Five Ways to Stand Up to Slut Shaming on Social Media
I have read the article on
Twitter that a woman is called a “whore or a slut every ten seconds! I don’t
know about you but I find this very disheartening when it is girls or other
women doing this to other women.
In the UK there were over nine thousand abusive tweets a day
with the reference of whore or slut in them. Method 52 picks up these abusive
tweets and flags them as abusive and escalating them to the moderators. This is
good so that the readers of the tweets don’t have to worry about flagging them
as abusive. I think we need to stand up
to slut shaming and say this will not be tolerated. Here ways we can standup to this online
bullying
Ø If we don’t have an automated flagging method on our
Twitter let’s adopt it.
Ø Let’s flag abusive posts on Facebook too.
Ø Have friends in a group chat call out someone that is
slut shaming and tell him or her that this won’t be tolerated.
Ø Have friends of the person being shamed on Twitter
send out positive tweets to build that person back up.
Ø Have a feature on Instagram that picks up abusive
posts and sends them to the administrators.
I have a
Twitter account however I try and be encouraging in my tweets. I think a safety mechanism should be put in
place where women don’t have to see those harmful tweets. I also think that users
that send these nasty tweets should get a warning and if it keeps on happening,
their account should be suspended.
If I were to
see an abusive post that was either meant for my friends or I. I would flag it as abusive and send it to
the administration group. I would let my
friend know and tell her not to pay attention to delete that post because it
isn’t worth seeing. I would delete it the comment if it were aimed at me then
delete the person and block them.
In a group
chat, if a person were calling a woman either a whore or a slut, there should
be some group leader telling that person that this language isn’t allowed. If
they still persist, report that person to administration. The group leader
could message the ones that aren’t being nasty and also the target or targets
and tell them that they will start a new conversation and delete this one,
however the one that is doing the name calling will not be included in the new
upcoming message. This way the one that is being nasty doesn’t follow into the
next conversation.
If friends
see “slut shaming to an individual, they should send positive comments to her
on either Twitter or Facebook. I think
that more positive affirmations we can give someone, the better that they will
feel about themselves. This will also show that we see that person as beautiful
and it will cancel out the nastiness that someone tried to shame them with.
I hope
Instagram has a safety feature where it blocks out these nasty posts so nobody
has to deal with being called a “Whore or a slut.” I think that there should be
way to freeze the shamer’s account for a period of time and an e-mail sent to
them on why the account is froze.
My final
thought is this; no one should be subject to slut shaming on social media
sites. These sites are to have fun and
talk to your friends. Slut shaming is
harmful and another form of cyber bullying it should be stopped. I would love to see the misogyny stopped. We can do this if we stand together and show
each other the love and respect each one of us deserves.
