Mumsnet

Mumsnet, nicknamed "Prosecco 4chan" or "Prosecco Stormfront""Mumsnet really earning their nickname of Prosecco Stormfront." by Caroline Dodds Pennock (@carolinepennock), Twitter, 2023 December 14, archived on 2024 January 15 by its detractors, is a British website primarily for women with children. It is centered around discussion forums which allow debate on subjects related to parenting and families as well as other topics.Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts: ‘We could do with all the parties being a bit more feminist’, The Guardian, 4 Oct 2014 It has occasionally been accused of wielding surprising political influence. More recently, it has become notorious for transphobia as well as a variety of other delusional ideas, from vaccine woo to dinosaur denial.
The site has become a (widely ridiculed) part of British culture, with its own strange language such as DH (dear/darling husband), DD (dear/darling daughter), and BC (before children).Acronyms, Mumsnet, accessed 29 March 2019
There are also offshoots of the site, e.g. "Gransnet" (for women over 50)."Grandparents website", self-described as "the busiest social networking site for the over 50s".
==History==
Mumsnet was founded in 2000 by with help from Carrie Longton and Steven Cassidy. Roberts is the wife of formerly deputy editor of The Guardian and now editor of the BBC's prestige news program Newsnight. Roberts was awarded a CBE in 2017 for services to the economy (not to women per se).
==Political influence==
For a while around 2010, politicians devoted a lot of time to wooing Mumsnet and its supposedly vast audience of mums (mothers are much more authentic than women who don't have children, who always seem a bit suspiciousAndrea Leadsom apologises to Theresa May over motherhood remark, BBC, 11 July 2016). This was particularly the case among the British Labour Party, with Gordon Brown and Ed Milliband attending its 10th anniversary party in 2010, and Gordon's wife Sarah being interviewed.Sarah Brown on Mumsnet: no rough ride over the ironing, The Guardian, 12 Feb 2010 Tory leader David Cameron also made multiple appearances.David Cameron takes the biscuit with third session on mumsnet, The Guardian, 19 Nov 2009 The Guardian provided assiduous coverage of the site's every celebrity visitor, possibly because its then deputy editor Ian Katz was married to Justine Roberts. Since Katz left, it has become less prominent in the Guardian's news coverage.
==Transphobia==
In 2018, Mumsnet was heavily criticised for the transphobic comments of some of its posters and the moderators' refusal to remove them. Activists threatened a boycott.Mumsnet moderators are struggling to find the line between free speech and transphobia, Amelia Tait, Wired, 19 Nov 2018 That August, a planned live discussion with child protection charity NSPCC was cancelled because "nearly every single question posed to the NSPCC concerned trans children identifying as female. In them, the adults misgender trans kids, as well as conflate trans girls with rapists."NSPCC cancel Mumsnet child abuse live chat after flood of transphobia, Gay Star News, 31 Aug 2018 A Twitter feed MumsnetTransphobia (@MumsnetT) once catalogued abuses, but has not been updated since May 2018.Mumsnet Transphobia, Twitter
Mumsnet has been accused of radicalising a generation of TERFs thanks to its numerous threads on how "trans women aren't actually women, and instead violent men intent on gaining access to women’s bathrooms, prisons, and domestic violence shelters to harm them, and the idea that gender self-identification is ripe for abuse by cis men who claim to be trans.".Why is British media so transphobic?, Edie Miller, The Outline, 5 Nov 2018 Edie Miller said, "Mumsnet is to British transphobia more like what 4Chan is to American fascism".
Mumsnetters have even attacked RationalWiki for our absence of transphobia. User lydiamajora posted: "The 'sceptic' movement as a whole is sceptical about health and religious woo, but not at all sceptical about gender woo. Check out RationalWiki wrt radfems and transgenderism, and prepare to rage."Why aren't "Skeptics" sceptical about the ability to "change sex", Mumsnet, 31 Aug 2018
On the 8th of April 2019, Stephanie Hayden obtained a court order compelling Mumsnet to release the details of one of their users over transphobia, leading to a sudden rush of TERFs, scared about the implications of being publicly outed as transphobes, hurrying over to Kiwi Farms.Stephanie Hayden on Twitter, 8 April 2019.
