Hello Lurkers!

[BadgertheBodger]

Hi. Hello. Howya doing?

I have unwittingly become a lurker on this board as I often find the brilliant long-standing posters have not only got there before me but put my contribution to shame.

But! There’s a place for every woman in feminism and I wanted to start a thread for lurkers, or less confident posters, to share their thoughts. I want this to be a thread which has less of a focus on the most amazingly analytical comment, and more about posters (particularly lurkers) sharing thoughts and working out ideas in conjunction with all the incredible resources available on this board.

Here’s to all of us looking, thinking, but not posting. Your opinion is welcome too. I would love this to be a thread where we shared our thoughts

Another one lurking on the lurkers' thread!

nods, winks, sups pint in corner
I've been tentatively chatting to an older, wiser, feminist woman in work about all this, she's much more articulate than me though unaware of the whole mess. She's in agreement when I've explained it to her. Thanks to you lot. Cheers.

Ok so we are all delf confessed shameless lurkers. We hang around MN feminst chat and learn about feminism but are not confident to ppst because ifcyhe eloquence and intellect of other more learned posters on here.

But what is your understanding? Im gonna try and say what i understand and risk being laughed at or worse.

For me I am a brand new convert to the concept of protecting 'women's space' I kind of thought feminism was just How the media and the masses described it... for men hating radical Bra burners who are miserable. (Apologies if yhat is offensive to anyone)
But having had a tough time and coming MN more often and reading the threads I realise that understanding feminism as a principle will probably save my life in future. It will certainly preserve my emotional well being and support me to have peace and grow stronger. I would not say it is my new religion but I have realised how mysogony is deeply embedded in our society and I am learning to recognise it. It is insidious like racism and and other forms of discrimination.

Sooo that's my story simple but true. I do feel like I could happily punch most men in the throat but I also know that violence is not the answer so for the record i will not be doing that 😊😇

Hi, I try - like Mangoes - to do all those things. My MP no longer responds to contacts I make! He's an ex-scientist so ought to be UnWoke, but I have no idea. We do live in an area with quite a few tws, some of whom are friends of mine. They're just living their lives as best they can, and we seem to be a pretty accepting area - none, afaik, have mentioned being subjected to awful bigotry or prejudice. On the contrary. This particular demographic here may account for why my MP doesn't reply to me as he will be mindful of those people. None of them, the tws I mean, are TRAs. All have GRCs and have had all the surgery.

Hi @JessicaWakefieldSV

I just tried to send you a long waffly PM, but got a message from Mumsnet saying that you can't accept PMs. Is there a way you could send me one & I could try to reply (I don't know if that would work).

This thread started while I was away on holiday and I've just seen it so thank you to @HelenaHandcart for posting and bumping it up.

Also nearly entirely a lurker. I would like to say a massive and heartfelt thank you to all of the regular posters here for their hours spent patiently, or not-so-patiently, setting out the arguments, explaining the issues, linking to credible sources, and joining the dots. I know it is often said that it's worth "wasting your time" arguing with the visitors who come here to stir up trouble, because of the lurkers who will read your reply and think about what you've said. I can only say that this thread is evidence of how very true that is. Thank you to @BadgertheBodger for drunk-posting it.

I know that I've seen various "If you do one thing for women and girls today" type threads. Is there one central thread (like the "Break it down for me" and "This never happens" ones) where people post when there's a specific action needed - petitions to sign, emails to send etc?

Spanner that's a good idea about a thread for actions. Petitions are tricky as Mumsnet likes to move them all to a specific petitions board (there's a petitions board? Who knew? Good luck trying to find it!)

There was a thread recently started by wigglybluelines here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3645590-Feminist-petition-news

which has some recent petitions linked to.