Social networks’ chicken-egg impact on rape culture has been discussed in detail since before the landmark case in Steubenville (and, more recently, a quite similar case in Torrington, Connecticut). As of this morning, a Belfast teen’s Facebook post about raping a woman has garnered 1,226 likes. (It was since reported and was taken down.)
The adults involved in cases like Torrington’s often blame the cases on the hate-mongering Internet, because it’s just… easier to do that, isn’t it? A recent piece in the Atlantic on the issue asserts that retweets and likes only reflect rather than encourage the permissive, victim-blaming attitude that’s been around long before Twitter or Facebook, and I’m inclined to agree.
On the other hand, you have to admire the tirelessness of the people who believe that expunging all of Facebook’s gross violence and darkness would make a change. Yesterday, ABC News aired a segment on a 38-year-old Oregon mother of two named Tricia Hendren who co-founded Rapebook, a Facebook watchdog group that targets and attempts to shut down blatant misogyny and other forms of graphic trolling that goes against Facebook’s terms and conditions. Says Hendren: “I have two young kids and I wasn’t political at all and assumed it was a safe, happy place where you were there with your friends. And then I realized that it’s really not.”
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