So, someone at the Guardian has actually joined the dots and realised why mumsnet is full of feminists who just dont want men in our spaces

[GrabbyGabby]

Wonders will never cease

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/04/mumsnet-motherhood-men-stories-abusers

A positive piece about MN at the guardian of all places and yes exactly!

Haha, even some men (yours truly) find it addictive, refreshing, eye opening, and critically, realistic in a world more and more unrealistic re women's issues/defending free speech.

She might have realised the reason there are so many radical feminists here, but I'm not sure The Guardian is ready to make the leap to trans exclusionary radical feminists.

It’s interesting that The Guardian would print such a thing. Perhaps they want to draw back all the women who now pay for Times and Telegraph subscriptions.

First paragraph, "despite the effort of some newspapers efforts" to portray it as Boden buyer,and other middle class clichés : that's a self own of the Guardian,right? They couldn't possibly be starting to engage their brains and actually... thinking...of issues on their own merits?!?!?

I was just about to type 'no way is that the Guardian, must be the Observer ' and then checked the date. Wowsers.

Has Sanctimonious Morph had a Twitter mantrum yet?

Really interesting that it's appeared... I wonder what conversations and realisations are actually taking place?

Also... what is the right way to slice an avocado? 🤔

It kind of sounds like she only ever went on Relationships — I feel like it’s a narrow view of what you get on here. But yeah, interesting to see on the Guardian.

Too little too late for me though. I’ve deleted the app and I pay for other papers now, even though I was a Guardian reader for 25 years.

Credit where it's due, that's good, possibly the most interesting thing I've read in the Guardian since Suzanne Moore and Hadley Freemen left.

In fact are we absolutely sure it's the Guardian? I know it's dated today and the link is to their Comment is Free page but the link at the end for responses is to: observer.letters

the writer is right about the relationships board!

The relationship board really does highlight that there is an unwritten handbook for bastard husbands to follow, because its always the same.

You read the opening post and you know the shit that's about to be uncovered by the OP before the OP even realises it wasn't a one off that his cock accidentally fell into his mates wife's vagina.

And the overlap between the bastard husband handbook and the transwoman husband handbook have massive overlap.

The Guardian like the Labour Party/LibDems can reap what they sow and get lost. You can't come back from insulting women for daring to have an opinion about the reality of biological sex. They said they didn't want the votes of 'bigots' so they won't ever be getting mine again. Free speech is under terrible threat in the west right now. Amazingly only the Tories still know what free speech is but it is still under threat.

"Boden clad breeders" make me think that they've not posted on MN before.

Hm.

'it seemed there was an organising principle at work, a kind of Jungian ur-myth of male awfulness'

As a pp noted, this seems a bit of a narrow view of MN.

Still, interesting article. I see it's #4 on 'most read articles' on the Guardian. There will be a lot of discontent among the bearded arbiters of history ...

The Guardian is heavily financially supported by the Gates Foundation. Perhaps that's why there's been a change in attitude

Wtf is going on at the guardian because I don't believe for 1 minutes that sense has returned to them

I stopped when I realised my online activities had offline consequences. I had absorbed so many horror stories, I was starting to view all men as potential abusers. I would find myself watching male friends, and my girlfriends’ husbands, scanning their behaviour for tells. If a man ever approached me, I’d assume he was a predator, attracted to my porous boundaries.

Genuinely, I think there is something wrong with this person, if this is accurate. I've been on MN for years and can now spot red flags in behaviour, but it hasn't changed my default assumptions or made me envisage problems in people that don't actually exist.

I think there is a large number of people whose general assessment of risk is hugely coloured by what they've read or seen (or experienced) recently - that's quite natural but it should be recognised. MN has definitely changed my perspective, but I was a bit naive about some things before, and thought e.g. my friend's partner was just an idiot rather than displaying a classic checklist of narcissistic traits.

Also, there is a lot of projection on MN, lots of men predicted to follow "the script" etc whereas the reality is likely more complex than "red flag, abuser, ltb get your free hour with the solicitor".

She forgot to say how funny some of the posters on MN are. Right balance of doom and gallows humour.

Am I allowed to be here as I am neither middle class nor do I live in the Home Counties?
Actually , i did wonder if it was the Observer rather than the Guardian as the Observer seems to be more sensible these days.

I find this article coming from The Guardian condescending and conceited.

What would it be called on the relationships board... breadcrumbing...virtue-signalling?

I think it's a pity her reading doesn't seem to have gone beyond the Relationship boards. When the papers aren't portraying us a site for Boden wearers, they're portraying us a site for rabid feminists who always assume that there is only one side of any story, i.e. that the man is always in the wrong. What I like about MN is that, at its best, people focus on the facts without bias, and are perfectly ready to call out women who are being idiots and fannylodgers, and/or to side with men if the facts call for it.

It's one opinion piece. I suspect you're all reading way too much into it.

And yep, it's relationship board based. Trying to spin it into something else is wishful thinking.

And yep, she's right. If I leave this place it'll be because reading post after post enjoy unhappy lives and abuse has become bad for my mental health.

Nobody wants Boden now according to the managing director

I stopped when I realised my online activities had offline consequences. I had absorbed so many horror stories, I was starting to view all men as potential abusers. I would find myself watching male friends, and my girlfriends’ husbands, scanning their behaviour for tells. If a man ever approached me, I’d assume he was a predator, attracted to my porous boundaries

+++++

I think it is important to remember that posters will write relationship posts when something is wrong in their relationships which will of course give a skewed and negative view of men.

I mean very few people will write a post saying how everything is going great in their relationships!

To be honest I have found the responses on MN to be on the whole fairly balanced- sometimes it veers too much on the "leave the bastard" but overall fairly balanced.

Could some one explain what the Gates foundation has to do with a change in tone about women’s rights at the guardian

Actually I think my last post was a little harsh. I think it's very easy to be coloured by this stuff if you're at all unsure in your relationship, job, life decisions, etc etc - or if you're simply a normal human being. Or if you've lived a lot of your adult life online, or have been a bit isolated eg due to kids, location, responsibilities- you might put more weight on online accounts than someone else.