The view of Mumsnet from Reddit

[Xanthangum]

Not sure how I got there, but I found myself reading a reddit conversation in answer to the question 'Why is mumsnet so transphobic?'

www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/ewqit7/why_is_mumsnet_so_transphobic/

I have tried to compile the various suggestions. Even if you accept the premisese of the question, see if you agree with the answers, many of which are assumptions about Mumsnet posters.

1. Its owners are transphobic

1. Its users are middle aged, middle or upper class, white, CIS, uneducated women

1. Other, similar boards are too right-wing. Oh, but its users all follow Katie Hopkins and read the Sun

1. Some conspiracy theory about Russian bots... no idea...

1. The echo chamber/ network effect / breeding ground, populated by people who sit around in their pajamas all day

1. It's all just the same few people posting anyway

1. Mothers tend to get judged all the time, so judging others is their way of getting their own back. Mothers who are feeling insecure because they have achieved little other than breed.

Does anyone actually recognise themselves in this misogynistic pile of stereotypical assumption?

[DuLANGMondeFOREVER]

and I had four fucking years of it in my first degree.



I got my first degree at Goldsmiths, so I suspect I am better educated in PoMo gender theory than the entire Trans UK subreddit added together.

Which is precisely why I know it’s nonsensical bullshit.

it was trying to push an 9lb+ baby out through my vagina that proved without doubt that biological sex was an actual thing, mind you.

Now, has anyone got any Prosecco? I’m sadly lacking until DH goes to Tesco tomorrow. Might be some ancient Pimms in the back of a cupboard...

[WeetabixBananaHipsterFFS]

Perhaps they were muddling MN with the other not dissimilarly-named parenting website?

[BatShite]

the users there seem quite uneducated too, which I'm sure is a contributing factor.

LOL Seriously?! Yeah, totally uneducated people are rife on here. I never ever see totally sense making almost professional posts from the many amazing women here. Sexist shite.

[BatShite]

the users there seem quite uneducated too, which I'm sure is a contributing factor.

LOL Seriously?! Yeah, totally uneducated people are rife on here. I never ever see totally sense making almost professional posts from the many amazing women here. Sexist shite.

[TheBewildernessisWeetabix]

I posted a comment explaining that they ought not to be surprised that a forum full of mums would be deeply concerned that their children are being taught that they were born in the wrong body if they do not conform to sex role stereotypes.
It was promptly removed by the bot due to the number of reports.

[ScarlettBlaize]

@janeskettle
But they can fuck off about that as well. Post-modernism and post-modernist thought (the manure out of which queer theory grows) was being taught in the 90's, and I had four fucking years of it in my first degree. I could fucking run the camps, except for being in possession of a working brain, and a personal ethics that doesn't involve cultural Maoism.

Me too! I did a masters and PhD in that field, but the full wrongness of it has become much clearer in recent years.

[2BthatUnnoticed]

Sorry for the tangent OP - in brief, no. The misogynistic, racist and classist assumptions on that site do not resonate with me

Also I thought “cs” women, in general, specifically avoid* FWR? Since (unlike race) it denotes a different belief system.

I could be wrong, but the only comments I recall seeing by “cs” women were about how they hate FWR and never post here. So pretty weird to think FWR is dominated by “cs” women

[2BthatUnnoticed]

Wow so reddit is RACIST as fuck, on top of the festering misogyny.

“Mumsnetters are all white,” wtf!? Anyone who actually engaged here (rather than just piously sniping from the sidelines) would see the racism in this assumption. Just. STOP.

Why are black and brown women, more so than white ones, expected to uncritically embrace white born males as women?

Why are women who do NOT so embrace, automatically assumed to be white?

Because R A C I S M.

Because we are expected to be grateful and ALWAYS support males at our cost, while expecting nothing in return (not just white males either, Terry Crews I’m looking at you).

[Xanthangum]

I am concluding that this space, moderated as it is, is really really important.

