is mumsnet a safe space for me?

[rexrabbit]

would you say mumsnet these days is a safe space for a non-transphobic lesbian with children to hang out?

It’s not a monolith. Different boards have different atmospheres in my experience.

All this time, I've been looking at the wrong end of the spider.

@izimbra Yesterday 22:27 . . . this board is full of aggressively transphobic posters who can't mention transgender people without mentioning in the next breath that they see them primarily as a danger to others, and that the start and end point of gender non-conformism is that can be can and should be 'cured' with therapy.

That makes no sense at all. It is genderists who push gender conformity. They insist that people's 'gender' (whatever that is - sex role stereotypes seems the best guess) should limit and dictate the way they choose to look, dress and behave - they even promote the use of dangerous hormone therapy and potentially life threatening surgery to enforce that.

Those of us who do not believe in (criticise) gender do not expect anyone to conform to a set of sex-role stereotypes that we reject.

We do not reject sex. We know it exists. Our knowing sex exists does not make anyone 'unsafe'.

What was that quote again? oh yes:
“Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?”

Also dinosaurs (and the -saurs formerly known as dinosaurs) probably didn't roar, but instead made noises like birds, in particular ostrich and emu.

Actually I forgot. Kitty has taken down a dragon.

A few months after moving in, she went up against the flat’s guardian dragon, Cerys Tiamat. When I came in CT was on the carpet & Kitty was high up on CT’s perch, washing her paws.

They seem to have sorted things out by now since I often see them sitting together, but it’s pretty clear who’s boss.

Er, how much time have you spent looking at the rear end of spiders then?

noises like birds! If you think of the volume of sound a wren can generate, imagine a pterosaur marking its territory.

Sorry, you are wrong. There are dragons!

Lesbian mum with teens here. Does that past your first hurdle, Consistent Huff?

I had my PC purity card revoked decades ago for being too middle class at uni (ironic as I worked 14 hour split shifts every holiday in my parents’ chippy/Chinese takeaway). There is no pleasing some people and I suspect you’d hate all the dragon talk here. Me, I prefer a purple, white and green dinosaur that enjoys reading and pithy and occasionally snipey chatter. But then, I have the skin of a dino so that would track. FWR is my go to nesting place online.

I'm also a lesbian with children. Very few people on Mumsnet have an issue with lesbians. Lots of us have issues with men donning a dress and a wig and declaring themselves to be women.

Genital inspectors are very dedicated to the cause.

Surely it’s hard to tell one end from the other, other than going by the spider’s direction of travel?

'Looking at the wrong end of the spider'should be come a saying. If anyone has work meeting with daft business speak, I challenge you to introduce it.

On a more serious note- I have committed a misinformation. Ankylosaurs are dinosaurs, and I apologise for any alarm or offence I may have caused by denying it.

As penance, I will spend the rest of the day racking my brains.to remember the name of the similar lumpy-armoured but non-diosaurian animal I was thinking of. It's very much the same.sort of body shape, but its legs stick out sideways.

Handy key to femur angles:

• - reptile

| | man/dinosaur/bird \ / woman

I think you may be deceiving yourself there.

Biological facts = transphobia

On the contrary - they have bodies with distinct fronts and backs (not to mention eyes, pedipalps, spinettes etc). If the body is completely round (like a harvestman) it's not a spider.

The good news is that Arabella's skills are transferable! Look at the rear ends of daddy-long-legs, AKA craneflies, instead.

If the insect has a pointed bottom, it's female. Their tails are ovipositors and they use their tails to make holes in the soil to lay their eggs underground. The males have blocky tails.

Hmm. MN formatting has messed with my key. I'll try again.

Key to femur angles:

[horizontal line] [horizontal line] reptile

| | man/dinosaur/bird

\ / woman

Or in simpler parlance, the front is the bitey end. I hate spiders...

Hmmm, an interesting challenge!

I have toiled through the night to produce a most stunning Braille representation of fish now water Dragon, of the flame shooting variety, group of Jesus's image.

I'll just upload it for you to see.

<very over egged faux shock>

Oh no!

<wide eyed innocence>

the image facility is still not working!

Damn.

I'll put a copy in the post for the Jesus's.

Kisses .😘

I've been playing a (very slow) game of military strategy with the Cellar Spiders and the Giant House Spiders chez Arabella. Delighted to see the former are winning, so far. Because the latter keep me awake with their thumping great feet and gnashing pedipalps.

I'll be whatever type of beetle you want!

<starts packing suitcases>

I'll be at your house in 20 minutes, is it alright to bring the cats and the non flaming dragons?

No surfing with me though, unless you provide life jackets!

If it walks sideways is it just a temporarily-embarrassed crab?

'Some species of Pholcidae exhibit a threat response when disturbed by a touch to the web or entangled large prey. The arachnid responds by vibrating rapidly in a gyrating motion in its web, which may sometimes fall into a circular rhythm. It may oscillate in tune with the elasticity of the web causing an oscillation larger than the motion of the spider's legs. While other species of spider exhibit this behaviour, such behavior by the Pholcidae species has led to these spiders sometimes being called "vibrating spiders". '

It's off of Wikipedia, so it might be pedipalps. But I do like the idea of vibrating spiders.

And….. OP’s gone. Just as I got my outfit sorted!