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Just when you thought that ‘blokes advice’ was as bad as it got, Mamamia have exposed another men’s forum that will make your skin crawl.
“Aussie sluts” is a forum in which anonymous men post photographs of naked women. Along with the photos they post details such as the woman’s name and where she is from. Predicably, forum members will make lewd comments about her. It’s misogyny 101, and it’s always in session.
The majority of the women featured on the site don’t know anything about it.
Simone Williams is the Mamamia reader who alerted the women’s website about the so-called forum. She writes that her “blood ran cold” when she first set eyes on the site.
“There are sections for schools, for workplaces, for ages and for postcodes. There are gleeful boys requesting photos of girls, using last names and Snapchat handles and describing the obtaining of a nude photo as a ‘win’.
“I see photos of girls I knew in high school, of girls who I met at work and in Grade One and through netball and university. I feel sick as I see the comments below photos of my friend’s sisters and people I follow on Instagram,” explains Williams.
It is as horrendous as it sounds.
Women featured on the site can press charges under Commonwealth telecommunications law. But of course, if you don’t know about it, you’re not likely to press changes.
And, depressingly, women who do want to have their photos removed have to go to the police for help. Which, given the circumstances, some find too humiliating.
Nicola Henry is a senior lecturer at La Trobe University who studies revenge porn. She told Mamamia that many women would be wary of getting police help because of the culture of victim blaming.
“Even if legislation were in place, I just think the fear of not just victim-blaming but also police having access to those images must be terrifying, you’d feel vulnerable,” she said.
Dr Henry notes that prosecuting the sexist forum for a federal crime would send a clear message to the community and to perpetrators that this behaviour was unacceptable.
However, she also said that legislation is not the only solution. Another way to tackle the issue head on would be to better educate young kids about respectful relationships and consent.
“The reality is that people are going to continue to engage in this behaviour whether or nor laws are in place,” said Dr Henry.
In the mean time, we can expose sites like “Aussie sluts” for the misogynistic cesspits that they are. We’re so tired of casual misogyny seeping into our lives. But we’ll never stop calling it out.
This isn’t a one off story that will get lost in the news cycle. It’s part of an ongoing conversation that’s not going anywhere until the perpetrators stop trying to blame women for their own rapes, assaults and sexist discrimination.
It’s a conversation we’ll keep having until misogyny is just a depressing chapter in the history books and not part of every day life.
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