Take a stroll around Facebook and you will be sure to find a plethora of pages overflowing with exploitative, misogynistic and pornographic images of women and girls. In fact, so ubiquitous are these representations, that it all becomes a kind of mind and soul numbing experience of ad porno-nauseum. Try ‘Slut Paradise’, ‘My Whore Wife’, ‘Sex Slut teens’,’Suck my Pink Pussy’, ‘White Sluts for Big Black Dick’, ‘Cum Swallowing’, or ‘Fuck My Pussy Hard’ for starters. Depressingly, these pages often have ‘likers’ numbering in the tens of thousands. And so it came as quite a shock, when our little page The International Lady Garden Society, (with a following of around 250 at that time), was relentlessly being reported and the Facebook censors were punishing us with ever increasingly long sits on the naughty no-facebook-for-you chair. For what kind of images you ask? For images like this one…..
Apparently these images violate community standards. Apparently these images are offensive.
Meanwhile, on other less poetically named pages, genuinely offensive, pornographic and sometimes downright frightening images and their legions of knuckle-dragging fans are multiplying like ingrown hairs 3 days after a brazillian…..and yet they seem to remain invisible and largely unharrassed by trolls or facebook censors.
And so, as an experiment, we found a generic image…you know the ones, the ubiquitous g-string-up-the -arse-come-fuck-me-doggy-style crack shot, of which there are about a guzillion tediously available for your viewing on any number of porno-aesthetic-infested facebook pages…..
All we did was add a sprinkling of pubic hair.
And vagina-voila! Overnight we copped a 30 day ban for violating community standards….
Sooooo, let me get this straight. Suddenly it is offensive? But take away the hair and it is just ticketty boo? So, pubic hair is disgusting but de-individualised women sticking their arses into cameras for a strangers imaginary penetration isn’t? Have we become so desensitised to the sight of the stylised female body in these anonymously sexually receptive, plasticised, smoothed, pornographised poses that we dont even see them anymore? But throw in a handful of pubic hairs and suddenly it is the hair that is violating community standards?
I dont know about you, but i think that something is going wrong……and it actually has very little to with pubic hair, and a whole lot to do with the rampant misogyny that is flourishing out here in cyberspace.
April 5th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
Well said DB !
April 5th, 2013 at 5:44 pm
thanks Nige!
April 5th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
It is amazing how those doggy cfm shots are so ubiquitous that a bit of hair dusted on is a bit shocking and makes you realise in a far more graphic way, how indecent and degrading to women that kind of representation really is. Such a contrast to the other sweet and empowering images.
April 5th, 2013 at 6:09 pm
yes, it’s quite a jolt isn’t it….
May 24th, 2013 at 7:22 am
Yes a fantastic and true article, and the sooner the better women cop on to this outright misogyny,some women even put like on them,like a turkey voting for Christmas.!!
April 7th, 2013 at 12:17 am
Fantastic article Darielle! So hypocritical of Facebook, and they don’t seem to have noticed the irony of their “community standards” policy is that they themselves are setting the standard, not reflecting it. And it’s a very sexist standard!
April 7th, 2013 at 7:54 am
thanks Kate…
April 18th, 2013 at 9:23 am
I agree whole heartedly. I am consdiering de facing self after three days of asian women with breast implants that “will pursue me”. Its aweful. sad scary…demoralising ….really de moral ising…de femininsting…de meaning ….what to do?
April 28th, 2013 at 7:35 pm
it ain’t FB that is fucking strumpet – t is the people who are members or friends of members – they are the ones reporting these images FB does not have a roving Bot searching out pubes – i suggest strumpet cull the bible belt and other do goodies from thier membership and all will go swimmingly
April 30th, 2013 at 3:14 am
Posting pics of hairy vulvas will shut down FB and reddit sites? So, maybe misogynist porn sites on FB and reddit could be shut down by bombing them with pics of hairy vulvas ? That would be hilarious.
July 2nd, 2013 at 1:25 pm
I love this idea 🙂
April 30th, 2013 at 6:10 am
why not a concentrated effort to post hairy vulva shots, non porn vulva shots like pictures of vulvas where the baby head is crowning on FB porn sites. Pick one site and declare it’s Hairy Birthing Vulva Day! and encourage people to post Hairy Vulva Birthing Pics on the lucky FB porn site and continue to site is banned and then go to the next one. Perhaps it could become a meme.
May 24th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Fantastic idea!
The last thing the knuckle-draggers want are images of what a vulva is (also) for 🙂
April 30th, 2013 at 6:46 am
what’s the difference between a pornographic magazine and a swim-suit catalogue?
