Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Facebook’s new slut page: a monument to girl hatred

By Melinda Tankard Reist - posted Thursday, 11 March 2010


Since when did it become OK to hate women and girls so publicly and to judge them so mercilessly?

There’s a new page on Facebook. It’s just over two-weeks-old but already has more than a million members. I’m not going to post the link but of course it is easy to find. You don’t have to go far to find online domains where women are held up for ridicule and contempt.

This is a site for anyone who wants to post pictures of girls they have judged to be sluts.

Advertisement

Some girls appear in overtly sexual poses.

Others are doing that common tween pouty thing with their lips and surprised eyes. Which apparently means they are sluts.

Then there’s the young girls of 13, 14 or 15 having fun with their friends, smiling and fooling around as young girls often do and somehow ending up on this site. Because even innocent mucking around with your besties is to be interpreted as sluttish behaviour.

One average normal young woman is standing in a front yard looking relaxed and happy in a long blue summery dress. This girl cops a torrent of abuse on the site. Because girls can’t just look or actually be relaxed and happy. They must be covering up for the fact that they’re really sluts.

Other images are of larger sized girls posted purely to be ridiculed. And they are. Condemned for being alive, though some men comment that despite their obvious hideousness, they could still manage to find some use for them.

There is even a picture of a woman with a bashed face.

Advertisement

It is revealing that the girls whose images have been put up here are either condemned for their whorish ways - or condemned for not deserving the slut title. So they can’t win. Either they are too slutty or not slutty enough.

Each girl or woman is analysed based on her body parts and what she is wearing. The text includes allegations of their prostitute-like ways, describing multiple STD’s, multiple pregnancies to multiple fathers, and all the sexual acts they have ever allegedly performed on multiple men.

Some images are clearly posted for revenge. Often full names are used. What means do these women and girls have to defend themselves? How do they deal with it? What does it mean for them in their daily lives at school or work or at home or anywhere, to be identified to the whole world as a slut?

By allowing this site, Facebook is a conduit for bullying, harassment and abuse.

These are some of the comments. I’ve left out the pornographic ones which means I won’t be citing most of them.

“Tripple ew”, “She’s so ugly”, “Meat”, “Pig”, “Dog”, “Vomit bucket anyone?”

This site is a temple to human cruelty.

One of the pictures of a larger girl looking depressed provokes special attack.

Just yesterday (March 5) a man calling himself “D.j.Stack” labelled her a “baarbarian” [Sic. But you get the idea]. He also questions whether she really qualifies as slut material:

“and i doute thats slut material because i wouldnt even look at that, nor do i think many would.”

She is a “that”, not a real person.

Who is the real barbarian in this picture?

Another image of a larger bodied girl at the beach attracts the comment:

“It looks like someone threw pancake batter against a wall and it slid down.”

So the women whose images are posted on this virtual dartboard are insulted with the label slut. But they are equally insulted if they are seen as slut imposters: pretenders to the slut title.

For example: “She couldn’t be a slut if she wanted to be”.

And: “She’s too f***ing ugly to be a slut. who would f***k that?

Again, she is a that.

In the image of the bashed woman, her eye is swollen and black. Why is she here? Because she’s a slut too and she deserved what she got. That’s what one of the commenters said.

A couple of images of men have been posted on the site. One male helpfully points out that men can’t be sluts “cos only the bitches are sluts”.

And there you have it.

The creator of the site, in a display of faux concern, writes: “Lots of people have uploaded fan pics of people they know. That’s not cool guys that’s bullying.”

So why have you left them there?

Images of young girls stripped and performing for a webcam have been removed in the last 24 hours. As has an image of a 10-year-old girl.

But it’s not enough. The whole site remains harmful to the mental health of girls whose images have been posted - in many cases most likely against their will or without their prior knowledge.

Its presence is also harmful to girls who may fear their faces could soon appear there any day, meaning they too will wear the virtual scarlet letter.

This site facilitates cyber bullying, cyber stalking and harassment. It puts girls and women in significant danger.

Will Facebook leave it there for ever, until every girl and every woman is labelled a slut?

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All

First published on Melinda Tankard Reist's blog on March 6, 2010.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

97 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, speaker, commentator and advocate with a special interest in issues affecting women and girls. Melinda is author of Giving Sorrow Words: Women's Stories of Grief after Abortion (Duffy & Snellgrove, 2000), Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (Spinifex Press, 2006) and editor of Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009). Melinda is a founder of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation (www.collectiveshout.org). Melinda blogs at www.melindatankardreist.com.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Melinda Tankard Reist

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Melinda Tankard Reist
Article Tools
Comment 97 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy