OH FACEBOOK, YOU CRAZY WEBSITE, YOU.
(FYI, trigger warning for sexually inappropriate comments.)
So this woman has been the subject of controversy. Internet commenters (a.k.a. assholes) have accused her of lying, so she bared her stomach for all and showed the world the extra skin she has left from the weight she lost.
I applaud the fact that she had a desire, set a goal, acted on it, and was brave enough to stand up to bullies by exposing herself even further to internet trolls. Thank you, Simone. (Although I feel like I have to add that I don’t condone that rate of weight loss. I am NOT debating or questioning her actions – I don’t know her health history – I AM saying that it is an extreme action that should not be taken without careful consideration and medical attention.) She is an inspiration to women in that she is fighting back against body judgers in the most intimate way, just like we do here at SOAM. <3
But I'm not even really here to write about her. I'm here to write about Facebook's community standards. You know how they're always banning pictures of nursing moms but are totes okay with sexy bikini pics? So today I broke my cardinal rule of Never Reading Internet Comments (except the ones here, of course because you guys are amazing and supportive) and I came across this one:
Ugh. It makes me sick to my stomach. (To “fap”, if you don’t know, is to masturbate to photos online.) Not only does this comment attempt to push the female body back into an archaic place of existing only for the pleasure of men, but I find it rather emotionally violent. And so I reported it. I was torn as to how to label it since general “harassment” wasn’t an option. It doesn’t directly humiliate me or someone I know, and it’s not exactly pornography. Maybe I should have picked “something else” but I went with porn based on Facebook’s own example of “sexual arousal”. This commenter was talking about his sexual arousal (or lack thereof) in regards to this photograph, no?
But Facebook replied thusly:
I don’t know what the best way to address this is. Do you think this should fall under Facebook’s current community standards, or do you think they should be adjusted to protect women from this kind of thing?
Either way, do me a favor and click here and report this picture, okay? And the other picture(s) like it in that thread. DO NOT comment on them because god knows we should never feed the internet trolls. But let’s stand together and let Facebook know this isn’t okay.
What are you talking about, don’t feed the trolls? This whole POST is feeding the trolls.
She knew when she posted the photo she would get support, encouragement, and some stupid, rude comments. Doesn’t anyone know how to let things roll off their back anymore?
Um. No. This whole post is about asking Facebook to help protect the community they run.
Hi Bonnie, I reported something along the same lines last week and got the same reply. A picture showing two naked people pressed up against each other (man behind woman showing their full length of body) but it’s not inappropriate? It was a meme, but it had that picture in the background. The same answer – this doesn’t violate our standards. Translation – “we don’t have standards”
And it was not a page I ‘liked’ so I couldn’t opt out of seeing it for all of the people who say “If you don’t like it then don’t look”. These things pop up out of nowhere and then you can request not to see the pages but what about teenagers or younger children who have these things just pop up on their pages? I’ll stop ranting. You are not crazy, and you are not wrong. Nothing wrong with being a prude. Prudence = wisdom.
Ugh. How frustrating…I’m not sure what to say except that you’re right to be sideways about it. blech.