I, personally, would never waste time searching lewd terms in facebook for porn, but if i did i reckon i would be disappointed. have you ever seen pubic hair poking out the side of a woman’s bikini in a swim-suit catalogue? i doubt it, but that doesn’t make the swim-suit company misogynist, anti-pubic perverts. no, because if they did add a touch of hair then there is a sexual undertone.
facebook is unlikely to ban non-explicit photographs of women in bikinis simply because they are in a sexual context because, context aside, these pictures are not pornographic. they could just be from a swim-suit catalogue. add pubic hair and the picture becomes explicitly sexual (think: this sort of image could never qualify for a swimsuit catalogue).
facebook cannot easily ban images that could be construed sexually: where would one draw the line? i would guess, arbitrarily. there would ensue a chinese level censorship. i’d rather not endure censorship as a matter of principle.especially the arbitrary and misinformed kind.
May 24th, 2013 at 9:46 am
my thoughts exactly.
April 30th, 2013 at 9:19 am
…. I agree with you re censorship…but I think what I was trying to get at is that facebook seems to be making censorship judgements that are completely arbitrary and which condone a kind of lowest common denominator cultural misogyny and actually have nothing to do with ‘offensive content’ or ‘community values’. Swimsuit catalogues may not be pornography, but I would love to hear an argument that could convince me that they aren’t (generally speaking) misogynistic.
April 30th, 2013 at 11:00 am
Why can’t women challenge how the female body is displayed? Pornified images of women- don’t object, you chinese level censoring crazy feminist person you. Non-pornified images of women-offensive? Ban that hairy shit. I don’t understand people who defend the porn industry, it’s like defending the fast food industry and saying if you have the nerve to critique it
you are against food and want people to starve.
April 30th, 2013 at 6:20 pm
Oh we are soooo going to have to talk about this on the Sluttylemon podcast! Especially how according to the Daily Mail, stubble is sexy when it’s on a man’s face. But clearly not when it’s on a woman’s thighs. Except perhaps when it’s still on the man’s face. This is coming out wrong.
Anyway the podcast is here: http://www.sluttylemon.com and our in-depth analysis of hair-placement will be arriving on it soon.
April 30th, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Fantastic! Dont forget to send us a link!!
May 1st, 2013 at 2:34 am
That’s an interesting read but seriously bad photo editing. If a womans pubes did look like that they should be a little worried, they are about as thick as a pencil and nearly as straight 🙂
May 1st, 2013 at 7:55 am
hahaha….yes…I agree… maybe we were actually banned for displaying dreadful photoshopping….:)
May 3rd, 2013 at 4:27 am
Feminism is not dead, it is Misogyny that stinks. Well written article. Keep them coming.
May 23rd, 2013 at 8:30 pm
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May 24th, 2013 at 1:27 am
I’m curious to know if you tried reporting the original image? If these pages you refer to are invisible to Facebook’s censors, the reason could be a lack of people doing so.
May 24th, 2013 at 9:13 am
yes Chris, I did on a number of occasions. As far as I know, the original image is still up.
May 24th, 2013 at 10:51 am
I’d like to preface my post by saying this was a very thought provoking and interesting read. I agree that you’ve been unfairly censored and your stance that facebook and a large proportion of the net are dominated by latently misogynistic individuals. I find something about liking those kinds of pages very weird, that is not something you share with friends and family. I think anyone who is prepared to have “Bob has liked “Cum Swallowing”” on their profile is a very lonely and disturbed individual who probably objectifies women because he’s never had a real, human interaction with a girl in his life.
That said, I don’t think it’s fair to bring the wheel whores community into this debate. Don’t be fooled by the name, it is not a website posting the kinds of weird and disturbingly misogynistic, racist porn like the other pages you have mentioned. it’s simply a bunch of ordinary petrolheads with a slighty geeky obsession with wheel fitment and suspension set up. The Wheel Whores lads are lovely bunch of individuals and a big name in UK motoring community.
The name Wheel Whores is a self depreciating joke at the often astronomical sums of money these guys spend on their cars. I doubt it needs explaining but just in case, the joke is that they’ve had to resort to street prostitution to feed their rampant addiction to buying new wheels for their cars. That might be considered bad taste, considering drug addiction, homelessness and prostitution are very real issues for vulnerable young girls, but dark humour always has and always will exist. The wheel whores gang is nothing to do with rampantly objectifying women, it’s all about sharing a love of cars and car culture
Whilst there are a minimal number of scantily clad women posted on their website, I don’t think any of it goes beyond girls sending in pictures of themselves wearing wheel whores merchandise with the pink heart logo printed on it. These girls are not being pressured or taken advantage of, they are making a choice to support a great community and a small business that actually employs a number of people.
. I’m sure the inclusion of an innocent website in that list is not malicious, I’m assuming you have just typed in “whores” into facebook and seen it as the top result (it is a very large part of UK car culture).
I’m sure if asked the wheel whores community would be supportive of your message, and so I would like you to consider removing them from the list. It isn’t fair to lump car enthusiasts into the same group as “White Sluts for Big Black Dick”, and it’s possible that it will bring unwanted negative attention to their community. I hope you agree with me and consider my request.
