So it would appear this topic is the Millwall of Mumsnet

[GothAnneGeddes]

Nobody likes us and we don't care.

I have to admit I lurk more then I post here, but to me, it's great being able to have everyday things discussed through a feminist lens, especially as most feminist websites are so US-centric.

It's just such a shame that so many women don't think that feminism is relevant to them. I just don't understand it.

If contributors to the feminism threads who post in an allegedly argumentative, blinkered manner were to tone down their approach, I think most, or at least many, Mumsnetters would probably contine to wrongly assume that feminists in general and those on the MN feminism threads are like that anyway.

I like the idea of "sticky" Feminism FAQ and Feminism 101 threads at the top of the section.

I think to avoid dogma, the sticky should contain links from a wide variety of sources. Also, good articles about the key issues like abortion, working outside the home, intersectionality.

Starlight, if feminists are stopping and your supporters from discussing this SN issue, how it it that you and your supporters are talking in 3 different threads about how you have been silenced?

Perhaps 3 threads isn't enough. Maybe you could start a new thread?

I have often found that some people are very good at talking aobut how they have been silenced when what they mean is they have been disagreed with and no one has gone oh dear, you're incredibly brave and special to keep posting an uninformed, self-obsessed or mainstream viewpoint.

smallwhitecat - I meant that if someone is not capable of comprehending moral codes then it is up to us as a society (and their families more specifically) to ensure that they are compelled to. I apologise if that was unclear.

My nephew has ASD so I do have some understanding of the issue.

Starlight, I meant what I wrote. I never suggested you set up all the threads. Two of the threads were set up by other people and you are still talking on both as well as your own, as are your supporters, so you have not been silenced.

You can't really compel someone who is not capable of comprehending to do so, can you?
Any more than you can compel the lame to walk and the blind to see.
Do you mean that if they don't comprehend, then it's the responsibility of others to ensure that they comply with a moral code by enforcing compliance in one way or another?
Moral codes are not always the same as legal requirements, so how would that work for you?

SGB, that's rubbish. A police threat and libel threat is an out and out silencing tactic. Obviously if you can use a police threat to silence a feminist then it is you who have the mainstream viewpoint.

Luckily Kate didn't bow down to those types of threats, which is why she was threatened with arrest.

I'm really interested in how you are going to ensure compliance with your moral code.

"But I think that most women on here haven't made their minds up about each issue. That is why the idea of having a feminism FAQ is rather unworkable. We are not Object, or some other campaigning group with a certain set of aims."

MillyR -- I think this is letting the best be the enemy of the good. Many FAQs on many boards on many topics start with a disclaimer that they do not represent some form of ultimate truth, and I'd have thought that a FAQ here would do the same. Indeed, one of the values of having a FAQ would be that it could explain why women here have yet to make up their minds on some issues.

Additionally, I'd like to point out that I found myself feeling somewhat under attack by your post. Specifically, the way you chose to say not "in my view, the idea of having a FAQ is unworkable" but simply "the idea of having a FAQ is unworkable" seems to me to be an example of what another post referred to as putting them off -- an opinion or reasoning stated as fact. I also had an immediate response when I read "We are not Object...etc" of "but I never said we were!"

Prolesworth -- being told RTFM would be deeply unhelpful. BUT, it's also unhelpful to find that your views have been strongly disagreed with, but the reasoning has not been spelled out, and you suspect the answer could be found in a manual, as it were.

Exactly phlebas. Anyone has the right to freedom of speech on this topic.
It's only a few newcomer/lurker posters who are coming on saying they can't speak.
Start a new thread!
Don't like a topic? HIde it.

One earlier poster complained that she was attacked for being a SAHM on this here feminist section and that's why she doesn't like it.
Eh? I'M a SAHM. I stay off the SAHM/WOHM threads, not the feminist threads.
I've had loads of discussion on here about my SAHM decision and I've come out much wizer for them, one way or another.

I've been thinking about the problem of threads where participants believe that others have gone off-topic. Allowing nesting could potentially help deal with that (a la Slashdot etc).

I know, teh FAQ is a really great idea but I sidled off the thread when the topic came up of who is going to do it. It's like Big SOCIETY, someone has to volunteer

S

I never said that you said that we were Object.

In my view, it is obvious that it was my view that the FAQ is unworkable, as I wrote the post.

In my view, you didn't put that it was merely your view that there is a value in FAQ.

In my view, I would find it difficult to read posts if everyone pointed out that they were expressing their view every time they expressed a view.

If you want to write a FAQ on feminism, I think you should go ahead and do so. But I personally don't have a specific set of aims, theories or explanations that I could write up into a FAQ.

THat's true too Milly.
It would put people right off from the start.
I also don't like the idea of linking to other sights. There was a promo for another site at the beginning of this thread, and someone saying how THAT forum was MUCH better because it was heavily moderated.

I told them to go there if it was that good.

I don't think there should be permanent links to other websites here because Mumsnet is a business after all and the more hits they get the better for their business.

MN is MASSIVE, that's why it's got political clout and some prominent public figures come on here. MN doesn't need that being diluted with links to other sites.

True Proles, it wouldn't have to be links to other feminist forums, but just general references and such.

It might be worth starting a thread on one topic that you would like to see covered in the FAQ, and seeing if the posters on that thread can come to a consensus on what to write. If that thread works, you have have a good chance of creating the whole FAQ collectively.