Mick Hartley

Mumsnet, as we all know, is "the UK's most popular site for parents". They say "parents" to be inclusive, but as the name suggests it's overwhelmingly for mums…for women. So it's hardly surprising that the fraught subject of transgenderism has come up. A trans activist however objected to any such discussion, and, in a by-now familiar move, claimed that the website was allowing "trans-hostile posts" and suggested that advertisers on the site, like Flora margarine, should cut their links if they didn't want to be seen as aiding and abetting transphobia.

Joanna Williams at Spiked:

One theme holding all the millions of Mumsnet posts together is the experience of being a woman – as a wife, mother, daughter, or all three. Unsurprisingly, what it means to be a woman is discussed most explicitly in relation to the transgender movement, and in particular the impact gender self-identification will have on women’s rights. Some contributors are concerned that the privacy and safety of women-only spaces, whether changing rooms, toilets, prisons or refuges, will be threatened if men can enter simply by declaring themselves to be women. Other Mumsnet posters have raised concerns about their own children being encouraged to question their gender identity at school.

Transgender activists hate that Mumsnet provides a forum for these concerns to be expressed out in the open, without either censorship or a clear editorial voice passing judgement on what is said. And rather than just not going on Mumsnet, or trying to challenge particular arguments made on there, Twitter warriors have instead petitioned companies to pull adverts from the site in order to rob it of revenue and ultimately have it shut down. This practice has been well-honed by the campaign group Stop Funding Hate, which ‘names and shames’ companies that advertise in the Daily Mail, the Sun or any other publication its members decide they don’t like.

Last week just one person, Helen Islan, tweeted, ‘I like Flora but there is no way I am going to buy it while it is partnering with Mumsnet which platforms nasty, trans-hostile posts on its website’. Another asked Upfield, the company that produces Flora, how its company values of being ‘intolerant of discrimination and harassment’ aligned with a promotion that marketed Flora as ‘Mumsnet rated’.

There’s a horrible, bullying narcissism in these activists’ insistence that, just because they don’t like what people are saying on Mumsnet, they will shut down the platform and stop the conversation entirely. Casually throwing around accusations of transphobia and bigotry is designed to intimidate companies into submission. Unfortunately, it works. Within less than two hours of Islan’s tweet, Upfield responded: ‘We’ve investigated. We are wholly committed to our values, which include treating everyone equally, so have made the decision to no longer work with Mumsnet. #DiversityMatters.’

Mumsnet are fighting back. From the Times (£):

Mothers are boycotting Flora after the margarine’s manufacturer stopped advertising on Mumsnet over complaints of transphobia on the site….

Dozens of mothers have boycotted Flora after the company decided to cut ties with Mumsnet. Deborah Barker wrote on Twitter: “I am wholly committed to free speech and mothers/women freedom to discuss issues which pertain to them and have decided to boycott @Flora. I was a pretty loyal customer with two teenage boys, but I cannot buy from companies that support the silencing of #women.”

Another mother wrote: “ It’s no great loss to Flora is it. Women are only responsible for the majority of the household budgeting/shopping etc. And there’s only a few million of us on here.”

Another front opens on the battlefield…