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Original poster

A feminist view on the hack

199 replies

PuntasticUsername · 19/08/2015 13:14

I was just reading the fb comments (yes I know, someday I'll learn) below the ITV News article about the hack and the swatting shite, which was fronted by a photo of MNJustine.

There was precisely one sympathetic remark - from a woman. Otherwise, men are suggesting that getting hacked is our own fault for being a website that is all about slagging off men; women say we're all boring and up ourselves anyway ("airy fairy women with personality disorders"); and most-liked of all is a man's comment saying "Christ, [Justine] looks just like how I'd imagine the typical wet blanket mumsnet user to look".

People really do hate women for having the nerve to get together and have opinions about things, don't they?

OP posts:
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Keepithidden · 19/08/2015 18:51

Can't say I've ever seen overt misandry here, stuff that could be interpreted the way if you had the mindset maybe...

...always says more about the poster anything else though.

WorraLiberty · 19/08/2015 18:57

OP Bertrand knows full well about MN's reputation because she started a couple of threads a while back (asking why some women say they're not feminists, or something like that) and this subject came up time and again on those threads. In other words many people were saying they thought sexist posters were putting them off labelling themselves as feminists.

There are a few other websites too where the regulars often discuss the sexism on Mumsnet. Just have a Google and I expect you'll find them. They've often been linked on MN but I don't have time to go searching the links out.

Sorry if you weren't being disingenuous. It's just the subject has come up so often on MN over the years (of some posters being rather sexist), that I thought you were.

BertrandRussell · 19/08/2015 19:03

i don't want to go down that route again- but I do have to say that whenever I have asked for an example of this rampant mysandry I have been met with a chorus of "Oh,if you don't know we can't possibly tell you. It's there- how very dare you not believe us/challenge us. If you do that it shows that you are a rampant mysndrist or you'd agree with us and not make us feel all uncomfortable by asking for evidence!"

ChristineDePisan · 19/08/2015 19:13

I think it's a bit like (and quite possibly linked to) the line that gets trotted out that everyone on MN tells women to LTB even if all he has done is leave the loo seat up a couple of times. No-one can ever furnish evidence of that happening on any sort of scale, but nevertheless it is part of the wider consciousness of what MN is about.

ChristineDePisan · 19/08/2015 19:15

BTW I expect (and hope) that the people who are minimizing the hacking with "well, what did you expect, MN is full of vipers isn't it" type arguments haven't heard the delightful soundtrack to the hacker's website with the list. Gems include feminazis all wanting up the butt, snapping a woman because she was nagging and any orifice is good enough

YonicScrewdriver · 19/08/2015 19:23

Worra

Sure, some people on those "FWR is full of meanies" threads objected to various posts about men as a class but I'm not sure misandry was cited? Or that many concrete examples that might amount to recebt misandry were linked.

BakingCookiesAndShit · 19/08/2015 19:25

I think when we're accused of that ridiculous makey uppey word 'misandry' we're all supposed to start wringing our hands and nod along and feel apologetic.

Well. Fuck. That.

No feminist needs to be mean about men, they come along and prove they're arseholes all by themselves with alarming regularity. (Obviously NAMALT) (why the fuck do we even have to do the NAMALT thing anymore? Is it for the perpetually stupid who don't realise that feminist KNOW they bloody aren't?)

twoboystwogirls · 19/08/2015 19:44

I wonder if all the dopes whining about the made up misandry on Mumsnet and celebrating the fact that this supportive site has been hacked, care as much about the tidal wave of misogyny all across the Internet?? No, of course they don't.

LoveandMonsters · 19/08/2015 19:46

The word 'misandry' is a weird one - I don't think I've ever heard it said out loud in a real life conversation. It's a word for reddit or 4chan, and bleated by idiot Elliot Rodger types on youtube, who then turn off the camera and wank into their socks.

PausingFlatly · 19/08/2015 19:54

I think this will go the way of the attacks on the women campaigning for a woman on the ten-pound-note.

It was an eye-opener for men who had no idea some men behaved like this to women - because they themselves didn't behave like this.

One blogger said the misogynistic vitriol was what convinced him the ten-pound-note picture was important, when his first reaction had been it was a non-issue.

lastuseraccount123 · 19/08/2015 19:56

yeah. as much as getting attacked by MRAs is gross, it does prove that misogyny is alive and well thank you very much.

abbieanders · 19/08/2015 19:58

I don't think I've ever heard it said out loud in a real life conversation

Because it's like the cis atrocity - invented as a concept specifically and in order to gaslight women and shut us up.

LoveandMonsters · 19/08/2015 20:16

Yes abbie, it is. And calling the SWAT teams out on Justine and another MNer is just another threat of violence, from afar, against women who speak out. As far as I'm aware, Swatting is an American thing - I don't think it had made it's way over to the UK (until now) - but the videos of the US gamers being swatted, they are violent. I really hope the UK Swat team were a tad less gungho about it.