Thanks
Robert
May 24th, 2013 at 1:03 pm
Hi Robert,
Thankyou for your courteous request and for taking the time to explain your concerns. i have taken down ‘Wheel Whores’ and replaced them with ‘Suck my Pink Pussy’ and ‘Sex Slut Teens’. Yes, it does seem to be a page that is largely about cars and car parts, and yes, maybe I did misunderstand the self-referential use of the term ‘whore’. However, this picture, posted by Wheel Whores onto their own wall, tends to discredit your argument that this ‘lovely bunch of lads’ are entirely innocent of misogyny and the objectification of women…
Car culture is generally not great for women! However, I agree that if there is a sliding scale for vile misogyny on Facebook, perhaps I could have chosen other pages that perhaps illustrated my point better anyway.
Regards,
Darielle.
May 24th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
here is a link to the image..https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=576251639072134&set=a.120095768021059.13333.119943774702925&type=1&theater
May 24th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
Thanks, I appreciate that.I agree car culture doesn’t seem to be a great for girls. I think there’s a very fine line between appreciating beautiful women and objectifying them, and that often gets crossed in car culture. Probably stems back to the days of hot rods and pinup girls in the 50s etc. There are a lot of car shows that always have models in bikini’s and platforms giving ‘car washes’ which as you can imagine, don’t involve a lot of actual washing of cars. I mean look at the pit girls you see at f1 races and nascar races. There’s definitely a lot that needs to change. That said, the kinds of shows you’ll see the wheel whores gang at tend to be moving away from that. It’s not uncommon to see guys bringing their wives and kids along, and generally it’s a very friendly and accepting culture. Have a look at videos like this, most of the drivers will be very familiar with wheel whores, and theres not a single scantily clad woman to be seen http://vimeo.com/66698816#
Thank you for being reasonable and understanding!
Regards,
Robert
May 24th, 2013 at 8:18 pm
Reblogged this on Fighting in Fairy tales and commented:
This is fantastic! #misogyny #FBrape
May 24th, 2013 at 9:04 pm
[…] A hairy scapegoat and cyber misogyny….. […]
May 24th, 2013 at 10:12 pm
Well said, yes. Ridiculous. Facebook is shit. I’ve been on it only two months, & killed my account after the twitter campaign which brought me aware of FB’s support of the violation of female beings – young & old. I am overwhelmed they are ‘allowed’ to continue to exist. Soulless. Loathesome.
May 25th, 2013 at 1:23 am
Thank you for this post. I recently blogged about Facebook’s misogyny too and I feel that its hypocritical standards are a pressing issue. It perpetuates damaging misogyny and I am so sick of being unable to avoid pornographic images on the web and in real life. It is also terribly depressing that the most shocking thing about the last image is the pubic hair. Thank you for writing so eloquently, you are inspirational.
May 25th, 2013 at 8:31 am
thanks Glitterandgirlpower! 🙂
May 25th, 2013 at 2:16 pm
I posted this on the norwegian Stop Porn Culture-facebookpage and applauded it, and has now consequently been banned from facebook for 24 hours. I also recieved a warning that if I did something like this again, my profile would be permanently deleted. Feeling so frustrated right now.. How is this even possible?
May 25th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Taking action: Join the facebook event to protest this: https://www.facebook.com/events/590017541031367/?context=create
May 26th, 2013 at 2:07 am
I FEEL SORRY FOR MANKIND IF WE FIND THIS SO INTERESTING ITS JUST SMUT.PITY YOU ALL
May 26th, 2013 at 3:21 am
It is terrible FB is giving you a hard time. There is so much misogny on the internet half the time I am afraid to go on it because it leave me feeling like shit basically.
the original precurser to Facebook a tool to rate females, or? Maybe Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t changed?
May 28th, 2013 at 9:16 am
PA
May 30th, 2013 at 7:52 pm
There is a difference between your examples, the first two are art. There is no explicitly sexual value to them. The bottom one has a women in a sexual position and is obviously depicted to be smutty and gratuitous.
Under facebook guidelines nudity is permitted in the form of art. While smut and porn is not.
It’s a bit like walking into a museum and calling http://www.femininebeauty.info/f/goya.maja.jpg this porn.
It is not porn, there is a difference, one is overtly sexualised the other is an expression of art through image,
Either Way the removal of the image is not misogyny, what do you think men go to weekly meetings in black robes and snicker about how to oppress women in dark candle lit caverns.
May 30th, 2013 at 7:54 pm
Ohcrap, did I forget this weeks meeting? I think I did.. Did you take notes for me, Shini?
May 30th, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Yeah we had to write and essay on how to deal with female superiors in the workplace.
.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:53 pm
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June 4th, 2013 at 9:26 pm
Theory: Possibly a large element of boredom and familiarity at play here… The people marginalised by the plastic ubiquitous porn have been ‘offended’ for do long they can no longer be bothered to fight it. Whereas the production of images like yours is a new thing and therefore generates more interest, including from Terribly Worthy folks who’ve clearly lost sight of the bigger picture.
Possible?
June 8th, 2013 at 12:21 am
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