When it comes to social media, few things are more troublesome to traverse than the treacherous issue of sexual violence. Such a tightrope becomes infinitely harder to walk, if you’re like me, a white man, and a straight one at that (!) And yet, somehow in this space, I find many more ignorant people that I, and far bigger clowns at the circus. I see the difficult issue of sexual violence boiled down to memes, a mere tweet, or throwaway catch phrases. I see a conversation where grace and goodwill are lost, pulverised by the sausage-like thumbs of trolls. I think it’s quite clear that useful talk of sexual violence almost never happens. It is instead too often co-opted by regressive ideology, half baked research, brainless thought experiments involving M&Ms, and the angry diatribes of brittle armchair experts. Bad data, captured by worse academics, is picked up by armies of smug social media brats, and flung around like sh*t, each scrabbling to be more outrageous in their claims than the next. Due diligence falls at the wayside; numbers without citation, and infographics without origin, are slung around and held aloft; twisted into shocking and unintended new forms. Meanwhile, quietly, beneath the yells and explosions, the countless victims of sexual violence are collectively betrayed, bored, extorted for political means, and victimised yet again. We see men and boys become the perpetual perpetrator, and women and girls the eternal childlike victim. All of them are failed. And so the impossibly complex issue, deserving of nuanced, kind, and delineated discourse; becomes black and white, stupid and tribal, egotistical and arrogant, and anything but good enough. So what is missing from the discussion of sexual violence, and does it not deserve better than this? What do you think? ~ Source Original study  Date Psychology study  Images by Black Kiwi Hug, Dan Cristian Padure, Mathilde Langevin, Egor Vikhrev and Gradienta.

2023-11-10