Did anyone see the ITV News piece about of water bills on customers?

[inkjet]

https://twitter.com/PaulEmbery/status/1674332639921045505

Yes this is the feminism board. Paul Embery clipped it but I wonder if anyone saw it in full? He says the piece was about the impact of soaring water bills on an everyday mother. The voiceover calls the person a customer but the customer calls themself a mum. On the Twitter thread someone points out that the customer works for the TUC and is an economist who has been published in the Guardian. I think it’s fair to say the customer is neither a mother nor an ‘everyday’ one.

Then you are not defending this male person?

or do you believe that there is simply no fetish involved here?

Or you just wish to scold people who see things differently to you
again?

If, as is generally agreed (by anyone who understands science and/or has not lost their critical reasoning) there is no benefit to the baby of being encouraged to suckle at a man’s nipple in public, why encourage it to do so?

The only other person who could be benefiting from this is the man.

What kind of non-perverse benefit could an adult man be gaining from having an infant suckle on one of his erogenous zones?

Genuine question, because I can’t think of any.

So, a male person does this and it has no benefit for the infant, and women need to just be kind and what? Not point out some of the reasons motivating that male?

Depriving their infant of the energy and the stomach space they need for nutritious milk.

What should we be allowed to say? By now I have read enough accounts of why these male people do this, not once is it child centred. And yes, I have read some fetish driven accounts written by the very males doing this.

Women are no longer permitted to point out the obvious, even on a woman-centered, woman-run forum predominantly for and viewed by women, many of whom are mothers .
It really IS be kind and say nothing, or "scroll on by" as we were told on the other thread, and threats of reportings which unfortunately mumsnet seem only too happy and quick to acquiesce to.

If you think your voices as women are being drowned, and literally deleted, you are absolutely right.

Has a GP prescribed these drugs for this specific purpose?

I thought I'd peaked a long time ago but ...

Mumsnet has deleted the thread talking specifically about Mika breastfeeding, so I expect this one will go the same way shortly.

Whether the baby is suckling or not, is not the phenomena of males breastfeeding the greatest example of cultural appropriation ever? I mean, it doesn't get more "female" than this, other than giving birth, and even more so as the two functions are intimately connected.

But I thought in this activist age, cultural appropriation was one of the biggest no-nos ever.

Cue expelling from college, white Americans donning sombreros and fake taches and downing industrial quantities of tequila...innocent enough (other than the puking).

But a man appropriating right at the heart of femaleness, this gets a free pass.

Oh, I forgot. You're not "appropriating" femaleness if you "are" female, whatever you started off as. Silly me.

The other thread was deleted following “numerous reports” apparently. Knowing what we know about the monitors that turn the waters of FWR into shark-infested custard, I’d be interested to know how many of those reports were from actual members and how many were from sounding the “they’re talking about that acronym they mustn’t be allowed to talk about because it makes us look bad” klaxon to the unregistered.

Threads on this topic constantly get deleted. I can really only assume it is because some people really don’t want it widely known that this happens.

I mean, in Australia women received police visits for pointing out the issues with these males feeding their infants the secretions from male breasts.

But women’s words are definitely the issue here!

It’s a bit late for keeping secrets.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12258633/Trans-activist-posts-image-breastfeeding-child.html

I concur with your comment

I’ve just been incredibly upset all day thinking about this.

As a child who once was made to suck on a part of a grown man's body for his pleasure and certainly not mine I know what my opinion of a man who makes a child suck on a part of his body is. And you can delete me or threads like this until the cows come home.

I will never change my opinion on what sort of individual this person is.

It is a long time since a news item has made me feel angry and sick in equal measure.
As an adoptive mum I am fed up to the back teeth of activists using us as some kind of "gotcha" whether they're discussing breastfeeding or surrogacy. Breast feeding wasn't mentioned on my pre-adoption course either.
I do know it has been done successfully but I think it was with mums rather than dads. I'm sick of children being used in an attempt to validate someone's identity. It's infuriating.
As for being whistled at in the street.... well.....what can I say?
Bloody fuming here

Bloody hell @Boiledbeetle
So sorry

💐

But we are not allowed to point out the motivations! Otherwise we are scolded!

