Does Facebook have a problem with women?

[Demo_Chris]

25. Okay then... (cont)

First, let me say upfront that I have nothing but respect for your intelligence and understanding of these issues. You are one of only a few people here who's posts I ALWAYS take the time to read as you always have something interesting to say. With that out of the way... (Your comments quoted in BOLD)

"I suspect it isn't any one reason. I think one major contributing factor is the widespread acceptance of misogyny."

I agree 100%. It is self evident. Where we disagree is whether or not the tolerance of these posts is an indicator of misogyny at this corporation, or indifference to something they are powerless to address.

"As for your statement that women on Facebook "like what they see posted" ... I don't even know what to say. Just because women remain active users of facebook does not indicate that they're completely happy with everything posted on it, or the enforcement of community standards."

That was poorly stated on my part. Women obviously do not dislike the garbage enough to stop using Facebook. A half-billion women have accounts. I suspect -- and this harkens back to the first point -- that women are so used to an openly aggressively anti-female internet culture that they tolerate it at facebook (and everywhere else).

(This openly hostile internet culture is worth thinking about -- I have some thoughts on that myself but I am more interested in hearing yours.)

My objection here is aiming the criticisms at Facebook. All of the numbers I provided in previous posts are supported by the links I provided. The really do have about three-quarters of a million new accounts created every day, and 200 MILLION new images added daily as well. I believe that blaming Facebook is simply unreasonable. You are not asking them to better police something objective -- like nudity or racial profanity -- but something subjective. There is no possible way to do it -- we have a hard time even managing that HERE on DU -- and I doubt they have any interest in trying.

For a company like Facebook it's an impossible task, and in my opinion getting angry at this company for failing to do the impossible (particularly when they clearly have no financial incentive to bother) draws the wrong kind of attention to this issue. I don't know the answer, and in this particular case I am not convinced you do either.