This Brick person. Has the world (and specifically this bit of it) gone completely barking mad?

[ReactionaryFish]

So some silly attention-seeker writes some daft article which endorses a whole load of unpleasant misogynist attitudes about valuing women purely on the basis of their looks.
And MN responds to this by .... about 30 000 threads endorsing precisely the same attitudes by attacking this woman for her looks.
Not very bright, is it?

Even in AIBU there has been a great deal of discussion about the Daily Mail's agenda of hating women.

To remind ourselves, the OP posted to say that the "MN" response (borg-like entity) to this article was "not very bright".

We have been trying to talk about that - my comments have been around the fact that MN consists of thousands of people who are all individuals and there is no "MN response". And that calling women thick for reacting as they have been conditioned to react is rather grim. And that the real villains in this piece are society and the media for fostering the attitudes that led to the reaction, and the DM in particular for gleefully publishing vile things about women almost non-stop.

Crikey, Starwisher, I wish.

I, and other women whom I know from my profession, have variously been called, for no reason, on internet sites, by men: 'pig', 'dog', 'prositute', 'whore', 'tart', 'fat', 'corrupt', 'liars', 'fornicators', and 'hysterical'. Yes, that's on a 'serious' website.

Really Linerunner?! Maybe it's just those sites you have visited. I don't go on many but have been treated just fine.

I think I had more abuse from women on forums, I get particularly strange responses when talking about my abusive ex... But hey that's a whole other thread....

(by way that comes across as I'm doubting you, which I'm not at all, I just haven't faced any problems based purely just being a woman in my own experience)

The only site I go on which is predominantly female is MN, and I have found a heck of a lot of support and help and humour. And yes, some challenge ...

Other web sites even 'respectable' ones attached to newspapers or political blogs can be vile to women.

Look at this thread for example.

, I have found mn at times very kind, supportive as well as practical -but have also experienced people on here laughing and calling me "whiny" when discussing very sensitive issues around abuse of myself and my child. I left mn for a long time as I found it to much.I have also been so badly insulted on a thread instarted once that mumsnet agreed to remove the entire thread as one poster was beyond the pale. I find some of the comments towards spiritual/religious people just vile, and I know I'm not alone in feeling this way.

I think the Internet brings out the very worst of people wether man, woman, boy or girl. It's too easy to hide.

You are like me, Starwisher, though we may well come across as being polar opposites on the MN surface IYSWIM. You care. You have had a pretty awful hand of cards dealt to you in life.

But I did learn, probably through MN to be honest, that I definitely need to show a lot more tolerance to those I wish to have discussions with, or who wish to have discussions with me; and that what sometimes gets my back up initially is actually really good food for thought; and that it's best to ignore the people who are out to provoke because they are using me as entertainment.

And I am still learning to tell the difference between them...

She behaved as society secretly wanted her to behave. She set herself up as that acme of perfection, the Beautiful Woman, and made it better by being nasty about other women.Nothing like a good catfight to make women insecure and men feel smug.

Yes funnily enough I have been considering the issue of genuine discussion versus provocative discussion

I have been thinking myself that sometimes maybe with sensitive issues i have been too quick to assume someone is brimming for a fight when actually it was a genuine question. It can become a bit "them and us" on mumsnet on a number if issues which ultimately serves no purpose than a point scoring exercise