Being anonymous can be a great thing – it can lower your inhibitions, make you take that step out of your comfort zone, confess your deepest, dirtiest secrets… I get submissions to my XConfessions site every day, from people who want to live out their fantasy without really having to open up or do it in the ‘real world’! But recent research has shown me that anonymity can also be a bad thing if not used for the right purpose… You may have heard of the Instagram account Bye Felipe, set up my Alexandra Tweten to display and shame the men who abuse or harass women on social media like Tinder.
I understand that uncertainty and rejection can hurt, but can you imagine a man speaking to you like that in person? Would they be so quick to hurl abuse and turn on the ego? Or is it easier for them to act this way when they’re hidden behind a social media persona? On the other hand, would most women find it so easy to reject a guy if it was in real life and not via text?? Its become apparent recently that the same type of behaviour in men occurs in revenge porn.
Image by Nate Walton zmftw.tumblr.com
We’re seeing more and more instances of men sharing and shaming images of ex-girlfriends over the internet and social media sites. In extreme cases, this leads to women losing jobs, changing their names and relocating in order to escape harassment. And if you’re not a celebrity like Jennifer Lawrence, good luck getting your pictures taken off Reddit! Sites like End Revenge Porn aim to offer support and legal advice to victims and educate the public. Their ambition as they put it, is to “gather much more data on revenge porn, create school programs to educate our youth on the issue of revenge porn and cyber harassment, and work with law enforcement to come up with training programs that can help officers handle revenge porn cases.” As we see in this recent article in the Guardian, more education needs to happen to create widespread change when it comes to sexism and harassment, rather than a focus on outing individuals who perpetrate a much larger problem.
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