Original poster
PuntasticUsername · 20/08/2015 08:04

Interesting discussion on the misandry thing, thanks. I'm learning. Sorry for being snippy last night Worra - bathtime, you know? Smile

OP posts:
shovetheholly · 20/08/2015 09:46

I find it hard to even imagine the psychological, social, intellectual and (very likely) sexual inadequacy of the type of man who feels that an online place where women gather and type supportive messages to each other is a massive threat to their masculinity.

I haven't seen misandry on Mumsnet. What I have seen, especially on the Relationships board, is a LOT of women who have been bullied, abused, and oppressed by men getting some support. I find it hard to believe that the men who did the hack wouldn't react with 'leave the bastard' too if it was their sister or mother who was getting beaten up, raped and exploited by their partner on a regular basis.

Yes, I do sometimes think that some posters show a lack of calibration in their reactions - but you know what? There are ALWAYS more moderate posts too. That's the thing about a forum - it's a collection of different voices, not all of which agree, giving a range of opinions. And it's not like the women on the receiving end of the reaction can't make up their own minds and follow the advice that they think best represents the way forward for their situation. Because, you know, women are thinking beings too.

This hack is yet another attempt by pathetic, inadequate men to intimidate women.

LumpySpacedPrincess · 20/08/2015 10:06

The thing with Mumsnet is that it is one of the very few places on the net that offers a largely female voice, some people misinterpret this as misandry.

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2015 10:12

There is also the old NAMALT thing too.

One woman saying something dickish= all women/feminists think that.

One hundred men saying something dickish = not all men think that.

BreakingDad77 · 20/08/2015 10:31

I just find the hack so petty, why bother, if they want to do something useful why not hack an isis website or something rather than effectively helping them by shutting down womens freedom to communicate.

when i was younger there wasn't things like everyday sexism, or easy access to sites like this that show how much crap women put up with.

magimedi · 20/08/2015 10:31

Another annoyance is the reporting of the whole 'hack'. Justine Roberts, wife of............

What difference does it make to the news who she is married to?

shovetheholly · 20/08/2015 10:41

I think some posters are a bit shocked that the act of having a voice as a woman is actually a feminist issue. I'm kind of hoping that it leads to a recognition of the fact that if you post on Mumsnet, then you are in one sense or another, a feminist.

Reminds me of an awesome lecturer I had at uni who was a big name feminist. Someone piped up and said 'What do you call a woman who says she isn't a feminist?'. 'Thick', she replied. Then went into the usual explanation of the fact that pretty much everything that women do, from working to wearing trousers to voting to owning anything at all to having a right to bring up their own children is a feminist act that has been hard won from a system that didn't see women as people and didn't grant them many rights at all.

JeffreyNeedsAHobby · 20/08/2015 10:45

It is quite clear that this is a group of inadequate men - although obviously I'm not saying women couldn't be involved, I just don't think the men who think they are the 'masterminds' of it would let them.

In my view it's being done by people who have no need for any of the services MN provides to millions. They simply don't care. I imagine spotty teens thinking perhaps they are rebelling against their parents. The SWAT attacks are what will probably get them criminal records and even if they are US based, or some of them are and some are UK, that will be deemed as threatening behaviour. Internet crime is something governments globally are trying to address as more idiots like this try to disturb everyday life for the public and so I wouldn't be surprised if this lot are made an example of.

I personally hope that they keep making the silly mistakes they are making and we all know that the longer they keep it up the more likely they will get caught. They have got too greedy and are leaving trails all over the place!

Part of me thinks it is a shame as they could be 'using their powers for good' but clearly are just a bit spoilt and egocentric to do anything useful with their abundant time.

Maybe it is bad parenting Grin

JeffreyNeedsAHobby · 20/08/2015 10:48

BreakingDad but if they hacked ISIS they would be threatened by the men with guns! We aren't threatening because, on the face of it, we are just a lot of women with children. Usually the ones most communities try to protect.

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 20/08/2015 11:11

I like the "on the face of it" there Jeffrey...

Because while on the face of it we are mild mannered mothers, underneath we could all be hard as fuck gun toting kung-fu experts with mega hacking skills who are going to come for them, or something, right?

BreakingDad77 · 20/08/2015 11:13

You would have thougth one of these internet hard men would have 'swatted' and or doxxed Anjem Choudry but that kinda says it all.

WhirlpoolGalaxyM51 · 20/08/2015 11:14

Oh while we're here

Does anyone understand this frequent assertion that women on MN and especially women on FWR are not in relationships with men and / or have no children? I mean obviously there are plenty of posters who fit that bill but the vast majority of women here are, as advertised on the tin, mothers or TTC or pg. It's a idea around the stereotype of what "mothers" are like, isn't it, and if they don't meet the stserotype rather than the stereotype being wrong they literally MUST not be mothers.

It's really bonkers when you think about it.