Online Harrassment Gets Extreme With the Creation of Revenge Porn
Say you’re in a relationship. A healthy relationship. A loving relationship and, of course, a sexy relationship. You keep climbing up the “I adore you, here’s how!” ladder and eventually to charm your mate, you get to the fun, exciting and risque stage of sending saucy photos to your man or woman to keep things spicy. Then cut to, days, months, years later and your “perfect mate” turns out to be a disaster of a human and takes those very photos that were, as it would be, a highlight in your relationship to the Internet to defame your character, your morals, and overall, you to any and every gritty man or woman that clicks on the site where your photo lives.
Meet “revenge porn”. This wildly popular and even more disgusting part of the Internet is spreading. Just as watching the horrific visuals after car crashes is deemed to be demeaning, disrespectful and sickening to the soul and to the family that is attempting to heal from the loss of a loved one, these sites are responsible for some women losing jobs, losing personal dignity and overall presenting degrading unwanted exposure by some men looking to make a quick buck off of what they would argue is “the women’s mistake in the first place”.
There is a way to fight back. So, we would suggest you do just that. Fight back. Against the wrong being done to you or those you know. Also, be aware that this widespread style of misogyny is now an addition to the already overbearing sexist form of harassment that can occur anonymously on the internet by those that don’t have to take responsibility for their words because, well, it’s the Internet. Based on the article on The Guardian, “The internet is not a nice place to be a woman – something I found out first-hand, and not just through the ongoing threats, harassment and stalking I’ve received as a feminist blogger.’ Think about all the cat calling that goes on as a woman walks down the street. Think. Now imagine that, times 1000 because, well, there are no faces to put to the screen names. It’s insanity and it’s swelling.”
There are no laws against such offenses (unless you include being labeled “spam” or being blocked). And, since we are hitting a point where everything is moving to the Internet, should we FOCUS UP and concentrate on minimizing the sexual harassment that is going on? Or do we just stand by and accept that this is the Internet and in turn, is free game? Refusing to participate in the vulgar harassment online is a necessary motion towards the fading of such widespread shaming. Spread the word on that and promote the downfall of these sites because it could only make the world a better place. Fact.
Featured Image via Shutterstock