Thank you all.

[Michelleoftheresistance]

I could fucking run the camps, except for being in possession of a working brain, and a personal ethics that doesn't involve cultural Maoism.

Amen.

It isn't that women here don't know , it's that they know and disagree. And can explain why. In detail.

[PermanentTemporary]

I'm such a stereotypical MNer I'm a parody of myself. I've been here for 16 years. (Have to say the 'uneducated' is a new one, though I suppose I have a humanities degree so that counts).

Back to the fault line. How would a female dominated internet forum with a strong link to grappling with the impact of their reproductive biology react to being told that their biology is irrelevant to their lives?

[TheBewildernessisWeetabix]

9th rule of misogyny: Men always know the "real reasons" for everything women do and say.

PJs for me, all day.

[janeskettle]

poor education

They mean we haven't gone through the re-education camps yet. We're not 'educated' on the pseudo-science cult that is genderism.

But they can fuck off about that as well. Post-modernism and post-modernist thought (the manure out of which queer theory grows) was being taught in the 90's, and I had four fucking years of it in my first degree. I could fucking run the camps, except for being in possession of a working brain, and a personal ethics that doesn't involve cultural Maoism.

[janeskettle]

Ageism is the new cool & acceptable prejudice

It's cool and acceptable, but not new. We just don't pay attention to it when we're young, I guess.

andyoldlabour

reddit hardly has a reputation for thoughtful and considered argument, does it! I think it's weird that we're talking about what knobs on reddit think, honestly.

And I'm soooo sick of the posters who I think of like flies - land on you with their shitty little feet for a moment, then buzz off leaving nothing but irritation behind...

Make a fucking decent argument if you're going to go to that effort!

[FrogsFrogs]

'Its users are middle aged, middle or upper class, white, CIS, uneducated women'

First I've heard that this type of woman of likely in the UK to have had a poor education!

[Michelleoftheresistance]

Maybe I am the stereotype and don't know it.

But are you a Reagan funded nun??

This is the crux of it.

[traceyracer]

Reddit does seem to be a very male-dominated hangout for MRAs and incels in general, I think it's best to avoid there altogether.

[Justhadathought]

Ageism is the new cool & acceptable prejudice.

[andyoldlabour]

janeskettle
Brilliant! Brightened up my evening. My DW is watching the BAFTA's, so this is my relief, a bit of decent, intelligent conversation. Reddit is very often a horrible place to visit. It seems to attract extreme keyboard warriors, who most probably do unload their real feelings - unfortunately a lot of it is pure misogyny.

[janeskettle]

Also, fuck off with 2 & 5, snow.

Working class worker who is only in PJ's to drink my fucking coffee before breakfast, leftist, double-degreed, and piss off with the ageism and misogyny.

Jesus, I find it hard to cope with nasty stupidity.

[janeskettle]

I have to say, the amount I care about what general reddit users think about Mumsnet is less than zero.

[StrangeLookingParasite]

seventeen bathroom-ed middle/upper class home.

Jésus wept, who'd want to clean that?

[TirisfalPumpkin]

It has a forum culture that puts off people with specious and crappy arguments that have to be 'respected', not dissected and challenged. There are lots of intimidatingly intelligent women who post here. This upsets the average redditor.

That said, I was in PJs til 3pm today. Maybe I am the stereotype and don't know it.

[picklesdragonisawelshdragon]

And the very next thread I open is discussing intimate bleaching. 'What tone were you aiming for?'. Classic.

[picklesdragonisawelshdragon]

I have been educated by MN- it's not that I was uneducated before, but my mind has been blown here. I recognise a bit of echo chamber too- there are posters here who have long conversations about which shade of white to use on a wall, and others who get all technical about whether to tuck or not.

I'm a card carrying member of the 'if it's clean and covers the essentials then I'm respectably dressed' club, wouldn't know a farrow and ball paint chart from a Mac foundation chart.