Cat logomenu

The 12-Year-Old Slut Meme

Soraya Chemaly for The Huffington Post:

One of the offending page’s profile photos is of a pink-lipped and pouty child (she looks a lot younger than 12) wearing a tank top that reads “I love COCK.” Now, anyone can create a page in Facebook (published at Facebook’s discretion) and this page doesn’t openly advocate violence against 12-year-old sluts. It is, however, the virtual equivalent of street harassment and, as such, demonstrates the way the photography serves to exponentially magnify the effects of subtle and real violence along a broad spectrum.

Chemaly muddies her message by attempting to make too many points at once (see this post for my response to the idea that rape is too serious to joke about) and focusing on Facebook as some sort of special place where misogyny runs rampant, when in reality that place is Everywhere. But she’s right that allowing a page about “12-year-old sluts” to continue its existence seems like a no-brainer. Shame on Facebook—no stranger to censorship—for not taking action.

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