Sexism and the social networking sites...

Today's post is not intended to be a rant, but may well swing that way as I am writing as I think. I am interested in a lot of things that are stereo-typically aimed at teenage girls, but at the moment one of my primary interests is studying feminism. Sadly however I am extremely concerned that many teenage girls are not as bothered or maybe have not had the chance to become informed on these issues. This is beginning to become a real problem in society and something that keeps being bought to my attention. Don't get me wrong I know the internet can be great and I use it a lot myself but some people need to seriously revise the way they use it.

 I regularly scroll through my facebook news feed and discover all kinds of abusive terms or generalising statements. Facebook has given birth to even more ways to insult and label women, but shockingly, in my experience these abusive terms are coming from all kinds of people including women. I am personally offended by the amount of times I am coming across the word C**t when I am on facebook. The worst part is, I am not at all shocked when I see it being used. Facebook has always been a breeding ground for abusive behaviour but this one word seems to be rearing its ugly head far too often. Germain Greer was quoted saying "It is one of the only words in the English language, with a genuine power to shock..." but I wonder whether it does anymore. I wonder whether we will continue to use this term and others like it, on our social media sites so they leave a permanent footprint on our society? The people who argue that we have become a lot closer to female equality in the past ten years are clearly failing to recognise the massive impact that these sites have had on any potential development. Technology is advancing and so people have the ability to project hateful comments and belittle woman with sexist images with the click of a button. This has resulted in horrific tweets and viral images that spread around the globe at a rapid rate. Hashtags such as "Thatswhatslutsdo" and "Itsnotrapeif" have become trending topics in the world of twitter. It is really important we start spreading the knowledge of how damaging this kind of thing can be on individuals and groups of women.  

Rant over,
J and M xx