The website did take action against extreme transphobic hate, with a policy statement published on 13 June 2018 which said "Mumsnet will always stand in solidarity with vulnerable or oppressed minorities" while still supporting free speech. It decreed that they wouldn't tolerate "posts which are derogatory or aggressive towards trans people" or "sweeping negative generalisations" about any group.Mumsnet statement on moderation in particular with regard to trans rights, Justine Roberts (CEO and founder), Mumsnet, 13 June 2018
However in corners like the "feminism chat" you'll still find threads where people get excited over some minor celeb expressing vaguely "gender critical" (i.e. anti-trans-rights) viewpoints, e.g. Ben Elton.Ben Elton's Identity Crisis, thread on Mumsnet, initial post by TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross Mon 24-Jun-19 22:33:44
In April 2019, frozen food company Birds Eye broke off a deal promoting its products as approved by Mumsnet owing to the site's treatment of trans people, and Upfield (the makers of Flora vegan spread) likewise cut ties in October 2019.Birds Eye breaks deal with Mumsnet for anti-trans posts, Gay Star News, 30 April 2019Flora-owner Upfield cuts ties with Mumsnet over website’s ‘transphobic’ content, Pink News, 11 Oct 2019 A narrative circulated at the time was that the denizens of Mumsnet were boycotting Flora, but when opening the relevant comment threads in its FWR section, they were filled with people claiming that they were too middle class to even consider buying it in the first place.
==Vaccines==
As you'd expect from a site so concerned with parenting, it contains a lot of debate about vaccines and the anti-vaccination movement. Most comments are sensible and you may even see evidence being cited.To vaccinate or not to vaccinate, Mumsnet forums, 20 Nov 2011"How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed", Mumsnet, 6 Jan 2011 But there are some people spreading anti-vaccine nonsense.Decided against vaccinations for dd...... thoughts please, Mumsnet 7 Jan 2009
==Other woo==
It occasionally contains posts on other woo/skepticism-related topics, such as homeopathy:
Someone called Kristen Auclair claims to have been banned from Mumsnet for dinosaur denialism.Ra-Men special — Dinosaur deniers — with Kristen Auclair, RationalSkepticism.org forums, 20 Feb 2015 Is Poe's Law in effect in the following post?
==Security breaches==
Mumsnet has seen various security breaches over the years.
It was hacked in 2015 by David Buchanan, a bored 18 year old student from Surrey, England. Users' information was published online, leading to hoax calls to police, threats, and a bomb scare at Mumsnet HQ.Mumsnet hack by Haslemere teen led to leak of 2,000 accounts and bomb hoax, Surrey Live, 12 July 2016Mumsnet cyber-hacker ordered to do 200 hours' unpaid work, BBC, 2 Aug 2016
A group called DadSec, comprising men angry at the site's anti-male attitude, claimed to have hacked and DDOSed Mumsnet in 2015, sending armed police to Justine Roberts' home (SWATting).Mumsnet hacker says motivation behind attack was 'anti-father' attitude of its members, The Mirror, 27 Aug 2015
In 2019, a software update exposed users' personal data.Mumsnet data leak: Moaning parents could see other users' privates after cloud migration, The Register, 7 Feb 2019
==Am I Being Unreasonable?==
One of the site's most hilarious sections is the "Am I Being Unreasonable?" subforum where women post ridiculous things they've thought or done and expect validation but receive abuse. It is ridiculed by the Twitter account Mumsnet Madness.Mumsnet Madness, @mumsnet_madness, Twitter
==External links==
*Mumsnet
==References==
Category:Anti-vaccination movement
Category:British media
Category:British politics
Category:Pissed at us
Category:Pseudoscience promoting organizations
Category:TERFs
Category:Webshites