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Mumsnet vibrator: for "mothers, women and people with wombs"

142 replies

NewBootsAndRanty · 01/02/2023 17:16

Amongst otherthings that stand out from the article:

"We knew from previous activations with our community that sex and motherhood is a deeply-rooted taboo. The lack of conversation and resources on the topic is leaving women and people with wombs feeling side-lined as sexual beings. At Smile Makers, we have been tackling taboos around female sexuality for over 10 years and that was obviously an important one to remove"

www.mumsnet.com/articles/the-whisperer

Where to start with the language mangling? Confused

OP posts:
LizzieSiddal · 01/02/2023 21:00

What the heck have I just read.Angry

Thatshipsailed · 01/02/2023 21:06

I saw this today and sent it to my best friend with a WTF.

Why link motherhood with vibrators? There’s no taboo. The vast majority of women have children. The vast majority still like to get off. There’s no taboo. We don’t need to hide away with ‘the whisperer’. No-one ‘smiles’ as they cum. The whole thing makes me want to vom.

I can’t even get into the womb thing.

abcdeg · 01/02/2023 21:07

postcardpuffin · 01/02/2023 20:48

Ffs has gender ideology rotted the brains of the people marketing this? As pp have pointed out, the womb hasn’t got anything to do with a vibrator 🙄 Any of “people with a vulva/clitoris/vagina” would be better than “womb”.

And how tf are sex and motherhood joint taboos? If you want a constituency of women who have definitely at some point had some sex, that’s going to be mothers by definition 🤦‍♀️ Even in long centuries past it was assumed that women who had had children knew damn well what sex was, even if unmarried women were presumed not to 😂 These days after decades of everything from the Chippendales to Sex and the City why on earth would mothers think sex was taboo?!?

That must have been written by a man, someone “assigned male at birth”, or a very very inexperienced young woman/“afab” enby 😄

Way back in those frigid and ancient days BG (Before Gender) —the Olden Times that most mothers hail from — it used to be customary to do what was called “market research”, where instead of getting the non-binary interns aged 21 to write your product descriptions, you actually went out and asked some actual potential customers about the product and what they thought about your marketing before you unleashed it on the target audience and risked making a fool of yourself and your business. (I know, right?!? What a bizarre idea!)

Last paragraph 😂😂

RogersOrganismicProcess · 01/02/2023 21:07

Did MNHQ come up with that? I would have thought they knew their audience better than to call us people with wombs. Three of my very closest friends no longer have uteruses. Are they no longer able to think of themselves as sexual beings? Are their desires, vaginas and clitorises obsolete?

Talk about taboo!

JarByTheDoor · 01/02/2023 21:09

No-one ‘smiles’ as they cum.

Speak for yourself, I often giggle uncontrollably. Took DP a moment or two to get used to at first, mind…

Thatshipsailed · 01/02/2023 21:13

A giggle isn’t a smile. I’m imagining a silent creepy cum smile

Tinysoxxx · 01/02/2023 21:17

ArabellaScott · 01/02/2023 20:55

Just couldn't resist the opportunity to make a Father Jack joke, Tiny.

Phew I forgot that one. You’ve just sent me clicking back to some very funny clips!

Tinysoxxx · 01/02/2023 21:18

Which sounds very inappropriate given the posts before this one!

JarByTheDoor · 01/02/2023 21:27

Thatshipsailed · 01/02/2023 21:13

A giggle isn’t a smile. I’m imagining a silent creepy cum smile

Oh yeah that would be a bit uncanny.

DrBlackbird · 01/02/2023 21:28

😂

Oblomov22 · 01/02/2023 21:30

Father Jack Grin

EzzieM · 01/02/2023 21:38

pattihews · 01/02/2023 17:48

Does anyone else wince at the idea of a brand called Smile Makers? So twee.

Yes sounds like a dentist who specialises in cosmetic work 🤣

”People with wombs” so they’re worried about offending transmen, but not concerned about upsetting all the women who’ve had a hysterectomy? What next? “People destined for menopause”?!

They’re really over complicating this. Anyone can use a vibrator, woman or man. What not just be like Tim Berners Lee and say “This is for everyone”?

They really, really didn’t do much market research if they think Mumsnetters are ok with being referred to by our body parts.

littlbrowndog · 01/02/2023 21:42

Yep this is very everyone.

instead of being creepy fuckers.

