If people are terrible to women on a social media site, who's responsible for ending that behavior?
Thursday, Soraya Chemaly at the Guardian published a piece titled "Facebook's Big Misogyny Problem," claiming that Facebook does not take appropriate steps to control the high volume of content degrading to women that gets posted and shared on the site. She cites examples of groups built around domestic violence and sexual assault jokes, such as the page "I kill bitches like you." Ads from Facebook's paying advertisers run on such pages, and according to Chemaly, "the company only acts when [offensive] content is reported."
I don't think such groups are appropriate or even acceptable, no matter how humorous their intention. Violence against women will probably never be funny to me. But I do think we have to recognize that this "Facebook misogyny problem" is actually part of a much wider problem -- culturally, domestic and sexual violence against women is a joke on a large scale. We see it in advertising and in movies -- and it was practically the theme of this year's Oscars. These Facebook groups are so prevalent because their brand of humor is so prevalent in the culture, not because Facebook specifically is populated with people who enjoy humor at women's expense.
There is an argument for moderating potentially harmful communities. There's also a precedent -- numerous social media sites have taken steps to crack down on thinspiration content. Why not content that expresses degrading and sometimes violent thoughts about women?
Still, I'm not sure that I buy the argument that Facebook is especially terrible for women -- any more than the world we live in is terrible for women. That's not to say that we should accept offensive online content as a given, but the solution isn't as simple as censoring this content, even if Facebook had the bandwidth and inclination to do so.
The situation on Facebook won't change until there is a broader cultural shift in how we talk about and think about women, and specifically how some men do. Fortunately, organizations like Men For Equality, On The Marc, Men Stopping Violence and Men Against Violence Against Women are working hard to raise awareness and educate men about the issues women face. Women's organizations like Miss Representation and Geena Davis' Institute on Gender in Media are challenging TV, news and movie producers and print and web editors to portray women and girls as less sexualized and more powerful. These organizations and initiatives are the best chance we have to convince men who post things like "sometimes you just gotta slap the bitch" and "rid Facebook of skank-ass hoes" that it's not just hurtful but lame to talk pejoratively about women just because you can.
Yes, it would be nice not to see that content on Facebook. Stamping out hateful speech about women in the site might suggest to perpetrators that there's something wrong with their behavior. But then again, it might not.