Those that know me personally know that there has been quite the stir over an image posted on the Facebooks, and because I cannot stomach the idea of giving the jerk who posted the pic any more page views I am torn on posting the URL but it is a graphic photo depicting a woman cowering in a corner with a male standing over her with a clenched fist. The text on the photo reads “women deserve equal rights…and lefts”. Naturally the tool who posted it claims it a joke and no one on his page supports violence against women…although some folks leaving comments apparently did not agree.
Here are some of the highlights:
” I don’t care what anyone says if a woman deserves to be hit than hit her.there a difference from being a beater and slapping a bitch when she needs it.there probably wouldn’t be some many loud mouth bitches or sluts if they got slapped up when needed.and keep in mind I’m a woman saying this.”
“Feminism at this point is the fat kid who wamts both cake and pie and can choose one so they cry and whine till they get both. Its to support women to the equal status as men yet they treat guys as unequal. Want to be equal then treat both sides the same.”
“I’ll take feminism seriously when it becomes socially acceptable to drop kick a bitch in the face for being a cunt.”
This seems to be an ongoing issue for the old FB. In light of this, I decided I was going to Lean my ass on In and contact Facebooks COO, Sheryl Sandberg and see if throwing a direct line to a feminist on the inside might help.
To: Sheryl.Sandberg@fb.com
Dear Sheryl Sandberg
I am writing you because I have been reading Lean In and while I am excited to see someone
talking openly about feminism in the workplace, I am dismayed that the workplace in question has
such a problematic approach to images involving violence against women.
I work for an organization that provides shelter and support services for victims of domestic
violence and sexual abuse. One of our key areas of service is providing community education and
we spend a fair amount of time addressing images of women and images of violence against
women and how that contributes to a culture where violence against women is ok. I’m sure you
are already keenly aware of how those two elements are connected, so I won’t go into it at
length here…but when we stumbled across an image that advocates violence against women and
reported it through the facebook reporting feature we were told that it did not meet the criteria
for removal. Specifically we were told the following:
“Thanks for your report. We reviewed the photo you reported, but found it doesn’t violate
Facebook’s Community Standard on graphic violence, which includes depicting harm to someone
or something, threats to the public’s safety, or theft and vandalism.”
The picture in question showed a battered woman cowering in a corner with a man hovering over
her with a clenched fist. The text reads “women deserve equal rights and lefts”. I have include
a link to the picture below although I am loathe to give this troll anymore page views. And
frankly, I am less concerned about this specific picture (which the page owner claims is a joke,
because violence against women is always good for a belly laugh) and more concerned that
whoever is responding to these reports does not seem to think an image of this sort is a showing
graphic violence.
I am writing you to ask that as a woman and a feminist that you help by changing Facebooks
approach to photos and other materials depicting violence against women. Intimate partner
violence is one of the leading (of not THE leading) cause of injury for women in the US and
Facebook can take a small stand against it by simply prohibiting these images to be hosted on
the site.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter. I will be sharing this email and your response
with other concerned parties and we look forward to your response.
Will Facebook start treating images of violence against women as, you know “depictions of graphic violence”? I will update here as the situation evolves….stay tuned. In the meantime, I hella wamts some cake…and pie.
(edited for spelling)
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