VikingLady · 01/02/2023 21:46

Thatshipsailed · 01/02/2023 21:13

A giggle isn’t a smile. I’m imagining a silent creepy cum smile

Thank you for the suggestion. I now have plans to creep FH out completely Grin

LemonSwan · 01/02/2023 21:46

‘People with wombs feeling sidelined’.

The lack of reflection here is hilarious 🤣

May as well just say the non peni’ed and be done with it.

Circumferences · 01/02/2023 21:51

What if I identify as a person who menstruates, rather than being reduced to my body parts? Why am I excluded?
What if I identify as a person who ovulates or a person with ovaries rather than a person with a womb?
This language is so exclusionary.

DarkShade · 01/02/2023 21:54

Yes, they are breaking down tabboos but are too chicken to name the actual part of the body that you use a vibrator on - surely if you absolutely have to reduce us to our body parts, in this context we're 'people with clits'.

@JarByTheDoor yes the horrible creepy feathery thing! I also hate the name. All their other ones are called stereotypically sexy things like the fireman, the surfer, the french lover. But mums get the whisperer, because even though they are apparently committed to breaking down tabboos, once you have a child you need to whisper about getting off.

AnnesBrokenSlate · 01/02/2023 23:34

That article is so awful, it's made me sad. Perhaps they should just go for 'buy this but we have no knowledge of female anatomy and its name conjures images of feathery strokers that will put you off sex for life'.
I can't think of anything less appealing than some whispery contraption trying to give me an orgasm in my womb ffs.
I also really hate the perception that women, sorry, <checks notes> mothers and womb havers are twee, delicate flowers who can't talk about sex. It's creating a false idea that talking about sex is taboo. Have they ever met any women?

Ofcourseshecan · 02/02/2023 00:01

A female child has a womb, but I would not buy a vibrator for her. A woman who has had a hysterectomy hasn't got a womb, but there's no reason why she shouldn't use a vibrator.

It's a bit weird when manufacturers or advertisers don't seem to understand what their product is for, or who would buy it.

Mynameisnotsteve · 02/02/2023 00:53

has this vibrator been developed in such a way that interacts with the womb? Must do surely, otherwise why single out that particular body part? Seems a bit odd to develop something that wouldn’t work for those who have had a hysterectomy though.

ErrolTheDragon · 02/02/2023 01:06

has this vibrator been developed in such a way that interacts with the womb?

Well... it might, indirectly. Uterine contractions during/after orgasm do occur (especially when pregnant and IME painful so probably not what they're aiming for. )

NoSweat · 02/02/2023 01:52

ResisterRex · 01/02/2023 17:58

"The idea of anything entering down there after giving birth is enough to make you cringe."

Cringe?

"motherhood is a deeply-rooted taboo"

No it isn't.

"sex and motherhood is a deeply-rooted taboo"

The two together make a taboo? These days?

"people with wombs feeling side-lined as sexual beings"

Well the advert has certainly dehumanised these "people". "With wombs".

And apart from anything else, the first thing I thought when I saw the picture was that it looks like that slanty nozzle you use on the vacuum cleaner that makes a very loud sound and sucks very hard but seems to be for the skirting board?

Sex and motherhood is deeply taboo? Really? Do they understand where babies come from? Who the fuck writes and approves this shit - seriously, my teenager could do a better job.

mrscumberbatch11 · 02/02/2023 03:29

MsFogi · 01/02/2023 17:39

By being 'inclusive' have they not 'excluded' women without wombs? And what about blokes who 'feel' like they have a womb? and what does having or not having a womb have to do with vibrators anyway? I am totally lost!

Yes, they have, and it speaks volumes.

Must be inclusive to include the tiny population of trans men.

But women who have had a hysterectomy? Nah, fuck 'em, doesn't matter.

I'm so angry. What absolute bullshit.

It's like the Emperors New Clothes that people can't seem to see the lunacy here.

Clymene · 02/02/2023 05:35

Why is Mumsnet involved in this crap?

Q2C4 · 02/02/2023 06:15

Isn't part of the language problem that the dictionary definition of "woman" was recently updated to include "an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth."

www.independent.co.uk/tv/lifestyle/cambridge-dictionary-woman-gender-definition-b2244579.html