Want to Be a Real “Good Guy” and Support Women Online? Flip the Script.
Change the conversation.
When you pop on social while in line for your vaccine or a boring meeting, are you afraid you might get trolled? Are you worried what harassers might appear simply because you stated your need for safety or condemned violence? Do you hesitate before hitting send on a post you know might light up your feed?
Online safety is as important as safety IRL, and for women, increasingly hard to come by. Death threats and sexual DMs are bad, but often the “minor” things men say online that fly just under the radar (for other men) are worse.
Language is subtle. When #45 was asked at the 2020 Presidential debate to denounce White Supremacists–instead of “Stand down.” he went with “Stand back and stand by.” Not quite the same tune (or whistle).
We have to get loud. Be direct. Per Sara Soma, founder of Everyone’s Invited, (an online platform documenting survivor stories), “Rape culture is real.” If our society sanctions the repeated assault of women, women will never be equal in the workplace. Full stop.
Let’s change the narrative — call a thing a thing. Rape is rape (not sexual misconduct). Racism does not equal “bias”. Why defend violent mass murderers, ever? After Atlanta, women were enraged…
