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Original poster

Ageism should be against Talk Guidelines

1 reply

Somethingbland · 30/05/2026 18:16

In the past there has been a lot of disquiet about the blatant ageism on MN.

Today I have been extremely annoyed by a blatantly and unashamedly ageist thread in AIBU about dressing " like an old lady"
I reported the thread and of course was told by MN the thread is allowed to stand because it doesn't contravene Talk guidelines.
But why doesn't it? Why does MN see ageism as perfectly acceptable? It's a total disgrace in my eyes.

I was amongst the first women who were affected by the change in retirement law and was so unable to retire at 60 as had been the norm previously. The discrimination I experienced as an older woman amongst predominantly younger staff was extremely upsetting . To be a figure of fun and contempt because of your age is no joke. And yet MN is apoarently happy to enable such views on this site

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MNHQ

BeckyAMumsnet · Yesterday 11:19

Thanks for raising this. We do understand why ageism matters, and we don’t want anyone on Mumsnet to feel dismissed or mocked because of their age. If a post appears to be attacking or goading people on that basis, we’ll look at it in context against our Talk guidelines.

We can't reasonably remove every clumsy reference to age or generational difference though. Age comes up naturally in all sorts of conversations on Mumsnet and sometimes posters will word things imperfectly, and other posters are free to challenge that, but it doesn’t automatically mean the whole thread breaches our guidelines or that the poster had bad intentions.

A thread asking whether an outfit feels “old lady-ish” may not be phrased in a way everyone likes, but we wouldn’t treat that in the same way as someone attacking another poster because of their age.

What we do need to avoid is unrelated threads being pulled off course into a wider argument about ageism. It isn’t fair on the OP, and it often leads to pile-ons and personal comments that make the thread worse for everyone. By all means challenge ageist assumptions where they appear, but please keep it relevant to the thread and don’t pursue other posters across the discussion. If you think something crosses the line, report it and we’ll take a look. We won’t delete every mention of age or every awkward phrase, but we will review reports in context.

Thanks.
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