I look upon this with the same disdain as I would a woman with no breast milk to offer a child having them suckle on her. And Boiledbeetle my blood boils for you, and the fact that victims of abuse aren't listened to still, after all this time.

At some point in time this child is going to be going through a buck ton of counselling and wondering who exactly thought it was ok. I could literally fucking weep.

Dennis Kavanagh (a gay man from the Gay Men's Network) has a really powerful thread about this. I know some can't access twitter at the moment so I'm going to post a few of his points: (I hope he doesn't mind - I know he's posted on here a few times)
·
"Quite a day.

4/Human, of course, are by evolution naturally moved to action and great passions where babies are concerned. Ever noticed how loud a baby's scream is to you? That's evolution. You're hard wired to action.
·
5/ So too, as we've seen today are we hard wired to the visual equivalent of baby screaming. That's why this day in gender has hit harder than usual. That's why you feel a sense of anger mixed with sickness, that's why all your instincts for danger are lighting up. All of them.

6/ Because, frankly, you're not much good as a human if you won't protect babies. You're designed to make them and you're programmed to protect them, even homosexual chaps like me feel this. So, a tough day to be in this battle, a war of attrition - how much more you can take?

7/ But, take heart, this is an extraordinary tactical error by the opposition. All those surveys they trot out saying "women overwhelmingly support trans rights". They are predicated on the error that men such as this have surgery. That the trans right in question is toilets.

8/ This is quite different. As I say, it brute forces the question. Is that a male or a female body? Is that a male or a female face? Do cross sex identifying males have the right to do this? Does the baby in question have the right for this not to happen? I think I know.

9/ And I think I know how most people would react. I have never had so many straight male friends (all fathers) text me on this issue as has been provoked by this image. All saying the same thing. All clear that this is time to say "enough". All clear this is abuse"

Dennis Noel Kavanagh
@Jebadoo2

and there's more:

https://twitter.com/Jebadoo2/status/1675956439855120390

Yep. What are you doing Mumsnet

It beggars belief it really does. It's acceptable for mothers to do this and breast feed their children because that is literally what a woman's breasts are for. It has a food delivery system actually there under the surface. It's why they are different underneath the skin to a man's chest

Now mother's may find at times that their babies try to suck on other parts of them either for comfort, teething or In a hurry to feed but that's usually limited to the breast area, fingers and earlobes if they can get close enough. A mother would not want or put up with their babies/child trying to suck other female parts of their body nor would they encourage them to.

A man should never need to do more than stick his knuckle in the mouth of a teething baby. If he tries to encourage a child to suck on any part of them them that has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the child no matter how they try to sell it.

Trans woman activist posts image of her breastfeeding her child | Daily Mail Online
Comments overwhelmingly GC, why can't we discuss it on here without deletion when a national newspaper is running the story? (Whatever you feel about the Daily Mail).

Where have I defended him?

Pointing out that a thread which repeatedly breaks talk guidelines is likely to get zapped is not a defence of this person nor an endorsement of his actions.

Neither is it scolding people.

We must carry on calling this out. I know the adoption link was just a small part of this disgusting episode - and I haven’t managed to get a community notes attached to the tweet to say that adopters don’t induce lactation in the UK. However, one of my tweets (and I rarely raise my head above the parapet on twitter) has been viewed 43k times. Liked nearly 900 times and retweeted over 200 times. I feel satisfied that some truth has been exposed. I will not let this be seen as normal, and the lies to be perpetuated, because as we know lies quickly become the accepted truth.

The NHS mentions adoption and lactation on their websites, it never happens and yet they’ve thought fit to include it (presumably for ‘inclusion’ purposes). So all day, I’ve had people with zero knowledge, telling me that it does happen. This is how dangerous ‘be kind’ and bending the truth to be inclusive actually is.