", don't be so naive. A public internet forum is not, and never can be, a safe place and you really ought to understand that.

SoupDragon · 08/10/2011 13:56

I am assuming that the ad in question did not, in fact, display in your face pictures of sex toys in all their graphic glory but was, in fact, some kind of banner ad with innuendo filled text?

higgle · 08/10/2011 13:59

"We'd like your opinions, please, on Mumsnet taking ads for stores/sites that sell sex toys."

That is what they asked for, I say, "fine by me". though I wouldn't want large pictures of actual products spread about the place. my view, and I'm entitled to express it without being told I'm patronising. If someone asks why I think that I'll elaborate, and I don't expect to be told in response that my views are inherently inferior. A lot of older people (and I have in mind one lady, over 90) buy from these sites because being widowed, having arthritis etc. make having anysort of sex life very difficult, and they need carers to help them access these products.

If sex toy suppliers could create a demand from nothing I'm sure they wuld not be in that business for long, some of the multinational and supermarket chains would be signing them up for their marketing departments!

SoupDragon · 08/10/2011 13:59

I'm leaving the "discussion" anyway.

I don't care one way or another whether the ads appear Bt think they should be in a new Sex topic only if they do.

GumballCharm · 08/10/2011 14:02

Soup it IS safe in one sense....it is safe from sex ads...and ads to do with sex. That's good enough for me.

BecauseImWorthIt · 08/10/2011 14:06

Soupy - I'm very well aware that the internet isn't safe, and that this is a public forum, to be accessed by anyone. But that wasn't what 'this is a safe place' meant, IMO.

LeBOF · 08/10/2011 14:24

Is it just me, or does it seem above and beyond the call of duty for a care worker to wield the dildo for an arthritic pensioner? Hmm

Hullygully · 08/10/2011 14:30

just you

JeremyVile · 08/10/2011 14:35

I did care work as a teen.
If you got assigned a certain old bloke on an evening shift you had to help him turn the pages of his porn mags.
I'd forgotten all about that, cheers Bof.

LeninGrad · 08/10/2011 14:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PinotScreechio · 08/10/2011 14:37

Ewwww no

BecauseImWorthIt · 08/10/2011 14:38
Grin
hippoCritt · 08/10/2011 14:38

I dread an advert I click on by mistake I am always doing that on the iPad I would be uncomfortable MN ing when children are about, I don't think it fits in well with MN at all. Also for example the learning zone means my youngest dd will go on MN clicks to love honey would be a few clicks away, yes I am around when she is online but I don't sit directly by her at all times when she is reading e books etc because I viewed MN as a safe site withbthat window open.

PinotScreechio · 08/10/2011 14:41

Oh I didn't read the thread, just waded right into a weird scenario with dildos and artritic OAP's.

Just your average day on MN then.

My answer is the same though. Ewwww no

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