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Original poster

New sub-section please?

3 replies

RatRolyPoly · 03/02/2018 15:02

Hello MNHQ, may I gently put forward the idea of a new Libfem sub-section please? I don't know if the idea has been floated before so I'm not sure what appetite there would be for it, if any at all, but in the interests of feminism being accessible to all women and for the benefit of all women I'd like to raise my hand in favour.

By "all women" I primarily mean women such as myself, who would appreciate a section on Mumsnet to discuss feminist and women's issues without what is serving to all intents and purposes as "entry criteria" on the existing board; that being the obligation to deny the legally recognised genders of a group of individuals - contrary to the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

This situation, I believe, has become the case due to prevalence of a certain brand of feminism having become overrepresented on this board, but serves the purpose of excluding and silencing the valid views of many women and feminists.

I'm not attempting in any way to discredit or silence the position of this current majority, merely to suggest that a specific board is needed to enable the voices of liberal feminists to be heard; not least by each other, in order to discuss the ongoing struggles faced by women in today's society.

Cheers.

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MNHQ

RivkaMumsnet · 04/02/2018 15:47

Hi there OP,

Thanks for taking the time to suggest this and to open up a discussion.

We'll keep an eye on the thread to see what ideas other Mumsnetters might have.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 07/02/2018 08:03

Hi all

Thanks for raising this - it's an interesting question and an interesting debate.

As a few have noted, one problem is that in truth there's no real need for a liberal feminist topic. Most, if not all of the topics of interest to liberal feminists - general equality, abortion rights, intersectionality, equal pay - are of interest to feminists of all stripes, and could feasibly be discussed on the existing FWR boards.

So it does seem as though the motivation for the board would be to have a place where debates over trans issues were discouraged - and honestly, we understand why that might seem attractive to those who are frustrated with the extent to which they currently dominate the FWR boards

There's a bit of a bind: on the one hand, it would be problematic if issues of general feminist interest were hived off onto a libfem topic. On the other, we can see that some feel that it's already impossible to discuss these general topics on the general FWR boards without them being toppled by the trans debate.

The problem is that, while we do have topics for particular activities or niche interests within a broader topic, we've thus far avoided having subtopics for people who hold a specific set of views or beliefs - I think that is really what it would come down to, wouldn't it? By extension, that would tend to mean that people who don't hold those views would be excluded from that topic: that does, in truth, feel like a slippery slope which would ultimately undermine Mumsnet as a place where anything can be discussed by anyone, within our Talk Guidelines.

So we don't think this is the solution for now, sorry OP- but we are interested to hear all your suggestions and lines of thought. Maybe there is a way to presage generalist questions with a qualifying "[trans issues being hypothetically resolved]" to enable these broader issues to be discussed...?

As I said, this has been a really interesting discussion.

MNHQ

KateMumsnet · 07/02/2018 09:17

Gnnn. Preface not presage.

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