Bee in your Bonnet?

"re-vamping the Home page"?!!!

Gransnet is open to all. There aren't that many grandads on here probably because online chatting is more a woman thing.

Unless it's half-term when we sometimes get newcomers who could be male

Thanks Jalima, my granddad perspective has already ruffle feathers, so I shall try to take a parliamentary type of approach, more waffle little context. Might help to keep me out of trouble.

James

I think when I joined in ? 2013 there were several Grandads on here, though never as many as Grans.
Where have they gone? Only a few left.

As a newbie you'd fit in more easily if you dropped the 'lovely ladies' and 'enjoying your chats' approach as that sets you apart from other posters. Maybe less emphasis on being a bloke who's crusading to bring in more blokes and more on being just another grandparent who'll contribute to threads that interest you while ignoring the threads that don't.

Why don't you just join in on the threads Realgranddad . And stop making such odd posts.

Thanks mcem before I used the words lovely ladies I read some of the comments on GN about what people like to be called and what they don't like being called. I laughted at the concerns about children being called kids.

I gained the impression that there is a lot of sensitive feelings on GN and say lovely ladies it would be received as showing morerespect than disrespect sorry if I got it so wrong. I am learning, but beginning to understand why so many granddads have given up trying to be socialable. I wonder if I shall be still on GN this time next week.

James

Possibly not, James
As the new half-term starts again next week perhaps you will be too busy.

Realgranddad I think you'll find once you get going on other threads, I doubt if you'll be able to tell if a poster is male or female.

Do you have any male friends you could persuade to join? Despite the name of the site, you don't have to be a grandparent to join. I've not mentioned this before, but I'm not a grandparent, I'm not even a parent. I just wanted to chat with people around my own age about current affairs, etc., (and women's stuff!)

Same here, Wilma!

The other granddads who are still here don't comment on obviously female threads, but do give their opinions on other more general threads. And they don't address us as 'lovely ladies', they treat us as equals.

Which is as it should be.

Is called 'Gransnet' for a reason??

Perhaps following on from Mumsnet - are there many dads who contribute on that site?
Now that is a more discriminatory name than Gransnet!
Perhaps they could insert a 'd' - Grandsnet?

Perhaps Grannylyn65 summed it it up
, but Jalima gives suggestion gives me hope. I discussed it with my wife and she said "forget the site or infer you are transgender." . She refuses to sign up because she says the site is far too feminist and she prefer much broader subjects.

I shall follow the chats for a few days and see if I can pick up a thread that is not so feminist I will not be expressing opinions that are linked to a gender or womens syndrom.

Hope many of you watched Ch 4 Dispatches last night and learnt more about how this uncaring government has different approachs to helping the rich to get away from paying tax at the expense of the poor.

James

Are the threads feminist?

Perhaps come back under a gender-neutral name then no one will know (or care) if you are male, female or neither.
When my step-brother stayed with us while his house ( also in the Cotswold) was being renovated, he found Gransnet on my Ipad and joined in several conversations.

You would find the political threads gender neutral and busy discussing the things that you have mentioned, Realgrandad Try there.

I wouldn't really say that most posts are gender specific?

I think that is the main bee buzzing in realgrandad's bonnet. He says he is concerned about the gender aspect of the threads, but he isn't posting on any of the many non-genderish threads about their content.

If I were a man wanting to change things, I would be posting my male-oriented opinions on as many threads as I could (without being a male chauvinist pig, of course, just politely stating my case) and working to equalise the balance that way.

That was how women changed the male-dominated society that had consigned them to the kitchen, nursery or bedroom - they interested themselves in everything, gained knowledge and experience against all opposition and kept butting into the exclusive men's worlds of medicine, law, commerce, goverment, exploration - you name it.

If you want GN to have equal amounts of male and female contributions, then the males have to contribute - not just complain.

How about some men submitting items to GNHQ for the blogs thread - no, not about how they are under-represented and not catered for, but about some aspect of their lives or experiences? I am sure it would be accepted and published, if it was interesting.

I missed out literature in my list of men's worlds - at one time women authors had to use male pen-names to get their work accepted for publication.

I agree with grannylynn and would follow up kitty's point.

Some threads are distinctly feminist in tone - often with posters taking femininist/ anti-feminist stands and non-feminist stands.

Others are very feminine - style, makeup, perfume, craft.

Many are of interest to most women - children, education, housing, health and care.

Most are not gender specific at all - anything in news and politics.

That's just scratching the surface.

I wonder if realgranddad and mrs are using these words as synonyms?

Female, feminine and feminist have distinct and different meanings.

I'd advise a newbie to do less analysing and more reading to become familiar with the threads, topics and style found on GN and then either post on an existing thread that's of interest or start a new one.

I think your wife is confusing feminine with feminist, realg. Of course the threads are feminine in the sense of being mainly written by and of interest to females, but you can't deduce from that that all (or most) gransnetters are feminists. They may be but the evidence for that being the case is, quite simply, absent.

So get posting from a male perspective, as elegran suggests. Complaining about women being feminine in their outlook is a non starter.